LOCAL NEWS
The Herald showed how pathetically rugby-obsessed some people in this nation are (even if only their editorial staff) when the put the details of the new All Black jersey and the collar style on the front page. I do not see how anyone, in their right minds, could consider that news (and here I am talking about it).
87 year old Sir Edmund Hillary suffered a fall in Nepal, but seems to be recovering. He is a national institution, I would hate to think what it will be like when he dies.
A boat sank near Waiheke, with six people on board, the four adults survived, the two kids did not. Seems a little unfair, given that the kids spotted the leak. All seems a little strange. Even stranger, during the post-rescue investigation they found the body of an elderly woman floating around. News came later that a bung was missing. That's pretty stupid, one could almost say negligent.
A soldier was photographed at Anzac Day commemorations wearing medals that would have been impossible to get as a group, covering wars over 40 years and from four different countries. Apparently wearing medals you did not earn is an offence.
Dog attacks are very much the theme in the news here, vicious breeds, bad owners, the usual crap. Seems trucks are behaving themselves.
A woman, who's name was Gay, had an email to Xtra rejected because of dodgy content (being her name). She also happens to be gay. How she managed to send an email with her name in it four times I don't know (although I am thinking something like "your service is gay, get you gay act together, regards gay Gay" might do it, I would be surprised if she did say something like that).
A 21 year old New Plymouth man won't make 22 after crashing and burning while under the impression he was evading police. As usual, police had called off the chase several hundred metres before the accident. If the car travelled 300 metres beyond the point they stopped chasing and he was going 100km/hr (probably more) then he crashed 12 seconds after they called off the chase (I worked it out). That's not very long. Probably didn't know that had "called it off".
A man died from an allergic reaction after eating at a restaurant. He was allergic to nuts, chicken, eggs and seafood and apparently reality. I have a possibly unsympathetic opinion on this that I hold very strongly. If you are at risk from something as common as a peanut or egg you should ensure you take the appropriate precautions yourself, as it is your life that depends upon it. Anyone willing to assume that a waitress, restaurant manager, and cook are trained and prepared to keep all traces of random items away from your food must be either incredibly brave or stupid. It is no different to the kids with allergies going to school, they shouldn't, home schooling is the only answer or a special nut-free school for them all to go to. I do not see how the population in general should ever be expected to change their behaviour to safeguard these people when fatal exposure could come from touching a surface that has been touched by a peanut.
"Shocking" news in an exclusive TV interview last night. The lawyer of a woman (who fell asleep at the wheel and the resulting accident killed three of her children) feels she has been punished enough. Really? Never would have expected a defence lawyer to do things to get their client off the hook. The fact that she did not take unknown third parties out in her little prang is just lucky. The fact that the principle damage she caused was to her own children makes it no less negligent or criminal. Stealing your own stuff is not a crime. Killing your own kids is.
Meanwhile, no mention of charges against the parents without a bung, who you could argue were asleep on the job with regards their kids drowning in the boat mentioned earlier. Wonder if they will recruit the same lawyer?
Our glorious leader's dubious semi-artwork is up for sale again. There was controversy back in 2001 when Helen Clark was found out having signed a sketch as her own for charity that she did not draw (and to be honest, an eight year old could have done it, it was not particularly complicated). It is expected that it will fetch $2,000 (compared to $80 in 2001). Not a bad return. I am sure there is a law against profiting from crime, but not sure if the victim of the first crime is allowed to subsequently profit, as that actually seems like karma.
WORLD NEWS
Boris Yeltsin died this week, an interesting man, who was a part of some pretty big events in Russia's recent history.
(From Koos, I never noticed it) In Japan, some 2000 people have bought special poodles, known as Australian non-barking poodles. They happen to be sheep. Japanese customers have paid $1600 for their poodles, only to be told when they go to get their nails clipped that they have hooves instead of paws. Apparently not many people have seen sheep close up so they are easily mistaken for dogs. This needs no comment, it is beyond sad.
REAL SPORT
On Wednesday night we showed up to training to find the pool was double booked. Luckily we know their coach and we ran a join sessions with 32 kids in the pool but it went really well.
Rory swam at inter-zone swim sports on Thursday. The senior breaststroke relay team came second (he swam for them).
Rory's senior team played Mt Albert in a inter-pool playoff, and won 7-2, Rory got three goals, we thought it would be closer. His junior team played Mt Albert (recognising a pattern yet) and we thought it would be an old-fashioned thumping. The junior team played way better than I thought (four of them having played the senior game half an hour earlier). We were even winning at the end of the third quarter. We lost ground in the fourth, and lost 7-9, but it was a way better result than I expected. I was pretty happy, so was the team.
Hannah's team finally got a game, it was a 0-0 draw. Pretty hard fought, could be worse. We had one guest sub, after having one player away and one with a broken arm. I have to say that my daughter played very well, she works very hard.
