Jayden returns, dodgy contact lenses, and dangerous trucks - 29/01/07

LOCAL NEWS

I was wrong about the road fatalities the weekend before last. Final score was seven, and trucks were involved in four, so trucks definitely not a good idea. Then this week a truck took out two more people on Tuesday.

Fijian Commodore (now named after an old computer, he changes titles pretty regularly) Frank Bananarama is about to prevent New Zealand exporting to Fiji because we don't support his coup.

Bit of a fuss over some guy losing sight in one eye from misuse of novelty contact lenses. Naturally the optometrists told us all about why we should have to buy them from them. Personally, I think there is too much risk and insufficient need for them.

A New Zealand softball rep was modified with a crowbar during an incident in a Porirua pub when there was an argument over the use of a pool table (always worth it, rights to a pool table). The chap police wanted to "talk to" looked like a classic Westy. He turned himself in after video of him was shown on TV.

Meanwhile, near Tutukaka in the North, a man was shot in the head with a crossbow bolt. He has recovered, this dispute was over an incident on a country road. It later turned out to be a speargun, not a crossbow.

Six year old abductee Jayden Headley was finally returned on Tuesday. In a custody scrap, his maternal grandfather abducted him for five months, his mother spent three months in prison for not revealing his whereabouts. Now the entire maternal side of the family is not allowed to see him. News of this has continued to for days and has become very tiresome. The Family Court has been unusually open about it, but the maternal side really seem to have been pretty devious in all this and any whinging from them now, after having put the boy in the news for over 160 days is pretty pathetic.

Interesting fuss over a website that is being used to name and shame dubious practices by CYFS (Child Youth & Family Service). Naturally CYFS and Public Service are not happy, but it seems to be a case of the victims finally being able to get their own back. If people in the industry know they could get identified for poor behaviour and treatment of "customers" then perhaps they might do better.

There was a mountain climbing mishap in the Southern Alps, I think three people fell and two people died. No trucks were seen at the incident.

A large quantity of 1080 poison was stolen from a factory in Westport. As usual, police are concerned that the poison could "fall into the wrong hands". Police apparently don't consider people who STEAL POISON to be the wrong hands (we had same problem with a large quantity of guns a while back).

A very interesting story with cause and effect implications. Police stopped a driver and made him wear his seatbelt. Later, be failed to stop at a stop sign and was in a serious accident and the seat belt saved his life. However, if he hadn't been stopped by police would he have made it to the intersection at the exact same time? What about the other poor bugger in the accident? The seatbelt guy might have hit someone else's car instead.

A 22 yo attendee of the Christian Parachute music festival died after jumping off a bridge into the Waikato in Hamilton. Rumours that he jumped to avoid a truck are unsubstantiated.

Fatalities this weekend numbered four, trees and a motorcycle seemed to be the main protagonists. All occurred in the South Island.

The potential for a lahar out of Ruapehu increases, Thursday is the day they reckon, it was predicted for end of January. Isn't it just a bit of hot water? I don't see why they can't pump some out.

WORLD NEWS

The grounded container ship near England is providing all sorts of entertainment for people far and wide. Some 50 BMW motorbikes have been "mislaid" while beauty products and oil float around to harass the wild life. We have had updates on it every day, aspects of it are quite funny.

We then got lots of news of the Australian man who inserted his head in a great white shark while gathering abalone then managed to get it out again. Superlatives like "miracle" and so forth were over utilised as normal. I mean, if you have a body part inserted in a shark, I am guessing you would try to get it out using any means possible, wouldn't everybody?

SPORT

The Netherlands bounced back and won 3-0 over the Black Sticks in the hockey. They also won the final game 4-3.

The big news in New Zealand cricket this week was Nathan Astle's apparent sudden retirement decision. He is 9th equal on all time all comers ODI batting, and has 16 ODI centuries. Bit of a shame, he was one of our better batsmen.

The Black Caps were looking not so good against England but managed to get a decent score (210) and roll England for 120. England then managed to score 10 less against Australia so are looking like complete rubbish, whereas New Zealand only mostly rubbish.

