Giving it to Gordon and one for Jesus - 12/11/07

The explanation of the title comes at the end of Real Sport.

LOCAL NEWS

A children's toy, called Bindeez, includes a large number of plastic beads. If swallowed, the glue coating the beads releases a banned drug into the system. Why kids would swallow excessive quantities, I don't know, I presume there are rules about what age should be playing with them. They have been removed from stores. Why they were named after Steve Irwin's daughter, I don't know. Why they didn't get sick from licking their fingers or eating after using the beads without washing their hands, I don't know. The press were woefully thin on substance on this subject. They did not mention whether the stuff tasted nice, either.

The whole fireworks thing went sort of smoothly but there were a number of incidents that were pretty bad, arsons and personal injury.

Another Darwinian moment when a west Auckland teen accepted some cake from a complete stranger, ate it, then got sick. The cake was thought to be laced with drugs. Perhaps it contained Bindeez glue?

The man in charge of the boat where two kids drowned back in April was charged under maritime law this week. The whole thing was bizarre, where they were taking on water, hit rocks at speed, and the kids who noticed the water never got out.

A 22 year old Wainuiomata woman was drowned in her own lounge in front of 40 relatives in an exorcism designed to lift a Maori curse. I guess we will never know if it worked. Will be interesting to see if charges are laid.

Another not great weekend on the roads, four dead, none near swimming pools.

A man was enveloped in a ball of flame when he lit a paraffin lamp in an army tent at an armistice day commemoration in Cambridge.

A fire in a fibreglass factory last night wasn't so good. Fibreglass resin is really nasty, even when not on fire.

WORLD NEWS

We had more arrests in Fiji. A few more beatings of those in custody, but nothing fatal.

A scrap in Perth this week between Maoris and Aborigines resulted in a Maori dying. Is that a race war?

The mass shooting in Finland was most un-Finlike. The Shooter saved taxpayers money by dying of his self-inflicted wounds. The news kept saying he broadcast his intentions on Youtube "just hours before". I don't really get that. Did they expect more notice?

REAL SPORT

Rory had a tournament this weekend. We won first game 11-5 against Mt Roskill, wasn't really ever close. Rory and I went to watch Mt Roskill play the other team in our pool. They won 7-3 against Mt Roskill. I thought we could beat them. Rory got player of the game.

Friday morning we played Takapuna. Rory and I went to watch them play the night before so we knew what to expect. We beat them 6-5 to give up top qualifying spot in our group. Rory got player of the game, again. Then we beat Liston 5-4, who were second in their group. Marcella got player of the game. We never got any more they didn't seem to give them out at the Sacred Heart Pool.

The final group game was against another top qualifier, Hutt International, who beat Liston 9-1, so I thought we would have a tough game. We got on top of them early and maintained a lead throughout the game, winning 11-8. This got us top spot on our half of the draw, playing second from the other group in the semi-final.

It didn't go well in the semi-final, down 0-3, clawed our way back to 2-3 but couldn't catch Kristin. This put us into playoff for 3rd and 4th versus St Patricks Silver Stream. We were down early, 0-2 but came right and finished comfortably ahead 9-6. Nice to finish with a win. Hutt International, the team we beat on our side of the draw, won the final beating Kristin 7-0. Not one team was unbeaten in our competition.

At the end of any game, the teams give three cheers for the opposing team, one for the ref, and sometimes one for themselves. In this tournament, we finished with "One for Jesus". Interesting. They decided after the first win that they should continue with it. Another thing that became a tradition in the tournament, was figuring out who Gordon was (in the movie "There's only one Jimmy Grimble", Gordon's father manages the team in one game and just yells "Give it to Gordon" the whole time.) Therefore, the best player on the opposing team became Gordon. We would decide who we felt the Gordon was and then call out "8 is Gordon" or whatever. Sad but funny, a little. Should have said "One for Gordon" at the end of each game.

We then had a game for the boys and girls at same time in adjacent pools. The boys lost 3-8 to Avondale, the girls lost 1-10 to St Marys B. We were all knackered.

SPORT

The Melbourne Cup happened, again. A horse came first, again. The winner had a tenuous link to New Zealand, again. I really don't get how we all become obsessed with horse racing for about two days a year.

Man Utd beat Blackburn 2-0. Spurs won 4-0 against Wigan, Chelsea drew 1-1 with Everton. West Ham thumped Derby 5-0.

The Black Caps lost by a mere 358 runs in the first test against South Africa. Nobody sensible had any expectations at all, they are woefully underprepared and under strength. It seems The "caps" bit now officially stands for capitulators, I think.

The Silver Ferns played Malawi (fair dinkum, they really did) in their opening world cup match. It was about 80-20 or something. Cricket, Rugby, and Netball all have the same problem with world cups, the world is not big enough to have decent pool matches.

MY SAD LIFE

Diana had her exam on Tuesday, seemed to go okay, think she's happy for it to be over.

In between games on Friday, the manager and I took the team plus Hannah to Big Boys Toys. Hannah learned to pole dance. Hmmm, not sure I am too happy about that. The kids had a lovely time, sumo wrestling, climbing ropes, shooting each other with lasers, and so on. The lady on the Durex stand happily told me and Jane about what interesting additives their products now had, and we quietly said that it was all very interesting and we would both be sure to share that information with our respective spouses. To be honest, I am not sure some of it was something that I would feel completely comfortable discussing with my own wife (pretty sure Diana wouldn't want to know, actually). Meanwhile, the team were busy covering each other in some stuff that warmed up when you blow on it (yuck). The school van was decorated with up to 100 air freshening things, it looks quite Christmassy. Most of the free stuff was condoms, cough lollies, window cloths, and posters.

The WSC school sports dinner was Friday night. The build up for it was excruciating, it was a mission squeezing it in during the tournament. The guy running it was not knowing what time we would get there (results from each game dictated when the next would be). We did arrive just in time for the dinner, which was nice. We missed out on about an hour of speeches, which was nice. Rory got MVP for junior polo, a swimming prize, and a hockey stick spot prize, which was nice. The Senior Polo team got team of the year, which was pretty cool. Water polo has arrived at Western Springs.

I don’t really feel like I have seen much of Hannah over the last couple of days, she only came to one of the games, so she had a pretty quiet weekend at home.

I have been reading about Benjamin Franklin because of the crossword puzzle. He was a busy chap. He never patented any of his inventions because he felt he benefited from the inventions of others. Also been reading about Darwin, and watched the movie about the Hillsboro monkey trial (called "Inherit the Wind", I think Gene Kelly stole the show).

It is Helen's birthday today. It is Caitlin's birthday tomorrow (7, right?). It is also Elsie's 85th birthday tomorrow.

We did manage to visit Goodins for their barbecue on Sunday between games. The family was all there plus some of the regulars including Mr and Mrs Batenberg. Kath said they had heard from Charles and he is actually alive.

In amongst water polo, Rory has been writing a speech and icing his hand. Meanwhile, Hannah has a project thing due on Friday that was also being worked on.

This week Hannah has a touch tournament tomorrow and athletics on Wednesday. I may try visiting work today, I need the rest.