LOCAL NEWS
There was a fire in a firewood store in Christchurch. You would expect if the product was any good it would burn pretty well. It did.
Boobs on bikes was on Wednesday, there was the usual fuss. The mayor managed to make himself look even more out of touch with reality. Surprisingly, there were no reports of burns to boobs when they rested on hot exhaust pipes (sounds like some of them nearly got close). I found out afterwards that they were on tanks too. That would have been cool. Do you think the ladies would have minded if I asked them to get off the tanks so I could get a good photo of the tank?
A 36 year old woman died in a Dunedin police cell on Thursday. Not sure what post mortem found.
John Key was taking the heat from the Labour Party this week, as they dredged up any dirt they could find on him. This included the fact that he once wore a hat inside a church and didn't stop to help someone in distress once when climbing Mt Eden.
Hell Pizza offended people with a Hitler billboard, which was obviously lampooning Hitler, but offended people with holocaust victims. Funny, Hitler doesn't seem to offend families of French, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, Russian, polish etc people who were taken out in the war. Let alone relatives of Allied soldiers that gave their lives. Doesn't make a lot of sense.
A couple called 111 after they could not undo handcuffs bought at a dodgy store. Police freed the fully clothed man without the need for a key. I wonder why they were not slapped with some sort of fine because calling 111 for such a non-urgent, readily solvable problem is quite pathetic. Police are planning a non-urgent hotline service, which I think they would still prefer to be used for actual crimes rather than escapology conundrums.
Another winner was a Timaru couple who bought a $10,000 parrot. They left the door open and it escaped. After hours of searching it was spotted in a tree, and they asked the fire department to shoot it down with a hose. I think it survived.
Peter Jackson has made a short movie with some new camera. The badly done article I read suggested it was film (but I think they meant movie, because later it sounded very digital and digital means no film). It also didn't mention why it was better than existing ones but the movie was incredibly good, but they don't say why (like, was it Jackson's genius or the camera?).
The Undie 500 is a rally thing in the south island which turned into a bit of a riot of university students. There were 69 arrests.
Mille Elder, daughter of Paul Holmes, has pleaded guilty to three drugs charges this morning.
A caver got caught by a rock fall nearly 3km into a caving network, it is taking more than forty spelunkers to extract him and could take nearly three days.
A plane crashed in the Southern Alps but the two on board have survived.
WORLD NEWS
As expected, the popularity of the Australian Prime Ministerial hopeful, Kevin Rudd, increased after revelations that he got drunk and went to a pole dancing thing. Not surprisingly, local politicians started telling us of their exploits to boost their support.
The China Airlines aircraft explosion was pretty dramatic. Passengers were pretty lucky, well, not that lucky.
Meanwhile, Australian horses are a problem. Many of them have the equine flu, so horses are no longer crossing the Tasman.
There are lots of fires in Greece, in different places, not sure why. All over the show so can't be natural.
REAL SPORT
Rory played for 18B v 18A on Monday night, they held on pretty well considering, 2-3 at half time, but lost 5-11.
Hannah continued to play for as many teams as she could in polo, only three games this week. She helped Rory's Marlins team to their first win in ages, about 5-1 I think, she stopped heaps in goal. She then stayed in goal for the Girls who dominated St Dominics 10-0 although it was considerably more hard fought that the score suggests. Finally the Sharks, heavily depleted, fought gallantly but lost 4-6 to Rangeview.
Hannah played for U17D1 team on Saturday, she played well, they lost 0-2 to Three Kings but she was not out of place.
Rory had a polo game with 16A team on Saturday, beating Marist 10-2 but Rory was fouled out, he never gets fouled so it was pretty odd. The guy that caused it got smacked by one of the others in Rory's team.
Hannah then played for Div 3 women's team on Sunday, they were close to bottom of table playing top of the table, it was a hard game but they came through with a 0-0 draw, very happy.
SPORT
Waikato put North Harbour out of their misery by removing the Shield, winning 52-7, which was kind of convincing. Auckland beat Taranaki 22-13, Canterbury will beat Manawatu tonight in the Monday night game.
England lost to Germany 1-2 in a friendly.
Chelsea beat Portsmouth 1-0, Liverpool beat Sunderland 2-0, Arsenal beat Man City 1-0, Middlesbrough drew 2-2 with Newcastle, and Man Utd finally won a game, beating Spurs 1-0.
Warriors beat Manly 34-16.
The new Phoenix soccer team started their season with a 2-2 draw with the defending champs.
Shot putter Valerie Villi became second New Zealander to win a gold medal (in field events) at world athletics champs last night.
MY SAD LIFE
I missed the excitement at home when the toaster caught fire. Diana went to pick Hannah up on Monday night from dancing, returned home to a smoke filled kitchen. The toaster had somehow turned itself on, melted, and melted power points and things in the appliance cupboard. It meant I couldn't have toast. That's the second toaster in about two months. The distributor suggested Diana had closed the door on it and jammed the toaster lever down, but I don't see how that would be possible.
On Saturday afternoon, Hannah and I went to watch the prem women's team play in the National Knockout final. We weren't real hopeful, as they had lost to Glenfield 0-4 about three weeks ago, but that did not deter anyone. Springs got an early goal, then extended their lead to 2-0 by half time, and although they conceded one in the second half they held on to win 2-1. Very big result for the club.
On Saturday night we went off to a fundraising night with the Goodins at Takapuna Primary. Interesting to see how it was run, and very odd to be in a place where we knew almost nobody. We didn't win anything but with a little effort we could have won the jelly beans for coming last.
Well, the Warriors played in front of a capacity crowd, and then we got to clean up the mess they left behind. My god, it was unbelievable. So many Lion Red bottles, a few wines (men with wine get beaten up at league games). Whole burgers left behind (I am guessing the name "fresh and tasty" may have been wrong on both counts. This is a fundraising thing that the Western Springs College does and the water polo teams were on this time.
Diana has taken Rory driving a bit, I have been trying but he hasn't been out of bed when I have been available. I think we are close to him driving to training and things which will give experience in familiar territory without being a lesson as such.
I was not very well this week, didn't go to the pool from Tuesday to Thursday (a record for a while). Hannah is home today, although more tired than sick, I suspect.
SCIENCE LESSON - Why Beroccas are kept in a tin
I left a couple in my drawer. Berocca tablets are like vitamin things that dissolve in water and are often used as a hangover cure. I believe they absorb atmospheric moisture, and would eventually dissolve in the water they absorb, the term for such a substance is "deliquescent". I found them a couple of days later considerably larger and puffier than they were in the tin.
So much for the soccer season being over, and life being less busy.
27 August 2007
23 August 2007
A huge week for the family, especially the kids (and New Zealand finally on the medal table) - 23/08/07
Thank God it is Monday.
LOCAL NEWS
Plenty of snow this week, too much for skiing.
Cereal magnate Dick Hubbard has thrown his hat into the ring for the Auckland Mayoralty. He appears to have the support of the New Zealand Herald which is running stories about him every where. Given that neither of the other three seemed to be valid options, he could get my vote. He is a bit of a leftie, got some funny ideas, but seems like he might not be too dangerous.
News this week of a study of voter understanding of the MMP system. The Electoral Commission are concerned that few people know they get two votes, that the party vote decides the representation in parliament, and that the 5% threshold gives a party about six MPs. Well, frankly, if people don't understand this, they clearly aren't bright enough to be trusted with a vote at all. Apparently the understanding of the system has decreased by about 50% since the last election. Who was it that said that people vote for the government they deserve, well they were right.
