LOCAL NEWS
On Tuesday, a truck carrying some art for an exhibition caught fire and it was all destroyed.
Four climbers froze on Mont Blanc in a storm, one was a New Zealand woman so we heard about it a lot.
Awful story of systematic abuse of a three year old in Rotorua this week, including being hung on the washing line and put in the dryer. Four people, none of whom are the child's parents, have been charged. It's very, very weird.
Meanwhile, another Rotorua child, a baby, was admitted to Starship for similar reasons.
The relentlessly controversial David Benson-Pope (who fed tennis balls to students, etc) has lost his ministerial post in a situation where I wonder if he is actually guilty of anything (he threw a wobbly about the partner of a National Party press secretary working in a ministry, it was some git in that ministry that let her go).
The Finance Ministry blundered this week revealing information about some rules the Reserve Bank have about intervention in the currency market. The numbers were not released to the public, at least.
It is thirty years since the free music rag "Rip It Up". Couldn't ever be bothered reading it, to be honest. Reading about music is a bit like hearing about a painting in my book.
We are exporting bees to Canada, which surprises me because the varroa mite has decimated the local population. We seem to have more bumblebees than regular bees.
WORLD NEWS
England is still soggy, but starting to dry out a little.
The freed terrorist suspect Doctor in Australia has done an exclusive interview. He is very surprised a relative of his was involved in the failed terror attacks in England. Mohammed Haneef said that his family are usually more successful at what they do.
REAL SPORT
The coach of the Piranhas team retired this week so I am the coach now. They had another win, 6-4 over Rangby (a hybrid team that I won't try to explain). They have won both their games in champ round so far, which is great. Hannah's polo teams were yet again a bit shaky this week, with people still sick but numbers generally better. The Girls played St Marys and won comfortably 15-2. Then the Sharks played, against Glen Eden, which I thought we would struggle with but turned out we didn't, final score 10-1. Hannah scored a goal in both games but mostly defended.
Hannah was better for soccer, but not completely. She scored the opening goal from a free kick (same as last game). They won 4-0, same as last time they played this team.
Rory had a club game for the 16B team, but they only had six players (full complement in pool in seven). They were down 0-3, but clawed their way back and ended up levelling at 6-6, which was a gutsy effort for having no subs. Rory got one goal.
So the kids got a goal in all four of their games over the weekend.
SPORT
Russell Coutts signed up for Oracle BMW racing for the next America's Cup, so we heard a lot about that too.
The Warriors won again, this time over Newcastle Knights, 52-10. They are now in surprisingly good shape to make the playoffs.
Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the final of the Asian Cup (in soccer).
The rugby national provincial championship (NPC) kicked off this weekend. Auckland started slow but beat Counties 39-5, Wellington thumped Otago 68-7, Taranaki beat Tasman 29-17, Waikato beat Manuwatu 41-15, Northland drew 27-27 with North Harbour (meaning Harbour just got to hang on to the shield), Canterbury 34-3, Hawkes Bay beat Southland 41-13/
MY SAD LIFE
I continued to track my package for a few days. When it got bumped off a plane for space reasons I was very disappointed. Then it showed up that day anyway, which was very unexpected. Later I got an email telling me I had received it, which seemed superfluous somehow.
Rory's job has now increased to about four days a week, not taking huge amount of time but should be earning around $40/week. Not bad given that Cassidy and Priya often help him do it. But then they often go sell Priya's fundraising chocolate for fun, too, just to piss of some other guy selling chocolate that they don't really like.
Went to Western Springs College on school visit with Hannah on Tuesday. No idea what she thought. She doesn't give much away. We knew at least one kid in every class, often more (like four or five).
Diana's car got broken into on Tuesday morning and her cellphone was removed. Highly inconvenient and quite annoying. She was not happy that her little car was picked on, and I don't blame her.
I noticed a mathematical relationship whilst swimming on Wednesday. "While swimming?" you may ask. Well, because counting lengths is so dull, I do other things like ratios of done to undone to stem the boredom, and that night I was calculating squares of how many lengths I had left, so by the time I got to 46 I noticed a pattern. The difference between the squares of two consecutive numbers (like 46^2 and 47^2 is the two numbers added together). Not new, but fun to discover something while otherwise being utterly bored. Try it out, it is true. As for other things to do in the pool, I considered reciting elements of the periodic table but that's just sad. And counting in prime numbers is too tricky and I think I would lose count too easily.
Rory and Cassidy went under the house to run some ethernet cable for the move. They had a lovely time under there, found a bone, thought it was the remains of a person but I somehow doubt it. They took ages to get out after they were done. There was an awful lot of laughter and things from under there.
