LOCAL NEWS
Well, there was no news on Tuesday except the funeral of Sir Ed. It went pretty well, saw bits of it. Diana went to the Domain during it and stood with a bunch of people watching a big screen. I wouldn't say they were mourners, because it wasn't sad at all, it was paying respect to probably the greatest New Zealander that ever lived.
Hone Tuwhare was also buried the same day, but got considerably less attention. Pretty bad timing really, a week earlier and he would have got plenty of time in the spotlight.
We caught up with other stuff on Wednesday, including the grisly discovery of two Keas nailed to a road sign in the south island (it's not even Easter).
A man near Tokoroa went mad with a chainsaw and charged at a group of people. He then sold the rights for the video nasty "Tokoroa Chainsaw Miscreant" which is likely to go directly to YouTube. One woman got a cut on her foot that did not require stitches. The manufacturer of the chainsaw issued a statement about sharpening increasing effectiveness and the need for regular maintenance of chainsaws. One witness was reported as saying "we are just relieved he didn't know how to turn it on".
Meanwhile a Nelson man flashed at a passing car, which turned out to contain a police woman. He said he thought it was his mates. The judge fined him $450 ($100 per centimetre). "It was cold", the offender said "on a warmer day my fine would have been nearly $600."
Big news this week was the chicken killing hedgehog that was sprung dragging a chicken out of the coop. New Zealand celebrated that we now had a decent predator out there. We've always felt that a lack of snakes and scorpions made us seem a bit wimpy.
Tokoroa then had a murder over the weekend and a 14 year old boy was charged. It’s been a busy week in Tokoroa. The policeman is at his wit's end. His parking ticket quote will never be met this month.
Then we had a murder in Manurewa, a youth was stabbed by a 50 year old man. The victim is believed to be a tagger. One can't help but wonder if the guy did a good thing by putting some fear into the little tagging bastards. (and yes, death may be a little too much but a few vigilante beatings of taggers in the news might slow the buggers down)
Despite the fact that we have had ten homicides in January (a record) police have re-opened an old case. You'd think that they would be busy, but I think they have made arrests in all of them already.
WORLD NEWS
I heard a report that high levels of flame retardant chemicals had been discovered in Tasmanian Devils. My first reaction was wondering whether they would start breeding them and extracting the chemicals for house construction. A house made of Tasmanian Devils would be pretty cool but the greenies wouldn't be happy. Even cooler would be Tasmanian Devils that had evolved to be impervious to fire running around the bush during a firestorm, they could be trained as firefighters. On further investigation though, turns out the chemicals are being absorbed by them from their environment - not manufactured by them. This means that they think the Tasmanian Devils are getting sick and getting something called devil facial tumour disease from their exposure to the chemicals. Shame, really, because flame retardant Taz would have been really cool.
Australian actor Heath Ledger died Wednesday, our time. Another River Phoenix type result, shame how the young rich and famous seem to get into the drugs so easily.
News on Thursday that we have an asteroid coming this Wednesday our time, which is a disconcertingly imprecise 150-600 metres in size. They reckon it will pass close, but beyond the moon. The uncertainty about the size does provide some doubt as to whether the proximity is really accurate. Anyway, should be a bit of a show, visible from home telescopes.
Suharto is finally dead, he did muck about a bit.
A landed shark attacked a fisherman on a boat off the coast of Australia, and tried to remove his leg but he was freed.
SPORT
Indians got a good start scoring well in their first innings, Tendulkar got 153 (about time). Aussies started solidly and by end of day two it was looking like a potential draw. At the end of the fourth day they were only on the third innings.
Man Utd beat Spurs 3-1 to make final 16 of FA Cup. I was wondering if they'd been knocked out already after a report recently that didn't mention them. Arsenal thumped Newcastle 3-0 to knock them out. Most of the usual suspects are still in the comp.
The head to head battle between single scullers Rob Waddell and Mahe Drysdale continues. There is a rule that only one can represent New Zealand at the Olympics (an Olympic rule). They are both Olympic Gold medallists in the sport, does seem unfair.
The retirement of Australian keeper Adam Gilchrist was pretty big news, the man is a freak.
MY SAD LIFE
A funny old week, really. Diana at work, Rory coming and going (although he spent more nights at home this week).
I had a dream Hannah was driving me through a main road in Sydney on the right hand side of the road and she started ignoring red lights (the first in front of a police car). She asked me why she should stop, to which I replied "Because it's a f&*king red light!", at which point I woke up and heard myself saying it out loud. I woke Diana, too.
Rory's friend Raf was sprung by Diana trying to pinch his Xbox one day. It was pretty funny (Rory did borrow his and possibly broke it (or contributed to it's lack of function). It is being repaired at the moment, so you could sort of see why he wanted to borrow it). A few days later he was visiting and I handed him a toaster. I told him he obviously didn't feel comfortable leaving our house without an electrical appliance.
Sarah is still pregnant, and the babies are reported to be over seven pounds now.
