LOCAL NEWS
Guy Fawkes. What a load of bollocks. I hope it is over. Forever.
Last week, some Christchurch inventor showed the press his wonderful methods for filtering water for use in the third world. He demonstrated by filtering raw sewerage and Avon river water and then offering everyone a drink. It all seemed very impressive until this week when we got stories about how all the journalists and cameramen ended up violently ill. The wife of the inventor reckoned that the filter is fine and they got some cross contamination when he didn't wash his hands. Sounds a bit far-fetched but exceedingly embarrassing regardless.
A man who was earning $50,000 a fortnight through multiple identities on the benefit has been caught with $750k in cash buried on his section. The guy is reported to have done the same thing in Australia. Not sure who the stupid party in this is.
Five skydivers left a plane a little sooner than expected when the engine started smoking, the plane crashed in a vineyard. The pilot had to come down the hard way, but was okay. I wonder if they have airbags in small aircraft?
A Northland prisoner faked a heart attack and escaped from the hospital.
Police have found a stash of stun guns held by gangs here. In Aussie they have found RPGs.
Former overpaid talking head, Judy Bailey, released her biography. We had lots of interviews. Nobody cares. Charging people for a book explaining why she felt she was worth $800,000 per year to basically read out loud is beyond the pale. There are not enough words in the dictionary night deluded, pathetic, and ridiculous to adequately describe this. In fact, these people that seem to only give interviews when they've released a book or a film should all realise they are admitting they need a special event to make them interesting.
The Stern Report on Global Warming was a very stern warning and all the puns were over-used. Not sure why things are different now but I am of the firm view that until our economy ceases to demand growth, things can only get worse.
WORLD NEWS
Fiji continues to stagger towards a coup. Laisenia Qarase, the PM, seems in deep water. I shared a room with him in Tuvalu back in 1992. He is a very clever and sensible chap.
Saddam has finally been sentenced to hang. He seems to be less than impressed.
Former presidential hopefully John Kerry has been slammed for a failed joke that was little more than a home truth.
REAL SPORT
Hannah's club team played Northsport B, who are really being cheap and their B teams should both be in division 1. Final score was 0-19. Hannah worked hard, she is very competent. Needs a little more speed but reads the game well and very feisty. We just need a few more like that.
SPORT
The Aussies beat New Zealand by 34 runs in the semi. Bollocks. They then thumped the Windies in the final, who were all out for 138.
Liverpool beat Reading 2-0, Man Utd beat Portsmouth 3-0, Sheffield Utd downed poor old Newcastle 1-0, Fulham beat Everton 1-0, Charlton beat Man City 1-0. West Ham beat Arsenal 1-0 and really big news was Spurs beating Chelsea 2-1 after being 0-1 down.
The All Blacks beat England 41-20. Australia drew 29-29 with Wales.
The Knights had a rare win, 1-0 over the second placed team who scored an own goal.
MY SAD LIFE
Lots of debate in our household about Rory going to the school sports dinner this coming Friday. I think he is going now. Good chance he will get something for water polo.
Hannah had photos at school for the year book. She was in nine photos for various sports teams and things. More than Rory in his first year, I think.
Kath turns the big 4-0 on Wednesday. She already has most of her presents. Hannah made her a necklace out of beads, which was pretty cool. Ross stood around while she chose herself a necklace, too.
I developed my usual full-blown cough Wednesday/Thursday, then on Friday night it was gone. Instead of coughing all night like I had the previous two nights, not a single cough. I consider this to be nothing short of a minor miracle. I have no idea why, either, which is a bit of a bugger. Funnily enough, I did cough a very little last night, after we returned from Waiheke.
I think Brett is living in Melbourne now. I am still toying with popping over but free weekends do not exist.
Diana has her exam tomorrow. She has today off work to study and prepare.
After weeks of hassles with my internet connection, it leapt up from 64kbps to over 900kbps, about 50% faster than it has ever been. Not sure what has been going on but happy now.
WEEKEND AWAY
Spent the weekend on Waiheke island with the Goodins and Clares. Was a very quiet, idyllic spot, and the weather was perfect. We took the cars over which made it easier. The ferry was very nice. We stayed in two houses about ten minutes walk apart (depending on who is doing the walking, long story, won’t go there). Charles stayed with us, the Clares all stayed together in the big house, and it was very big - three bathrooms in the main house and another in the sleepout. Like I said, it was very big. So big that half the showers seemed to be two man ones. Um, not two MAN ones, two person ones.
On Saturday we went to the market at Ostend, lots of yummy food including Hungarian deep fried bread covered in pesto, fresh oysters, very nice bread, French chocolate, and stuffed olives. After lunch, we went off to Stony Batter, where there are tunnels and former gun emplacements. The walk to and from the car park wore me out, then on the way back we stopped at Onetangi and played touch rugby, which knackered the old men much more (me, Ross, and Charles). The old women were more sensible and watched.
Saturday night we had a big dinner, we pulled the large dining table out onto the deck and put the other table on the end.
Waiheke really is the home of the hippy. You couldn't get in to one restaurant without a kaftan, honest.
The kids all played together very well, a few injuries but no major dramas. I took a lot more photos of the girls than the boys, the boys tended to disappear a lot (looking for more lemons, mostly).
Rory took the three-man slingshot. We were shooting lemons into the water from the deck. I invented the double-bagged water balloon, because the kept breaking up when they were fired or in mid-air. On Sunday morning we took it down to the beach and used it. One lemon broke into four pieces on hitting the water. He managed to hit a boat with one, which was childish but funny. Even for me and Tony Brown, we couldn't help but wear a goofy smile.
It was a very good change of pace. I took quite a few photos, many were of tuis, wood pigeons, and a few seagulls. The others return to the rat race today, we came back early because of water polo and things.
TEN YEARS AGO
Well, we had no obvious government (which was delightful). I was weeding the lawn back then. Penny had just done a 250 table even for Princess Di (she was still alive, but not for long). It was Melbourne Cup day on the Tuesday (just like it is tomorrow, always first Tuesday in November). Some rugby players got married post season. People weren't happy about fireworks. It was the tenth anniversary of ComputerWorld (wonder if today's edition will be 20th?). We committed the most heinous hate crime I can imagine, we bought a barbecue. I played petanque with Ross and Barry. My emails have gone west from here for about four months, not sure what happened to them (you still got them, Paul?).
That'll do for this week.
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