Sorry for lateness, I have an excuse.
LOCAL NEWS
I am a little concerned about the coverage of the coup in Fiji, which seems complete as of Tuesday. There was considerable glee from reporters as they thought they were witnessing something happening. I thought a journalist was meant to be a reasonably dispassionate observer.
A Danish woman fell 300m, hitting a few rocks on the way down. She was airlifted to Christchurch but failed to survive. No mention was made of how the rocks fared.
The guy that lost two legs and an arm in an altercation with a large shredder received $30,000 in compensation. He feels that isn't enough (surprise). At least he doesn't have to spend money on shoes.
A girl fell down a hole in the ground, but she was mostly okay.
A teenage male has disappeared, presumed dead, after falling off Lion Rock at Piha on Auckland's West Coast.
Reports of West Wave being closed due to water polo players falling ill are starting to come in. The news service says at least six boys were affected. Well, this proves you shouldn't believe everything you read in the paper. See My Sad Life for the real story.
While people were falling everywhere, interest rates did not on Thursday.
WORLD NEWS
The retirement of Greg Page, yellow and head Wiggle, was big news in Australia and New Zealand last week (sorry I am late with this). The kids used to love the Wiggles. Hannah spotted a Dorothy the Dinosaur dress in a department store in Sydney and whipped off her dress and put it on right at the rack in the store. We have a photo of her on Santa's knee without having paid for the dress. I think Mum bought it for her so we could leave (she didn't perform, but she was just so taken with it I don't think we had much of a choice).
More on Fiji. The Army commander, Frank Bananarama, appointed his personal physician as Prime Minister, and himself as El Presidente. I can't say I have heard anything substantial about his reasons for the coup. There have been no stories about corruption or incompetence. Perhaps somebody should tell him about this thing known as an "election". The first major fallout has been the removal of the Netball World Champs from Fiji, I suspect that is the tip of the iceberg.
One funny thing about the Fiji coup is that they show soldiers regularly on the telly with their M-16s and no magazines in them. They each given one bullet or something?
REAL SPORT
Didn't see Hannah's games in Tauranga, they lost 1-13 to a team they lost 0-19 to earlier so that was good. Never expected that to be a win. They lost 3rd/4th playoff 3-5 so came fourth. Still, not too shabby, shame they had to go to Tauranga for two losses though.
Rory's first game was against Marist who beat them convincingly about a month ago. Was close early on but we opened up a lead and won 7-3, Marist didn't score for last 12 minutes of a 20 minute game. That put them in the final.
What was left of the team (see below for more detail) lost 4-8 to Northsport. Disappointing a little, but given circumstances not a major cause for concern. So they won a silver medal, but nobody really cares. Quite sad, really, normally that would be considered not too bad, I think it is the best result of all six club U14 teams.
SPORT
After every news agency said the 2nd Ashes test looked like it would be a draw at the end of the fourth day, the Aussies took nine wickets in two sessions as England crumbled then proceeded to get the runs they needed to win at ODI speed. Ponting described it as the best win he'd been a part of. It was pretty impressive.
Conversely, the first test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka never looked like it would make the fourth day, wickets fell quite regularly. New Zealand won by 5 wickets but it was not hugely convincing. Some whinging about how last Sri Lankan got out for being a complete git, bit nobody cares.
Newcastle helped ruin Blackburn's season with a 3-1 win, Man Utd beat Man City 3-1, Spurs beat Charlton 5-1, Middlesbrough drew 1-1 with Wigan. Liverpool played Fulham and although goalless in the first half, Gerrard had a penalty saved but he managed to put the parried ball away to start the scoring, final score 4-0 to Liverpool. The Arse drew with Chelsea so Man Utd lead is becoming more real.
Big sports news was New Zealand team winning both races in that A1 GP thing in Indonesia or somewhere. Their first win and then their second the same weekend.
Next Ashes test starts this week.
MY SAD LIFE
Hannah had her interschool athletics on Tuesday. She didn't come anywhere exciting. High jump didn't go well, although she got a better shot-put throw than at school (6.93m) she was out-muscled by the big girls. She was the only palagi in the shot-put, too, which was kind of funny.
Putting on pants four times before 9am is never a good sign. That was how Wednesday started.
Hannah is running around the block, theoretically daily. Takes her around four minutes, it's about 900m. Her time is dropping pretty quickly.
Another minor event I forgot to mention was the Saturday of the water polo tournament. We had six girls come to our place between games. Rory was mortified. He called a friend and was out of the house in about two minutes. You can't comprehend how unusual this is, until you realise that it can take days for him to organise something with a friend normally. Seriously. Days. Later in the day he popped in to grab togs and disappeared again.
Wednesday was unusual. Put pants on four times by 9am. Diana had a flat tyre so I had to get pants on and go help. Then I had a shower. Put pants on inside out. Removed, inverted, re-entered. Then had to go out and had to change into formal jeans. Interesting morning.
Saturday the girls went to Tauranga so Rory and I were on our own. We went to see Borat, with Paul. It was okay, some pretty dodgy bits in it. Could have been better I think.
Spent a lot of the week wondering about whether I would get my new lens in time for Nationals. Haven't got it yet. Don't think I will get it in time now.
Sunday was interesting, as was most of today. Rory was not at all well after the game in the morning, coughing and was short of breath. At that point had no idea that others were also affected. Took him home, talk to my friend Matt (the Doctor) and pulled him out of the final so he stayed home. Went back to pool in my role as manager. The rest of the team weren't much better off. The pool had been given a shock treatment on Friday to kill off a nasty bacteria. However the cure seemed worse than the complaint. We knew of about four kids hospitalised last night, took Rory to A&E this morning because he was still short of breath. Ventolin seemed to reduce symptoms. Anyway, long story short all the teams that played in the dodgy pool on Sunday have been impacted on some level with National tournament starting this Thursday. I would guess about 20 have had medical attention now between the teams, possibly more. Not good, lots of emails flying around - pissed off parents, changing training times, all sorts. Been snowed today trying to figure a plan for training and things (hence late email now).
Had a random thought. Nobody who gets this email has ever died. You didn't know this was good for your health, did you?
Busy week coming with National U14 tournament. Monday next week could be late too. Sorry.
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