The move continues. It may sound like it is taking forever, because it is. We don't often get time for a concerted effort for a whole day, never in fact, and we are continuing to have to account for dependencies (I got power and phone installed last week, still need ethernet done and then I can finally move out). On the weekend I shifted a very small amount of stuff, mostly the focus was on installing more shelving, which took ages. As we do various items (like installing power points and shelving) we have to re-shift stuff. Some items have been moved ten times, which is just hopeless. Really looking forward to it being over.
Along with the move, there were several items of home maintenance required. Some mystery person killed the heated towel rail, tearing it off it's mountings. I found you could buy replacement ones, which I obtained (which, I would add, cost about half of the cost of a replacement unit with mountings) and installed. I also repaired the oven door (it was coming apart due to a lost screw). I am a regular handy man.
Hannah was quite unwell on Friday morning, so missed school again. She recovered sufficiently to play a low key role in polo, she didn't go in the water in the girls game until near the end of the second quarter.
Hannah had rehearsals for the show on Saturday, straight after soccer, and a club water polo muster on Sunday morning, so she's been pretty busy.
We dragged both the children out yesterday to the lake at Western Springs. Despite the usual moaning and groaning, they enjoyed themselves. Hannah and I walked home. Rory got a lift and got a start on homework.
So, tomorrow is the big day, Rory turns 15. Good grief. Once he gets his learners permit he is going to be starting driving. So not ready for that.
Message ends prematurely due to excessive tediousness.
23 July 2007
All Blacks rescue the season, Rory leaves home (sort of) - 23/07/2007
It's cold.
LOCAL NEWS
Flood of the week was in Hawke's Bay. Students were rescued by army unimog, surprisingly nobody died. Expected floods in the North did not arrive. Still no discussion of water reservoirs running low.
Bizarre incident this week, a hit and run that seemed to deliberately take out a nine year old boy. Sounded like a gangland style hit, apparently a revenge attack for the boy upsetting the driver's son.
Seven people died on our roads this weekend, largely thanks to black ice in the south. Lots of people were done for blood alcohol offences in checkpoints over the weekend (probably outside the rugby on Saturday night).
Proof of smoking being a dangerous thing when another crazed driver ploughed into a churchgoer yesterday in Auckland city as she had a quick ciggy outside the church.
Concerns that our horticulture and viticulture industries struggling for labour could be creating a gap for Asian gangs bringing in exploited workers.
Doctors are continuing with industrial action, still fairly low level.
WORLD NEWS
The Harry Potter book is now released, amongst a ridiculous amount of publicity, again.
Historic Upton Upon Severn in England is considering a name change. Record rain levels mean it is now referred to as Upton Within Severn (one word can make a big difference) and may need to change to stay in line with the trade descriptions act.
REAL SPORT
We had team photos taken on Thursday night after training. The girls insisted on putting mud under their eyes like war paint. Should be the best team photo ever. They are usually so boring.
Very long night on Friday night, seven games we were involved in. Rory played in one, Hannah in two, I coached four, was managing things in two others. Didn't really see Rory's game. Don't know about the kids but I was pretty much done by the end of it. Hannah's girls team won 10-3, mixed team had their first loss 5-6 (we were heavily depleted, beat this team by quite a lot the previous time). Rory's club team won 5-3 I think, he scored opening goal.
Soccer on Saturday was just awful. Weather was marginal, but pitch was total mud pool and we just couldn't handle it. We also had injuries and illness to deal with and one girl back after about four weeks away. Hannah got hurt in first half, was pretty worried about her, but she was okay (twisted left knee). Final score was 2-4 loss. I was just glad when it was over, I was very concerned about doing damage to the players.
SPORT
Generally a very good weekend for New Zealand teams in sport.
The All Blacks ground out a 26-12 win over the Wallabies to retain the Bledisloe and win the Tri-Nations.
The neballers lost the first game to Australia and won the second. One more to go.
The Tall Blacks beat Venezuela, making them happy.
Warriors won 26-16 over Wests Tigers.
Scott Dixon won his third Indy Car race in a row, so it catching up on the lead for the season.
MY SAD LIFE
I wasn't really very happy this week, didn't feel that unwell but every time I got up I felt like lying down again. Came right by about Thursday then completely overdid it Friday through Sunday. I am okay now.
Hannah was in girl heaven on Thursday. She took the day off to be a test subject for a hair styling exam. She was done up to the nines, and had a lovely time. Not too sure about getting time off school for it, but she was pretty happy about it. Still talked about it on Saturday.
Well, Rory finally moved his bed out to the sleepout on Friday and spent his first night in there. It is still my office as well, so it is an uneasy timeshare. Tony, Kath's Dad, was the site supervisor, assisted by me and Rory. We kept him away from ladders as we reinstated the ceiling with some insulation added. I still need cabling in the new location to take my desk out. Rory had a teacher only day at school, hence his availability. Priya came to help but I suspect she was more of a distraction for Rory than a help. Rory then "christened" the room with Cassidy on Saturday night. They came into the house "quietly" at 4:18am and woke up both me and Diana. Teenagers do simply no have a stealth mode. Over the rest of the weekend we continued to move things out. TV and xBox on Saturday. Rory announced yesterday that he is happy to "save me the bother of shifting the iPod speakers". On Sunday we moved the two whacking great shelves, which required the use of the hand truck and the removal of two doors from the hinges. It was very, very tight, I reckon less than 3mm clearance either side of doorways.