A woman was killed by her own dog in Dunedin. She should have kept fish.
A postie went missing during a storm and was found dead near her submerged car in a swollen stream. I thought the creed said something like "Through rain, sleet, snow, and the dark of night, the mail must go through". Well, it didn't include storm. She was only 46.
There was a fire on a Waiheke Ferry last night, 300 people were taken off.
A recent survey on the ills of television and children were confirmed on Saturday when a television fell off a bookcase and hit a 10 month old in the head and killed him. The writer of a recent survey on the depth of shelves and dangling wires is also feeling vindicated. I now wait for someone to die whilst running with scissors.
Another survey this week says NZers are happier and living longer than we did ten years ago - even though most of us were around then as well.
A nasty weekend on the roads with ten people dying. This is surprising as most people were inside watching the Olympics all weekend.
WORLD NEWS
The discovery of John the Baptist's cave near Jerusalem is kind of interesting, but two news pieces seemed to suggest that baptism and Christianity were around before Jesus. That confuses me, a lot. Did I miss something at school?
Helen Clark, our beloved Prime Minister has been recognised as one of the world's most powerful women. She is the 43rd most powerful, in a list topped by US National Security adviser Condoleeza Rice. It seems that being Tony Blair's wife is enough to be rated 12th - more powerful because she sleeps with a PM, as compared to being one, while the Queen sits on her throne in 22nd place. Britney Spears is 2nd, Kylie 19th, and the hot one from that TV show was voted 5th. GW Bush came in 9th, because he throws like a girl. Interestingly, Helen isn't the only dead person on the list, Mother Theresa and Princess Diana made it as well, with Diana placing 14th. Who does these things? I think I am going to start doing some of my own and publicising them and see what happens.
REAL SPORT
At water polo practice on Tuesday, Rory was singled out for some sort of development thing, which is pretty cool. There are two others from his team as well. There was no game due to some competition at the pool.
Hannah played interschool soccer on Thursday. I was looking after two teams at once, trying desperately to remember 30 names with 29 that looked liked twins (two were twins, and the African boy in goal looked like the white boy that was goalie in the other team when they both had gloves on). Hannah was in Team A they won three and drew two, finished second. Team B won four and drew two and finished first equal. Neither team lost a game. There was no semi or final. They were pretty happy with that.
There were girls from Hannah's teams in at least three other teams and some others were playing netball which I never got a chance to even visit (games were alternating every 20 minutes for like three hours). At the end, the two Pt Chev teams played a friendly against each other (Rory joined in, they came after the speech thing was over) and used two balls at once. I don't know where the energy came from.
Hannah's team were up against a team that came second in grading and were fourth on the table. We got two ring-ins from the Div 2 team (we are Div 1) because a couple of our players were away. We really gave them a go, led 1-0 for a while, then let in a goal we shouldn't have. Half-time score was 1-1 and it stayed scoreless in the second half. Excellent result for the girls and again proved they can work very hard. The coach from the other team said they hadn't played anyone that physical. I don't know if that means my girls are rough or just committed.
Hannah then went and played for the Division 2 12th Grade Boys team again for half a game. She did a great job and showed some of the lads what they should be doing. The team lost 5-0 but only one of three goals in the half she played came around her side and that wasn't her fault.
Rory's team won at Pukekohe, 3-2, with Rory giving a huge effort in defence, heading a lot of high balls. He got player of the day and Diana thinks he richly deserved it. I really wish I could see him play more. He said he thought he had more energy because he hadn't played water polo the night before (which I think is very probably true).
One more soccer game left in the season for Rory and Hannah.
SPORT
I didn't even notice the Premiership had started last weekend. Man Utd lost last week to the Mincers, who won again this weekend and are top of the table. Man Utd beat giants Norwich 2-1. The Arse and Chelsea are top of the table already.
In the Olympics, New Zealand went through the same old "we haven't got a medal yet, Lesotho is doing better than us" thing for the first week. Finally, on Saturday, we had all five rowing teams that entered row in the finals. Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell did the business in the double sculls and got us on the board, as hoped, the other four didn't feature in the medals (which was a bit disappointing, you'd think one would have). Then, on Sunday, Sarah Ullmer broke the record set by another cyclist only minutes earlier and on Monday beat her in the final of the 3000m pursuit to get New Zealand a second gold and set the World Record again (our 33rd gold in history of the Olympics, which shows how rare they are for us).
In the tri-nations, which I basically had forgotten about, South Africa beat Australia and in doing so won the tri-nations, with the All Blacks coming last (it was all bonus points as everyone won their home matches this time).
Bay of Plenty successfully defended the Shield against Waikato, 26-20. Taranaki beat Southland 48-16 at home. Canterbury had a draw with North Harbour 43-43 at Jade. Auckland beat Northland 39-27, and Otago drew 16-16 with Wellington (what's with draws, this is rugby). Taranaki and Bay of Plenty are top of the table with two wins each.
THE BABY GEEK
Well, I went to Rory's speech final at school on Wednesday. He didn't seem to care if I went or not (Diana was working) and then the bugger went and won it. Honestly, I thought his was good, delivered well, but didn't really stand out. There were about four out of ten that I felt missed the mark with their subject matter, but the others were all pretty good. One girl did a speech on disgusting food (including fried ants, dog, and live monkey brains, I wanted to call out "don't forget puffins"). I was very pleased for Rory, it's really neat to get to be the best at something and he seemed quite overwhelmed. Lots of kids congratulated him, which was also nice. His friend Matthew (who won last year) came second, and a girl from his water polo team came third.
He went to the interschool champs the next day with Diana (she took the day off work), while we (Hannah and I) were at soccer. Ten schools were there, he came third, not a bad effort. The winner sang and danced and everyone gestured wildly (except Rory, they were told not to, just to just voice and facial expression) and many used cue cards (except Rory, again way they did it at school). He thought he deserved better than third, Diana seemed to mostly agree. He was one of only two boys in the ten finalists.
Thursday night he went to Mathex, a weird maths competition where you run somewhere with the answer, a combination of maths ability and running endurance. Diana took him. Hannah and I collapsed at home after soccer practice. Rory's team didn't place, the school that won practices all damn year.
MY SAD LIFE
We (Diana and I) don't have a life, we just exist for our children. Well, sometimes one does wonder how much you live your life vicariously through your children. I think it is more about not having time for your own life so you might as well enjoy what you do.
Diana disappeared for a girls dinner on Tuesday night with Katherine Smith. Must have been well-behaved because she was back quite early.
Hannah had a tap dancing exam on Sunday, so there have been extra practices and lots of noise coming from the lounge.
After the tap exam, we went out to celebrate as a family. We went ten-pin bowling, had two games. We used the bumpers on the gutters because Hannah was struggling. Diana still guttered quite a few times but perfected the bounce for a strike. Hannah won another soft toy on a machine after bowling, a Tigger, on her second try, very happy. Rory played on an old star wars machine that is his favourite and went further than we had seen before. Then went to dinner. First restaurant had no kids menu and we decided to give it a miss (Rory wasn't happy with selections, needs to be less fussy, but it was not a cheap restaurant so we didn't want to pay top dollar for him to eat half a meal. Instead we went to One Red Dog. Diana bumped into her friend Jackie (who is now pregnant, at 41, for the first time). Jackie did the obligatory "gosh, Rory, you look just like your father", which Rory is sick of (Oh boy, I used to get so sick of that myself). Rory ordered two kids meals and ate them both. Behaviour was reasonable through dinner, but once fed everyone started getting "bouncy". We got ice creams on the way home.