We went to the Bambis for a barbie on Saturday night. Was interesting. First time we'd been out there for a while, and Rory drove out there. He seemed to enjoy the open road driving. The place was crawling with kindy kids, which was a bit of a shock to the system, tears and tantrums everywhere. The pass the parcel game was just hilarious. We had dummies being spat everywhere, despite there being a little something in every layer. One boy stormed away, and when some concession was offered he turned and said "It's too late!" and disappeared. Another interesting aspect was the mums all hovering over the proceedings and kept hearing mutterings when they felt their precious child hadn't had their turn yet (I so wanted to say "Someone has to be last, lady"). Speaking as one who has their own personal pass the parcel trauma, I think it is time this supposed game was banned. Kathryn suggested a version where everyone has a parcel and they pass and receive at the same time.
Hannah's knees have shown considerable improvement, the physio was very pleased. She confessed that Hannah was her only patient showing improvement, not sure that's a good sign. We return again tomorrow.
We've been swimming quite a bit, every second day. Rory had not swum for about six weeks so he struggled a little but after a week he is getting better. Last night they got to throw a ball in the dive well, which they enjoyed.
Seem to have been doing a few things with just me and Hannah. We went out for yum-cha on Friday and went to the flea market on Sunday. We were bored on Saturday so we went up Mt Eden and walked around the crater, checking out what we could see from up there. It was interesting for Hannah because she was familiar with so many more landmarks than the last time we went up there (which must have been ages ago). I should have taken my camera. Have not really used the camera in a long time.
I am continuing to read a book called The Ancestor's Tale, which traces the human race back through common ancestors back to the amoeba. I am up to some invertebrates now, so getting close to the end, I suppose.
Diana and I snuck out to breakfast this morning, the kids were asleep. Was nice in the morning sun.
21 January 2008
Look after your body, don't forget where you left it - 21/01/08
We have rain for first time in a while, we need it.
LOCAL NEWS
Grim news this morning with three bodies found in Auckland in last 24 hours in different places. One was a Titirangi woman missing for over a week who was not entirely with it, one was found in a river by a kayaker near Clevedon, and a third found near a boat in the harbour near Kawau.
The Green Party suggested we have a national holiday to commemorate Edmund Hillary, which instantly put me off the idea. We continued to be bombarded with trivia and various weird stories regarding Hillary, which was a shame because it was starting to get a bit much. We've had suggestions that state highway one be renamed Hillary Highway, that we rename a mountain, and many that are just quite bizarre. We would not honour the man in any way if we began calling the kiwifruit the Hairy Hillary.
Then we got news that nobody from the royal family was coming for the Hillary funeral. I am not an expert on protocol and I can understand why the Queen herself might not be able to make the trip, but I think the Royals should have sent at least a B-list royal to represent them for the event. Even the poms think it is a snub. I think they have blown it big time, Republicanism here we come.
Apparently the word "Helengrad" for Wellington has entered an Australasian dictionary. No mentiond of "threetards" making the grade.
Formaldehyde was put in milk in a staff lunch room at a medical research centre as some form of protest, two staff drank it. Subsequent tests on them showed that they were 74% more likely to develop cancer of the ear lobe if they drank nine cups of coffee a day than people who didn't drink the formaldehyde.
Things went a little crazy on the North Shore, with about four separate incidents of violence in two days mid-week. Been quiet since.
Meanwhile, a father decided it would be clever to take his 11 year old son and a friend for a ride in the boot of his car. He reckons they talked him into it. They crashed, his son died, the friend suffered pretty nasty injuries. They were thrown out of the boot, so perhaps it wasn't shut. No mention of the cause of the accident, but another vehicle was involved. If one used the "the father didn't know the accident would happen" defence then nobody would have to ride inside the vehicle or use seat belts when they weren't planning on having an accident.
In the wake of Hillary's departure, local poetry "legend" Hone Tuwhare died on Wednesday. Not sure he was quite as legendary as Hillary, but it gave them something else to cover.
It seemed to be transgender awareness week this week. The media seemed to pelt us with stories about policemen becoming policewomen, kids being outed at new schools by calling them their old name, and greenskeeper Willy became greenskeeper without a willy. It was pretty odd. I mean people don't decide they aren't a size 9 and get their feet made larger or smaller, they don't change hat sizes.
McDonalds has sought an injunction to prevent an ex-employee of blogging about conditions of work. Quite interesting, one assumes there is an army of ex-workers that could do this. They may have quite a fight on their hands.
We had a murder of a 26 year old Scottish tourist. Not good, never looks good overseas when that happens. Looks like she interrupted some morons vandalising a school.
WORLD NEWS
We heard about the Japanese whalers and the wailing protestors all week. They finally were freed about Friday.
Crash landing by BA plane at Heathrow was pretty unusual. Bet the crash unit got the shock of their lives having to do something that wasn't an exercise.
A picture of Madeleine's abductor has been released. What a load of bollocks, this whole thing is quite ridiculous. They aren't ever going to find her in one piece, let it go and move on.