Despite New Zealand's poor performance in the cricket, the got to within 8 runs of Aussies yesterday, needing 343 to win. Jacob Oram was 101 not out when they ran out of overs.

Serena Williams surprised everyone to win Australian Tennis Open, while in the mens draw Roger Federer did the business as expected surprising no one.

FA Cups matches this weekend, nothing major. West Ham is out, Arsenal had a draw (so have to replay). Man Utd and Chelsea through.

POT WATCH - WEEK 2

Well, no real results to report so far, but two more nectarine seeds have entered the experiment. One is being germinated hydroponically, another is being dried first. Both pots are disappointingly quiet. We may need to check on them, it has been two weeks after all.

MY SAD LIFE

Hannah has been working on the repainting of the fence, pretty hard actually. Possibly a little too hard as the cleaning is removing a lot of paint. We replaced a very sad board on Saturday and began painting. First time since we moved in, so not before time, really.

Also did the volleyball poles, but they did not work as hoped and even 35mm thick poles flex when 2m long. Guy ropes continue to be required.

Went to the beach with Edmonds and Paul on Sunday. Kids had fun, Hannah especially boogie boarding. We all got a little burned despite caution in the sun.

Rory used a bit of initiative this week and got himself a poster from the movie Clerks II from the video store. Yes, initiative, I am as shocked as you. He went to Motat and things with kids from his class.

Mum is out of her cast, just has elastic bandage now. Wasn't broken, just sprained exceedingly well. She's off in New Plymouth this weekend for a family thing.

We saw the Bambis on Friday, Lisa turned 40 on Thursday. We visited the Chambers on Saturday. Paul is back in New Zealand but we did not see him. We saw Emma who is back from working in Brisbane for six weeks (although don't know what sort of work she did).

We should be seeing Helen tonight, and Brian as well I think.

We get today off as Auckland Anniversary Weekend. Yay. Next weekend I am taking the Monday off to turn Waitangi Day into four day weekend.

That'll do for this week.

We resume normal service post Christmas in many respects, and consciously avoid trucks - 22/01/07

I was concerned that this week's email would be a bit on the short side. It is certainly not a concern I should have been concerned about.

LOCAL NEWS

Sir Edmund Hillary visited Antarctica this week with Helen to celebrate 50 years of Scott Base. Helen's presence (as the Ice Queen) helped slow the melting of the glaciers. I am hoping we will offer to have her based down there as a gesture of ecological concern. Sir Ed is like 87 and was on oxygen on the plane trip down there, he's doing okay for an old fella. He is probably New Zealand's premiere living national treasure.

A turf war has "erupted" in the Western Suburbs of Auckland's North Shore. Police warned somebody may be killed. An official release from one of the gangs went like this: "ooops, can't be having anyone getting killed, that would be just awful. I don't know what we'd wear to a funeral. We call a truce and offer morning tea with all the other gangs as an apology." I am concerned that the Police assume these clowns can even read.

The chainsaw used to knacker the tree on One Tree Hill over 12 years ago went on Trademe for sale. Given that we still don't have a tree on One Tree Hill, I think that is appalling. It reached over $10,000 then was removed from the site, which I thoroughly agree with.

Not a good week for people near trucks. A 12 yo boy helping his father on a rubbish truck slipped and went under the back wheel and died in Paeroa. And then a 32 yo man was thrown from his car in an accident and run over by a truck, police aren't sure which even delivered the coup de grace.

Not a good weekend on the roads, about five people died. The trucks were not responsible for all of them.

Comet McNaught has been providing some entertainment in the evening sky, still haven't seen it yet, am trying.

Local Comedian Mike King was hospitalised in Melbourne after suffering a minor stroke. His buddy Martin Devlin has been axed from the morning slot on his radio station. Not a good week for the pair.

New Zealand's youngest convicted murderer, Bailey Junior Kurakiri, is up for parole for the first time today. There will plenty of coverage of that given recent issues with parolees reoffending.

Bit of a storm in a teacup over who will pay for restoring the hut in Antarctica used by Scott and Shackleton. The Poms don't want to because it isn't in their part of Antarctica. Estimate of cost is $9 million, which seems ridiculous given the quality of the hut (I suppose it costs to get people and materials down there). It is only a hut, after all, and not many people get to see it. I do understand the merit in preserving history but I don't see return for the dollars here, maybe the Poms have got it right.