So on Sunday, Rory was in a very, very happy place. He could see his new room taking shape, and was enjoying having the music on tap without being told to turn it down (although I could actually hear it from our bedroom). It's not that he is normally depressed, he was just so utterly happy, it confirmed to us that this was probably a good idea and he is ready for it.
I got an email telling me UPS are sending me something. Over the days since, I got to watch the progress of the package on the web via Orlando Florida, Ontario California, and other places that start and end with the letter O. I am having fun tracking the package though, it is way cool. There are nine events on it now. Diana thinks I am sad. But that is not really a change.
Diana's work is about to change from mornings to three days per week. Not a huge change but frees her up for school things a bit.
We saw the Goodins on Saturday at and after soccer. They had a lovely time in South Island.
Hannah disappeared on Sunday to Woodhill Forest with her friend Josie and a home stay (from Hong Kong or Singapore, not sure which, return leg of Josie's trip over there) and climbed trees.
Rory turns fifteen in eight days, good grief.
Hear endeth the message.
LOCAL NEWS
Flood of the week was in Hawke's Bay. Students were rescued by army unimog, surprisingly nobody died. Expected floods in the North did not arrive. Still no discussion of water reservoirs running low.
Bizarre incident this week, a hit and run that seemed to deliberately take out a nine year old boy. Sounded like a gangland style hit, apparently a revenge attack for the boy upsetting the driver's son.
Seven people died on our roads this weekend, largely thanks to black ice in the south. Lots of people were done for blood alcohol offences in checkpoints over the weekend (probably outside the rugby on Saturday night).
Proof of smoking being a dangerous thing when another crazed driver ploughed into a churchgoer yesterday in Auckland city as she had a quick ciggy outside the church.
Concerns that our horticulture and viticulture industries struggling for labour could be creating a gap for Asian gangs bringing in exploited workers.
Doctors are continuing with industrial action, still fairly low level.
WORLD NEWS
The Harry Potter book is now released, amongst a ridiculous amount of publicity, again.
Historic Upton Upon Severn in England is considering a name change. Record rain levels mean it is now referred to as Upton Within Severn (one word can make a big difference) and may need to change to stay in line with the trade descriptions act.
REAL SPORT
We had team photos taken on Thursday night after training. The girls insisted on putting mud under their eyes like war paint. Should be the best team photo ever. They are usually so boring.
Very long night on Friday night, seven games we were involved in. Rory played in one, Hannah in two, I coached four, was managing things in two others. Didn't really see Rory's game. Don't know about the kids but I was pretty much done by the end of it. Hannah's girls team won 10-3, mixed team had their first loss 5-6 (we were heavily depleted, beat this team by quite a lot the previous time). Rory's club team won 5-3 I think, he scored opening goal.
Soccer on Saturday was just awful. Weather was marginal, but pitch was total mud pool and we just couldn't handle it. We also had injuries and illness to deal with and one girl back after about four weeks away. Hannah got hurt in first half, was pretty worried about her, but she was okay (twisted left knee). Final score was 2-4 loss. I was just glad when it was over, I was very concerned about doing damage to the players.
SPORT
Generally a very good weekend for New Zealand teams in sport.
The All Blacks ground out a 26-12 win over the Wallabies to retain the Bledisloe and win the Tri-Nations.
The neballers lost the first game to Australia and won the second. One more to go.
The Tall Blacks beat Venezuela, making them happy.
Warriors won 26-16 over Wests Tigers.
Scott Dixon won his third Indy Car race in a row, so it catching up on the lead for the season.
MY SAD LIFE
I wasn't really very happy this week, didn't feel that unwell but every time I got up I felt like lying down again. Came right by about Thursday then completely overdid it Friday through Sunday. I am okay now.
Hannah was in girl heaven on Thursday. She took the day off to be a test subject for a hair styling exam. She was done up to the nines, and had a lovely time. Not too sure about getting time off school for it, but she was pretty happy about it. Still talked about it on Saturday.
