Weather has been pretty wet and wild for quite a few days now.
LOCAL NEWS
Paul Holmes faced the media on his daughter's drug charges later last Monday. I have to admit he handled it pretty well and seemed pretty much like any other Father.
A person died when a car skidded off a snowy road near Wanaka and fell 70m into the lake. Kathryn tried the same road shortly afterward and was turned back. We all think the danger was more for boating on the lake below the road more than driving on it. Kathryn got to stay on the side of the road in a cardboard box (well, almost). She made civilisation on Saturday. The snow was so bad flights were cancelled and the Winter Festival was postponed a week.
Another accident during bad weather, which was pretty funny, despite serious injuries was a guy driving out around banks peninsula near Christchurch came off the road and was down a bank for about ten hours, with a working girl he had just hired. I am not sure weather she charged overtime or he got a refund, but I bet he wasn't real happy telling everyone who she was.
Parents of a baby are disappointed they cannot call the child 4real. Births, Deaths and Marriages refuse to register any name beginning with a numeral. The parents have names lined up for the rest of their planned family - 4skin, 2stupid, 4play, 4sight, 3ply, 2hot4u, 4dummies, and 7iron (the father likes golf, too). Apparently the parents of conjoined twins wanted to give their babies one name, 4armed, which was consider to be in bad taste.
A 1.9 tonne piece of concrete sent an Auckland construction worker to meet his maker on Thursday.
News this week that qualifying standards to join the police have plummeted. Given apparent requirement for sex offences, this isn't surprising. Anything less than having done a 3-5 stretch is now okay.
A Polish immigrant has pleaded guilty to charges of some 400 robberies of cars in tourist destinations around the south island in three weeks. Sounds like he has an awesome camera collection and more passports than the Jackal. And apparently he can still apply to join the police.
Two 14 year old teenagers shot at police during a car chase before they were apprehended near Tauranga.
A clever hunter put his loaded gun in the boot of his car and shot himself in the shoulder. (imagine me shaking my head about now, and sighing)
A 61 year old man died at his son's 21st birthday party while trying to break up a fight. Booze culture is alive and well.
A survey was released today to say that Christchurch sex-workers are not any safer after law reform than they were before. The timing is somewhat ironic, after one of their number had the accident reported earlier in this section. I am not sure reform would prevent those sort of accidents.
We continue to hear about the power cut family. A story of typical Pacific Island cycle of financial ruin by borrowing money at silly rates for short term solution.
WORLD NEWS
The weather we have had in the last week or so visited itself upon Sydney first (we always get their cast-offs, it's not fair). My sister Penny had some excitement with water mixing with electricity in her shop, causing a fire that got interesting (do smoke-damaged flowers sell for less, or sell for more to people who like the smoke-smell, I wonder).
Australia is taking drastic measures to resolve issues with aboriginals, forcing expenditure on food and theoretically reducing child abuse in the Northern Territory.
The guy who went ballistic with a gun in Melbourne handed himself in after a few days.
REAL SPORT
We took the soccer team to an indoor venue for training on Thursday night, which they thoroughly enjoyed.
Hannah's polo team played the team Rory coaches, who were selected to be the second best team at Ponsonby. It was good natured, but one way. Final score 17-0.
Hannah's soccer was postponed, because of the hideous weather. This was a good thing because we had two key players unwell, but the weekend seemed so much quieter.
SPORT
The Warriors had another win, against Penrith (described as a team in crisis, which by definition must be self-evident because they lost to the Warriors). It was 54-14, which does reinforce the theory.
The Southern Sting beat the Northern Force in the final in a real cliff-hanger 50-49 in the last domestic netball league competition before we combine with Australia.
The All Blacks surprised everyone by coming back from 12-21 to win 26-21 at Durban against the Boks.
Team New Zealand finally had an America's Cup race, and lost it, on Saturday night. The tv news coverage included very drunk people telling us their views before and after. Not sure what that added to things, really. They won race two this morning so 1-1 now. Not sure what this means, but I suspect we could have been a little lucky in the second race. I wouldn't start buying coastal property just yet.
MY SAD LIFE
Among much trepidation with a mega-storm approaching, Rory went off on an overnight camp with school on Thursday night. Diana wasn't happy, not sure I was either. He was fine, and had a fun time. They actually gave them tents.
Diana had her birthday on Saturday, as expected. I am not going to say what she got from me (because it'll drive Brett bonkers not to know). We realised that it is now 20 years we have known each other, and she still has the tea pot I got her back then (I have this funny idea that birthday presents should be memorable, but after 20 years it's getting a little difficult). Ross, the Bambis, and Koos came over for dinner, was good to see them.