I think spring is coming because I went bonkers on Sunday, cleaning things. Was doing okay, then it all went horribly wrong. It was much like pulling a thread in shirt and unravelling the entire universe. I started by looking at cleaning out a cupboard that is full of all sorts of miscellany. Then I found a doorstop that hadn't been installed. Then I took that to the bathroom and realised the skirting had not been painted. Then I noticed it needed to have some holes filled. Then I looked at the whole doorjamb and figured I should really give that a coat too, so I should sand it. Whilst sanding I realised how bad it really was and so stripped the bloody thing (it must have had like 50 years of paint on it. I never put the doorstop on, and never tidied the cupboard (except for taking out the doorstop). After about two hours of hard slog I managed to finally undercoat the skirting and the doorjamb, and sweep up most of the fallout. There are a bunch of little "niggly bits" around doors and windows that I need to do this to. Hopefully I won't wait until next spring.
The tidying/cleaning thing continues. Diana is worried.
Charles, you rude bugger, you're nearly as bad a Koos.
Planning for our trip to US is not going very quickly, we are running out of time. We have bags for the kids now (they are notebook backpacks, but way cool with heaps of compartments.
Well, better go do some work. We are hoping for a quieter week this week.
LOCAL NEWS
Plenty of snow this week, too much for skiing.
Cereal magnate Dick Hubbard has thrown his hat into the ring for the Auckland Mayoralty. He appears to have the support of the New Zealand Herald which is running stories about him every where. Given that neither of the other three seemed to be valid options, he could get my vote. He is a bit of a leftie, got some funny ideas, but seems like he might not be too dangerous.
News this week of a study of voter understanding of the MMP system. The Electoral Commission are concerned that few people know they get two votes, that the party vote decides the representation in parliament, and that the 5% threshold gives a party about six MPs. Well, frankly, if people don't understand this, they clearly aren't bright enough to be trusted with a vote at all. Apparently the understanding of the system has decreased by about 50% since the last election. Who was it that said that people vote for the government they deserve, well they were right.
A woman was killed by her own dog in Dunedin. She should have kept fish.
A postie went missing during a storm and was found dead near her submerged car in a swollen stream. I thought the creed said something like "Through rain, sleet, snow, and the dark of night, the mail must go through". Well, it didn't include storm. She was only 46.
There was a fire on a Waiheke Ferry last night, 300 people were taken off.
A recent survey on the ills of television and children were confirmed on Saturday when a television fell off a bookcase and hit a 10 month old in the head and killed him. The writer of a recent survey on the depth of shelves and dangling wires is also feeling vindicated. I now wait for someone to die whilst running with scissors.
Another survey this week says NZers are happier and living longer than we did ten years ago - even though most of us were around then as well.
A nasty weekend on the roads with ten people dying. This is surprising as most people were inside watching the Olympics all weekend.
WORLD NEWS
The discovery of John the Baptist's cave near Jerusalem is kind of interesting, but two news pieces seemed to suggest that baptism and Christianity were around before Jesus. That confuses me, a lot. Did I miss something at school?
Helen Clark, our beloved Prime Minister has been recognised as one of the world's most powerful women. She is the 43rd most powerful, in a list topped by US National Security adviser Condoleeza Rice. It seems that being Tony Blair's wife is enough to be rated 12th - more powerful because she sleeps with a PM, as compared to being one, while the Queen sits on her throne in 22nd place. Britney Spears is 2nd, Kylie 19th, and the hot one from that TV show was voted 5th. GW Bush came in 9th, because he throws like a girl. Interestingly, Helen isn't the only dead person on the list, Mother Theresa and Princess Diana made it as well, with Diana placing 14th. Who does these things? I think I am going to start doing some of my own and publicising them and see what happens.
REAL SPORT
At water polo practice on Tuesday, Rory was singled out for some sort of development thing, which is pretty cool. There are two others from his team as well. There was no game due to some competition at the pool.
Hannah played interschool soccer on Thursday. I was looking after two teams at once, trying desperately to remember 30 names with 29 that looked liked twins (two were twins, and the African boy in goal looked like the white boy that was goalie in the other team when they both had gloves on). Hannah was in Team A they won three and drew two, finished second. Team B won four and drew two and finished first equal. Neither team lost a game. There was no semi or final. They were pretty happy with that.
There were girls from Hannah's teams in at least three other teams and some others were playing netball which I never got a chance to even visit (games were alternating every 20 minutes for like three hours). At the end, the two Pt Chev teams played a friendly against each other (Rory joined in, they came after the speech thing was over) and used two balls at once. I don't know where the energy came from.
Hannah's team were up against a team that came second in grading and were fourth on the table. We got two ring-ins from the Div 2 team (we are Div 1) because a couple of our players were away. We really gave them a go, led 1-0 for a while, then let in a goal we shouldn't have. Half-time score was 1-1 and it stayed scoreless in the second half. Excellent result for the girls and again proved they can work very hard. The coach from the other team said they hadn't played anyone that physical. I don't know if that means my girls are rough or just committed.
Hannah then went and played for the Division 2 12th Grade Boys team again for half a game. She did a great job and showed some of the lads what they should be doing. The team lost 5-0 but only one of three goals in the half she played came around her side and that wasn't her fault.
Rory's team won at Pukekohe, 3-2, with Rory giving a huge effort in defence, heading a lot of high balls. He got player of the day and Diana thinks he richly deserved it. I really wish I could see him play more. He said he thought he had more energy because he hadn't played water polo the night before (which I think is very probably true).
One more soccer game left in the season for Rory and Hannah.
SPORT
I didn't even notice the Premiership had started last weekend. Man Utd lost last week to the Mincers, who won again this weekend and are top of the table. Man Utd beat giants Norwich 2-1. The Arse and Chelsea are top of the table already.
In the Olympics, New Zealand went through the same old "we haven't got a medal yet, Lesotho is doing better than us" thing for the first week. Finally, on Saturday, we had all five rowing teams that entered row in the finals. Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell did the business in the double sculls and got us on the board, as hoped, the other four didn't feature in the medals (which was a bit disappointing, you'd think one would have). Then, on Sunday, Sarah Ullmer broke the record set by another cyclist only minutes earlier and on Monday beat her in the final of the 3000m pursuit to get New Zealand a second gold and set the World Record again (our 33rd gold in history of the Olympics, which shows how rare they are for us).
In the tri-nations, which I basically had forgotten about, South Africa beat Australia and in doing so won the tri-nations, with the All Blacks coming last (it was all bonus points as everyone won their home matches this time).
Bay of Plenty successfully defended the Shield against Waikato, 26-20. Taranaki beat Southland 48-16 at home. Canterbury had a draw with North Harbour 43-43 at Jade. Auckland beat Northland 39-27, and Otago drew 16-16 with Wellington (what's with draws, this is rugby). Taranaki and Bay of Plenty are top of the table with two wins each.
THE BABY GEEK
Well, I went to Rory's speech final at school on Wednesday. He didn't seem to care if I went or not (Diana was working) and then the bugger went and won it. Honestly, I thought his was good, delivered well, but didn't really stand out. There were about four out of ten that I felt missed the mark with their subject matter, but the others were all pretty good. One girl did a speech on disgusting food (including fried ants, dog, and live monkey brains, I wanted to call out "don't forget puffins"). I was very pleased for Rory, it's really neat to get to be the best at something and he seemed quite overwhelmed. Lots of kids congratulated him, which was also nice. His friend Matthew (who won last year) came second, and a girl from his water polo team came third.