Well, Rory finally moved his bed out to the sleepout on Friday and spent his first night in there. It is still my office as well, so it is an uneasy timeshare. Tony, Kath's Dad, was the site supervisor, assisted by me and Rory. We kept him away from ladders as we reinstated the ceiling with some insulation added. I still need cabling in the new location to take my desk out. Rory had a teacher only day at school, hence his availability. Priya came to help but I suspect she was more of a distraction for Rory than a help. Rory then "christened" the room with Cassidy on Saturday night. They came into the house "quietly" at 4:18am and woke up both me and Diana. Teenagers do simply no have a stealth mode. Over the rest of the weekend we continued to move things out. TV and xBox on Saturday. Rory announced yesterday that he is happy to "save me the bother of shifting the iPod speakers". On Sunday we moved the two whacking great shelves, which required the use of the hand truck and the removal of two doors from the hinges. It was very, very tight, I reckon less than 3mm clearance either side of doorways.
So on Sunday, Rory was in a very, very happy place. He could see his new room taking shape, and was enjoying having the music on tap without being told to turn it down (although I could actually hear it from our bedroom). It's not that he is normally depressed, he was just so utterly happy, it confirmed to us that this was probably a good idea and he is ready for it.
I got an email telling me UPS are sending me something. Over the days since, I got to watch the progress of the package on the web via Orlando Florida, Ontario California, and other places that start and end with the letter O. I am having fun tracking the package though, it is way cool. There are nine events on it now. Diana thinks I am sad. But that is not really a change.
Diana's work is about to change from mornings to three days per week. Not a huge change but frees her up for school things a bit.
We saw the Goodins on Saturday at and after soccer. They had a lovely time in South Island.
Hannah disappeared on Sunday to Woodhill Forest with her friend Josie and a home stay (from Hong Kong or Singapore, not sure which, return leg of Josie's trip over there) and climbed trees.
Rory turns fifteen in eight days, good grief.
Hear endeth the message.
16 July 2007
Insulting Australian Prime Ministers, an intruder goes on the receiving end, pretty good weekend for sport - 16/07/2007
LOCAL NEWS
Bit of a storm in a teacup when an MP from the Maori Party referred to Australian Prime Minister as a "racist bastard" over the actions to get things under control with Aborigines in Northern Territory. Funnily enough, the quote included the word "bastard" but newsreaders just said the word "racist". Perhaps they already knew he was a bastard, I don't know.
Real storm up North, took out power lines all over. Lots of people without power for days. I thought perhaps Kathryn had snuck up there as it was -5 in Invercargill when she went there, so I was expecting some causal effect.
A frail granny stabbed an intruder with his own knife, which was pretty funny. Karma in action.
Pet food is bad for you - a man died when he was crushed by three tonnes of cattle feed.
The hostages in Nigeria were freed on Thursday, so all happy there. They have since come home to visit family but will be returning.
Sad story on Saturday when a train collided with a car, killing the two parents and the 5 year old daughter survived. Not sure why they didn't see the train coming.
An old car once owned by the family of the prime minister was sold on trademe for $5815 - nearly triple what someone bought it off her father for two years ago.
Ice is cramping the style of people jet boating near Queenstown - well duh. Why would you want to even consider jet boating when the water is that cold?
A New Zealander working security in Iraq died when his truck hit a mine.
WORLD NEWS
America appears to have woken up to the problem in Iraq. GW is starting to get a hard time and they are doing the maths about withdrawal and have realised the losses won't stop until they have all got home.
In Sydney, a guy went ape in a tank-like APC and took out seven cellphone repeater stations and a power substation. Love to see video footage of that.
The Beckhams arrived in LA. Oh dear. I can't see what it will do for football.
REAL SPORT
Only one game of soccer this weekend. We were missing a key player and one of our strikers was taken out with an ankle injury ten minutes into the game. We led for most of the match but just got soft in the end and lost 2-3. Hannah scored both goals. I think she has scored seven goals this season, which is very good, definitely more than she has scored in previous years put together.
I hear Katie also scored two goals on Saturday and got POD, and their team won.
SPORT
Board sailor Barbara Kendall has qualified for the Beijing Olympics for the fifth time. The grandmother of the New Zealand Olympic movement has won gold, silver, and bronze so far.
All Blacks beat Spring Boks 33-6 but it was a dubious achievement as the boks are resting most of their first line players.
The Silver Ferns beat Jamaica twice, by about 40 then about 20 goals.
The Warriors had a win over St George Illawarra (40-16 I think).
Four New Zealand rowing teams have won gold at a meet in Lucerne.
MY SAD LIFE
Mum has had some friends from soggy Kaeo visiting because an ex-neighbour was on his way out. I knew Roy Taylor when I was a young kid, and spent a bit of time with his two sons. I think Koos actually worked with Roy for a while when he was at varsity. Anyway, Roy died on Saturday.
The second week of the holidays wasn't quite so exciting for the kids. Hannah did go to Rainbow's End on Friday and after a few changes of plan ended up catching a bus back to civilisation from Manukau through Otahuhu and Otara and finally to downtown about 6:45pm. They are back at school today. Hannah did also make dinner twice this week. The risk of Rory ever making dinner is exceedingly low.