Breakfast news is back this week, I am pleased. They've been off over Christmas. Lots of things are back on TV and radio so I suppose the holidays really are over. Somehow both major news channels have decided that there has not been anything that could be considered "Current Affairs" for the last month or so but there will be today.

WORLD NEWS

A New Zealand woman was found dead in a UK office shower. We've had plenty of coverage of that, I think there have been three arrests now.

A duck that was shot in Florida and kept in the fridge for two days was alive when it came time to eat it. Not that unusual, if it was in the freezer maybe it would have been weird. The hunter can't have been a very good shot. They then took the duck to a wildlife refuge and it is recovering well. Funny, but lucky that it managed to make the transition from food to wildlife.

More rain has helped reduce the fires in Australia.

Oil prices are dropping still, not sure there is much anyone can do about it, you can't easily stockpile it. I suppose you could buy futures in it to offset any rises.

Hillary Clinton has entered the race for candidacy in US Presidential elections. I want her to win just so Bill can be the first ever male First Lady. And it would be very weird having an ex-president back in the white house.

SPORT

The A1GP was in Taupo this weekend. Don't know if there were any big crashes, didn't hear. Think New Zealand came third in both races, Germany won both.

The Black Caps lost to Australia yesterday in a tri-series ODI. They have been crap, seriously. They lost to England with final ball earlier in the week. Any talk of New Zealand winning cricket world cup should be treated with ridicule it so thoroughly deserves.

Everton beat Wigan 2-0, big news is that Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-0 (they have lost heaps lately - Liverpool I mean), Blackburn had a rare win, 3-0 over Man City. Meanwhile, bloody Man Utd went from 1-0 up against Arsenal to 1-2 down while I was writing this, the morons. I blame Gary Neville, he is a git.

The struggling Knights won their last game of the season 2-0 over Perth, finishing last and Perth one point ahead and second to last.

The Australian Tennis Open continues. Federer looks unbeatable and the women's draw seems full of people who can't win.

The Black Sticks beat the Netherlands 2-1 in a men's hockey international, big surprise there.

POT WATCH - WEEK 1

After the astounding success of the plum tree we didn't know we had, Hannah and I have planted a nectarine and apricot seed to see what considerable neglect and ignorance can achieve with those. Nothing has yet emerged from the pots, but there are two little caterpillar things crawling around in the blue one (we planted them about a week ago).

MY SAD LIFE

Quiet for most of the week with Hannah away and Rory away at all night party on Tuesday night. He returned with a few injuries, nothing major. He ran up the street in his undies close to midnight, as you do. This was not the cause of any injuries.

First week back at work was busy. I had to be in town by 8am twice, which was a bit of a shock. One trip was getting Hannah in to the bus for her trip to Whangarei (and I almost need to apologise to Penny about jokes I have made in the past, almost). Hannah returned on Saturday, and (sorry if this sounds a bit "Little House on the Prairie") everyone (including cats) seemed quite happy about it. The household seemed very cheerful, and Hannah was very enthusiastic and helpful.

Saw the Goodins on Sunday for the first time in ages. Also saw Kath's parents. Pippy, the dog, made a considerable fuss of Tony, so we no longer feel special.

Bambi popped in one night. Koos has been in Hong Kong for work, not sure when he returns. Gavin moved house over the weekend, I assume. No idea what his new address is or whether he kept his phone number. Went to the Occidental Bar on Friday night with Paul, they do the beer "German style", which does not mean you are shot if you do anything wrong. Was fun to watch.

Achieving things around the house has diminished with returning to work. However, I did manage to replace the letter box over the weekend, with some reluctant assistance from Rory. We had no letterbox on Sunday and we got the paper on our doorstep as a result, which was cool. I have had the replacement letter box in the garage for quite some time (over two years at least because I bought it when Barbara was still alive and working and that stopped in September 04), but had issues with removing the existing one off the post. The bolts had rusted considerably so we had to take the whole thing out. We used quick dry cement which was utterly weird and I don't like it, there is no mixing you just pur in water then the cement and stand back. No opportunity to smooth it out or anything. I don't like it. As part of the work, Rory and I went to Mitre 10 Mega, a very large hardware store, for the first time for either of us. Seemed very similar to large US places, had a lot more for sale than just hardware. I also bought big poles for the volleyball net and have a concept for making it readily removable.