He went to the interschool champs the next day with Diana (she took the day off work), while we (Hannah and I) were at soccer. Ten schools were there, he came third, not a bad effort. The winner sang and danced and everyone gestured wildly (except Rory, they were told not to, just to just voice and facial expression) and many used cue cards (except Rory, again way they did it at school). He thought he deserved better than third, Diana seemed to mostly agree. He was one of only two boys in the ten finalists.
Thursday night he went to Mathex, a weird maths competition where you run somewhere with the answer, a combination of maths ability and running endurance. Diana took him. Hannah and I collapsed at home after soccer practice. Rory's team didn't place, the school that won practices all damn year.
MY SAD LIFE
We (Diana and I) don't have a life, we just exist for our children. Well, sometimes one does wonder how much you live your life vicariously through your children. I think it is more about not having time for your own life so you might as well enjoy what you do.
Diana disappeared for a girls dinner on Tuesday night with Katherine Smith. Must have been well-behaved because she was back quite early.
Hannah had a tap dancing exam on Sunday, so there have been extra practices and lots of noise coming from the lounge.
After the tap exam, we went out to celebrate as a family. We went ten-pin bowling, had two games. We used the bumpers on the gutters because Hannah was struggling. Diana still guttered quite a few times but perfected the bounce for a strike. Hannah won another soft toy on a machine after bowling, a Tigger, on her second try, very happy. Rory played on an old star wars machine that is his favourite and went further than we had seen before. Then went to dinner. First restaurant had no kids menu and we decided to give it a miss (Rory wasn't happy with selections, needs to be less fussy, but it was not a cheap restaurant so we didn't want to pay top dollar for him to eat half a meal. Instead we went to One Red Dog. Diana bumped into her friend Jackie (who is now pregnant, at 41, for the first time). Jackie did the obligatory "gosh, Rory, you look just like your father", which Rory is sick of (Oh boy, I used to get so sick of that myself). Rory ordered two kids meals and ate them both. Behaviour was reasonable through dinner, but once fed everyone started getting "bouncy". We got ice creams on the way home.
I think spring is coming because I went bonkers on Sunday, cleaning things. Was doing okay, then it all went horribly wrong. It was much like pulling a thread in shirt and unravelling the entire universe. I started by looking at cleaning out a cupboard that is full of all sorts of miscellany. Then I found a doorstop that hadn't been installed. Then I took that to the bathroom and realised the skirting had not been painted. Then I noticed it needed to have some holes filled. Then I looked at the whole doorjamb and figured I should really give that a coat too, so I should sand it. Whilst sanding I realised how bad it really was and so stripped the bloody thing (it must have had like 50 years of paint on it. I never put the doorstop on, and never tidied the cupboard (except for taking out the doorstop). After about two hours of hard slog I managed to finally undercoat the skirting and the doorjamb, and sweep up most of the fallout. There are a bunch of little "niggly bits" around doors and windows that I need to do this to. Hopefully I won't wait until next spring.
The tidying/cleaning thing continues. Diana is worried.
Charles, you rude bugger, you're nearly as bad a Koos.
Planning for our trip to US is not going very quickly, we are running out of time. We have bags for the kids now (they are notebook backpacks, but way cool with heaps of compartments.
Well, better go do some work. We are hoping for a quieter week this week.
20 August 2007
One small step for manchild, one giant bunnyhop for the driving public - 20/08/2007
LOCAL NEWS
The man who's body was found in a locker in a boat was trying to hide from police. This, he did quite effectively, it's just that he could not hide from the grim reaper. He had been reported missing, presumed drowned so 18 months earlier.
It never ceases to amaze me how people are prepared to bare their unfeasibly stupid souls in the media. This week, a woman who's parking tickets accumulated to $2000 or more in fines, was happy to tell us how she couldn't afford to pay the first 15 tickets (or park somewhere better and walk) and that having a succession of cars impounded was better than paying the fine. It was sad beyond belief.
There seemed to be many demented souls baring their stupidity in public this week, it was awful. I could try and dig out the stories but they are woeful and give one a terrible impression of how stupid stupid-people really are.
The ultimate sales demonstration took place at Placemakers in Albany. While demonstrating a defibrillator, a customer keeled over and the product was used to save the customers life. I am assuming Placemakers bought one for every branch. Would be funny if it was a set-up. They got front page coverage which is pretty nice publicity. The irony is my spell checker thinks Placemakers should be pacemakers.
There was all sorts of fuss over Air New Zealand flying Australian troops to Iraq on a charter flight. Our fearless leader and many politicians jumped up and down. What a load of rubbish. Air New Zealand is a business, they got paid, who cares? If it was the New Zealand Air Force it could be a problem. The fact that they had Australians on board is possibly more embarrassing.
Bit of a fuss about money spent by the Auckland Council on "art" the last couple of weeks, with $750k on a variety of "stunning, significant" works (according to the mayor). They are a complete load of poo. They could give the money to kindergartens to produce art considerably more meaningful.
We've had lots of news about dodgy manufacturing out of China, with lead-paint based childrens toys and now flaming pyjamas and poisonous trousers. It is hardly surprising, you don't make things cheaper than everyone else without cutting a few corners.
WORLD NEWS
Hurricane Dean is messing with Jamaica.
World share markets have been having some fun in the last week.
Australian Prime Ministerial hopeful Kevin Rudd has been revealed as having a strip club in New York. I would imagine that this would win him plenty of votes. Not sure why this is considered "inappropriate" if it is legal. The fact that he reckons he was too sloshed to remember much should also win him some votes.
REAL SPORT
Another marathon at the pool, five games I had to keep an eye on. Hannah played in four of them. The Div 1 team beat Liston, the only team that has beaten them, score was about 10-4 I think. The girls then lost to Rangeview, their first loss of the season, 5-8 I think.
Hannah and Chase played soccer on Saturday for 15th D3 team who were playing a team that beat them 1-7 previously. I am pretty sure they made a difference because it was 2-2 draw.
Rory played for U16A on Sunday evening. The opposition was not crash hot, so it wasn't real close.
We went down to see our soccer club's women's team play in the national knockout semi-final at our home ground. The team includes former New Zealand captain and players we know. They beat Seatoun 2-0. I think this means a home final.
Rory has an U18 game tonight, which will be an interesting experiment.
SPORT
Auckland thumped Southland 44-19, Waikato beat Counties 30-8, Hawke's Bay beat North Harbour 35-25, Otago just beat Taranaki 18-15, Canterbury beat Wellington 41-23.
The Warriors lost to Canberra 26-24, still in top eight but dropped to 6th. They want to be top four.
Man Utd lost 0-1 to Man City, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Chelsea, Blackburn drew 1-1 with Arsenal (Ryan Nelson got red carded). Poor old Sunderland got a 0-3 thumping from lowly Wigan.
MY SAD LIFE
The passing of the anniversary was particularly low key, we didn't really have time for anything special.
I popped in to see Heidi and Ad, and Heidi's Mum when I was passing.
Well, my forebodings about the new office seemed to be quite accurate and by Wednesday I was beginning to seriously consider moving back. However, got the phone finally sorted on Friday and things are a little better. I really don't want to move again, so I guess I just have to make it work. The list of people that pop up in the window steadily increases.