The movement from my office to Rory's room continues. We got some new shelves up on Monday and Wednesday and started moving some cabinets in. I still need some electrical stuff to be done, no phone yet. I am not sure he will be in there by next weekend, but I hope so.
We've all been sick on and off this week, Diana was out of action for a day, the kids were both unwell for a day or two, I finally succumbed yesterday. Not sure if I have improved yet, but will do some work today because if you feel like crap and the weather is awful, you might as well go to work.
Diana was surprised and upset when her slow cooker died on Saturday. The whole bottom of the ceramic pot-thing just came off, in a surprisingly even piece. It did explain the inexplicable leakages between the heating unit and the pot.
Well, apologies for the dullness of this weeks entry.
Bit of a storm in a teacup when an MP from the Maori Party referred to Australian Prime Minister as a "racist bastard" over the actions to get things under control with Aborigines in Northern Territory. Funnily enough, the quote included the word "bastard" but newsreaders just said the word "racist". Perhaps they already knew he was a bastard, I don't know.
Real storm up North, took out power lines all over. Lots of people without power for days. I thought perhaps Kathryn had snuck up there as it was -5 in Invercargill when she went there, so I was expecting some causal effect.
A frail granny stabbed an intruder with his own knife, which was pretty funny. Karma in action.
Pet food is bad for you - a man died when he was crushed by three tonnes of cattle feed.
The hostages in Nigeria were freed on Thursday, so all happy there. They have since come home to visit family but will be returning.
Sad story on Saturday when a train collided with a car, killing the two parents and the 5 year old daughter survived. Not sure why they didn't see the train coming.
An old car once owned by the family of the prime minister was sold on trademe for $5815 - nearly triple what someone bought it off her father for two years ago.
Ice is cramping the style of people jet boating near Queenstown - well duh. Why would you want to even consider jet boating when the water is that cold?
A New Zealander working security in Iraq died when his truck hit a mine.
WORLD NEWS
America appears to have woken up to the problem in Iraq. GW is starting to get a hard time and they are doing the maths about withdrawal and have realised the losses won't stop until they have all got home.
In Sydney, a guy went ape in a tank-like APC and took out seven cellphone repeater stations and a power substation. Love to see video footage of that.
The Beckhams arrived in LA. Oh dear. I can't see what it will do for football.
REAL SPORT
Only one game of soccer this weekend. We were missing a key player and one of our strikers was taken out with an ankle injury ten minutes into the game. We led for most of the match but just got soft in the end and lost 2-3. Hannah scored both goals. I think she has scored seven goals this season, which is very good, definitely more than she has scored in previous years put together.
I hear Katie also scored two goals on Saturday and got POD, and their team won.
SPORT
Board sailor Barbara Kendall has qualified for the Beijing Olympics for the fifth time. The grandmother of the New Zealand Olympic movement has won gold, silver, and bronze so far.
All Blacks beat Spring Boks 33-6 but it was a dubious achievement as the boks are resting most of their first line players.
The Silver Ferns beat Jamaica twice, by about 40 then about 20 goals.
The Warriors had a win over St George Illawarra (40-16 I think).
Four New Zealand rowing teams have won gold at a meet in Lucerne.
MY SAD LIFE
Mum has had some friends from soggy Kaeo visiting because an ex-neighbour was on his way out. I knew Roy Taylor when I was a young kid, and spent a bit of time with his two sons. I think Koos actually worked with Roy for a while when he was at varsity. Anyway, Roy died on Saturday.
The second week of the holidays wasn't quite so exciting for the kids. Hannah did go to Rainbow's End on Friday and after a few changes of plan ended up catching a bus back to civilisation from Manukau through Otahuhu and Otara and finally to downtown about 6:45pm. They are back at school today. Hannah did also make dinner twice this week. The risk of Rory ever making dinner is exceedingly low.
The movement from my office to Rory's room continues. We got some new shelves up on Monday and Wednesday and started moving some cabinets in. I still need some electrical stuff to be done, no phone yet. I am not sure he will be in there by next weekend, but I hope so.
We've all been sick on and off this week, Diana was out of action for a day, the kids were both unwell for a day or two, I finally succumbed yesterday. Not sure if I have improved yet, but will do some work today because if you feel like crap and the weather is awful, you might as well go to work.
Diana was surprised and upset when her slow cooker died on Saturday. The whole bottom of the ceramic pot-thing just came off, in a surprisingly even piece. It did explain the inexplicable leakages between the heating unit and the pot.
Well, apologies for the dullness of this weeks entry.
9 July 2007
Taranaki has a bad week, Gavin becomes a father, Hannah creates her own wind - 09/07/07
LOCAL
Finance Company Bridgecorp went into receivership on Monday, not a good look. We've had a few finance companies fail.
