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.
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