Pandora seems to have adjusted to the new regime and now waits for Rory outside his room in the mornings and knows he spends time in there. She also comes to visit me in my new office now.
Hannah made the speech final, which then happened on Friday. She spoke very well, make no errors, but didn't place in the final but the results were really quite odd. I can sort of see why the person who came first should have featured, but the second place choice was quite bizarre. I suspect speech competitions are rather random and if you choose a subject that the adjudicator relates to you can do better.
Hannah also came 12th in the cross country race. Not a bad result for someone who doesn't consider themselves a cross country specialist.
After several false starts, Rory finally sat his theory test on Wednesday. He got one question wrong, but passed. The L plates were purchased on Friday (have a think about how many L plates there are unused in the world, why aren't they just returned when you go to the next level of license?). Diana took him for a practical session on Saturday while Hannah and I were at soccer. I took him for another session on Sunday. It is pretty bizarre how much you do automatically when driving, beginning to realise it isn't quite as simple as I thought. He hasn't driven on a public road yet, we've been using the Unitec Campus, which is used almost exclusively by learners on weekends (we saw three others yesterday, including one girl we know with her Mum).
Rory got high distinction in ICAS English, not quite a medal but not bad. Got distinction in two others, I think (writing and science, but not sure).
Hannah is thinking seriously about playing in goal for club polo. Diana's not keen, I am not sure either way. I think she's good enough out in the field that she needs to stay there, but she seems pretty adamant. I don't see why she can't give it a go.
MODERN CARS
I know many of you learned to drive both before and after me, but I have been mentally cataloguing the differences between cars today and back when I learned. Here are some of the features that the current vehicles lack:
- a choke
- a clutch
- a lack of synchromesh into first gear
And things modern cars have that we are so used to:-
- intermittent wipers
- auto-return indicators
- low fuel warning lights
- smarts around removing ignition key and lights and gears
- self returning indicators (indicators even)
- brake lights
- power steering
The list goes on, but there is so much less to worry about for the new driver. There are more cars on the road, but there are considerably more traffic lights to control traffic flow, also. There are also more motorways, where traffic on your side of the road tends to be going in the same direction. Admittedly, there weren't many five lane bits when I was learning. I am getting so old.
The man who's body was found in a locker in a boat was trying to hide from police. This, he did quite effectively, it's just that he could not hide from the grim reaper. He had been reported missing, presumed drowned so 18 months earlier.
It never ceases to amaze me how people are prepared to bare their unfeasibly stupid souls in the media. This week, a woman who's parking tickets accumulated to $2000 or more in fines, was happy to tell us how she couldn't afford to pay the first 15 tickets (or park somewhere better and walk) and that having a succession of cars impounded was better than paying the fine. It was sad beyond belief.
There seemed to be many demented souls baring their stupidity in public this week, it was awful. I could try and dig out the stories but they are woeful and give one a terrible impression of how stupid stupid-people really are.
The ultimate sales demonstration took place at Placemakers in Albany. While demonstrating a defibrillator, a customer keeled over and the product was used to save the customers life. I am assuming Placemakers bought one for every branch. Would be funny if it was a set-up. They got front page coverage which is pretty nice publicity. The irony is my spell checker thinks Placemakers should be pacemakers.
There was all sorts of fuss over Air New Zealand flying Australian troops to Iraq on a charter flight. Our fearless leader and many politicians jumped up and down. What a load of rubbish. Air New Zealand is a business, they got paid, who cares? If it was the New Zealand Air Force it could be a problem. The fact that they had Australians on board is possibly more embarrassing.
Bit of a fuss about money spent by the Auckland Council on "art" the last couple of weeks, with $750k on a variety of "stunning, significant" works (according to the mayor). They are a complete load of poo. They could give the money to kindergartens to produce art considerably more meaningful.
We've had lots of news about dodgy manufacturing out of China, with lead-paint based childrens toys and now flaming pyjamas and poisonous trousers. It is hardly surprising, you don't make things cheaper than everyone else without cutting a few corners.
WORLD NEWS
Hurricane Dean is messing with Jamaica.
World share markets have been having some fun in the last week.
Australian Prime Ministerial hopeful Kevin Rudd has been revealed as having a strip club in New York. I would imagine that this would win him plenty of votes. Not sure why this is considered "inappropriate" if it is legal. The fact that he reckons he was too sloshed to remember much should also win him some votes.
REAL SPORT
Another marathon at the pool, five games I had to keep an eye on. Hannah played in four of them. The Div 1 team beat Liston, the only team that has beaten them, score was about 10-4 I think. The girls then lost to Rangeview, their first loss of the season, 5-8 I think.
Hannah and Chase played soccer on Saturday for 15th D3 team who were playing a team that beat them 1-7 previously. I am pretty sure they made a difference because it was 2-2 draw.
Rory played for U16A on Sunday evening. The opposition was not crash hot, so it wasn't real close.
We went down to see our soccer club's women's team play in the national knockout semi-final at our home ground. The team includes former New Zealand captain and players we know. They beat Seatoun 2-0. I think this means a home final.
Rory has an U18 game tonight, which will be an interesting experiment.
SPORT
Auckland thumped Southland 44-19, Waikato beat Counties 30-8, Hawke's Bay beat North Harbour 35-25, Otago just beat Taranaki 18-15, Canterbury beat Wellington 41-23.
The Warriors lost to Canberra 26-24, still in top eight but dropped to 6th. They want to be top four.
Man Utd lost 0-1 to Man City, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Chelsea, Blackburn drew 1-1 with Arsenal (Ryan Nelson got red carded). Poor old Sunderland got a 0-3 thumping from lowly Wigan.
MY SAD LIFE
The passing of the anniversary was particularly low key, we didn't really have time for anything special.
I popped in to see Heidi and Ad, and Heidi's Mum when I was passing.
Well, my forebodings about the new office seemed to be quite accurate and by Wednesday I was beginning to seriously consider moving back. However, got the phone finally sorted on Friday and things are a little better. I really don't want to move again, so I guess I just have to make it work. The list of people that pop up in the window steadily increases.
Pandora seems to have adjusted to the new regime and now waits for Rory outside his room in the mornings and knows he spends time in there. She also comes to visit me in my new office now.
Hannah made the speech final, which then happened on Friday. She spoke very well, make no errors, but didn't place in the final but the results were really quite odd. I can sort of see why the person who came first should have featured, but the second place choice was quite bizarre. I suspect speech competitions are rather random and if you choose a subject that the adjudicator relates to you can do better.
Hannah also came 12th in the cross country race. Not a bad result for someone who doesn't consider themselves a cross country specialist.
After several false starts, Rory finally sat his theory test on Wednesday. He got one question wrong, but passed. The L plates were purchased on Friday (have a think about how many L plates there are unused in the world, why aren't they just returned when you go to the next level of license?). Diana took him for a practical session on Saturday while Hannah and I were at soccer. I took him for another session on Sunday. It is pretty bizarre how much you do automatically when driving, beginning to realise it isn't quite as simple as I thought. He hasn't driven on a public road yet, we've been using the Unitec Campus, which is used almost exclusively by learners on weekends (we saw three others yesterday, including one girl we know with her Mum).
Rory got high distinction in ICAS English, not quite a medal but not bad. Got distinction in two others, I think (writing and science, but not sure).