SAS soldier Willy Apiata was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first New Zealand soldier to get the award since the 2nd World War. You'd expect the most likely situation requiring bravery would be driving an army Unimog truck. Apiata did the classic hero dash 70 metres to rescue a wounded comrade over broken ground while under fire.
I failed to mention an incident where a cabinet minister was accused of smacking his child in a shopping mall. He pulled them away from something. Storm in a teacup.
We had some tornados on Wednesday in three different places in New Zealand, quite unusual. Then on Thursday Taranaki got nailed with many houses ripped to bits in a place that used to be called Oakura (it is a gaping wound now).
A teenager failed to get a strike when he skittled a group of cyclists in his car, only scoring three.
Weather has generally been pretty extreme. Lots of snow in the South (so Kathryn is going to Invercargill today, Nanook of the South returns), black ice, etc. Also a small flash flood in Taranaki over the weekend.
Exceedingly random bit of news is that some professor wants to increase the intelligence level of the population by putting contraception in the water. The theory being that the well-educated with have planned children, and those that aren't won't breed like rabbits. It's all very master-race like, and quite dubious.
WORLD NEWS
England continued to deal with the failed terror attacks.
Five people were kidnapped from a Nigerian oil rig. It was interesting because two of them are New Zealanders.
A squall hit a youth yacht race and capsized 90 boats, in Scotland (or somewhere in UK). That's a lot of people needing rescuing all at once.
Frank Bananarama continues to piss New Zealand off by calling us bullies and other names for reacting to his bully-boy tactics and responding to him expelling diplomats. Fiji needs us a lot more than we need them and I suspect considerably less people are visiting Fiji at the moment.
REAL SPORT
No real sport this week, but we got news of the U16 polo team for Rory. He is a floater. This means he will play in the A team and the B team, and will probably go to Nationals. This is a very good result for him as he will be U16 next year also and playing for two teams will give him more game time.
SPORT
Wallabies beat Springboks 25-17 in Sydney.
Federer won Wimbledon for the fifth time.
Kimi Raikonen won the British Gran Prix, Hamilton came third.
MY SAD LIFE
The kids, being on holiday, did various things. Hannah stayed away one night, had Josie stay another. Rory stayed at Cassidy's for a mini-party on Friday night, going to sleep around 6:30am.
Karma was in play this week. Hannah bought a raffle ticket off Josie, who was raising money for her trip to Hong Kong. Hannah won two passes to Ski Planet (indoor skiing thing). Hannah took Josie with her to Ski Planet on Friday, and Josie's Dad took them. They were there for eight hours. They got wind burn, indoors, from skiing down the hill so fast there was wind where there should be none.
Maria Jean Cosh was born at 12:30am Sunday morning weighing 3.6kg and 52cm long. Congratulations to Gavin and Yana. Gavin sounded very happy when he called.
Sunday was also Heidi's birthday.
Saturday was the 4th anniversary of my Father's passing.
Diana, Hannah, and I took Pippy for a walk on Takapuna beach on Sunday because Diana needed beach time. The Goodins are not well, so I think they were quite happy for her to be walked.
Rory and the gang filmed their commercial for a competition this week (the gang being Raf, Cassidy, and Maddie). They were woefully disorganised, but seemed to enjoy themselves. This week they have to figure out how to edit it all.
Work on shifting me and Rory between his room and my office began in earnest over the weekend. We have created some space in my office, disassembled some shelves, and he has created some space in his room by filling the lounge (Diana not too impressed about that). The garage is also accommodating some of the fallout. It's all a bit like a puzzle where you have to move pieces around to make room (you know, those 2D 4x4 with one square missing that make pictures and things).
Finance Company Bridgecorp went into receivership on Monday, not a good look. We've had a few finance companies fail.
SAS soldier Willy Apiata was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first New Zealand soldier to get the award since the 2nd World War. You'd expect the most likely situation requiring bravery would be driving an army Unimog truck. Apiata did the classic hero dash 70 metres to rescue a wounded comrade over broken ground while under fire.
I failed to mention an incident where a cabinet minister was accused of smacking his child in a shopping mall. He pulled them away from something. Storm in a teacup.
We had some tornados on Wednesday in three different places in New Zealand, quite unusual. Then on Thursday Taranaki got nailed with many houses ripped to bits in a place that used to be called Oakura (it is a gaping wound now).
A teenager failed to get a strike when he skittled a group of cyclists in his car, only scoring three.
Weather has generally been pretty extreme. Lots of snow in the South (so Kathryn is going to Invercargill today, Nanook of the South returns), black ice, etc. Also a small flash flood in Taranaki over the weekend.
Exceedingly random bit of news is that some professor wants to increase the intelligence level of the population by putting contraception in the water. The theory being that the well-educated with have planned children, and those that aren't won't breed like rabbits. It's all very master-race like, and quite dubious.
