LOCAL NEWS
Wellington was hit by a deluge and lightning storm this morning. Nothing too serious.
After a hit and run (literally) incident with a drunk driver, a woman in her wedding dress ran down the offender. Must have been quite a sight.
Waitangi Day meant the usual plethora of boilerplate stories about who was doing what where on Waitangi Day. Meanwhile surveys suggested that nobody gives a crap.
We had a pretty pathetic version of a skyjacking/hostage drama this week. A recently immigrated Somali woman tried to hijack a plane to Australia from Christchurch, probably not even a plane that could get there (and how would they let it land, let's be serious). She managed to stab a couple of pilots but it wasn't that serious, although it shows what potential damage a psycho can do in some circumstances.
A dead 33 year old Japanese man was found in a car, in a lake, in Queenstown. At least it was a pretty nice lake to drown in.
The lack of rain is hurting farmers. They get no sympathy because cheese and butter have increased in price horrifically (like 60%+). This will, of course, give them an excuse to drive the price up further. There is talk of money from the Government for drought relief. The peasants are not impressed.
A 21yo man died while cleaning a ferris wheel at Rainbow's end on Sunday. Nasty.
Also nasty, a leg washed up on a Christchurch beach on Sunday. It came with a boot and a sock. Police are looking for a man with a size 8 foot and a pronounced limp.
WORLD NEWS
The photo of the baby being dropped from a burning building in Germany was everywhere in the media. At least you knew it survived but must have been an awful thing for the parents to do. There was no sign of bathwater.
The body of a man dead eight to ten years was found on a couch in a council flat in Bristol. The was another man living with him, who continued to live with the corpse. They found the body when neighbours complained of a smell, which you would have expected sooner than eight years after his death.
Big Tuesday didn't give us any conclusive leader, and then three more states went with Obama but one was Louisianan so they are neck and neck and nobody knows who's going to win.
REAL SPORT
In summer soccer we played a team comprised of mostly Western Springs College girls, many of which we know. It was very close because a Dad was playing for the other team and he put his head in front of any shot at goal. They won 1-0.
SPORT
Poor old Newcastle were up 1-0 then lost 1-4 to Aston Villa. Man City beat Man Utd 2-1, dammit. Chelsea drew 0-0 with Liverpool.
Black Sticks beat Argentina 3-2 to qualify for Beijing Olympics in the hockey.
The Black Caps actually won a cricket match against England. After failing dismally in the two 20/20 matches, they managed to roll England for a feeble 130 in the first ODI and made the total with nearly 20 overs to spare.
MY SAD LIFE
Change #1 I shall have to try and work on the content a little more from now on. Brett is now Dr Furlonger, having had his Ph.D bestowed upon him. Don't want a Doctor reading crap.
The children finally visited school this week. I use this phrase quite literally, as they did bugger all else other than go to school (and return). There were no actual classes and they did not learn anything in the 120 minutes they were there. Rory did this two hourly visit twice, and gets Monday off to recover.
Change #2 Diana resigned from work last Monday, finishes this Friday. She is off to do community education at Glenfield College (still teaching English to foreigners). She went off to a farewell thing on Friday night (don't ask, it makes sense).
Hannah and I met up with Gavin, Yana, and Maria at Dressmart on Saturday. The theory was that this could put Hannah off shopping and at worst meant they could shop together while we didn't (because standing around in clothing shops is not fun). Not sure about that, I think that they both taught each other everything they know about shopping. We left the girls to it for a while and visited a couple of nearby geek shops. It has been quite a while since Gavin and I have done geek shops together. We returned and they were still going (of course). The girls spent four and a half hours power shopping there, but some time was consumed changing and feeding Maria (now seven months old and boasting two teeth at lower front) and feeding and watering us. Nevertheless, four and a half hours was more than enough for me. Hannah had bags from about six different shops, and was pretty happy with what she got. Some kind of
This coming weekend, Hannah has her U15 New Zealand water polo trial. She says she is nervous about it. Going to be a full on weekend for her, over three days.
We visited the Goodins and saw Barry and Karen, visiting from Malaysia. I think it's been quite a while since we saw them. Thomas had just been to a windsurfing lesson on Lake Pupuke. It was a birthday gift from a friend who does it. Barry suggested that a revenge gift would be a horse riding lesson (horse riding is the path to the dark side). I also fixed the cabling for their TV, which had no yellow for six months (I offer no value judgements or opinions at this point).
Change #3 Sarah is theoretically due to lose two large parasites today. Inducement is planned for Wednesday. They could end up being Valentine's babies.
UPDATE: just got a text, she's being induced now. Seems able to text so can't be too bad yet.
It's Gavin's birthday this week, but how do you say happy birthday to someone who hasn't decided when their birthday is? I mean, shouldn't he just believe his birth certificate? It used to be the 14th but I think he now favours the 16th. Feel free to let me know when you think your birthday should be and why what it says on your birth certificate is wrong. I suppose if you shift it a few days every year you could move from Scorpio to Sagittarius or whatever.
Hannah spent a large chunk of Saturday evening and Sunday making a poster comprised of pretty random pictures. She had fun, and made a very large mess.
Rory has been preparing for Valentine's Day this Thursday, given his success in terms of Christmas presents I didn't think he would get anything sorted but he seems to have it under control. I think Diana's assistance was crucial. Meanwhile, I have already fulfilled obligations for Valentine's Day (which, philosophically, I don't believe should apply to people who have been married for 20 years, that's what we have anniversaries for).
TEDIOUS WHINGE - FEEL FREE TO IGNORE
As of today, we return to normal service. The quiet life has now officially passed. We now have the following timetable to deal with:
Monday - summer soccer and polo training for Rory, dancing for Hannah
Tuesday - polo training for Hannah
Wednesday - dancing for Hannah
Thursday - polo training for Hannah
Friday & Sunday - polo games (there are no games aren't this coming weekend, but Hannah will be spending about 20 hours at the pool)
I did not include me in there, but I think I am training polo teams Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights. This means that I will basically stop swimming because it is hard to swim and coach at the same time. Of course, when I say quiet life, I have been going to the pool almost every second day for the last month anyway. I was very pleased with myself when I swam 50 lengths in 24 minutes 55 seconds last week, that is about two minutes faster than I have ever managed before. The problem with all the planned training is that I don't often feel like going to the pool at other times to swim.
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