Hannah is thinking seriously about playing in goal for club polo. Diana's not keen, I am not sure either way. I think she's good enough out in the field that she needs to stay there, but she seems pretty adamant. I don't see why she can't give it a go.
MODERN CARS
I know many of you learned to drive both before and after me, but I have been mentally cataloguing the differences between cars today and back when I learned. Here are some of the features that the current vehicles lack:
- a choke
- a clutch
- a lack of synchromesh into first gear
And things modern cars have that we are so used to:-
- intermittent wipers
- auto-return indicators
- low fuel warning lights
- smarts around removing ignition key and lights and gears
- self returning indicators (indicators even)
- brake lights
- power steering
The list goes on, but there is so much less to worry about for the new driver. There are more cars on the road, but there are considerably more traffic lights to control traffic flow, also. There are also more motorways, where traffic on your side of the road tends to be going in the same direction. Admittedly, there weren't many five lane bits when I was learning. I am getting so old.
13 August 2007
Nineteen years, and with the scars to prove it - 13/08/07
LOCAL NEWS
A woman was in court this week having spent $32,000 of company money on personal items including a home theatre system and a vibrator. Not sure you would want everyone to know you had purchased a home theatre system.
The discovery of a body in the anchor locker of a fishing boat was not considered suspicious. Been there for quite some time. Interesting. Did the body crawl in there on it's own? Did nobody notice the person was missing?
The elusive Lord Lucan was being sort after in Marton in the North Island. If he did live there, he had plenty of time to scram because it was in the news before the detective got there. Later the same day it was pretty clear it wasn't him.
A third person has been arrested in the case of the murder of a convicted paedophile, who's son apparently is continuing the family hobby. Nice.
On Wednesday at 12 minutes past 12 there was 3 minutes silence for Nia, the abused three year old. Not sure what it achieved.
A dingo stole our Hone. This was the headline in one witty paper, after MP Hone Hawawera went walkabout from Melbourne to visit his aboriginal cuzzies in the Northern Territory (this is the guy that called John Howard a racist b@st@rd) while on the same subject.
Yet another example of Darwinian evolution over the weekend when a 17 year old brain surgeon tried to evade police at 180km/h because death was better than getting a speeding ticket. The other three morons in the car were not Darwinian contributors, and are now costing the health system for repairs.
WORLD NEWS
It is 30 years since Elvis died, if he really died of course. Sales of fast food have grown in the last 30 years, so who can tell.
The Queen is suing the Beeb. Two institutions at each others throats. Interesting.
REAL SPORT
No intermediate polo on Friday night, and no club games, so we had a free Friday, quite unusual occurrence for much of the year.
On Saturday, we think it was Hannah's last soccer game for the season but we don't know for sure. It was the third attempt at playing Waitakere, the team on top of the table. We looked to have three of our regular team away, but one came down from Whangarei just for the game. We got a goal about mid-way through the first half, but just couldn't score again. Late in the second half the other team equalised and the final score was 1-1, not a bad result really.
Straight from soccer, we went to water polo. Rory played for the U16A team against Waikato, as a bench player, but got some reasonable game time. He scored two goals, and a third was disallowed (for not crossing the line, but I have a photo that shows it did). It was very good that he scored a couple, gives him a bit of cred with the rest of the team.
Hannah had a club U14 polo training in between the games, and she spent a lot of time in goal. Not sure about that idea at all.
Then the U16B team played the U16C team, a game that was not expected to be close, and it wasn't. Not sure how many goals Rory scored, but a good five at least. Final score was 19-3.
SPORT
Auckland beat Waikato 47-26 but was struggling at times. Wellington beat Manawatu 37-7.
The Warriors managed another win against a team with a very poor win record away from home, beating the Titans 30-6.
First round of the premiership, Chelsea beat the Brummies 3-0, Man Utd had a 0-0 with lowly Reading. Liverpool beat Villa 2-1, Sunderland beat Spurs 1-0.
The New Zealand Women's soccer team lost 1-6 to the USA, who are likely contenders for the World Cup title.
MY SAD LIFE
Today is our 19th wedding anniversary. One year until the big one. Crikey. We had lunch together on Friday because Diana is working today. And no, Brett, I didn't get her any present and nor she I (to save you asking).
It was a funny week for me, being my first in the new office. The dynamic is quite different. Got a fright from a meter reader one day, a funny little African man in a red outfit popping up just behind my monitor. Not entirely sure I like it, and I suspect the school holidays are going to be diabolical because I will be exposed to considerably more noise than I was in the sleep out.
Following on from her day in the garage, Pandora spent the night in the hot water cupboard last night.
I understand Heidi and Ad are here in New Zealand at the moment from Holland. We hope to get the chance to say hello.
Rory tried to sit his test for the driving learners permit this week, and due to woeful bureaucracy and miserable service, he was not allowed to. I shan't go in to the detail as I have heard the story so often I can't bear repeating it.
Failed to mention meeting Maria last week, I think. We saw Gavin, Yana, and Maria. She was pretty boring, but babies are. And when they aren't boring they are usually crying or needing one end or other wiped.
Hannah topped her class in the speech competition last week, and has semi-finals tomorrow. Meanwhile, Rory had to prepare the opening arguments for a debate on legalising marijuana over the weekend. I shouldn't have said the homework hadn't been that bad, I was wrong.
Rory was reprimanded for "bullying" at school. This consisted of insulting some girl whilst she was not in the room. Not entirely sure that it constitutes bullying, because I suspect the victim needs to be aware of it to really count. Nevertheless, I do not approve of it. Having said that, plenty of people indulge in various forms of character assassination whilst someone is not present. I have one client, where they do it to each other all the time, it is quite bizarre.
Seems very odd that the soccer season could be over already. Usually very ready for it to be over. Not sure how I feel right now.
Our phone and internet have been down for the last 24 hours. Not happy. Current expectation is by 7pm tonight. Which is also what we were told yesterday. I love customer service.
A woman was in court this week having spent $32,000 of company money on personal items including a home theatre system and a vibrator. Not sure you would want everyone to know you had purchased a home theatre system.
The discovery of a body in the anchor locker of a fishing boat was not considered suspicious. Been there for quite some time. Interesting. Did the body crawl in there on it's own? Did nobody notice the person was missing?
The elusive Lord Lucan was being sort after in Marton in the North Island. If he did live there, he had plenty of time to scram because it was in the news before the detective got there. Later the same day it was pretty clear it wasn't him.
A third person has been arrested in the case of the murder of a convicted paedophile, who's son apparently is continuing the family hobby. Nice.
On Wednesday at 12 minutes past 12 there was 3 minutes silence for Nia, the abused three year old. Not sure what it achieved.
A dingo stole our Hone. This was the headline in one witty paper, after MP Hone Hawawera went walkabout from Melbourne to visit his aboriginal cuzzies in the Northern Territory (this is the guy that called John Howard a racist b@st@rd) while on the same subject.
Yet another example of Darwinian evolution over the weekend when a 17 year old brain surgeon tried to evade police at 180km/h because death was better than getting a speeding ticket. The other three morons in the car were not Darwinian contributors, and are now costing the health system for repairs.
WORLD NEWS
It is 30 years since Elvis died, if he really died of course. Sales of fast food have grown in the last 30 years, so who can tell.
The Queen is suing the Beeb. Two institutions at each others throats. Interesting.
REAL SPORT
No intermediate polo on Friday night, and no club games, so we had a free Friday, quite unusual occurrence for much of the year.