SPORT
The Indians thumped the Aussies in the Third Test, so no new record for Australia. Good in a way, but to get equal and not push on must be annoying. Not sure where to send the sympathy card.
The New Zealand car Black Beauty won the first A1 GP race at Taupo in the morning and did reasonably well in the second race, and is theoretically now leading the competition.
Everton beat Wigan 2-1, Man City drew 1-1 with West Ham. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Man Utd all beat lower teams.
MY SAD LIFE
Began the week with a medical theme. Took Rory to the doctor on Monday to get his ear checked, he had an outer ear infection which wasn't too serious. Then went to a physio with Hannah on Tuesday, to see about her knees (they hurt a lot after exercise). She now is doing exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee. She's been pretty good with them, going back tomorrow to see how she's doing.
In between work stuff have been doing other little jobs around the house. Hannah and I went to the building supply place and got a couple of things. I think I need to make a list because I always remember what I needed when I get home.
Rory got his NCEA exam result(s) on Friday. He passed, reasonably well I suppose for doing it a year early, but the scoring method is pretty bizarre. We don't have room to explain it properly here. The numbers go like this - he got four merits, two excellents, 21 credits, in two subjects even though he only took one. I told you it was weird.
We did the scotsmans concert when the Police played in Auckland on Saturday night. Parked at Maddie's house and sat on the grass outside the stadium and listened for a while. I am not really a fan of live music to be honest. It was okay, but very okay.
Didn't really see an awful lot of Rory this week. He has slept elsewhere one day in two in last eight days.
Did see Sarah a bit. She's sort of sticking out in front a lot now and the babies are over six pounds each. They have to escape soon, you’d think with two of them they could come up with a plan faster.
Diana is helping Hannah sew a dress. I think Hannah was really enjoying it until there were some hitches.
Diana had her first week back at work at a new location and new regime (now finishing at 1pm, bit earlier than last year, but doesn't really seem noticeable).
Breakfast TV has started again today, it has seemed so quiet the last month or so. Not sure Diana is too happy about it because I turn the TV on at 6:30am.
I ordered a couple of books from Amazon yesterday so I will have something to track for the next week or so.
LOCAL NEWS
Grim news this morning with three bodies found in Auckland in last 24 hours in different places. One was a Titirangi woman missing for over a week who was not entirely with it, one was found in a river by a kayaker near Clevedon, and a third found near a boat in the harbour near Kawau.
The Green Party suggested we have a national holiday to commemorate Edmund Hillary, which instantly put me off the idea. We continued to be bombarded with trivia and various weird stories regarding Hillary, which was a shame because it was starting to get a bit much. We've had suggestions that state highway one be renamed Hillary Highway, that we rename a mountain, and many that are just quite bizarre. We would not honour the man in any way if we began calling the kiwifruit the Hairy Hillary.
Then we got news that nobody from the royal family was coming for the Hillary funeral. I am not an expert on protocol and I can understand why the Queen herself might not be able to make the trip, but I think the Royals should have sent at least a B-list royal to represent them for the event. Even the poms think it is a snub. I think they have blown it big time, Republicanism here we come.
Apparently the word "Helengrad" for Wellington has entered an Australasian dictionary. No mentiond of "threetards" making the grade.
Formaldehyde was put in milk in a staff lunch room at a medical research centre as some form of protest, two staff drank it. Subsequent tests on them showed that they were 74% more likely to develop cancer of the ear lobe if they drank nine cups of coffee a day than people who didn't drink the formaldehyde.
Things went a little crazy on the North Shore, with about four separate incidents of violence in two days mid-week. Been quiet since.
Meanwhile, a father decided it would be clever to take his 11 year old son and a friend for a ride in the boot of his car. He reckons they talked him into it. They crashed, his son died, the friend suffered pretty nasty injuries. They were thrown out of the boot, so perhaps it wasn't shut. No mention of the cause of the accident, but another vehicle was involved. If one used the "the father didn't know the accident would happen" defence then nobody would have to ride inside the vehicle or use seat belts when they weren't planning on having an accident.
In the wake of Hillary's departure, local poetry "legend" Hone Tuwhare died on Wednesday. Not sure he was quite as legendary as Hillary, but it gave them something else to cover.
It seemed to be transgender awareness week this week. The media seemed to pelt us with stories about policemen becoming policewomen, kids being outed at new schools by calling them their old name, and greenskeeper Willy became greenskeeper without a willy. It was pretty odd. I mean people don't decide they aren't a size 9 and get their feet made larger or smaller, they don't change hat sizes.
McDonalds has sought an injunction to prevent an ex-employee of blogging about conditions of work. Quite interesting, one assumes there is an army of ex-workers that could do this. They may have quite a fight on their hands.
We had a murder of a 26 year old Scottish tourist. Not good, never looks good overseas when that happens. Looks like she interrupted some morons vandalising a school.
WORLD NEWS
We heard about the Japanese whalers and the wailing protestors all week. They finally were freed about Friday.
