Meat gets revenge and finally an arrest in Kahui case - 30/10/06

Weather hasn't been too flash last 24 hours or so.

LOCAL NEWS

A woman was jailed for contempt of court for not revealing the location of her son. The court has ordered he be cared for by his father and she disagrees.

A hunter stabbed himself in the groin while de-boning a deer. They say "meat is murder", in this case the meat got it's own back. He got rescued.

Police exercised a warrant and searched electorate and parliamentary offices of the inaugural winner of the dodgy cabinet minister of the year award, Mr Taito Philip Field (named after the company that made a version of the original Space Invaders game). I think he had plenty of warning and the chances of anything incriminating being found was pretty low.

Chris Kahui, 21 year old ex-father of the fabled Kahui twins, was charged with their murder on Friday. He will fight the charges, which is hardly surprising if he denied that he was responsible for four months prior to the charges being laid.

A tramper fell in a river in Nelson and managed to get out after floating for two hours.

Fireworks went on sale this week, and we had a spate of fires and vandalism over the weekend. I'm sorry, I don't believe that giving people the right to damage other people's property and prevent them sleeping and harass their pets and create litter and clag up hospital emergency services and fire fighters is a fundamental right. Ban the buggers and let's hurry it up.

Not a good weekend on the roads, twice as many fatalities as the weekend before, which was a holiday weekend. Not surprising from what we saw on way home from Hamilton. We saw two accidents in about two kilometres on the return leg, both on the other side of the road. One car rolled on the Bombay hill.

WORLD NEWS

Two New Zealand police escorts lost a Polish prisoner at Heathrow when escorting him home.

A Nigerian airliner crashed, with 100 on board. The fourth in a year. They are running out of airliners. Would you lease them one? I certainly wouldn't, unless it was overinsured.

The fire in California is massive, thousands of hectares. That is pretty big.

Fidel Castro is being measured up for a midget. Doesn't look good.

REAL SPORT

Hannah played for Ponsonby Marlins, scored two goals but team lost 3-8. Her proper team, the Sharks, lost 3-6 to another Rangeview team, Hannah scored one.

Rory's school team lost 4-5 to Avondale, he didn't score.

We went to Hamilton to play Waikato on Sunday. Rory's team won 6-4 but it was quite niggly. Rory did not score. Hannah's team played right afterward (they are C team, playing Waikato B girls) and won 8-3, which was pretty cool. Hannah scored one goal.

SPORT

The Black Caps won their game against Pakistan, qualifying them to play in the semi-finals, which was a good result. Was Stephen Fleming's 194th ODI as captain, a record. We play the Aussies on Wednesday, not good.

Man Utd thumped Bolton 4-0, Rooney got a hat-trick, Liverpool beat Villa 3-1, Chelsea beat Sheffield United 2-0, Watford drew 0-0 with Spurs, the Arse drew 1-1 with Everton. West Ham got a rare win, beating Blackburn 2-1.

Kiwis beat Great Britain in the league, about 18-13 I think.

MY SAD LIFE

Hannah has made a touch team for school, not sure which one (girls or mixed). Think the tournament is next week.

Hannah also went off with her friend Josie to tennis on Saturday morning. Seemed to have a good time, they walked home and then baked a lemon tart and triple chocolate cookies (they were really double chocolate but they put one lot of chocolate in twice).

The trip to Hamilton wasn't too bad, but weather wasn't great on the way home, it rained most of the way. We stopped at Candyland on the way home, got some supplies for Halloween tomorrow. I told the kids we would only go if both their teams won their games, which they did, which was good.

Thomas turned eight on Friday. He had a party at Megazone.

Had dinner with Allan and Jacqui on Saturday night. Also Brett, who heads to Melbourne to live today, and Paul. Emma was there for a while, she is off to Brisbane over summer, she turns 20 in a couple of weeks.

Rory bought a three-man slingshot on trademe. They aren't exactly complicated. Anyway, Paul and I went with him and Cassidy down to the school. Paul and I held each end of it (we were sort of over-qualified as substitutes for sticks), Rory was the aimer, Cassidy was the target. It was a bit of fun, mostly from the misfires.

Rory has had Cassidy over at our house a lot lately. He only lives about 500 metres away. Cassidy has joined the school polo team.