WORLD NEWS
England continued to deal with the failed terror attacks.
Five people were kidnapped from a Nigerian oil rig. It was interesting because two of them are New Zealanders.
A squall hit a youth yacht race and capsized 90 boats, in Scotland (or somewhere in UK). That's a lot of people needing rescuing all at once.
Frank Bananarama continues to piss New Zealand off by calling us bullies and other names for reacting to his bully-boy tactics and responding to him expelling diplomats. Fiji needs us a lot more than we need them and I suspect considerably less people are visiting Fiji at the moment.
REAL SPORT
No real sport this week, but we got news of the U16 polo team for Rory. He is a floater. This means he will play in the A team and the B team, and will probably go to Nationals. This is a very good result for him as he will be U16 next year also and playing for two teams will give him more game time.
SPORT
Wallabies beat Springboks 25-17 in Sydney.
Federer won Wimbledon for the fifth time.
Kimi Raikonen won the British Gran Prix, Hamilton came third.
MY SAD LIFE
The kids, being on holiday, did various things. Hannah stayed away one night, had Josie stay another. Rory stayed at Cassidy's for a mini-party on Friday night, going to sleep around 6:30am.
Karma was in play this week. Hannah bought a raffle ticket off Josie, who was raising money for her trip to Hong Kong. Hannah won two passes to Ski Planet (indoor skiing thing). Hannah took Josie with her to Ski Planet on Friday, and Josie's Dad took them. They were there for eight hours. They got wind burn, indoors, from skiing down the hill so fast there was wind where there should be none.
Maria Jean Cosh was born at 12:30am Sunday morning weighing 3.6kg and 52cm long. Congratulations to Gavin and Yana. Gavin sounded very happy when he called.
Sunday was also Heidi's birthday.
Saturday was the 4th anniversary of my Father's passing.
Diana, Hannah, and I took Pippy for a walk on Takapuna beach on Sunday because Diana needed beach time. The Goodins are not well, so I think they were quite happy for her to be walked.
Rory and the gang filmed their commercial for a competition this week (the gang being Raf, Cassidy, and Maddie). They were woefully disorganised, but seemed to enjoy themselves. This week they have to figure out how to edit it all.
Work on shifting me and Rory between his room and my office began in earnest over the weekend. We have created some space in my office, disassembled some shelves, and he has created some space in his room by filling the lounge (Diana not too impressed about that). The garage is also accommodating some of the fallout. It's all a bit like a puzzle where you have to move pieces around to make room (you know, those 2D 4x4 with one square missing that make pictures and things).
2 July 2007
Not a good week for kids, or people on the roads, or people who are into New Zealand sport, or the English - 02/07/2007
LOCAL NEWS
An altercation between teenagers at a primary school and the husband of a teacher resulted in the man whacking them with the handle of a tomahawk to drive them off. Rumours exist that he was buzzing on P but frankly I applaud his actions as too many kids misbehave because of the lack of consequences. These teens had been ignoring trespass notices and terrorising people at the school for quite a while.
An accused rapist who carried on for four hours, reckoned it was consensual. Doesn't explain why he made her have two showers to remove evidence, does it? I don't think his story holds water.
A youth dived into the Waikato river to evade police and either succeeded or drowned. No proof exists either way as yet.
The introduction of Kiwi Saver, the voluntary government assisted pension scheme, began on 1 July. Bit slow off the mark but let's see what happens.
Not a good weekend for young children. A three year old was run over by a bulldozer, another young child was found dead in a back yard. A third baby died after being scalded in the shower by water from a wetback (they seem to get water too hot and people don't notice).
Weekend road toll was nasty, six died in a non-holiday weekend.
WORLD NEWS
Britain upgraded prime ministers this week and had terror attacks failing all over the show. The worst was the announcement of the Spice Girls getting together.
Meanwhile they had a concert for Princess Diana, ten years after she died. Hasn't Britain suffered enough without having Duran Duran and P Diddy play their music?
REAL SPORT
Despite heavy rain on Friday night, soccer was still on. It eased by game time and although we had a we pitch we had no rain. The opposition was from Bucklands Beach, they had not won a game yet in the championship round. We were 2-0 up at half time and 4-0 at full time.
The really big news was the other two good teams in our league played each other, and the team we thought were the weaker of the two won 3-2. We were scheduled to play the team that won last week (when Hannah was sick, so I am very glad we didn't) and we play the team that lost weekend after next (no game middle week of holidays).
Rory has made the U16 A-team at club, as a floater which means he will play in the B-team too so he gets more game time. This is a good result as he has another year in U16 after this one and the experience will certainly improve his game. He didn't seem overjoyed but I think it is a good thing.
SPORT
Team New Zealand won the third race then lost the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth. One more and it's all over.
The All Blacks lost to Australia 15-20.