Crash landing by BA plane at Heathrow was pretty unusual. Bet the crash unit got the shock of their lives having to do something that wasn't an exercise.
A picture of Madeleine's abductor has been released. What a load of bollocks, this whole thing is quite ridiculous. They aren't ever going to find her in one piece, let it go and move on.
SPORT
The Indians thumped the Aussies in the Third Test, so no new record for Australia. Good in a way, but to get equal and not push on must be annoying. Not sure where to send the sympathy card.
The New Zealand car Black Beauty won the first A1 GP race at Taupo in the morning and did reasonably well in the second race, and is theoretically now leading the competition.
Everton beat Wigan 2-1, Man City drew 1-1 with West Ham. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Man Utd all beat lower teams.
MY SAD LIFE
Began the week with a medical theme. Took Rory to the doctor on Monday to get his ear checked, he had an outer ear infection which wasn't too serious. Then went to a physio with Hannah on Tuesday, to see about her knees (they hurt a lot after exercise). She now is doing exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee. She's been pretty good with them, going back tomorrow to see how she's doing.
In between work stuff have been doing other little jobs around the house. Hannah and I went to the building supply place and got a couple of things. I think I need to make a list because I always remember what I needed when I get home.
Rory got his NCEA exam result(s) on Friday. He passed, reasonably well I suppose for doing it a year early, but the scoring method is pretty bizarre. We don't have room to explain it properly here. The numbers go like this - he got four merits, two excellents, 21 credits, in two subjects even though he only took one. I told you it was weird.
We did the scotsmans concert when the Police played in Auckland on Saturday night. Parked at Maddie's house and sat on the grass outside the stadium and listened for a while. I am not really a fan of live music to be honest. It was okay, but very okay.
Didn't really see an awful lot of Rory this week. He has slept elsewhere one day in two in last eight days.
Did see Sarah a bit. She's sort of sticking out in front a lot now and the babies are over six pounds each. They have to escape soon, you’d think with two of them they could come up with a plan faster.
Diana is helping Hannah sew a dress. I think Hannah was really enjoying it until there were some hitches.
Diana had her first week back at work at a new location and new regime (now finishing at 1pm, bit earlier than last year, but doesn't really seem noticeable).
Breakfast TV has started again today, it has seemed so quiet the last month or so. Not sure Diana is too happy about it because I turn the TV on at 6:30am.
I ordered a couple of books from Amazon yesterday so I will have something to track for the next week or so.
14 January 2008
Sir Edmund Hillary dies, little else matters- 14/01/08
LOCAL NEWS
Once Edmund Hillary died on Friday, there was no other news. I was waiting for some fool to say "a mighty kauri has fallen" but they didn't, which was a pleasant surprise. The news services reacted pretty well locally, although showing us what foreign news shows said seemed a little repetitive. We were slowly fed various bits of info, yes there would be a state funeral, then the date and the location. His passing certainly wasn't before his time, at 88 he has basically been a living fossil for a while and some recent activities have shown that he really deserved a bit of a rest. I think there is no other New Zealander I would hold in such high esteem, he was a legend in everyone's lifetime and is worthy of recognition on every level.
There was flooding in the southern end of the North Island on Tuesday. We got some rain in the north but not enough to flood anything, which was a good thing.
An Australian woman on holiday here lost her breast while swimming and the whole lifeguard contingent went looking for it. They found it the next day. Nobody ever found the action man we lost at Coopers Beach in 2001.
We seem to have had a few murders and accidental deaths (mostly traffic and water, as usual). A body was found weighted and wrapped in a sheet in a river near Christchurch, possibly the most intriguing of the week (if you could call any of them intriguing).
There was a bizarre incident in the Marlborough Sound when a man found an 8 year old boy floating in the water on his own. He sailed about three km to catch up to the boat the boy belonged to and the man didn't seem too surprised or pleased to see him. Reminds one how you need a dog license but not a kid license.
The two Australians kayaking to New Zealand from Australia finally made it. They are now on record as being the two people who were the happiest ever to see Mt Taranaki, not something that is overly common. Unfortunately, their delayed trip meant they weren't able to meet Edmund Hillary in person, which had been part of their plan.
Some pillock wants to fund an appeal against the conviction of Mark Lundy. This was the revolting man who over-acted badly at the funeral of his wife and daughter and used a prostitute as an alibi. I thought he had done it before he was arrested, and there is absolutely no reason to change the view three years after his conviction, I would be very surprised if there was a lot of support for this.
WORLD NEWS
Former Olympic Gold medallist Marion Jones has finished her fall from grace, being jailed for six months for lying to prosecutors.
After losing badly in Illinois, Clinton won New Hampshire. I am not sure how you track the progress but the whole process for selecting presidential candidates seems drawn out and tedious. One can't help but wonder if the money spent on primaries wouldn't be better used on the actual election.
SPORT
Man Utd managed a 6-0 win over the poor old Geordies this week to get them back on the top of the table, equal with Arsenal who had a draw with Birmingham.
