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.
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