The Black Sticks (Men's Hockey) came from in front to lose to Argentina in the final in a shootout. They were ahead 2-0.
The Warriors were the only bit of good news with their third win on the trot, after six losses in a row.
MY SAD LIFE
Went to midnight showing of Transformers with Rory and Cassidy on Wednesday night, was a bit of a wreck the next day. Made Rory go to school. Cassidy had a test and didn't show up at all. Wimp. Cassidy isn't my favourite person, he headbutted Maddie (our centre back) and fractured her nose. Not a good look seeing they are an item.
We had a few minor failures around the house this week. The roof leaked (was fixed Thursday), the toaster became a semi toasted, the frypan was agreed to be a non-non-stick frypan, and the bed was falling apart. Diana and I repaired the bed on Sunday. We haven't replaced the toaster so we swap the toast over for the second run, takes ages. It is on the list of things to do.
Rory and Hannah went with the Goodin children to separate movies in separate theatres on Sunday. Rory and Thomas have both seen the Transformers movie twice already.
The kids are on holiday for next two weeks, they are going shooting today with Bambi.
Yana was due to sprog on Sunday, I think. No news yet, Gavin has his mother in law visiting to help around the house.
Diana has been working full days but gets a couple of days off around the weekend so we may try to go somewhere for a quick break.
Linda's daughter Jen was in the winning cheerleading team in a competition in Brisbane.
An altercation between teenagers at a primary school and the husband of a teacher resulted in the man whacking them with the handle of a tomahawk to drive them off. Rumours exist that he was buzzing on P but frankly I applaud his actions as too many kids misbehave because of the lack of consequences. These teens had been ignoring trespass notices and terrorising people at the school for quite a while.
An accused rapist who carried on for four hours, reckoned it was consensual. Doesn't explain why he made her have two showers to remove evidence, does it? I don't think his story holds water.
A youth dived into the Waikato river to evade police and either succeeded or drowned. No proof exists either way as yet.
The introduction of Kiwi Saver, the voluntary government assisted pension scheme, began on 1 July. Bit slow off the mark but let's see what happens.
Not a good weekend for young children. A three year old was run over by a bulldozer, another young child was found dead in a back yard. A third baby died after being scalded in the shower by water from a wetback (they seem to get water too hot and people don't notice).
Weekend road toll was nasty, six died in a non-holiday weekend.
WORLD NEWS
Britain upgraded prime ministers this week and had terror attacks failing all over the show. The worst was the announcement of the Spice Girls getting together.
Meanwhile they had a concert for Princess Diana, ten years after she died. Hasn't Britain suffered enough without having Duran Duran and P Diddy play their music?
REAL SPORT
Despite heavy rain on Friday night, soccer was still on. It eased by game time and although we had a we pitch we had no rain. The opposition was from Bucklands Beach, they had not won a game yet in the championship round. We were 2-0 up at half time and 4-0 at full time.
The really big news was the other two good teams in our league played each other, and the team we thought were the weaker of the two won 3-2. We were scheduled to play the team that won last week (when Hannah was sick, so I am very glad we didn't) and we play the team that lost weekend after next (no game middle week of holidays).
Rory has made the U16 A-team at club, as a floater which means he will play in the B-team too so he gets more game time. This is a good result as he has another year in U16 after this one and the experience will certainly improve his game. He didn't seem overjoyed but I think it is a good thing.
SPORT
Team New Zealand won the third race then lost the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth. One more and it's all over.
The All Blacks lost to Australia 15-20.
The Black Sticks (Men's Hockey) came from in front to lose to Argentina in the final in a shootout. They were ahead 2-0.
The Warriors were the only bit of good news with their third win on the trot, after six losses in a row.
MY SAD LIFE
Went to midnight showing of Transformers with Rory and Cassidy on Wednesday night, was a bit of a wreck the next day. Made Rory go to school. Cassidy had a test and didn't show up at all. Wimp. Cassidy isn't my favourite person, he headbutted Maddie (our centre back) and fractured her nose. Not a good look seeing they are an item.
We had a few minor failures around the house this week. The roof leaked (was fixed Thursday), the toaster became a semi toasted, the frypan was agreed to be a non-non-stick frypan, and the bed was falling apart. Diana and I repaired the bed on Sunday. We haven't replaced the toaster so we swap the toast over for the second run, takes ages. It is on the list of things to do.
Rory and Hannah went with the Goodin children to separate movies in separate theatres on Sunday. Rory and Thomas have both seen the Transformers movie twice already.
The kids are on holiday for next two weeks, they are going shooting today with Bambi.
Yana was due to sprog on Sunday, I think. No news yet, Gavin has his mother in law visiting to help around the house.
Diana has been working full days but gets a couple of days off around the weekend so we may try to go somewhere for a quick break.
Linda's daughter Jen was in the winning cheerleading team in a competition in Brisbane.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)