As mentioned earlier, Kath has been playing in the South Island, and is considering changing her name to Nanook of the South.
Hannah was home from school, sick for three days, definitely not herself, but she was bouncing back noticeably on Sunday. Bouncing is pretty much the perfect word to describe it. We took a ball down to the soccer field and she kicked a few. She wasn't too sick to cook, she made lemon meringue pie on Saturday, pancakes and caramel slice on Sunday.
Paul Grant is in San Diego now, got there yesterday, haven't heard from him yet, but presume it's all good. He was due to go sailing today.
Rory has announced he wants to move in to the sleep out. The problem is that the sleep out is where my office is, and shifting it would be a major exercise. The concept does have some merit, but I think requires consideration.
Rory continues to play with a program called Blender, which creates 3-D objects and renders them. He's producing a vast number of items. The program is quite technical, a little bit AutoCAD-like, with tons of keypresses for certain functions (with different functions on numeric keypad keys compared to numbers across the top of keyboard). I got him to talk me through doing something to see what it was like. This is the first non-game he's got to know and I think it is very useful. Just wish the kids would learn the basics in Excel.
The house near us that our neighbour Jim calls the crematorium is for sale. Diana went and had a look over the weekend. The people in there have been there the whole time we've lived here. We got a flyer the other day with house sales around here and I am beginning to think my estimate of the value of our house is probably well wrong. Not that it matters a lot.
25 June 2007
18 June 2007
A news breaker becomes a news maker, and he doesn't like it one little bit - 18/06/2007
LOCAL NEWS
In a sad, yet strangely ironic, case of the news reader becoming the news - Paul Holmes's daughter, Millie Holmes, was arrested on drugs charges on Sunday night. I wonder if he is going to agree to interviews? He offered no comment last night. Funny really, these double standards. Happy to interview police about dodgy videos at parties, happy to interview barely literate underdogs when they get a hard time from the big guy, happy to sell his story about his secret pain to the highest bidder, but won't comment when it's a little bit close to Holmes.
Funnily enough, the drug arrest did not make the headlines on Newstalk ZB, the station he does breakfast on.
The Reserve Bank Governor intervened on Monday to push the exchange rate down, it's been very high because of higher interest rates. There is a rumour he did it again this morning.
The Government wants schools to sell healthier food. It makes perfect sense to eliminate certain really bad foods but dairies will do nicely out of it.
A 72 year old Auckland woman has shown up in Moscow as a body after disappearing following a holiday and not returning when expected.
We've had lots of debate following the deaths of two teens at a level crossing. The popular theory is the train company needs to put in barriers and so forth. As far as I am concerned if a local that knows the area isn't smart enough to look for trains when in a car load of people (so they could have spotters both sides) then it is simple Darwinian evolution. It's not that much different from crossing the road, is it?
It is the "traditional" Maori New Year tomorrow. I say it in inverted commas because I don't think we started hearing about this tradition until a couple of years ago, after we started getting some fuss about Chinese New Year. We now have three, doesn't that seem two too many?
Sad story this week when an autistic boy died in a house fire, despite his mother's attempts to rescue him.
WORLD NEWS
I heard something about Salman Rushdie being knighted. The ceremony will take place in a nuclear fallout shelter 500m below sea level in the Rocky Mountains.
Fiji is doing nothing for tourism by expelling a journalist and an New Zealand diplomat. They seems that despite this apparently inexplicable behaviour, we should still want to go there for a holiday. I don't think so, Frank. He needs a reality check or he won't be able to cash a cheque.
THIS JUST IN - Brett says there's been a shooting in Flinders Lane in Melbourne, four people down, one fatality. Me and Paul wandered around there quite a lot on our travels. Nasty. He says it seems random.
REAL SPORT
No water polo for Hannah this week, her team had a bye in an attempt to defuse tensions at the pool.
In soccer, we were at Cox's Bay, an idyllic spot, right on the coast, looking across to the north shore on a cold but sunny day. I thought we should win pretty easily against Metro, but we just couldn't score, it was 0-0 at the end of the first half. Going up hill in the second half we scored a goal early, and that seemed to tip the balance. Despite needing to defend pretty desperately a few times, most of the action was at the far end and we won 4-0.
SPORT
All Blacks beat Canada, not exactly a surprise, 64-13.
