Not a lot of good things happening, it has to be said.
LOCAL NEWS
I would be interested to get a feel for how much you all heard about the death of Steve Irwin (the crocodile hunter) in countries other than Australia and New Zealand. I was unfortunate enough to be driving to Hamilton the morning after and all the radio had was what a loss he was, how wonderful he was. Funny how the media doesn't really discuss how irritating the man was and how some of us felt that his passing was both appropriate and not before time.
Another dead Australian was race car driver, Peter Brock, who died in a rally by hitting a tree. It was the second apt ending for an Australian in the week. I wondered if Shane Warne would die in the saddle this week to complete the trifecta, but it wasn't to be.
The King of Tonga, Tupou IV, has finally died, at Mercy Hospital in Auckland, although it wasn't in keeping with other two big ones. He was 88, and has been pretty ill for a while.
Nasty accident on Wednesday night on Napier Hastings expressway. A pedestrian was struck by a truck, then while the truck driver was trying to free the pedestrian from under the truck, his truck was hit by other vehicles and he was killed.
Quite a lot of news about merging Auckland councils into one mega council. Could cost heaps and be a very expensive exercise.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, a mine collapsed at 800m and killed a miner.
Three people dressed as swat officers stormed a Chinese family home and demanded money. They held the family at gunpoint for a while but escaped when the real officers arrived.
There was a brief hostage situation at Paremoremo Prison, a female warden taken into a cleaning closet by a prisoner. The closet was stormed and the warden rescued.
The creep that bashed a woman (his supposed girlfriend) to death in Whangarei was captured with his equally creepy ex-girlfriend.
A woman was stabbed to death in her car by her ex-boyfriend with her baby in the car next to her. He was apprehended nearby.
There has been talk of legislating the sale and labelling of soft-drinks to combat child obesity, etc. I am not entirely sure what they hope to achieve, but I suppose preventing the sale of Coke and so forth at schools is probably a good idea. It does smack of the thin end of the wedge and the end could be us all being told what we are allowed to eat, but I do not see a need for kids to have soft drinks at school. Mind you, this will probably result in a black market trade where the local dairies all sell tons before and after school.
WORLD NEWS
Lots of news about Tony Blair retiring but it is not really news.
Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of 9/11 even though it was 12/9 here we seem to be recognising it today.
Another air accident at an air show in Malta. One pilot died, the other ejected, it was over water. I think the guy that caused it survived, but I might be wrong.
I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS
Scientists in Manchester are about to user a super collider (or particle accelerator or similar) to try to make black holes. It's perfectly safe though, the chance of destroying the whole planet is only one in 10 to the power of 40. I mean, that's safer than crossing the road. As long as nobody cocked up the maths in the probability calculation. I don't think anyone should be allowed to do this on our planet.
REAL SPORT
Hannah's mixed team played Bruce McLaren 1, was pretty even early on, but by the 2nd quarter the Sharks were developing a lead. Final score was 10-5 win for the Sharks.
The Girls team were playing an undefeated Glen Eden. I made a tactical mistake putting Hannah in goal in first quarter, we were down 0-4. She came out 2nd quarter and defended. She also took the ball up and scored our first goal, which helped morale. She is probably the best defender in the girls team and made it much harder on the attackers. We fought back but the other team was pretty good. Final score was 4-7 loss, but I don't think Hannah is going in goal again early on.
SPORT
South Africa beat Australia 24-16 in tri nations to get some self-respect back. They still came last but they beat everyone else once.
Man Utd beat Spurs 1-0, Liverpool lost to Everton 0-3 (that was a big one), Chelsea beat Charlton 2-1 but Lampard missed a penalty could have been 3-1. The Arse drew 1-1 with 'brough. Fulham beat Newcastle, the Geordies won't be happy.
Been some fuss about rugby on Thursday nights. People need to get a grip. If they don't like it they don't have to watch it, end of story.
Schumacher won Italian Grand Prix, two points behind Alonso now with three races left in the season.
The Knights had their first loss, 0-3 to Melbourne.
SALT
Have you ever thought much about salt? You know, the stuff you buy for cooking and things. How often do you buy it? We had to buy some this week. I reckon we buy it about once every three or four years. You have to wonder why the supermarkets stock it. I mean I know it is a staple but we just don't use it a lot any more. Or am I missing something and people use it heaps for nefarious purposes that I am not aware of. I mean, I suppose you use a bit when making play dough, and some people brush their teeth in salt water but that can't really account for huge volumes of sales, can it? And it ran out on shelves everywhere in the restocking strike, so someone must buy lots.
MY SAD LIFE
Forgot to mention last week that Rory joined in a parade in Henderson to celebrate 100 years of the mullet or something. The u14 Water Polo teams walked along in their track suits with their medals. Not sure that anyone really knew why (in the crowd or in the parade itself). Earlier in the week, each of the players got a letter from the local MP, and their photo was taken with him at the end of the parade. I am not sure anyone will hang that on a wall.
A lot of time and effort went into Hannah's birthday party which was on Saturday. We were all ready to go and then we got up Saturday morning to rain, which stuffed it up big time. We had sixteen party goers (including three rather brave boys), and a range of Amazing Race style events, except there wasn't much racing with everything confined to our section and ducking under cover a lot. The event went well, Hannah was pretty happy. We were all knackered afterwards.
Rory's view on Steve Irwin was interesting. He thinks he failed his family by taking unnecessary risks, although deserves an award for services to television by departing early.
Hannah's actual birthday is this coming Thursday, and she has Friday off. At twelve, she seems far too grown up. I'm not sure I am ready for this at all. In fact I am quite sure I am not.
Hannah got her Jazz result this week and she got honours, which is 85-89%, which is pretty good. Should get tap tonight with luck.
Rory did some babysitting on Friday night. It was Raf and his brother (one of Rory's friends). He was home quite late.
Starting to forget what Rory looks like, he is spending a lot of time on the 360 with this Oblivion game. Not entirely sure it's a good thing. All it ever seems to do is load all the time, can't quite see how it can be fun.
Bloody Ollie, Hannah's cat, has been a right pain. He ended up behind my desk on Friday, in a place that looked almost impossible to get out of (requiring a 1m vertical jump and then a move to the right). We ended up getting him to come out another way, through a ton of cables, behind another desk. This morning he caught yet another bird. He is also beating up on Pandora far too much. Meanwhile, Pandora has been quite cuddly, which is unusual, could be for sanctuary from Ollie.
We are getting a new road/driveway thing, they are pouring concrete as I write this. It's a council thing, the pavement for the whole street is being replaced. Shame they can't underground the power at the same time.
Oh well, that'll do for now.
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