Weekends, who needs them?
LOCAL NEWS
Forgot to mention that Jin the otter was recovered last week. New Zealand's most wanted fugitive was captured on Rangitoto island, in good health but weighing less than she did before she escaped.
Taito Philip Field, dodgy MP, had a report on his actions released this week. The report sort of exonerated him, in a rather sceptical and dubious way. It stated that the terms of reference prevented investigating the really dodgy stuff. The guy is guilty of using poor judgement, and abusing his position. The second bit is the worst, in my view.
Winston Peters seems to have completely lost the plot. He is up for the "most eccentric minister" award, without a doubt. He has been visiting dignitaries in the US (Condoleeza Rice and some guy, McCain I think, who could be next President). He has refused to tell media where he is going and why, he interrupted the guy mid-sentence to admonish the press and tell them to sod off. And he seems to be working on making his relationship with the media even worse.
Helen Clark doesn't see Winston's antics as any cause for concern. She thinks it is a problem with the media and them portraying Winston in a bad light. Bollocks, she needs to get a grip, I think she believes everything she says, and believes that everyone believes her. She then gave some claptrap about why Taito Philip Field should stay in parliament, and was not impressed when it was suggested that they need him to keep their numbers in the house. She needs to get in touch with reality and the living.
A police woman has been told that moonlighting as a prostitute is not considered appropriate. The media has not been able to talk about this one enough, as you may imagine. Prostitution now joins the list of banned second jobs (horse racing, TAB, and accountancy).
News this week that New Zealand is not considered a safe place to visit (like in top 5). Load of bollocks. I don't know how this is tabulated but I think it is ridiculous. We even have police working as prostitutes, can't get any safer than that. As for risk of car accidents, it's dangerous because of the tourists driving on the wrong side of the road, not knowing the rules, and falling asleep at the wheel.
A woman was charged with drink driving, five times the maximum blood alcohol, 427 mg/100ml. It was a wonder she was alive. She lost her license for two years (like that is going to stop her driving, if she drinks that much).
A possum has continued the tradition set by Jin the otter and hitched a ride in a container of onions to England. It is being released into an animal park.
Still no arrests for the Kahui twins murder.
WORLD NEWS
The situation in Israel and Lebanon is hard to comprehend. Hard to say whether it is just a few skirmishes or a complete war zone. It does not look good. Even with three murders in New Zealand on the weekend last week, I think we are still in a safer place (we didn't have any this week).
Tonga had a big funeral for the prince and princess that were killed in California on a freeway, very big event there.
REAL SPORT
Rory had a school game on Friday night, it was just awful. Most of the team were half asleep. Rory worked hard. Final score was about 2-8. Rory didn't score either goal but was instrumental in setting them up. It was like they were playing in jelly or something. Diana and I both wondered if Rory should play in a team that plays like that.
Hannah's water polo team won their first post-grading game in Division 1, 4-2. Hannah scored 2 goals. Played very well, we lost something when she came off.
Her second game was for Ponsonby Girls. We had three girls from each team (Div 1, 2, and 3) so we had a mixture of strong players, medium, and strugglers (although one of Div 3 girls is a pretty good player). Game was very tight, lead changed couple of times, Hannah powered through to score nice little solo goal (her only one in the game but she was awesome in defence and building attacks). Final score 8-8.
Saturday, the only sporting even we had was one soccer game, out at Huapai. Hannah set up a ball for Georgia to score in the first half. Led 1-0 at half time. In the second half we had the wind with us and were going down hill. Despite this, the opposition scored first. The girls worked hard and had a few opportunities, Hannah got a break with the ball but couldn't get it away before they caught her (she should have scored really). Then about six minutes from the end, they did score to make it 2-1 and record their third win in the championship round.
Sunday, Hannah was at a mini-tournament which was an Auckland rep trial. She played three games, and was not subbed off at all. They lost their first game 0-1 due to a dodgy penalty for an accidental hand ball on a pitch without a penalty area (should have been an indirect free kick at most). The won next game 2-0, and drew third game 0-0. The coach had strict instructions to ensure that all girls got to play four halves out of six. Hannah and Jesse (who is at Ponsonby and Hannah knows quite well) both stayed on the whole time, both were defending. Three other Western Springs girls were in the team, including two from Hannah's normal team. If the guy coaching the team has any influence I think there is a high chance she will got through to the next team.