Managed to have a crack at the prickles in the lawn on Saturday, hard work but made a good dent. Need to have another go but one part looks like we have gophers or something.

I have been semi-miserable with a cold this week, not really improving yet but hasn't turned into a cough, so far.

That'll do for now.

Bit short, sorry about that, better than nothing I suppose - 23/10/06

Labour Day today so no work today. Kind of forgot to hit send too, so sorry it is late.

NEWS

Parliament pushed through a law to clarify Government Services spending (this is where the loophole supposedly created confusion in election spending). It was a hard fought battle.

The weekend road toll started badly but was all quiet for a while.

Parliament is also debating the drinking age, possibly increasing it to 20 again after it has been at 18 for seven years.

An 80-yo woman was attacked by three pig dogs. Not sure how it occurred, can't see why there needed to be three of them, one would have done the trick. She was in pretty bad shape.

Been news about a dodgy fake nurse visiting hospitals. Turns out she was a he, and he has been done for impersonating policewomen before. Sounds like he has quite a thing for women in uniform.

WORLDS NEWS

Madonna's new child is in the news far too much, it's not that interesting. Same goes for Paul and Heather's divorce. Why are such things anything other than confidential to the parties?

SPORT

Wigan thumped Man City 4-0, Chelsea beat Portsmouth 2-1, Everton came back from last week and won 2-0 Sheffield United. Man Utd beat Liverpool 2-0, yay! Bolton beat Blackburn 1-0, but Blackburn MISSED 2 penalties, good grief. Arsenal beat Reading. Middlesbrough beat poor old Newcastle.

Waikato beat Wellington 37-31 in final of rugby.

The Aussies beat Silver Ferns in the final netball test and the kiwis in the final League test.

Cricketers beat SA in their first match, lost to Sri Lanka, not really keeping track of things.

All Black team was announced yesterday, there were people in it.

MY SAD LIFE

Spent a chunk of the weekend at Armageddon, with the kids. They kids are getting pretty proficient at these things, know what to do and how. They suss out the free stuff and take advantage to the fullest. Rory and Cassidy managed to get something like 36 free games at the arcade, Hannah got about six beanie babies, and they survived on corn chips and chocolate popcorn washed down with redbull and E2 (both energy drinks). Was good to see a bunch of the usual suspects, both other stallholders and the 501st guys.

Rory was sick this week. Slept a lot on Tuesday, seemed okay Wednesday, not good Thursday night. Missed water polo training twice but no game on the weekend.

Hannah's new water polo team looks quite good. Their first game is next weekend.

Haven't really spent much time at home, been busy, spent a lot of evenings at the pool despite ill-health with Rory.

I think Brett is returning to Melbourne soon, I expect to hear exactly when shortly.

Oh well, pretty poor effort this week. Will try harder next week.

The Government is making more money than the rest of the country put together - 16/10/06

Weather not great today.

LOCAL NEWS

The government opened the books this week, and announced an eleven billion dollar surplus. This is the second highest in the world, not per capita, second highest full stop. I suppose it is good news, much better than a deficit. If the waste was reduced it would be more like thirteen billion, I reckon.

The audit report on the election spending was finally released and although all parties are considered to have transgressed, the Maori Party over spent $54 and the Labour Party managed over $800,000. National only came in with $11,000.

Nasty things are afoot in a Christchurch hospital with three elderly people dying from necrotising fasciitis.

There was another double homicide in west Auckland, this time in Te Atatu.

Winston Peters has disappointed sensible voters by announcing he will stand (yet again) at the next election. He has also announced a new series of bribes to appeal to grey power (free jelly meat and mobility scooter subsidies or something). You would think after being ditched by Tauranga that he would get the message.

WORLD NEWS

North Korea have joined the nuclear weapons club. All the other members condemned this, of course. I expect that North Korea have already drafted their statement frowning upon the next country to detonate their first nuclear weapon.

Then we got news over the weekend that Australia are contemplating the use of nuclear power. To be honest, I really thought they already had it. Not sure how they generate their power, it's not like they have masses of rivers for hydro like we do.

REAL SPORT

Rory's school team lost 2-9 to Westlake B on Friday night, there was barely enough players, no subs. Westlake is loaded with Northsport players, they are pretty good across the board. Rory got one goal but it was not pretty.

