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.
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