Boks beat Australia 22-19 in Capetown in first Tri-Nations game.
Warriors beat Cronulla at home for first time since 2003. That was a surprise. This ended a six game losing streak.
Big game in domestic netball on Sunday night when Southern Sting beat the Magic by two goals to make the final.
MY SAD LIFE
Hannah's call-back is now today. She's been practicing, a lot, although not so much in last two days.
Rory went to see his school show, Dracula, with Priya and friends. Not sure the show was his thing. Priya's little brother also attended in a parental master stroke. For the cost of a $10 ticket they had a chaperone and a baby sitter sorted.
Rory reckons he won't go see Hannah in her show, interesting debate going on there with Diana.
The fallout from the polo game Friday before last resulted in emails flying between Principals, then a letter, a meeting with the Ponsonby Principal and the polo teacher, and a reply to the letter. Now I am having a meeting with a high maintenance parent from the other team on Tuesday night. I am not in the mood to take any more bullshit on this. It has gone beyond a joke.
The Goodins spent the week at Mystery Creek, selling their jumpers in an environment ideally suited to motivate purchases. It is always damn cold there.
Charles has finished sorting his Mum's house and headed back to Melbourne last night. We saw him briefly yesterday.
It is Diana's birthday this coming Saturday. Feel free to send her birthday wishes (her address is in this email at the top). Meanwhile, I would happily take constructive suggestions for gifts for her.
In a sad, yet strangely ironic, case of the news reader becoming the news - Paul Holmes's daughter, Millie Holmes, was arrested on drugs charges on Sunday night. I wonder if he is going to agree to interviews? He offered no comment last night. Funny really, these double standards. Happy to interview police about dodgy videos at parties, happy to interview barely literate underdogs when they get a hard time from the big guy, happy to sell his story about his secret pain to the highest bidder, but won't comment when it's a little bit close to Holmes.
Funnily enough, the drug arrest did not make the headlines on Newstalk ZB, the station he does breakfast on.
The Reserve Bank Governor intervened on Monday to push the exchange rate down, it's been very high because of higher interest rates. There is a rumour he did it again this morning.
The Government wants schools to sell healthier food. It makes perfect sense to eliminate certain really bad foods but dairies will do nicely out of it.
A 72 year old Auckland woman has shown up in Moscow as a body after disappearing following a holiday and not returning when expected.
We've had lots of debate following the deaths of two teens at a level crossing. The popular theory is the train company needs to put in barriers and so forth. As far as I am concerned if a local that knows the area isn't smart enough to look for trains when in a car load of people (so they could have spotters both sides) then it is simple Darwinian evolution. It's not that much different from crossing the road, is it?
It is the "traditional" Maori New Year tomorrow. I say it in inverted commas because I don't think we started hearing about this tradition until a couple of years ago, after we started getting some fuss about Chinese New Year. We now have three, doesn't that seem two too many?
Sad story this week when an autistic boy died in a house fire, despite his mother's attempts to rescue him.
WORLD NEWS
I heard something about Salman Rushdie being knighted. The ceremony will take place in a nuclear fallout shelter 500m below sea level in the Rocky Mountains.
Fiji is doing nothing for tourism by expelling a journalist and an New Zealand diplomat. They seems that despite this apparently inexplicable behaviour, we should still want to go there for a holiday. I don't think so, Frank. He needs a reality check or he won't be able to cash a cheque.
THIS JUST IN - Brett says there's been a shooting in Flinders Lane in Melbourne, four people down, one fatality. Me and Paul wandered around there quite a lot on our travels. Nasty. He says it seems random.
REAL SPORT
No water polo for Hannah this week, her team had a bye in an attempt to defuse tensions at the pool.
In soccer, we were at Cox's Bay, an idyllic spot, right on the coast, looking across to the north shore on a cold but sunny day. I thought we should win pretty easily against Metro, but we just couldn't score, it was 0-0 at the end of the first half. Going up hill in the second half we scored a goal early, and that seemed to tip the balance. Despite needing to defend pretty desperately a few times, most of the action was at the far end and we won 4-0.
SPORT
All Blacks beat Canada, not exactly a surprise, 64-13.
Boks beat Australia 22-19 in Capetown in first Tri-Nations game.
Warriors beat Cronulla at home for first time since 2003. That was a surprise. This ended a six game losing streak.
Big game in domestic netball on Sunday night when Southern Sting beat the Magic by two goals to make the final.
MY SAD LIFE
Hannah's call-back is now today. She's been practicing, a lot, although not so much in last two days.