Rory and I are both doing a level 1 polo coaching course in Mid-Feb. Rory doesn't know that I am doing it yet, he will read about it here. It is mainly so I can assist with Intermediate teams this year and possibly Rory's junior school team. It will make me qualified as level 1 coach in three sports (wonder if I will ever make level 2 in any?).

We joined an online DVD rental thing last Sunday and have had two deliveries of movies since. Most we have received so far have been fairly obscure but the service seems to work well. Clerks 2 was released here on DVD on Wednesday night and I was very nice and rented it for Rory that day. He has been going on about if for weeks. He didn't achieve a lot on Thursday because of it.

From the swearing can be educational department, Rory has been using an unusual word as an expletive, better than more common four letter ones, this particularly anatomically oriented five letter word (which one often gets junk mail about growing) has been annoying Diana. So we have a new rule. When he says it he has to name another item of anatomy (a different one every single time) as a way of discouraging it. We shall see how it works, I think he has only used up three so far.

We have Anniversary day next weekend so we get long weekend and short week.

Hannah's just left for a run and Rory is still asleep.

Week 2 of 2007 has been survived, now for some work (sigh) - 15/01/07

LOCAL NEWS

Pretty quiet news week, generally. Got in depth news on all sorts of crap like a bishop saying that the radiographer strike was morally wrong and other things that would not rate a mention normally. Minority sports should have their big tournaments this time of year.

Mainly moronic politico Jim Anderton has announced that "Iraq is another Vietnam". In response, the entire world's press went "crikey, we'd never thought of that". As a result, GW went away to rethink his whole foreign policy and military strategy. I can't believe anyone reported such abject drivel. This time of the year needs a good tsunami to give the news something to talk about.

Troubled teenagers made 700,000 calls in New Zealand last year. Most couldn't find money for P or pizza, which made them depressed.

Another piece of "stating the bleeding obvious" news, New Line Cinema said they won't work with Peter Jackson ever again after the legal proceedings over revenues from Lord of the Rings. Well why would anyone want to deal with anyone who they are fighting in court.

There were less than 100 drownings in New Zealand for the first time since records began (although they didn't mention when that was).

A ten yo Zimbabwean girl living in Christchurch, died in hospital, evidence suggested she had been strangled. Big news is that her family is "distressed". Not half as much as the poor girl while she was fighting to breathe, I suspect. There has since been rumour of dodgy goings on.

A teen bitten by a police dog may lose his leg. No mention was made of whether the dog would get to finish off what it had started on the leg. He was found hiding under a house at 3am, but did not deserve to be attacked by a dog. Poor lad, so unfair. He was there looking for his choir music that he thought had been blown there by the wind.

A Melbourne teen saved his 9 yo brother but his father drowned in a hunting accident. I suppose it was a hunting accident, because they were in the bush to hunt, but drowning in a hunting accident makes sense really only when you are hunting sharks or something in the sea.

The woman hit by a dolphin is now having competing bids for her story. Oh dear, you really have to wonder about the economics of sensation. I suppose it is what Paris and others do professionally, by generating "stories" that people want. Prince William's girlfriend is possibly the flip-side, not courting publicity but unable to avoid it.

Not a good weekend for older women. A 52 yo mother of nine (!) was murdered in Waitara. The offender has been apprehended. There has been another murder on North Shore, a 77 yo, I suspect that will be resolved pretty quickly too. I know it sounds like we have lots of murders but I think every single one is reported, which probably makes it sound worse that it really is. Mind you, I think the bulk of them in New Zealand are crimes of passion, as compared to gangland slayings and the result of armed robbery or burglary.

WORLD NEWS

The two kidnapped boys found in the US with a 41 year old abductor was interesting news. You don't often expect missing kids to show up four years later. Wonder if the offender is going to survive until trial.

