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.
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