The Western Springs College girls played St Mary's B on Sunday night. Hannah came along and played for them. She went in goal in the last quarter, scored one goal in 3rd quarter. They won 9-2. Without Hannah and Cella we would have lost, I think (Cella is goalie for girls and junior boys).
SPORT
Anzac Day began with New Zealand being swatted out of the cricket World Cup by Sri Lanka. The next morning, Australia swatted away South Africa. Yesterday they swatted Sri Lanka in to touch to win their third World Cup in a row. Cricket feels a bit like League right now.
The big news in Super 14 is the Brumbies getting a rare win and beating the Crusaders (giving them a rare loss). The Blues lost to the Bulls, things not going well there. Hurricanes just beat Highlanders 22-21.
Man Utd won their home leg 3-2 against AC Milan, Liverpool lost 0-1 to Chelsea in Champs League. Think they play reverse games next week.
In premiership, Chelsea had a surprise 2-2 draw with lowly Bolton, Man Utd were down 0-2 against Everton but scored four goals to win 4-2. Liverpool lost to Portsmouth 1-2. Arsenal beat Fulham 3-1. Man Utd need only a few points to be sure of winning this year.
The Warriors managed two late tries to beat the Rabbitohs 18-16.
Despite efforts of TV One, the interest in the Louis Vuitton is exceedingly low. I think Team New Zealand came third in first round, but very hard to tell. As it doesn't look too good, I think interest is waning.
MY SAD LIFE
Anzac Day we did the usual and went to the local parade, where our neighbour Jim marches every year.
Paul came along to water polo on Friday night and took some photos. I am not very good taking photos during a game with my kids playing because I get too caught up in it. I even printed some photos off on Sunday (was interesting exercise at a kiosk). I almost lost my free cellphone, too (actually, I did lose it, then a woman came out of a shop and handed it to me when she saw me looking around a chair I had sat in). For the second Sunday in a row, I spent time with Hannah while she tried on shoes.
We saw the Goodins, Charles, and Paul on Saturday night. Charles is flying back to Melbourne today (I think, or yesterday). Ross stole the snowballs. Hannah arrived home from a party just as they were leaving, so at least she got to say hello.
Saw Allan and Jackie for first time in ages on Sunday, Paul's had another knee reconstruction (same knee). He's not very mobile at the moment.
Have been trawling through my old emails and adding them to the blog site. Picked up a few gems along the way and continue to see how repetitive I am (I really do need to work on being more imaginative). What I find the funniest is the bits where I say I was busy because we had three sporting events over a weekend (whereas we had five this weekend and it felt quite normal). Perspective is a funny old thing, and it is very much like banging your head against the brick wall, you get used to things pretty quickly.
Interesting scene at our place on Thursday night. House full of people, mainly high school kids. Hannah, me, and two others screamed in from soccer practice. Priya was already there, Cella (the goalie) arrived in a lumberjack outfit. As I gobbled food, the house was chaos as we sussed out additional transport because I had room for only five in the car. It just struck me as I sat there that some of the people there could be friends of Rory's for some time to come, and that Hannah certainly knows many of them quite well so would ease a transition to high school (despite pumpkin soup fight with Rory). Okay, not sure why that was interesting. Sorry.
We had a few dramas with homework this week. A "group" project that seemed to consist of a seriously small group (I think there were four but nothing seemed to happen without Rory and often he seemed to be a very small group and one person never showed up once). It was delivered on time on Friday.
On the high school front, Hannah has not applied to St Marys despite much discussion. I suspect Western Springs is rapidly becoming the school of choice. I don't see why kids want to go to different schools from their siblings.
I found some missing socks this week, in Rory's drawer, then more in the hot water cupboard. But then my sock drawer was full. I think I have too many socks (I cannot believe I said that). Ever since my trip to SF when I got ten pairs of identical socks (so I never have lots of orphans any more) I think I have reached sock saturation. Unbelievable.
The neighbours in the front house moved out on Friday after being there ten years. The new ones are gutting the place, stripping walls and replacing the kitchen. The house was pretty tired, I have to say. It was a hive of activity all weekend. Not sure when they will move in.
Rory seemed very satisfied with his weekend. He gave us a small monologue about how he feels his weekends are normally not achievement-oriented. Not sure what made the difference. He did play very well and hard on Friday night at two games, he refereed half Hannah's soccer match (despite grumbling), spent the afternoon on Saturday at the movies with Priya, entertained the Goodin children, had a friend visit on Sunday (playing a new game he scored), then leave when Priya arrived, and then he came to watch Priya's game on Sunday night (she plays in the girls team), he finished off with a social league game on Sunday night. Nothing in itself struck me as being particularly productive.
Hannah has timetable conflicts this week preparing for interschool wrestling and soccer. Interschool soccer is on Wednesday. Weather not great but should clear sufficiently. She didn't get to play in it last year because of rain.
Diana is one a course this week. Don't remember the hours.
Research indicates that as a ratio of words to interesting content that is entry is one of the worst ever written. For that I apologise.
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