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.

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