Rory went to see his school show, Dracula, with Priya and friends. Not sure the show was his thing. Priya's little brother also attended in a parental master stroke. For the cost of a $10 ticket they had a chaperone and a baby sitter sorted.
Rory reckons he won't go see Hannah in her show, interesting debate going on there with Diana.
The fallout from the polo game Friday before last resulted in emails flying between Principals, then a letter, a meeting with the Ponsonby Principal and the polo teacher, and a reply to the letter. Now I am having a meeting with a high maintenance parent from the other team on Tuesday night. I am not in the mood to take any more bullshit on this. It has gone beyond a joke.
The Goodins spent the week at Mystery Creek, selling their jumpers in an environment ideally suited to motivate purchases. It is always damn cold there.
Charles has finished sorting his Mum's house and headed back to Melbourne last night. We saw him briefly yesterday.
It is Diana's birthday this coming Saturday. Feel free to send her birthday wishes (her address is in this email at the top). Meanwhile, I would happily take constructive suggestions for gifts for her.
11 June 2007
Weather and trains in Australia, more power-cut family fallout - 11/06/07
LOCAL NEWS
The power thing continued this week. The powers that be apparently see power companies as being able to spot the fact that families are struggling to fund the basics and therefore need to be referred to social services. Power companies are now responsible for more than supplying power.
And the woman at the centre of it all had her funeral. The PM was there, everyone was there, she was a great mother, amazing humanitarian, did so much for the whole world, etc.
On Saturday we were told their phone had been cut off too, a reason why they took so long to call for help (interesting thought, a landline cannot call emergency services when cut off but a cell phone can with no credit).
Police announced this week that tinny houses (the normally sell only marijuana) are diversifying into P, etc. Those proprietors of other tinny houses have read this news and are now updating their business plans (nice work, New Zealand Police).
An sad and odd story this week, the second of two parents of a six month old IVF baby took his own life. Seems very strange.
A year after killing the Kahui twins, the accused and father (I am sure Brett is most interested to hear this) has found God. I am so pleased, people have been looking for him for ages. Perhaps if he could tell everyone where he found him.
A gate fell off and crushed a three year old kid at a West Auckland Marae. It was a sliding gate and if slid back too far would come off it's rails and kill small furry animals and children. I believe the OSH term for this is "accident waiting to happen".
The snow has finally fallen around New Zealand (ski fields were just rocks a week or two ago) and in doing so we had chaos on Mt Tongariro over the weekend with three separate rescue events on Sunday. There is also a hunter missing in the hills near Christchurch who has been gone a week and chances don't look good with temperatures dropping to minus 5.
WORLD NEWS
The V-Line rail crash in Victoria became far more interesting once we found out one of the 11 dead was a Wellington man. It was described as the worst rail crash in 30 years in Australia, since 9 died in 1969. These 9 people must have been more important than the 11, because I would have thought it would have been the worst since a disaster that killed more than 11 people.
Paris got out early and then went down again. Yawn.
Nasty weather in Australia killed nine Australians in the worst weather related loss of life since 20 years ago when seven Australians were killed. I think the drought is over but they seem to have rather too much water right now.
News of the reality TV show in Holland about giving away a kidney turned out to be a crock. It was never that interesting.
REAL SPORT
Hannah had a water polo game on Friday night. Wasn't particularly tough, Bruce McLaren are a considerably weaker polo school than they used to be. Ponsonby 15-2. We had tons of drama though because the opposition felt our team was dirty and aggressive. On reflection was a pathetic display of one-eyed ignorance, this was their first loss and having dished it out in the previous two games they didn't like being on the receiving end. It was an exceedingly poor example of sportsmanship. I had a good chat with one of the more rational mothers that approached us and as she realised that their grasp of the rules was not particularly strong, I think it dawned on her that perhaps it wasn't that bad.
In soccer on Saturday, it was our first game in the championship round. We were playing the only team to come down from Division 1, and although they had lost 0-7 on average, in theory Div 1 was a lot tougher than Div 2. Hannah scored an absolute blinder from outside the box in the first half, 1-0 to us at half time. In the second half, the continued pressure paid off and the goals game faster, scoring five more. Hannah got a second, again from outside the box. Her friend Miranda Whalley, who has been in Hannah's team for four years, scored a beautiful goal from centre back, smacking a defender's clearance straight over everyone's heads and into the goal. The parents of the opposing team were considerably more friendly than the game night before, which was a pleasant contrast. The team were very, very pleased with themselves.
