LOCAL NEWS
Roger Kahui (not a close relation of the hapless Chris Kahui) was sentenced to prison for long enough that he won't need a change of address card before he dies, if you know what I mean. The man is a shockingly recidivist offender and has racked up over 100 years worth of jail time since 1985.
The mega-welfare fraudster got 5-8 years for his efforts, and Social Welfare got more back than he cost. His investments had grown, so the $3.x million he stole had grown to over 4. The judge observed that he could have become a millionaire without the fraud.
The government confessed to an $8+ billion surplus. It does sound like this is a purely profit-oriented figure and capital investment has to come out of that. I think maybe they need to report it differently so it doesn't sound so excessive. Perhaps a revision of some of the accounting methods would be appropriate.
All of a sudden All Black Doug Howlett was in disgrace, I am not sure what he did exactly, but he was inebriated at the time, at a hotel or outside a hotel, in London.
A 24 year old runner was killed by a hit and run and u-turn driver (those are ones that get attack of guilts and come back eventually). She was allegedly over the limit as well. The mother of the guy found out by looking for him when he didn't return as expected, although emergency services had already arrived.
John Banks has been elected as Auckland's new mayor. Great. Just what we needed, a re-tread. We were over-exposed to little snippets of lots of winning mayors all over the country. Given that only about 40% bothered to vote you have to wonder why anyone considered it interesting.
WORLD NEWS
Nasty traffic accident in California, ten people hurt, two dead, five trucks messed up.
Eight out of nine spelunkers drowned in a cave flood in Thailand.
John Howard is having a final go at re-election in Australia. It doesn't look good so far. He says that although everyone hates him they know him. Nice opening line.
REAL SPORT
Hannah was playing in the Tim Sonderer Memorial Tournament, involving about 40 teams. She was nominated captain, which she was very pleased about. We had a very girl-heavy team (six girls, four boys) playing in the open group (there was a girls comp too, but then the boys would have missed out), first two games were against boy only private school teams (Kristin and St Kentigern School). They won the first game 5-3 against Kristin, who were never close, and weren't too happy about being beaten by a bunch of girls. They then say Kristin beat St Kentigern, which was dangerous because they relaxed. However, they beat St Kentigern 3-2 qualifying top in their group, making the rest of the weekend considerably tougher.
Rory had a junior school game on Friday, and although he was cramping up a bit in the pool he was pretty devastating, scoring four goals for the 8-3 win.
Hannah's team struggled in the top six playoffs, losing both games. They both ended up being not close, losing 3-6 in the first and 2-7 in the second. In the second game, Hannah scored both goals, against a team predicted to make the final.
On Sunday, they were in control at 4-2 but just fell off in defence and ended up drawing 5-5 in the playoff for 5th/6th. Hannah scored one goal.
Then she had a club game, not pretty, against a team that has had an U16 season together already. They were taken apart, 0-10 loss. Not an ideal start for Hannah as goalie, but they need to score a goal to win.
Hannah's final act of the weekend was to help the western springs junior girls against Corran School, who were employing about every dodgy and pro tactic in the book. They lost 1-5. She scored the only goal and was in goal for one quarter.
Rory then had a game at 8pm, last one of the day on Sunday. They played Liston, 2-2 end of first quarter but we clawed back to win 9-3. Rory got two.
So, nine games, four wins, four losses, and a draw. I saw eight of them. Hannah played in seven. Big weekend.
SPORT
Wellington made it to the final after beating Canterbury 26-21. Auckland did similarly by thumping Hawke's Bay 38-3.
A soccer world cup qualifier between New Zealand and Fiji was postponed after Foreign Affairs wouldn't let the goalie in because of a link to the Fijian army. Fifa seem to have disadvantaged our team by depriving us of a home game because of Fiji's dodgy army. Interesting conundrum.
New Zealand driver won both races in A1 GP this weekend in the Czech Republic.
The Kangaroos thumped New Zealand 58-0 in a centenary league test.
No premiereship soccer because of Euro qualifiers. I think England and Scotland both had wins but don't remember who against.
The Poms play the Boks in the Rugby final, so it is guaranteed another team will have won it twice after that match.
MY SAD LIFE
I started this week thinking that I didn't have a lot happening until Friday. I was very wrong. I had to have things for tournament sorted Monday night before everyone disappeared to camp Tuesday. I then continued to live hand to mouth the whole week, operating on a very just in time basis. All deadlines were met, but it was pretty close for some things.
Mum is off touring the South Island, had a bumpy ride across Cook Strait but they made it. She's there for about three weeks.
It is Paul's birthday tomorrow. Well, tomorrow in New Zealand, Tuesday for him in San Diego. 40, is it, mate?
We had Miranda Chase stay with us this weekend, while her Mum was in Brisbane. She's in Hannah's soccer team for club and school, and polo team for club and school. We got to have her Mum's lasagne on Sunday and it was very good (Rory ate it despite there being eggplant and mushroom in it). To be honest, I don't think I ever met a lasagne I didn't like. The girls went to a party on Saturday night but were home at a reasonable hour.
Hannah was at camp Tuesday to Friday. I visited Wednesday so she could open a letter from Soccer 2, she made the 24 girl squad but can't stick with it because training conflicts with polo. Miranda also made the squad, and can't stay in it. Kind of a shame really, many kids would be rapt to make the squad.
Rory had some friends over Saturday night for a geek fest with linked Xboxes. They didn't sleep until 4am. Wasn't happy. That wasn't the deal. He had to have a sleep on Sunday before his polo game. He has not done any driving this week, although we really didn't have much of a chance.
A politics in sport issue came to a head on Sunday night at the junior girls game where the self-appointed acting manager tried to inflict her will upon the team. The coach, me, refused to budge and continued in a very business like manner. Could be interesting, she wasn't happy.
The girls have stayed home today to recover, which is what I am also trying to do (okay, I didn't actually play in any games but I was knackered by the time I got home at 8:45 on Sunday night. I did manage a swim between two games on Sunday, even if it was a small swim (20 lengths).
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