The second test between the Black Caps and Bangladesh seems to be nearly over, two days in. We are going to get done like a dinner against the Poms, Bangladesh are simply rubbish, making a very ordinary team look considerably less ordinary.
Meanwhile the Aussies and Indians are not really on speaking terms, seems to be a fuss over nothing but the Indians pulled out of a tour match in a huff.
MY SAD LIFE
We moved from Coopers Beach to Teal Bay on Wednesday. Instead of sand and sea we had sea and sand. The weather was not great for a couple of days but didn't really prevent swimming, in fact swimming was trickier when the sun was out. We hung with the Clares and Goodins until Wednesday then the Edmonds at Teal Bay.
Kathryn went mad on Tuesday night and constructed a banquet for 14 people using very little bench space and with the assistance of Caitlin. She did very well, although I suspect it would have been considerably easier if we hadn't been there.
During the Coopers stay, I showed Rory my concept of turtle surfing, where you cling to the board from underneath (with all four limbs) and see how long you stay on (or under). Rory developed the idea by using one arm to hold his nose, so when he flipped he didn't get a nose full of water. I tend to use one arm to steer so you can see the waves coming. Either way, it's pretty stupid. I got one cool photo of Rory doing it, swamped by a wave (you could see him inside the wave).
The move from Coopers to Teal Bay meant we traded down from two large dogs (Pipi and Coco) to one small dog (Poppie, a hairy dachshund). A trip to Mimiwhangata with the dog resulted in us having to smuggle her onto the beach in a towel because it was some sort of reserve. We couldn't really leave her in the car on a hot day, so instead she was hidden in various ways when people walked past (including a weird box made of boogie boards. This may seem irresponsible but it was a windy eight or ten km back to the Bach. We are pretty sure she didn't impact adversely upon any wildlife. Cassidy got covered in rocks (which matched the contents of his skull) which gave him SPF4100 sunscreen.
At Teal Bay, Nicky (now 18) brought Larry, her boyfriend (who's aunt owned the Bach). There was some concern about who was sleeping where but that seemed to be resolved without discussion with Nicky or Larry. They went walking for a few hours one day (a particularly cloudy day, I would add), and got hideously burnt on the legs and feet (very a la Charles). They did recover but it was pretty bad for a day or so. Larry is an England and Manchester United supporter, so he isn't all bad.
The boys would go to the beach a couple of times a day and play on the xbox in between. We didn't really see a lot of Rory, and he stayed behind when we left yesterday and is due home today. Hannah went boarding a few times and I joined her most times. Actual swimming wasn't very practical but boarding was pretty hard work at times.
It was Sarah's birthday on Saturday, and Bambi's on Friday.
RETARDISM AND TEENAGERS
The three boys at Teal Bay, Rory, Matt, and Cassidy, became known as the "threetards", a term of my suggestion (but widely used elsewhere, I suspect) which I believe to be entirely appropriate. I will illustrate with a story. They were body surfing on the beach where there was a band of rocks just where the waves crashed on the beach. Cassidy had grazes all down his chest from it, so logically he rolled over and body surfed on his back (and he got grazes on his back). I think this illustrates the appropriateness of the term quite well.
The formula for the intelligence of teenage boys in groups:
IQ(Group) = (MaxIQ (individuals) + MinIQ (individuals))/Count (individuals)
So you can see that the IQ goes down with the more teenage boys you add. There is also a variation of this calculation when a female is introduced into the group:
IQ(Group) = (MaxIQ (individuals) + MinIQ (individuals))/Count (individuals) * (Count (individuals) - Count (females)) / Count (individuals)
In terms of nomenclature, if there are four of them they can be called "fourkwits", suggestions of names for two, and five or more are very welcome.
Once Edmund Hillary died on Friday, there was no other news. I was waiting for some fool to say "a mighty kauri has fallen" but they didn't, which was a pleasant surprise. The news services reacted pretty well locally, although showing us what foreign news shows said seemed a little repetitive. We were slowly fed various bits of info, yes there would be a state funeral, then the date and the location. His passing certainly wasn't before his time, at 88 he has basically been a living fossil for a while and some recent activities have shown that he really deserved a bit of a rest. I think there is no other New Zealander I would hold in such high esteem, he was a legend in everyone's lifetime and is worthy of recognition on every level.
There was flooding in the southern end of the North Island on Tuesday. We got some rain in the north but not enough to flood anything, which was a good thing.
An Australian woman on holiday here lost her breast while swimming and the whole lifeguard contingent went looking for it. They found it the next day. Nobody ever found the action man we lost at Coopers Beach in 2001.
We seem to have had a few murders and accidental deaths (mostly traffic and water, as usual). A body was found weighted and wrapped in a sheet in a river near Christchurch, possibly the most intriguing of the week (if you could call any of them intriguing).