Rory has been trialling for U16 club polo this week, by Wednesday he will have been at the pool from 7:30-9:30 five days out of eight.
SPORT
The New Zealand Rugby Sevens team confounded sceptics by winning the last tournament in Scotland, and because Wales somehow defied the odds and knocked leaders Fiji out in the quarter final, New Zealand edged Fiji out of the title for the year by two points.
Team New Zealand went on to win the Louis Vuitton final 5-0. Good result, now we wait for the big one which nobody can predict.
The All Blacks gave France the proper thumping that was expected last week, 61-10.
Warriors lost again, they are bottom of the table now.
MY SAD LIFE
Rory got two excellents in his science exam. Don't ask me what that means. I think that's good, but not that good. Funny bit was I showed Priya how to balance chemical equations, which she got 100% in, while Rory got one wrong (and I didn't show him anything on it).
It was Ross's birthday on Saturday, he is 43. That's old. We saw him on Saturday night, were he was quite happy, having had both soccer teams win, and Katie scored herself another goal. We were all pretty happy about our kids soccer on Saturday night.
It was also Craig's birthday on Sunday. I did ring, I left a message on the answer phone, so there is proof.
Paul came to take photos at Hannah's soccer game. He took 460 photos, which was pretty cool. Was a pretty nice day to be stuck outside, especially as it was awful the next day.
Hannah had a birthday party, at Miranda Whalley's (who scored her first ever goal in the game earlier in the day, mentioned above). It was a black and white theme. They tried dying Hannah's hair black but it didn't really seem to make any difference. When we picked her up, Barry said "come in, we're watching the video of the game". I thought he meant of the All Black test but it was the DVD of photos from the soccer that morning. Barry described Hannah as devastating, which I am not sure is entirely true but she did have a pretty good game.
Hannah's audition for the school show must have gone reasonably well, she has a call back for a major part this week. She forgot to take the music for the dance so I had to drop it in (well, according to her I didn't HAVE to but I suspect I would have been in trouble if I hadn't).
Rory has developed a theory about showering and personal hygiene. He thought that if you have a shower for three or four times the length of a normal shower you can have three or four days off having another shower (because you use the same amount of water).
Diana beat me in rock, paper, scissors, she cheated. And she hits me. You're all witnesses.
The power thing continued this week. The powers that be apparently see power companies as being able to spot the fact that families are struggling to fund the basics and therefore need to be referred to social services. Power companies are now responsible for more than supplying power.
And the woman at the centre of it all had her funeral. The PM was there, everyone was there, she was a great mother, amazing humanitarian, did so much for the whole world, etc.
On Saturday we were told their phone had been cut off too, a reason why they took so long to call for help (interesting thought, a landline cannot call emergency services when cut off but a cell phone can with no credit).
Police announced this week that tinny houses (the normally sell only marijuana) are diversifying into P, etc. Those proprietors of other tinny houses have read this news and are now updating their business plans (nice work, New Zealand Police).
An sad and odd story this week, the second of two parents of a six month old IVF baby took his own life. Seems very strange.
A year after killing the Kahui twins, the accused and father (I am sure Brett is most interested to hear this) has found God. I am so pleased, people have been looking for him for ages. Perhaps if he could tell everyone where he found him.
A gate fell off and crushed a three year old kid at a West Auckland Marae. It was a sliding gate and if slid back too far would come off it's rails and kill small furry animals and children. I believe the OSH term for this is "accident waiting to happen".
The snow has finally fallen around New Zealand (ski fields were just rocks a week or two ago) and in doing so we had chaos on Mt Tongariro over the weekend with three separate rescue events on Sunday. There is also a hunter missing in the hills near Christchurch who has been gone a week and chances don't look good with temperatures dropping to minus 5.
WORLD NEWS
The V-Line rail crash in Victoria became far more interesting once we found out one of the 11 dead was a Wellington man. It was described as the worst rail crash in 30 years in Australia, since 9 died in 1969. These 9 people must have been more important than the 11, because I would have thought it would have been the worst since a disaster that killed more than 11 people.
Paris got out early and then went down again. Yawn.
Nasty weather in Australia killed nine Australians in the worst weather related loss of life since 20 years ago when seven Australians were killed. I think the drought is over but they seem to have rather too much water right now.
News of the reality TV show in Holland about giving away a kidney turned out to be a crock. It was never that interesting.