SPORT

David Beckham is off to play for LA Galaxy for about $1.5m per week. That's the end of his career, and what a bucket load of money the LA team will be losing.

Knights (woeful local soccer team) have won two games and drawn one, but not enough to get them off the bottom of the table.

The Black Caps have gone to play Australia and England in an ODI series. They lost the first game against Australia, but Bond got a hat-trick and new man Taylor got 84.

Newcastle beat Spurs 3-2, Man Utd beat Villa 3-1, Liverpool beat Watford 3-0, Arsenal beat Blackburn 2-0 with only ten men, and Chelsea prevailed 4-0 against Wigan.

MY SAD LIFE

The trip to the cabins was pretty uneventful, apart from a diversion to buy me togs and a quick look in junk shops in Paeroa. The junks shops seem to sell complete crap for ridiculous prices. We stayed with the usual suspects - the Lanes (Gary, Ange, Matt, Britt), the Edmonds (Paul, Karen, Nicky, Matt), and the Clarks (Rob, Kerry, Britt, Duncan). We have a rule, you can't come unless at least one of your party has the same name as someone else. Hannah's friend Josie also came along (her Father's name is Kerry, which is a duplicate, so that is why she could come, although Kerry didn't stay long). Paul came for a couple of days as well. We have been occupying camps around the countryside with these guys for a few years now. The kids are definitely getting noticeably more capable (and able to stay up later than their parents).

The first day was pretty wet, everyone went to a hot spring, except for a couple of people including me (I hate hot pools and spa pools). Went to Mt Maunganui on second day to the beach, was okay but waves not great for boogie boards. Took the boys to nearby pool, I did my lengths while they just floated in wave pool. Then a floater meant they had to get out (just a faecal incident, not a whole person). Went to a kayak place on the Wairoa river on Thursday, kids had a great time, including riding kayaks down a water slide. Did some paddling up and down the river and took some photos of people hitting the water. The weather got a bit nasty on Friday, but still managed a walk down to the waterfall with Paul and Gary. Managed to land on my arse on slippery bit, the path was quite steep. The weather didn't improve so we decided to come home a day early. Was probably a good idea.

Mother went for a short trip, but it was okay, she broke her fall with her face. She has a suspected broken scaphoid (very small bone in wrist, hard to tell if it is broken but doctors are paranoid about scaphoids). She is recovering, reckons she looks like she has had botox. Sounds like people are keeping an eye on her.

Haven't heard much from Brett, so either a) he is away, or b) I have not been offensive or controversial enough. Also haven't heard from Allan in a while, must try to catch up with him.

Have subscribed to an online DVD rental service. Let's see if it is any good. Selection is reasonable but many are out already. The beauty is you queue up the ones you want and get them when it is your turn. Rory is bombarding me with requests, which is getting more than a little tiresome.

Gavin moves house this Friday. I hope I have got all my stuff back off him.

Have now officially given up on the lens I ordered. It is due in a couple of months. Bollocks to that.

Went to the pool last night, mostly to cool down, the temperature has been surprisingly hot since we got back. There were some kids doing water polo training, years 7-9 from Marcellin College. They are training very early. Rory could not resist showing them what he could do in the lane next to them, tosser.

It was Bambi's 40th birthday on Thursday, and Sarah's on Friday (um, 28th?).

Dave and Olwyn are back from Singapore. They went to see Varekai (Cirque du Soleil) with Paul. He didn't talk about it a lot, I assume it was okay. Seems to me you've seen one, you've seen them all.

We are having contraband beans for dinner tonight. Our neighbour, Jim, has a strain that was smuggled in to the country by a chap at the RSA. They are stringless.

So, back in to work today, with a vengeance. Can't say I am looking forward to it.

The passing of a pot noodle icon and home improvement madness 08/01/07

LOCAL NEWS

Older people seemed to be getting into strife rather than the insane youth. A 53-yo woman broke her ankle while using the long drop, and was helicoptered to Wellington Hospital on New Year's Day. No mention was made of whether it occurred before or after she had used the long drop.