There was a bizarre incident in the Marlborough Sound when a man found an 8 year old boy floating in the water on his own. He sailed about three km to catch up to the boat the boy belonged to and the man didn't seem too surprised or pleased to see him. Reminds one how you need a dog license but not a kid license.
The two Australians kayaking to New Zealand from Australia finally made it. They are now on record as being the two people who were the happiest ever to see Mt Taranaki, not something that is overly common. Unfortunately, their delayed trip meant they weren't able to meet Edmund Hillary in person, which had been part of their plan.
Some pillock wants to fund an appeal against the conviction of Mark Lundy. This was the revolting man who over-acted badly at the funeral of his wife and daughter and used a prostitute as an alibi. I thought he had done it before he was arrested, and there is absolutely no reason to change the view three years after his conviction, I would be very surprised if there was a lot of support for this.
WORLD NEWS
Former Olympic Gold medallist Marion Jones has finished her fall from grace, being jailed for six months for lying to prosecutors.
After losing badly in Illinois, Clinton won New Hampshire. I am not sure how you track the progress but the whole process for selecting presidential candidates seems drawn out and tedious. One can't help but wonder if the money spent on primaries wouldn't be better used on the actual election.
SPORT
Man Utd managed a 6-0 win over the poor old Geordies this week to get them back on the top of the table, equal with Arsenal who had a draw with Birmingham.
The second test between the Black Caps and Bangladesh seems to be nearly over, two days in. We are going to get done like a dinner against the Poms, Bangladesh are simply rubbish, making a very ordinary team look considerably less ordinary.
Meanwhile the Aussies and Indians are not really on speaking terms, seems to be a fuss over nothing but the Indians pulled out of a tour match in a huff.
MY SAD LIFE
We moved from Coopers Beach to Teal Bay on Wednesday. Instead of sand and sea we had sea and sand. The weather was not great for a couple of days but didn't really prevent swimming, in fact swimming was trickier when the sun was out. We hung with the Clares and Goodins until Wednesday then the Edmonds at Teal Bay.
Kathryn went mad on Tuesday night and constructed a banquet for 14 people using very little bench space and with the assistance of Caitlin. She did very well, although I suspect it would have been considerably easier if we hadn't been there.
During the Coopers stay, I showed Rory my concept of turtle surfing, where you cling to the board from underneath (with all four limbs) and see how long you stay on (or under). Rory developed the idea by using one arm to hold his nose, so when he flipped he didn't get a nose full of water. I tend to use one arm to steer so you can see the waves coming. Either way, it's pretty stupid. I got one cool photo of Rory doing it, swamped by a wave (you could see him inside the wave).
The move from Coopers to Teal Bay meant we traded down from two large dogs (Pipi and Coco) to one small dog (Poppie, a hairy dachshund). A trip to Mimiwhangata with the dog resulted in us having to smuggle her onto the beach in a towel because it was some sort of reserve. We couldn't really leave her in the car on a hot day, so instead she was hidden in various ways when people walked past (including a weird box made of boogie boards. This may seem irresponsible but it was a windy eight or ten km back to the Bach. We are pretty sure she didn't impact adversely upon any wildlife. Cassidy got covered in rocks (which matched the contents of his skull) which gave him SPF4100 sunscreen.
At Teal Bay, Nicky (now 18) brought Larry, her boyfriend (who's aunt owned the Bach). There was some concern about who was sleeping where but that seemed to be resolved without discussion with Nicky or Larry. They went walking for a few hours one day (a particularly cloudy day, I would add), and got hideously burnt on the legs and feet (very a la Charles). They did recover but it was pretty bad for a day or so. Larry is an England and Manchester United supporter, so he isn't all bad.
The boys would go to the beach a couple of times a day and play on the xbox in between. We didn't really see a lot of Rory, and he stayed behind when we left yesterday and is due home today. Hannah went boarding a few times and I joined her most times. Actual swimming wasn't very practical but boarding was pretty hard work at times.
It was Sarah's birthday on Saturday, and Bambi's on Friday.
RETARDISM AND TEENAGERS
The three boys at Teal Bay, Rory, Matt, and Cassidy, became known as the "threetards", a term of my suggestion (but widely used elsewhere, I suspect) which I believe to be entirely appropriate. I will illustrate with a story. They were body surfing on the beach where there was a band of rocks just where the waves crashed on the beach. Cassidy had grazes all down his chest from it, so logically he rolled over and body surfed on his back (and he got grazes on his back). I think this illustrates the appropriateness of the term quite well.
The formula for the intelligence of teenage boys in groups:
IQ(Group) = (MaxIQ (individuals) + MinIQ (individuals))/Count (individuals)
So you can see that the IQ goes down with the more teenage boys you add. There is also a variation of this calculation when a female is introduced into the group:
IQ(Group) = (MaxIQ (individuals) + MinIQ (individuals))/Count (individuals) * (Count (individuals) - Count (females)) / Count (individuals)
In terms of nomenclature, if there are four of them they can be called "fourkwits", suggestions of names for two, and five or more are very welcome.