REAL SPORT
Hannah had a water polo game on Friday night. Wasn't particularly tough, Bruce McLaren are a considerably weaker polo school than they used to be. Ponsonby 15-2. We had tons of drama though because the opposition felt our team was dirty and aggressive. On reflection was a pathetic display of one-eyed ignorance, this was their first loss and having dished it out in the previous two games they didn't like being on the receiving end. It was an exceedingly poor example of sportsmanship. I had a good chat with one of the more rational mothers that approached us and as she realised that their grasp of the rules was not particularly strong, I think it dawned on her that perhaps it wasn't that bad.
In soccer on Saturday, it was our first game in the championship round. We were playing the only team to come down from Division 1, and although they had lost 0-7 on average, in theory Div 1 was a lot tougher than Div 2. Hannah scored an absolute blinder from outside the box in the first half, 1-0 to us at half time. In the second half, the continued pressure paid off and the goals game faster, scoring five more. Hannah got a second, again from outside the box. Her friend Miranda Whalley, who has been in Hannah's team for four years, scored a beautiful goal from centre back, smacking a defender's clearance straight over everyone's heads and into the goal. The parents of the opposing team were considerably more friendly than the game night before, which was a pleasant contrast. The team were very, very pleased with themselves.
Rory has been trialling for U16 club polo this week, by Wednesday he will have been at the pool from 7:30-9:30 five days out of eight.
SPORT
The New Zealand Rugby Sevens team confounded sceptics by winning the last tournament in Scotland, and because Wales somehow defied the odds and knocked leaders Fiji out in the quarter final, New Zealand edged Fiji out of the title for the year by two points.
Team New Zealand went on to win the Louis Vuitton final 5-0. Good result, now we wait for the big one which nobody can predict.
The All Blacks gave France the proper thumping that was expected last week, 61-10.
Warriors lost again, they are bottom of the table now.
MY SAD LIFE
Rory got two excellents in his science exam. Don't ask me what that means. I think that's good, but not that good. Funny bit was I showed Priya how to balance chemical equations, which she got 100% in, while Rory got one wrong (and I didn't show him anything on it).
It was Ross's birthday on Saturday, he is 43. That's old. We saw him on Saturday night, were he was quite happy, having had both soccer teams win, and Katie scored herself another goal. We were all pretty happy about our kids soccer on Saturday night.
It was also Craig's birthday on Sunday. I did ring, I left a message on the answer phone, so there is proof.
Paul came to take photos at Hannah's soccer game. He took 460 photos, which was pretty cool. Was a pretty nice day to be stuck outside, especially as it was awful the next day.
Hannah had a birthday party, at Miranda Whalley's (who scored her first ever goal in the game earlier in the day, mentioned above). It was a black and white theme. They tried dying Hannah's hair black but it didn't really seem to make any difference. When we picked her up, Barry said "come in, we're watching the video of the game". I thought he meant of the All Black test but it was the DVD of photos from the soccer that morning. Barry described Hannah as devastating, which I am not sure is entirely true but she did have a pretty good game.
Hannah's audition for the school show must have gone reasonably well, she has a call back for a major part this week. She forgot to take the music for the dance so I had to drop it in (well, according to her I didn't HAVE to but I suspect I would have been in trouble if I hadn't).
Rory has developed a theory about showering and personal hygiene. He thought that if you have a shower for three or four times the length of a normal shower you can have three or four days off having another shower (because you use the same amount of water).
Diana beat me in rock, paper, scissors, she cheated. And she hits me. You're all witnesses.
4 June 2007
Power to the people (too much and not enough) - 04/06/07
LOCAL NEWS
The big story this week was when a Samoan woman on oxygen died because power to the house was cut off. We had noise of the power company being charged with murder but I really cannot see how that could have any credibility. The family could have taken several mitigating actions, including: paying the bill, running an extension cord from a neighbour, taking the machine and woman to a neighbour, or just doing anything at all in the three hours between losing power and when the woman started to get uncomfortable. Three hours. I mean, come on, she could have caught a bus somewhere in three hours. It is common for people in such a position to have an oxygen cylinder as a backup. An Uncle paid the bill the next day and they got power reconnected. The media fought hard against the backlash from the population along similar lines to my view. They started making all sorts of excuses. It was utterly pathetic, but a staggering (and rare) example where the media were going very much against the popular view.
As the week progressed, we had all sorts of follow up stories on the killer power cut. Helen Clark attacked Mercury, wanted to change the rules. Then Mercury buckled big time and gave them $10,000 towards funeral expenses and have suspended disconnections. On Sunday, the Chairwoman of Mighty River Power, who I think must own Mercury, suggested she should resign (although it sounded pretty reluctant). Overreaction beyond belief.