There was a jetski fatality on lake Taupo. It was the driver of the jetski, a 52-yo man without a life jacket, who lost control, tipped the jetski, and drowned. His two passengers survived, and had lifejackets. So strictly it wasn't ON the jetski as he died when he was OFF.

The house at the scene of a fatal stabbing on New Years Eve was razed to the ground by the owner. It seems somewhat extravagant, one assumes he isn't contacting the insurance company about it.

Fire-fighters got a nasty surprise when they extinguished a car fire, there was the remains of a person in it. Not sure how old he/she was.

There was a fire in the tegel chicken factory in Christchurch. I will resist all temptation to discuss them selling pre-roasted products.

Bucking the trend, a teenager was shot in the head with an air rifle by a friend while they were trying to unjam it. Ooops. He is not in great shape.

We've had a homicidal maniac on the loose, who I thought had escaped custody but he merely was paroled (after a murder in 1992). The SWAT (called AOS here) team took a house that he wasn't in. He killed another person and wounded five others before finally being apprehended. He was shot in the leg at the time, and has since lost the leg. We all await news of his bail and his rampage on crutches or a mobility scooter.

An 80 yo man did himself in with cyanide, and two police and a third person inhaled the stuff whilst trying to assist him. He had left warning signs around the ute where he did the deed, of which they took no heed.

Six hoons did 150 km/hr down New Zealand's steepest street in an unregistered and unwarranted car. But it was okay, they crashed into a hospice. I don't think anyone was seriously hurt but I really can't see how.

WORLD NEWS

A toddler in Melbourne died in a parked car. They think she got into the car herself, parents were looking for her for a while. Temperatures in Melbourne reached 32 deg C that day.

They got some rain in South Eastern Australia. They've had a hell of a lot of fires.

The inventor of the instant noodle, Momofuku Ando, has died. He was pretty old (96), and nobody heard of him until now. Figures in the Independent suggest that while four pot noodles are sold every second in the UK, five are being eaten every second. Interesting.

SPORT

Woeful display from Black Caps in fourth ODI versus Sri Lanka. They got 262, New Zealand were all out for 73. Craig McMillan (who always goes out for nothing) high scored and was not out on 29.

The Poms fared about the same in the final Ashes test, the Aussies completing the last game of the first whitewash in 86 years. Warne, McGrath, and Langer all retired at the end, and all played an important part in the win.

Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-1 in FA Cup. Man Utd beat Villa 2-1. Most matches are very one sided this time of the year in FA Cup (like Chelsea 6-1 over Macclesfield).

MY SAD LIFE

We puppy-sat for Gavin and Yana on New Years Day. The dog coped fine, the cats handled it in different ways. Ollie just took off, Pandora kept the dog where she could see her the whole time. She followed it off the section four times (it was taken for a walk three times). She was really quite funny with her, would fluff up now and again but just would always keep an eye on her.

Well, we went completely bonkers in the lounge and did all sorts of rearranging and made a hole in the wall. Worked pretty damn hard for two days, but I think it was worthwhile. We now have considerably more storage in the house (the old hot water cupboard was sealed off from the outside world when we re-did the kitchen about four years ago). The Fubar was particularly useful.

There was a floater in the pool at Mums place. Someone drowned. Circumstances not published. I suggested people could go body surfing.

I also completed the series of tasks involving the trailer, which included finally take a load to the tip. Organisation of the garage has commenced but is far from complete, however is considerably easier as a result of everything removed for the new cupboard inside and sent to the tip. Rory has been asking me about having days off that are actually days off (his way of saying he doesn't want to help around the house).

Penny and the boys came to stay for a few days this week. They did a few day trips around the place, including the zoo and the pool. It was Penny's birthday on Wednesday, she is now in her 40th year. Hannah was particularly good with the boys and entertained them a lot. Rory not so much. They left about 4am Sunday morning, very quietly.

We managed to force Paul to go swimming, once, almost twice.

We are off to Blair Lodge, somewhere near Tauranga, for this coming week. Leaving this morning via the Goodin factory.

Hello 2007, bye bye Saddam - 01/01/07

To all those behind us time-zone wise, hello from next year.