7 January 2008
The death toll olympics, beach frolics in the Far North - 07/01/08
LOCAL NEWS
We continued the death toll race all week. We had a 13 year old girl killed by a trail bike near Glink's Gully (where Charles goes for his
holidays) and there were arguments over whether that could be a road accident without a road and seeing it was on a beach it could be a drowning. Obviously, it wasn't a drowning. Meanwhile a diver died and a man drowned in Lake Pupuke so the drowning team caught up (we actually know the 20 year old that drowned in Pupuke, he was older brother of a guy that was in Rory's soccer team for about three years). Then, out of nowhere, the mountaineering fraternity made a late start with a death on Mt Cook. It was anybody's race, and it went down to the wire (6am on 3rd January). The road toll won.
A local do-gooder heaved a brick at Helen Clark's electorate office and sped away on a scooter in the early hours on New Year's Day.
A parishioner saved their church from fire using cushions and jugs of water.
Some Aussies are here looking for moa. Good luck to them.
We've had another baby die, of a fractured skull at 11 weeks. The parents are now telling us how they are trying to regain custody of their other child. Given the fact that the injuries did not appear accidental, I am not quite sure how they expect to justify this (except for something like "the other kids is tough cos we haven't killed it yet, eh?").
A German woman kayaked around the South Island, took her 70 days, not sure it was non-stop, don't think it was.
A 46 year old Ngaruawahia man was shot in the head, not fatally I don't think, but he wasn't real happy.
Meanwhile, since the cut off for the road toll for the holiday period we've had more deaths on the roads, a body found at the bottom of a ravine, a boot found somewhere else (with a foot in it), some people injured in a jet boating accident, a train hit a car, a go-karter died, you name it we've had it.
WORLD NEWS
Meanwhile a New Zealand woman was the first road fatality in Victoria for the new year, which is just being greedy.
The Illinois primary didn't go so well for Hillary, but it's a long race.
SPORT
The last ODI against Bangladesh was a farce. They got 93 runs and the opening batsmen got that in less than six overs without losing a wicket. I would be pretty annoyed if I paid to go see it.
The first test against Bangladesh was a little different, although completely thumped in the first innings, the Bangladeshi openers scored more in their opening stand than the entire team did first time around. I think the pitch was becoming very placid. Then, on day three, New Zealand made the breakthrough and they collapsed and it was all over by the end of the day.
A placid pitch was also the problem at the SCG, although Australia were 60 odd runs behind India on the first innings, there were few wickets on the fourth day and they went into the last day looking like it would be an almost certain draw. Then, we had a sporting declaration from Australia and they tried very hard to get the Indians out, I still didn't think it likely but even with two overs left and three wickets remaining I thought a draw was on the cards, but Michael Clarke managed to get all three in the over to clinch their 16 consecutive win.
Man Utd beat Birminginham 1-0, Arsenal beat West Ham 2-0, Chelsea beat Fulham 2-1. Liverpool drew 1-1 with Wigan.
MY SAD LIFE
We spent New Years evening with the Chambers, but did not stick it out until midnight.
The week was relatively quiet until Rory returned from holiday with Maddie on Wednesday (which seemed to have gone well).
We then had a mad rush to be ready to leave for the North. We did manage to leave just before 7am on Friday to avoid the traffic (which although holiday level would have still been a bit nasty being a weekday). We checked out the stone store at Keri Keri for the first time ever, it was interesting. We got to Coopers Beach just after lunch time. We met up with the Goodins and Clares not long afterward.
We've spent a lot of time at the beach itself, lots of boogie boarding and throwing of tennis balls for the dogs. Pippy spent a full two and a half hours chasing the ball yesterday, people went in shifts keeping her going. She must have been knackered. I got some photos of her in full flight on Friday, one caught her completely in the air over the water doing a super dog impression. She enjoyed Rory chasing her, and then yesterday Rory had the ball and made her chase him, which was pretty funny.
One of the activities at the beach was tunnelling under a log. Turns out that this log followed the ice berg principle and two thirds of it was below the sand. It was a bloody big log, but they got under it, but only just as there was rock about three inches below it.
We went to a vintage car show in Taipa on Saturday. Now, Taipa is a pretty small beach community quite a long way from anyway, and I had a sneaking suspicion the car show would consist of leading people out of the car park back into the car park to look at their own cars. I was pleasantly surprised. The highlights included a three wheeled Morgan, and US army half track, a 1924 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, and a pink Thunderbird. There must have been nearly 200 cars there. The lowlight was the performances on stage. Three ladies seemed to think that the same dance done to different tunes while wearing different outfits was entertaining (it was, but not in the way they thought). The announcer for the dancing also delighted everyone with his renditions of a variety of songs. He wasn't that bad, but he wasn't that good.
We had a bit of a go at tennis on Saturday, and it wasn't pretty. I suspect tennis isn't my game any more, I was complete rubbish. Given the aches I have sustained I suspect it may be time to hang up my racket.
We are spending a couple more days here in Coopers before heading to a place called Teal Bay until Sunday.