Meanwhile MPs wrestled with the question of whether they should open the house with a prayer, and if so should they modify it. Much more important than trivia like why should 120 people (MPs) sit around while two people argue, or why there are often 43 people sitting around instead of 120.
Wellington schools have been told they can't hold their school ball in pubs (which are often cheaper venues), but strip clubs are okay (but only on amateur night, perhaps?).
From the "I told you so" department, a four year old girl asleep in a caravan, stepped out of it when she woke up. Unfortunately she was not awake enough to realise it was moving. More something I would consider to be likely done by a 14 year old male, it was exceedingly stupid and falls into the "dumb things parents do with their kids" category alongside the missing girl in Portugal.
Everyone feels sorry for psychopath Graeme Burton who is having a hard time in prison. After killing some random guy for no good reason, he lost his leg after being shot by police. Fellow prisoners are convinced he will lose the plot and kill again and aren't too keen on it being one of them. So, to lighten things up, they keep letting down the tyres on his wheelchair. I'm sure that won't push him over the edge.
We had Queen's Birthday Honours. They are a total pile of camel droppings. Giving a reality television broadcaster something is ridiculous.
WORLD NEWS
Heidi thinks I should have mentioned the rampaging male gorilla that escaped at a zoo in Rotterdam. It seems that the gorilla had been encouraged by a woman who was regularly visiting him. She seemed to have built up a relationship that the gorilla was hoping to take to the next level. A friend of Heidi's was there at the time and sought refuge in a toilet cubicle to avoid the gorilla's affections.
The Americans are seven dead soldiers away from the round number of 3,500 fatalities in Iraq. Not a particularly round number, but sums up the numeracy of the average American.
REAL SPORT
Not much real sport to speak of. Hannah had a soccer game, last of grading. Thought we had a chance against them, they were above us on the table. We were up 3-1 at half time, but some interesting refereeing kept the game going until it was 4-4. They end grading with two wins, two losses, two draws.
Rory has club polo trials this coming weekend, not sure they will make any difference to the team he gets in to.
SPORT
Team New Zealand started well in the Louis Vuitton finals, winning the first raced narrowly, the second one by 40 seconds, and convincingly won the third too (despite "losing" the start to get the favourable position).
The All Blacks played France, and won but not really that convincingly. It was 42-11 but really was a B team from France.
New Zealand women's soccer team played Canada and lost 0-3.
MY SAD LIFE
Went on a school visit to Auckland Girls Grammar this week. Was interesting. Think we are approaching a decision for Hannah's high school.
On Sunday we went to see New Zealand Women play Canada in soccer. Went with the Goodins, and Hannah's friend Josie. Rory denies he is interested in football but can't help yell out things. He wanted to run onto the field.
Rory had his science exam on Thursday. He had the day off and "studied" with Priya at our house. I think the correct term is "full contact study". We shall see the results and then judge the effectiveness of the study method.
On Friday it was the 11th anniversary of us moving in to this house. That's quite a long time.
Hannah's been cooking, she made lemon meringue pie on Saturday and lamingtons today. She hasn't attempted to replicate any of Brett's gastronomic dinners as yet.
Saw Tania Johansson this week, she popped in on the off-chance and I wasn't really busy. Was great having a chat. Her daughters are both at school now.
Bit of high drama at Western Springs College this week when a number of students were found to be in possession of cannabis. Four Year Tens were busted as "dealers", one of whom was pinching the stuff off his father (who grows it) and was making great margins. A large number of students have been interviewed. Will be interesting to see if this gets mentioned at the introduction night for potential new students.
I'M NOT A GEEK, I'VE GOT A GIRLFRIEND
Rory refused to attend a sci-fi swap meet with me on Saturday for the above reason. I think he needs the statement on a t-shirt.
Garth - Tania Johansson went to Avondale College, so did I. Not sure about before that though.
The big story this week was when a Samoan woman on oxygen died because power to the house was cut off. We had noise of the power company being charged with murder but I really cannot see how that could have any credibility. The family could have taken several mitigating actions, including: paying the bill, running an extension cord from a neighbour, taking the machine and woman to a neighbour, or just doing anything at all in the three hours between losing power and when the woman started to get uncomfortable. Three hours. I mean, come on, she could have caught a bus somewhere in three hours. It is common for people in such a position to have an oxygen cylinder as a backup. An Uncle paid the bill the next day and they got power reconnected. The media fought hard against the backlash from the population along similar lines to my view. They started making all sorts of excuses. It was utterly pathetic, but a staggering (and rare) example where the media were going very much against the popular view.