On Saturday, we think it was Hannah's last soccer game for the season but we don't know for sure. It was the third attempt at playing Waitakere, the team on top of the table. We looked to have three of our regular team away, but one came down from Whangarei just for the game. We got a goal about mid-way through the first half, but just couldn't score again. Late in the second half the other team equalised and the final score was 1-1, not a bad result really.
Straight from soccer, we went to water polo. Rory played for the U16A team against Waikato, as a bench player, but got some reasonable game time. He scored two goals, and a third was disallowed (for not crossing the line, but I have a photo that shows it did). It was very good that he scored a couple, gives him a bit of cred with the rest of the team.
Hannah had a club U14 polo training in between the games, and she spent a lot of time in goal. Not sure about that idea at all.
Then the U16B team played the U16C team, a game that was not expected to be close, and it wasn't. Not sure how many goals Rory scored, but a good five at least. Final score was 19-3.
SPORT
Auckland beat Waikato 47-26 but was struggling at times. Wellington beat Manawatu 37-7.
The Warriors managed another win against a team with a very poor win record away from home, beating the Titans 30-6.
First round of the premiership, Chelsea beat the Brummies 3-0, Man Utd had a 0-0 with lowly Reading. Liverpool beat Villa 2-1, Sunderland beat Spurs 1-0.
The New Zealand Women's soccer team lost 1-6 to the USA, who are likely contenders for the World Cup title.
MY SAD LIFE
Today is our 19th wedding anniversary. One year until the big one. Crikey. We had lunch together on Friday because Diana is working today. And no, Brett, I didn't get her any present and nor she I (to save you asking).
It was a funny week for me, being my first in the new office. The dynamic is quite different. Got a fright from a meter reader one day, a funny little African man in a red outfit popping up just behind my monitor. Not entirely sure I like it, and I suspect the school holidays are going to be diabolical because I will be exposed to considerably more noise than I was in the sleep out.
Following on from her day in the garage, Pandora spent the night in the hot water cupboard last night.
I understand Heidi and Ad are here in New Zealand at the moment from Holland. We hope to get the chance to say hello.
Rory tried to sit his test for the driving learners permit this week, and due to woeful bureaucracy and miserable service, he was not allowed to. I shan't go in to the detail as I have heard the story so often I can't bear repeating it.
Failed to mention meeting Maria last week, I think. We saw Gavin, Yana, and Maria. She was pretty boring, but babies are. And when they aren't boring they are usually crying or needing one end or other wiped.
Hannah topped her class in the speech competition last week, and has semi-finals tomorrow. Meanwhile, Rory had to prepare the opening arguments for a debate on legalising marijuana over the weekend. I shouldn't have said the homework hadn't been that bad, I was wrong.
Rory was reprimanded for "bullying" at school. This consisted of insulting some girl whilst she was not in the room. Not entirely sure that it constitutes bullying, because I suspect the victim needs to be aware of it to really count. Nevertheless, I do not approve of it. Having said that, plenty of people indulge in various forms of character assassination whilst someone is not present. I have one client, where they do it to each other all the time, it is quite bizarre.
Seems very odd that the soccer season could be over already. Usually very ready for it to be over. Not sure how I feel right now.
Our phone and internet have been down for the last 24 hours. Not happy. Current expectation is by 7pm tonight. Which is also what we were told yesterday. I love customer service.
6 August 2007
The milestone is reached, and we all go in to recovery mode -06/08/2007
I type this from my new office, from within the house, facing South.
LOCAL NEWS
The people that inflicted injuries on a three year old were concerned about being filmed in court because they fear for their lives in prison. Awful, how could the system let them risk their lives like that? I mean, a three year old wouldn't be scared when put in a drier, would they? I hope they all become the playthings of Mr and Mrs Big who are "in" with the warders.
Then, on Friday, little Nia (the three year old with a strong affinity with wet washing) died. The charge of manslaughter was added.
Controversy at the pie of the year competition when the supreme award was a vegetarian pie. The expected riots from farmers did not eventuate.
Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of the scouting movement.
News this week that office laser printers release micro particles that are worse than those released by cigarette smoke.
The Birgit Brauer murder case ended, the defendant was found to be guilty. It was then revealed he had 65 previous convictions. Not sure I agree with the withholding of the background of scumbags like that. But even more perversely, the entire population is now expected to forget this information in time for his next trial (and let's face it there is a good chance of that).
A 57 year old man found beaten to death in Foxton was also unmasked as a molesterer since he was 17. The man arrested for it pleaded not guilty.
Nasty accident when an unmarked police car hit a pole at a pedestrian crossing, felling the pole and in turn felling a pedestrian.
National Party Leader John Key spoke at their conference and made a gaffe by promising to lead the next Labour Government.
Been a bit of a fuss about country of origin of food. Many people have been particularly upset about peanut butter coming from China (which is a little odd because I understand they grow a bucket load of peanuts).
WORLD NEWS
The bridge collapse over the Mississippi river was very nasty in Minneapolis, although casualties seem to have been quite low.
The outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Surrey, England, has them all paranoid in New Zealand.
REAL SPORT
Hannah only had a Sharks game on Friday, against Rangeview, the only team in Div 1 they had not yet played. They played reasonably well, but can do better, and won 7-4. Hannah had to mark Emma, a club player who made it to the final 30 or so for National U15 girls selection (not bad for girl turning 13 this year). Hannah did very well to reduce her effectiveness and managed to score one screamer of a goal.
Soccer was postponed due to weather. Now it looks like half the team will be missing for next week.
Rory had a 16B club game, against the B-team from the club who's C-team they drew with the week before. It was a little scratchy but they won 6-4. Rory wasn't having a good day, but he worked hard.
SPORT
Hawke's Bay upset Wellington 8-6, Auckland beat BOP 41-3, Tasman beat Manawatu 33-10, Otago beat Northland 23-20, North Harbour defended the shield against Taranaki 19-13, Canterbury won 52-13 over Counties Manukau.
The Warriors drew 31-31 with the Roosters, despite playing golden goal extra time.
Manchester United beat Chelsea in the Charity Shield, 1-1 at full time, winning on penalties. This signifies the beginning of the UK football season.
MY SAD LIFE
Well, Tuesday came, Rory turned 15. The package I was tracking from UPS was stuff for his birthday, but of course he never reads these emails so he had no clue (he does receive them).
Got a couple of interesting responses about my sequence of squares, including the mathematical proof from Charles, which goes like this:
(x + 1)^2 - x^2
= (x + 1)(x + 1) - x^2
= (x^2 + 2x + 1) - x^2
= 2x + 1
= x + x + 1
= (x + 1) + x
q.e.d
I am not sure what is worse, the fact that he did it, the fact that I understand it, or the fact that one of the Dads I talk to at the pool during the week did the same thing off the top of his head on Monday night on the back of his bookmark (he is an economics professor so not entirely surprising).
We had a quiet dinner for Rory's birthday on Thursday (even though it was actually on Tuesday). Such is the state of our timetable that Hannah did not join us for the dinner, and I barely made it (Hannah had two soccer trainings on Thursday night, see below). Priya attended, and brought a cake. Nanny and Granny were also there.
Hannah and Miranda Chase trained with the Div 1 women's team on Thursday night, less than an hour after regular training. They both enjoyed it, they now want some of the equipment that the women have (like goal poles and little stepladders). Hannah scored three goals in the game at the end, she was very happy. She was also happy when she got a letter about under 13 rep trials for Soccer 2.