We continued the death toll race all week. We had a 13 year old girl killed by a trail bike near Glink's Gully (where Charles goes for his
holidays) and there were arguments over whether that could be a road accident without a road and seeing it was on a beach it could be a drowning. Obviously, it wasn't a drowning. Meanwhile a diver died and a man drowned in Lake Pupuke so the drowning team caught up (we actually know the 20 year old that drowned in Pupuke, he was older brother of a guy that was in Rory's soccer team for about three years). Then, out of nowhere, the mountaineering fraternity made a late start with a death on Mt Cook. It was anybody's race, and it went down to the wire (6am on 3rd January). The road toll won.
A local do-gooder heaved a brick at Helen Clark's electorate office and sped away on a scooter in the early hours on New Year's Day.
A parishioner saved their church from fire using cushions and jugs of water.
Some Aussies are here looking for moa. Good luck to them.
We've had another baby die, of a fractured skull at 11 weeks. The parents are now telling us how they are trying to regain custody of their other child. Given the fact that the injuries did not appear accidental, I am not quite sure how they expect to justify this (except for something like "the other kids is tough cos we haven't killed it yet, eh?").
A German woman kayaked around the South Island, took her 70 days, not sure it was non-stop, don't think it was.
A 46 year old Ngaruawahia man was shot in the head, not fatally I don't think, but he wasn't real happy.
Meanwhile, since the cut off for the road toll for the holiday period we've had more deaths on the roads, a body found at the bottom of a ravine, a boot found somewhere else (with a foot in it), some people injured in a jet boating accident, a train hit a car, a go-karter died, you name it we've had it.
WORLD NEWS
Meanwhile a New Zealand woman was the first road fatality in Victoria for the new year, which is just being greedy.
The Illinois primary didn't go so well for Hillary, but it's a long race.
SPORT
The last ODI against Bangladesh was a farce. They got 93 runs and the opening batsmen got that in less than six overs without losing a wicket. I would be pretty annoyed if I paid to go see it.
The first test against Bangladesh was a little different, although completely thumped in the first innings, the Bangladeshi openers scored more in their opening stand than the entire team did first time around. I think the pitch was becoming very placid. Then, on day three, New Zealand made the breakthrough and they collapsed and it was all over by the end of the day.
A placid pitch was also the problem at the SCG, although Australia were 60 odd runs behind India on the first innings, there were few wickets on the fourth day and they went into the last day looking like it would be an almost certain draw. Then, we had a sporting declaration from Australia and they tried very hard to get the Indians out, I still didn't think it likely but even with two overs left and three wickets remaining I thought a draw was on the cards, but Michael Clarke managed to get all three in the over to clinch their 16 consecutive win.
Man Utd beat Birminginham 1-0, Arsenal beat West Ham 2-0, Chelsea beat Fulham 2-1. Liverpool drew 1-1 with Wigan.
MY SAD LIFE
We spent New Years evening with the Chambers, but did not stick it out until midnight.
The week was relatively quiet until Rory returned from holiday with Maddie on Wednesday (which seemed to have gone well).
We then had a mad rush to be ready to leave for the North. We did manage to leave just before 7am on Friday to avoid the traffic (which although holiday level would have still been a bit nasty being a weekday). We checked out the stone store at Keri Keri for the first time ever, it was interesting. We got to Coopers Beach just after lunch time. We met up with the Goodins and Clares not long afterward.
We've spent a lot of time at the beach itself, lots of boogie boarding and throwing of tennis balls for the dogs. Pippy spent a full two and a half hours chasing the ball yesterday, people went in shifts keeping her going. She must have been knackered. I got some photos of her in full flight on Friday, one caught her completely in the air over the water doing a super dog impression. She enjoyed Rory chasing her, and then yesterday Rory had the ball and made her chase him, which was pretty funny.
One of the activities at the beach was tunnelling under a log. Turns out that this log followed the ice berg principle and two thirds of it was below the sand. It was a bloody big log, but they got under it, but only just as there was rock about three inches below it.
We went to a vintage car show in Taipa on Saturday. Now, Taipa is a pretty small beach community quite a long way from anyway, and I had a sneaking suspicion the car show would consist of leading people out of the car park back into the car park to look at their own cars. I was pleasantly surprised. The highlights included a three wheeled Morgan, and US army half track, a 1924 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, and a pink Thunderbird. There must have been nearly 200 cars there. The lowlight was the performances on stage. Three ladies seemed to think that the same dance done to different tunes while wearing different outfits was entertaining (it was, but not in the way they thought). The announcer for the dancing also delighted everyone with his renditions of a variety of songs. He wasn't that bad, but he wasn't that good.
We had a bit of a go at tennis on Saturday, and it wasn't pretty. I suspect tennis isn't my game any more, I was complete rubbish. Given the aches I have sustained I suspect it may be time to hang up my racket.
We are spending a couple more days here in Coopers before heading to a place called Teal Bay until Sunday.
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