27 August 2007

Firewood company proves the efficacy of their product, Greeks gone mad on outdoor barbecues, locals go mad with parrots and handcuffs - 27/08/07

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.

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