The cancellation of soccer gave us much more time to get things ready for the party on Saturday. Finally removed one of the desks in the sleep out and put it in the new office, along with the safe (which I have kicked about five times today so far, so it has to move), and other bits. We had a few issues around DSL and phones, and Rory did useful things like take the vacuum cleaner out there, leave it there a while, then return it (turning it on isn't required for it to have done something useful).
Saturday night was the night of the sleepover for Rory's birthday. We gave them some beer, not a huge amount, a dozen stubbies among eight kids. At one point Hannah, quite appropriately, asked "Are they drunk, or just stupid?". This was, of course, an impossible question to answer because if they were drunk they would have been drunk AND stupid, they are always stupid. At 2pm a mother arrived to remove two of them, who had not informed or asked anyone about them staying. We were woken regularly by nocturnal visitors to the bathroom (they don't actually sleep at a sleepover, you see). As previously stated, teenagers just don't come with a "silent mode".
On Sunday, we were pretty knackered, I continued to try to sort out the new office while Hannah was working on learning her speech for school. Took a break by taking a walk to Western Springs and back with Diana, Hannah ran there and walked back with us. Rory slept. Hannah delivers her speech today in the first round, she was getting a little stressed, she really didn't need to.
Some time this week, Rory will sit the theory test which makes him a learner driver. Oh god.
I really need to sort out a few things. My PC currently has 14 excel docs open, 15 word documents, five browser tabs, and 7 emails. I think I need to finish some things. Alongside this, I have already been out to Rory's room five times, I think, to get blank DVDs, my phone, hooks for cables, iPod (the battery on mine is thoroughly dead, lasts about 3 songs now), power pack for iPod (guess why), and I know I have two more things to go and get but I have forgotten what they are.
LOCAL NEWS
The people that inflicted injuries on a three year old were concerned about being filmed in court because they fear for their lives in prison. Awful, how could the system let them risk their lives like that? I mean, a three year old wouldn't be scared when put in a drier, would they? I hope they all become the playthings of Mr and Mrs Big who are "in" with the warders.
Then, on Friday, little Nia (the three year old with a strong affinity with wet washing) died. The charge of manslaughter was added.
Controversy at the pie of the year competition when the supreme award was a vegetarian pie. The expected riots from farmers did not eventuate.
Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of the scouting movement.
News this week that office laser printers release micro particles that are worse than those released by cigarette smoke.
The Birgit Brauer murder case ended, the defendant was found to be guilty. It was then revealed he had 65 previous convictions. Not sure I agree with the withholding of the background of scumbags like that. But even more perversely, the entire population is now expected to forget this information in time for his next trial (and let's face it there is a good chance of that).
A 57 year old man found beaten to death in Foxton was also unmasked as a molesterer since he was 17. The man arrested for it pleaded not guilty.
Nasty accident when an unmarked police car hit a pole at a pedestrian crossing, felling the pole and in turn felling a pedestrian.
National Party Leader John Key spoke at their conference and made a gaffe by promising to lead the next Labour Government.
Been a bit of a fuss about country of origin of food. Many people have been particularly upset about peanut butter coming from China (which is a little odd because I understand they grow a bucket load of peanuts).
WORLD NEWS
The bridge collapse over the Mississippi river was very nasty in Minneapolis, although casualties seem to have been quite low.
The outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Surrey, England, has them all paranoid in New Zealand.
REAL SPORT
Hannah only had a Sharks game on Friday, against Rangeview, the only team in Div 1 they had not yet played. They played reasonably well, but can do better, and won 7-4. Hannah had to mark Emma, a club player who made it to the final 30 or so for National U15 girls selection (not bad for girl turning 13 this year). Hannah did very well to reduce her effectiveness and managed to score one screamer of a goal.
Soccer was postponed due to weather. Now it looks like half the team will be missing for next week.
Rory had a 16B club game, against the B-team from the club who's C-team they drew with the week before. It was a little scratchy but they won 6-4. Rory wasn't having a good day, but he worked hard.
SPORT
Hawke's Bay upset Wellington 8-6, Auckland beat BOP 41-3, Tasman beat Manawatu 33-10, Otago beat Northland 23-20, North Harbour defended the shield against Taranaki 19-13, Canterbury won 52-13 over Counties Manukau.
The Warriors drew 31-31 with the Roosters, despite playing golden goal extra time.
Manchester United beat Chelsea in the Charity Shield, 1-1 at full time, winning on penalties. This signifies the beginning of the UK football season.
MY SAD LIFE
Well, Tuesday came, Rory turned 15. The package I was tracking from UPS was stuff for his birthday, but of course he never reads these emails so he had no clue (he does receive them).
Got a couple of interesting responses about my sequence of squares, including the mathematical proof from Charles, which goes like this:
(x + 1)^2 - x^2
= (x + 1)(x + 1) - x^2
= (x^2 + 2x + 1) - x^2
= 2x + 1
= x + x + 1
= (x + 1) + x
q.e.d
I am not sure what is worse, the fact that he did it, the fact that I understand it, or the fact that one of the Dads I talk to at the pool during the week did the same thing off the top of his head on Monday night on the back of his bookmark (he is an economics professor so not entirely surprising).
We had a quiet dinner for Rory's birthday on Thursday (even though it was actually on Tuesday). Such is the state of our timetable that Hannah did not join us for the dinner, and I barely made it (Hannah had two soccer trainings on Thursday night, see below). Priya attended, and brought a cake. Nanny and Granny were also there.
Hannah and Miranda Chase trained with the Div 1 women's team on Thursday night, less than an hour after regular training. They both enjoyed it, they now want some of the equipment that the women have (like goal poles and little stepladders). Hannah scored three goals in the game at the end, she was very happy. She was also happy when she got a letter about under 13 rep trials for Soccer 2.
The cancellation of soccer gave us much more time to get things ready for the party on Saturday. Finally removed one of the desks in the sleep out and put it in the new office, along with the safe (which I have kicked about five times today so far, so it has to move), and other bits. We had a few issues around DSL and phones, and Rory did useful things like take the vacuum cleaner out there, leave it there a while, then return it (turning it on isn't required for it to have done something useful).
Saturday night was the night of the sleepover for Rory's birthday. We gave them some beer, not a huge amount, a dozen stubbies among eight kids. At one point Hannah, quite appropriately, asked "Are they drunk, or just stupid?". This was, of course, an impossible question to answer because if they were drunk they would have been drunk AND stupid, they are always stupid. At 2pm a mother arrived to remove two of them, who had not informed or asked anyone about them staying. We were woken regularly by nocturnal visitors to the bathroom (they don't actually sleep at a sleepover, you see). As previously stated, teenagers just don't come with a "silent mode".
On Sunday, we were pretty knackered, I continued to try to sort out the new office while Hannah was working on learning her speech for school. Took a break by taking a walk to Western Springs and back with Diana, Hannah ran there and walked back with us. Rory slept. Hannah delivers her speech today in the first round, she was getting a little stressed, she really didn't need to.
Some time this week, Rory will sit the theory test which makes him a learner driver. Oh god.
I really need to sort out a few things. My PC currently has 14 excel docs open, 15 word documents, five browser tabs, and 7 emails. I think I need to finish some things. Alongside this, I have already been out to Rory's room five times, I think, to get blank DVDs, my phone, hooks for cables, iPod (the battery on mine is thoroughly dead, lasts about 3 songs now), power pack for iPod (guess why), and I know I have two more things to go and get but I have forgotten what they are.
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