Well, Rory is in 14A team, Hannah is in 14C team. It is as I have foreseen. Hannah did okay in her trial but she was only there one night (because of camp) and I really didn't think the B team would be a good place for her as they play Div 1 and she has a shot at being a started in the C team.

Rory was pretty happy with the result in the lactic acid test (five sets of four laps). It turned out that the test involved 3 minute intervals, he had done a few at 2 minute intervals so 3 minutes seemed easy.

Rory's team had a game on Sunday against Rotorua, they won 15-3. Rory scored four goals, and they were all good quality centre-forward goals. The centre-forward basically sits in front of goal with a defender climbing all over them, it's very hard work.

SPORT

Chelsea beat Reading but lost two goalies in the process, both getting concussed, Bolton beat Newcastle 2-1. Man Utd beat Wigan 3-1, Ollie scored one. Arsenal beat Watford 3-0, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Blackburn.

The Silver Ferns lost to Australia in the first game and won the second, the decider is Tuesday night, I think.

Wellington beat Auckland soundly 30-15, and Waikato beat Otago 44-15, they play each other in the final.

The Kangaroos beat the Kiwis (League in case you aren't sure) 30-18.

MY SAD LIFE

Very quiet week in the house with Hannah away at camp. Rory was at the pool every weeknight and so there was basically only one person in the house on any given night (I had Wednesday off). It got noisy again on Friday night.

Hannah has been quite social, off to movies and other houses over weekend. Rory had a fellow troglodyte over on Sunday.

Took the Pajero to the pool on Saturday and picked up the kayaks from Gavin's on the way home. Was a bit worried about it overheating so stopped in at Dave's (Paul & Roger's Dad) to see what he thought about it. Had to stop on motorway, to check the kayaks because they were moving around in the wind. Made it home eventually.

Gavin and Yana have acquired a puppy, a Labrador but seemed pretty fluffy for a Labrador, no name yet, a female.

Happy birthday to Paul, 39 today. We went out to dinner with him on Saturday night.

Rory refereed at an intermediate tournament on Sunday after his game, so had to return to the pool to pick him up. I think my car just knows which way to go.

Been swimming pretty regularly lately, usually three or four swims a week, which isn't bad. Going to be possibly more now that club polo is in full swing, one or both kids have trainings Monday to Thursday with games dotted Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Knocked off 50 lengths in about 27:30 which is good, I want to do it in 25. My heart rate was 144 when I finished which is in a good place for that sort of effort.

Work continues to be quite busy, should be like that for a little while yet. So much for the theory of going to work for a rest.

ADVERTISEMENTS, A SAD PIECE OF STATING THE OBVIOUS

Okay, there are some that say some pretty futile things in their attempt to make the world buy their products?

An advert for antiseptic soap:
"He exposes himself every day" (to bacteria, but there is a loooong pause, and it just sounds wrong)

"You can tell you've been to Autel Kitchen Appliances"(jingle)
Really? Because they give you a receipt or perhaps a t-shirt that says "I've been to Autel Kitchen Appliances" And so what if you can tell you've been there?

"A tea that listens to your life"
Oh. So the other teas can't listen, or they can but choose to ignore you?

TEN YEARS AGO

Back then, I still remembered that Kelly's (a dog we had, but Gavin adopted, who died about a year ago) birthday was 6th October. We bought a gas barbecue. I can't believe I agreed to that. I hate barbecues, what was I thinking? Or perhaps I didn't know I hated them then. I wonder if it was the beginning of it with numerous events without an apron where my best shorts would get covered in grease and I would stand there burning perfectly good meat in the rain. The Goodin brothers attended the barbecue's inauguration with their wives and we played petanque (we had a petanque court until we added on to the house). Gavin was re-writing the end of his book, now going for the record for the most read book never published.

Ah well, work beckons.

Aah, can you feel the serenity? (and late news of a new arrival, sorry Alex) - 09/10/06

Everyone is back to school today, the house is quiet, I can work in peace. I think you endure hardship so you can appreciate what you have when life returns to normal.

LOCAL NEWS

Two women were in a car for two days after a crash were finally found by tourists taking photos of the scenery. They should recover. Lesson here is only crash over the edge of a precipice somewhere scenic. Mind you, I can't tell why they didn't climb the hill themselves, I think both of them could get out of the car.

Two nasty head-on accidents on Tuesday with a few fatalities.