Meanwhile, Rory was at a relay swim meet. It sounded like a shockingly silly waste of time, running more than half an hour late, and his team was not particularly fast (he was in u15 team and u16 when he could be u14). They were last in the first race, not sure about second. Two races in four hours, about four minutes apart. Life is too short for that sort of thing. He left early to get to his club water polo game in time, they weren't happy.
We had plenty of drama leading up to the club game on Sunday afternoon (Rory's gold medal winning U14 team are now playing Under 16C). Seven players from the team were competing in the relay event and getting a team in time for the game was going to be a battle. We did get enough, but it was tight for a while. They were playing Northsport C at their home pool. Was a very low scoring game, 2-2 with 16 seconds to go when Rory scored. They managed to defend their narrow lead for a win (second game in a row that Rory has scored winning goal against Northsport).
Then, we went across town to West Wave for another school game at West Wave against Mt Albert. The Mt Albert team includes four guys from Rory's club team, and two Marist club players, so Western Springs basically didn't stand a chance. It was a very good-natured affair. We brought Zane with us for the game and they agreed to swim butterfly for the first swimoff (the swimoff starts each quarter and the teams swim hard to the middle to get the ball first) which was pretty funny, they did breaststroke in the fourth. I was doing the scoring and there was no time clock so I had to call out how much time was left in each quarter (I'm not silly, I'm an alarm clock, "ring ring"). When Zane missed a sitter of a goal, everyone burst out laughing on both sides. It was 2-2 at one point, but Mt Albert settled and built a lead. They were ahead 6-3 at the end of the third quarter, when Rory went into goal. Putting Rory in goal is utterly stupid in his school team because he is so good at slowing down attacks. He let in five goals in the final quarter, but scored two goals from goal as well (pretty unusual). Final score 5-11 to Mt Albert, Rory scored all five goals for Western Springs. Was a much, much better game to watch than the miserable affair on Friday night.
SPORT
The Tall Blacks narrowly lost in Hobart, but in Melbourne they came back to win 79-71 to level the series two all. New Zealand won the Ramsay Shield because they scored more points (both losses were by very low margins and their wins were much higher). It was first ever win on Australian soil over Boomers.
All Blacks beat South Africa 35-17, not the whitewash that Aussie gave them.
The Silver Ferns beat the Australians in the first netball test 52-40.
Tiger Woods won the British Golf Open. He has never failed to win an open where he led at the end of the third round.
New Zealand Triathlete Cameron Brown won the German triathlon.
MY SAD LIFE
Rory has qualified as a level 2 swimmer, at club night on Thursday. Level 1 is best. I think I am level 7.
On our way out to the pool on Friday night, we saw a car stopped on the cycle path beside the motorway. Separated from the motorway by a chain link fence, the path is for people to cycle and walk alongside the North-western Motorway. The driver was out of the car and seemed to be wondering why the narrow brown road was about to get narrower at the Whau Creek bridge. There was a policeman on the motorway side who had obviously been trying to explain the problem to the motorist. He saw us laughing and shrugged and rolled his eyes. Was very funny.
Before Hannah went to soccer on Sunday morning, I had to get Rory to the pool for 8am for polo training. I had a swim and did my fifty lengths in 27.5 minutes. That is my best so far.
On Sunday, after soccer, Hannah and I came home. She was in a pretty happy place. I could tell because she carefully cleaned her soccer boots. She only does that when she is feeling good about soccer.
Rory's 14th birthday is next Monday. The party planning is well behind schedule, but we are working on it. Paul could be considered insane. I will explain next week.
No pigeons this week, although Ollie caught something a little smaller yesterday.
Whilst it could be said that our children do too much, and I don't think Rory will ever go near a relay swim meet ever again, we are not alone. We see a lot of the same people at some of these things. At least a couple of his team mates had exactly the same commitment on Sunday with training, relay meet, and two games in the evening.
Diana tried to remove the gate on Friday, with her car. She somehow caught it with her tyre and did no damage to her car, which was an achievement. Rory and I completed the job on Saturday and now we have way more room getting in and out of the drive way.
I am having a quiet day in the office. Doing audio conferences seems like a rest. Shocking stuff.
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