7 November 2005

Fit people dying everywhere, alongside the stupid ones - 07/11/2005

LOCAL NEWS

Co-Leader of the Green Party, Rod Donald, died yesterday of a heart attack at 48. We've had all the usual things about what a guy he was. He was one of the fittest and healthiest MPs. This probably means Zaphod gets back in to Parliament. Wonder if they will still have "Co-leaders" in the Greens. First time a sitting MP has died in nearly 20 years.

A 36 year old swimmer died after taking part in 2.6k harbour swim on Saturday.

Pania of the reef is, or should I say was, a statue of a Maori maiden that was in a park in Napier for many years. A little tourist attraction and local icon, it was stolen last week (I forgot to mention it). It has brought all of Napier together, and they want it back. We had interviews with the woman who was the model, and all sorts. There was a theory that it was motivated by another statue theft recently where the perpetrators were paid $10,000 for it's return. I suppose it is artnapping, rather than theft.
Then, police found her/it on Friday during a routine search of some scumbags house.

Resignation of head of TVNZ continues to be news. These dodgy exit packages for people who resign are beyond me. He gets about $400k. Who negotiates this stuff?

The double murder in Tauranga (did I mention that last week?) continued with dribbles of information. Sounds like they drove from Henderson to Tauranga in about 90 minutes, more like a good 2.5 to 3 hour drive (I can understand wanting to leave Henderson in a hurry, but that is just silly). The weapon was a shotgun. It was revealed that the two victims were known felons (something the police withheld to encourage information from the public). A man was arrested yesterday.

Businessman Michael Erceg went missing in a helicopter about four days ago. No sign of him yet. Another guy was with him, but he wasn't as important, apparently.

A car accident on Wednesday killed six people. The driver was drunk, stoned, tired, had no seat belt, and was speeding. No evidence to suggest she was texting her best mate at the time. Her 2yo son was one of the dead. She was on a restricted license. Yet another example of Darwinian evolution. That is five stupid things at once, plus the fact that the small car had six people in it, so call it even half dozen.

Yet another winner. This week the sister of the man who killed a six year old girl (Coral Burrows) while fuelled on P, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. She killed her partner while in a P-powered rage. Why do people even bother to try it?

We had a couple of other nasty traffic fatalities, the competition for moron of the week was pretty tough this week.

The government has been worrying about getting our people back from overseas, at a time when three people I know have come back without government encouragement. I don't get it.

WORLD NEWS

The riots in France are a bit weird, they’ve been going on for a good week or so.

Big hole opened up on corner of apartment building in Sydney near a tunnel construction project. They seem to have patched things up okay.

REAL SPORT

Only one game this week. The club 14b team versus the club 14a team. Mate against mate. Rory did pretty well, but the team as a whole made some silly mistakes. Final score was 15-0. The 14a team have scored more goals in a game, so that is something.

Hannah's team playing a game they should win this week, and Rory's team a game they should lose.

SPORT

Makaybe Diva won the Melbourne Cup for the third time in a row. I don't really understand why we get so interested in horse racing for about a week a year. Apparently Ascot is similar in England.

Lots of build-up to first test in Wales for All Blacks. The ABs won 41-3, not very close, although the first 15 minutes was pretty quiet.

The Kangaroos thumped Great Britain 20-6 in the League Tri-nations.

Man Utd actually had a win, 1-0 over Chelsea. This is their (Chelsea's) first loss of the season. Arsenal beat Sunderland 3-1, Wigan beat Portsmouth 2-0 (and remain high on the table), Newcastle beat Birmingham 1-0, Liverpool beat Villa 2-0.

Black Caps lost the ODI series to SA 0-4, saved by weather in one game. Not good.

MY SAD LIFE

B2 is six months old and still B2. Yup, still B2. She thinks R2D2 is her older brother. Bambi tested his pyrotechnical skills at a thing at St Kents, exploding star shells to the 1812 overture, synchronised with MP3 player. Geeky, but very cliché.

Brett is heading towards New Zealand, yet another ex-pat becoming a, er, pat?

Kids had a great time at Halloween. Hannah went with about four other girls and terrorised the neighbourhood. They started at one end of Pt Chev at Bonnie's and worked their way here. Rory offered to look after the treats they didn't like. Then Rory went a bit later on with Greta and Lewis, which seems to be a very comfortable dynamic (which Rory wasn't sure about, but Lewis seems pretty relaxed).

Or is he an ex-ex-pat?

My Uncle Chris and his son Hayden were on a local game show. I am sure you say "I am smarter than those clowns" every time you watch it, as I do. Those buggers are pretty quick on the buzzer. They were the best of the three sets of contestants, but couldn't take out the final prize (which was two lousy chairs. Expensive chairs, but still). He didn't even tell people to watch the show, but we sprung him anyway. But was it worth it? Was it really worth it?

Brett is an ex-pat of Australia now, as he did become a citizen so he could vote.

It is Kathryn's birthday tomorrow. Enters her 40th year. Bet she can't wait.

Paul arrived on Friday as a another ex-ex-pat-pat. His container is due in about two weeks or so. He has already bought a car, three new stereos, and some routers.

Rory has mega-photos this week, plus he is playing touch-rugby. They are taking team photos for school magazine. Rory is in photos for wrestling, kilikiti, volleyball, soccer, water polo, softball, netball, and probably others I have forgotten.

Brett, have you considered what you are doing to immigration statistics in two countries?

Koos is home alone this week, the girls are off on camp.

Haven't seen Gavin this week, but Jana did relationships at school this week and the coming week is motorcycle maintenance (I actually can't remember what the topic is this week, might be politics, but motorcycle maintenance sounds more interesting.

Better go and get ready for some audio conferences.

PS Why Chris, why, why oh why?

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