News was whinging about people running red lights this week. I think summary execution for basic ignorance on the road should be legal, sod mucking around with red light cameras.

Some "cultural" group in Rotorua are upset about having the time of their "show" changed. Load of bollocks, nobody should remotely care about this. It's a basic employment contract issue.

Pseudo-actress Keisha Castle-Hughes has announced she is pregnant at age 16. But it's okay, she's in a committed relationship. We've had a bunch of nobodies pronounce their view, and both ways.

There was a mini-eruption on Ruapehu. Bit of water and steam, not much else.

New Zealand Bathurst driver Mark Porter looked knackered after a crash at Bathurst on Friday in a warm up before the great race. He died yesterday.

An 8yo boy lost his hand in an accident involving a piece of rope and a car, it has been reconstructed and reattached in a ten hour operation.

WORLD NEWS

US has had three school shootings in about a week including the Amish school on Tuesday. Not quite sure what inspired the guy to do that one. We were wondering why these people don't go into a gang bar and start shooting or perhaps a tinny house. I mean, taking out a few scumbags before you go has to be more constructive, doesn't it?

We got news of former Aussie cricketer Craig McDermott being blackmailed over some sex tapes of him and his wife. Well, what a totally A grade halibut the man is. Questions: A) why make such a thing B) why does he think anyone in their right mind would want to see them anyway? C) Should blackmailing people this stupid actually be illegal?

A silly damn Australian was trying to drive a very long way in the outback in reverse, reaching speeds of up to 80km/hr. Must have been an Italian car.

REAL SPORT

No real sport to report, except Rory has water polo re-trials this week, three nights of it. Starts club and junior school polo this coming weekend.

SPORT

Wellington knocked Canterbury out of the finals 36-23 and Auckland sent BOP packing 46-14. Waikato swatted away Southland 24-12 (I think Waikato could win the thing). Otago utterly thumped North Harbour 56-21.

No prem league soccer this weekend. Scotland beat France in Euro 2008 match.

Fernando Alonso won the Jap Grand Prix and Schumacher has conceded he can't win the championship this year after his engine failed.

MY SAD LIFE

Um, kind of forgot to mention the birth of Alex, second son for Roger and Shin, brother for Ben, grandson for Olwyn & Dave, nephew for Paul and Symon. Paul got the confirmation via text when he visited us on Tuesday night in Orewa. Sorry, guys. I did remember just after I hit send.

Hannah seemed to have been considerably more organised this week than Rory. She stayed the night at Jess's house one night, went to the zoo, went to Rainbow's End. Rory sat around in his underpants, mostly.

Rory did have a sore neck this week, and then so did I two days later. Voltaren helped me out, it is truly a miracle drug.

Been thinking about doing a 2.8km harbour swim. Only thinking. It's a bloody long way.

Mildly interesting event on Friday night. We had a bad night Thursday with cat vomit, furballs, and a skink being caught. Friday we had to wash the duvet (don't ask). Because the cover was not ready we stole back the fur blanket thing from Rory. He was pretty annoyed, he's been doing his best to prevent it's return for quite some time, cunningly suggesting he leave it on his bed until the morning every time we notice it. Evil little bugger.

Hannah is off to camp tomorrow morning, will be quiet around here until Friday.

Judy returned Sunday-week ago from her trip to Fiji and Sydney, in better shape that she was for a few days (her return was delayed due to a lung infection).

We didn't know but Thomas Goodin broke his nose a couple of weeks ago, he fell off the couch while wrestling with the dog. It doesn't look noticeable at all, not sure if it did initially.

Haven't heard how Bambi's fireworks thing in Shanghai went, so can't have been too many casualties.

Our VCR died this week. This particular one has been with us for more than ten years, no question that it's had a good run. It's played a lot of Wizard of Oz, Barney, and Hocus Pocus in it's time. The kids beat it up with rocks. Nice.

On Thursday I realised that my link to the outside world was rather slow (64kilobits/s). We had technicians crawling all over the place on Friday but couldn't get it going any faster. I am hoping they are returning today.

Just found my car keys on the barbecue beside the garage padlock and the unlocked garage. Been there since yesterday morning. So much for security and putting the house alarm on.

Well, that about sums it up for the week, come along Mr Clarke, it's time for your nap….