LOCAL NEWS

Not sure if I mentioned the accident near Western Springs that killed three youths. The driver turned out to be on a learner's license, with a record for evading police, hitting power poles, and failed attempts to make a car fly. He is survived by a 6 month old foetus that will never meet it's moronic father. I know my emotional detachment from such things is possibly a little callous, and I suppose my view could change if one of my children started exhibiting similar behaviour, but I am going to do my best to ensure that this does not happen.

A large twin engine plane made an unplanned landing on mudflats, only the pilot was aboard, and he was fine. Then the CAA cancelled his license and that of the company he worked for. Sounds like the company is in a bit of a mess. Wouldn't want to fly with them.

There was flooding in Ashburton on Saturday. Things got wet.

There was a bizarre incident where a woman at the front of a boat was hit by a flying dolphin. The dolphin was frolicking near the boat and jumped over the pointy end, collecting her on the way through. There has been tons of news about the woman, but little information on whether the dolphin is seeking counselling. Rumours that she was eating an unsafe tuna sandwich at the time are unsubstantiated.

A local Mcdonalds was suffering when it turned out an employee had hepatitis.

An out of control milk tanker hit three houses before it stopped. The driver was choking on a lolly, there are now plans to ban eating lollies whilst driving. The second house has a tanker shaped hole right through it. The third contained a man with a broken ankle, who gained a broken leg when the truck arrived (he could run very fast because of the ankle). But proving that every grey cloud has a silver lining, the driver also set a record for the largest milkshake.

WORLD NEWS

The passing of James Brown was way more interesting than the passing of Gerald Ford, even if some of the younger set think he had a motor vehicle named after him. James Brown was pretty cool.

Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday, the world awaited the reaction. Some papers said NZers would have to pay to see the footage of the hanging. I find this to be most distasteful. It wasn't a boxing match. It should not be available at all.

SPORT

Well, the Poms lost by 99 runs in three days. They don't look that good against the Aussies. I am not sure they are crap, but I know that the Aussies are pretty good at making other teams look like crap.

Some upsets in premiere league, Man Utd beat Reading 3-2, Liverpool beat Spurs 1-0, Man City beat West Ham 1-0, Sheff Utd beat the Arse 1-0 (nice), Chelsea had 2-2 with Fulham (good god), and Everton actioned a 3-0 thumping of poor old Newcastle.

The Black Caps managed to squeak home on last ball to win the second ODI against Sri Lanka. They needed about three runs in last over. First five balls all went for nought. Scored four off last ball to clinch the win. They lost the first one despite getting what seemed like a good score to start.

MY SAD LIFE

Hannah made me play a lot of volleyball. We also played a little tennis. Spent a few more days mellowing out and sleeping in the afternoons now and again.

Our trip back to Auckland was relatively uneventful. Traffic coming the other way was pretty heavy. The Kopu bridge is one-way, which is really quite bizarre for these days. They turned off the signals and did things manually, letting traffic go one way for a good ten minutes. The queues were pretty long. As we got closer and closer to Auckland the weather got worse and worse.

Since returning home, I've been grinding away at my list. I made a list, that I lost. Then I made another on the way home from Coromandel in the car and Diana kept it. Despite this, I have been working away at it. Fixed the bike (with help from Paul), filled the garden bin, emptied the trailer, and rationalised things in the garage. We moved the TV into Rory's room and built a shelf in the space it occupied.

Jono popped in one afternoon, over here for Christmas. He told me that Steph is about to have her second child, about six years after the first one, which is quite a gap. Was good to see him.

Have managed a couple of swims with Hannah. Rory came the second time, fitting us into his busy schedule. He did a timed 50m in 29.25s which is not too shabby. Hannah did 25m in 16.98s which is one of her fastest. Her style has changed, used to be so beautiful and now is definitely more of a water polo style.

We went to the Edmonds for New Year, it was also their 20th wedding anniversary. Saw some of the usual suspects, many of whom we have hardly seen in the past year. We are off with the Edmonds and Lanes to Tauranga in about a week.

Well, that about sums things up for the last week in 2006. Fingers crossed that 2007 isn't quite so busy.
Have a good New Year