As the week progressed, we had all sorts of follow up stories on the killer power cut. Helen Clark attacked Mercury, wanted to change the rules. Then Mercury buckled big time and gave them $10,000 towards funeral expenses and have suspended disconnections. On Sunday, the Chairwoman of Mighty River Power, who I think must own Mercury, suggested she should resign (although it sounded pretty reluctant). Overreaction beyond belief.
Meanwhile MPs wrestled with the question of whether they should open the house with a prayer, and if so should they modify it. Much more important than trivia like why should 120 people (MPs) sit around while two people argue, or why there are often 43 people sitting around instead of 120.
Wellington schools have been told they can't hold their school ball in pubs (which are often cheaper venues), but strip clubs are okay (but only on amateur night, perhaps?).
From the "I told you so" department, a four year old girl asleep in a caravan, stepped out of it when she woke up. Unfortunately she was not awake enough to realise it was moving. More something I would consider to be likely done by a 14 year old male, it was exceedingly stupid and falls into the "dumb things parents do with their kids" category alongside the missing girl in Portugal.
Everyone feels sorry for psychopath Graeme Burton who is having a hard time in prison. After killing some random guy for no good reason, he lost his leg after being shot by police. Fellow prisoners are convinced he will lose the plot and kill again and aren't too keen on it being one of them. So, to lighten things up, they keep letting down the tyres on his wheelchair. I'm sure that won't push him over the edge.
We had Queen's Birthday Honours. They are a total pile of camel droppings. Giving a reality television broadcaster something is ridiculous.
WORLD NEWS
Heidi thinks I should have mentioned the rampaging male gorilla that escaped at a zoo in Rotterdam. It seems that the gorilla had been encouraged by a woman who was regularly visiting him. She seemed to have built up a relationship that the gorilla was hoping to take to the next level. A friend of Heidi's was there at the time and sought refuge in a toilet cubicle to avoid the gorilla's affections.
The Americans are seven dead soldiers away from the round number of 3,500 fatalities in Iraq. Not a particularly round number, but sums up the numeracy of the average American.
REAL SPORT
Not much real sport to speak of. Hannah had a soccer game, last of grading. Thought we had a chance against them, they were above us on the table. We were up 3-1 at half time, but some interesting refereeing kept the game going until it was 4-4. They end grading with two wins, two losses, two draws.
Rory has club polo trials this coming weekend, not sure they will make any difference to the team he gets in to.
SPORT
Team New Zealand started well in the Louis Vuitton finals, winning the first raced narrowly, the second one by 40 seconds, and convincingly won the third too (despite "losing" the start to get the favourable position).
The All Blacks played France, and won but not really that convincingly. It was 42-11 but really was a B team from France.
New Zealand women's soccer team played Canada and lost 0-3.
MY SAD LIFE
Went on a school visit to Auckland Girls Grammar this week. Was interesting. Think we are approaching a decision for Hannah's high school.
On Sunday we went to see New Zealand Women play Canada in soccer. Went with the Goodins, and Hannah's friend Josie. Rory denies he is interested in football but can't help yell out things. He wanted to run onto the field.
Rory had his science exam on Thursday. He had the day off and "studied" with Priya at our house. I think the correct term is "full contact study". We shall see the results and then judge the effectiveness of the study method.
On Friday it was the 11th anniversary of us moving in to this house. That's quite a long time.
Hannah's been cooking, she made lemon meringue pie on Saturday and lamingtons today. She hasn't attempted to replicate any of Brett's gastronomic dinners as yet.
Saw Tania Johansson this week, she popped in on the off-chance and I wasn't really busy. Was great having a chat. Her daughters are both at school now.
Bit of high drama at Western Springs College this week when a number of students were found to be in possession of cannabis. Four Year Tens were busted as "dealers", one of whom was pinching the stuff off his father (who grows it) and was making great margins. A large number of students have been interviewed. Will be interesting to see if this gets mentioned at the introduction night for potential new students.
I'M NOT A GEEK, I'VE GOT A GIRLFRIEND
Rory refused to attend a sci-fi swap meet with me on Saturday for the above reason. I think he needs the statement on a t-shirt.
Garth - Tania Johansson went to Avondale College, so did I. Not sure about before that though.
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