LOCAL NEWS
Well, we had a happiness survey which says if you are female, 75, widowed, and have an income around $75k while living in Nelson you are happy. If you are male in Dunedin you might as well start taking happy pills.
Another study revealed that a large belly in middle age seems to have a link with dementia. I can't see it myself, it is more likely that other lifestyle aspects that correlate with the belly are the cause (like sitting in front of the TV all day).
A man had a 4WD crash into his conservatory, knocking him off the toilet. I hope he wiped (and washed) before he went to check out the ruckus.
Another toddler died in South Auckland. We are just about getting to the point where toddlers surviving in South Auckland make the news.
Meanwhile, six New Zealand soldiers are facing "Court Marital"(sic.) according to Fairfax Media. Something about durg use, I think.
A Takapuna Grammar boy was beaten up, video'd and then topped himself. Not good.
We are about to sign a mega-trade deal with China. No idea what it means. They reckon it's good.
WORLD NEWS
A "man" in the US is pregnant. Sounds sensational but "he" started life as a "she" and kept the bits required for gestation. So really it is more like a gender-undecided female is pregnant, which isn't really that new. And let's be honest, the poor kid is really not going to have it easy, is it? Will he have Mom and Mom-Dad?
Earth hour was a complete bollocks, they reckon Wellington power usage was up. Like saving power for one lousy hour will make a difference?
REAL SPORT
We had four games over the weekend. First was our junior girls against St Marys, we lost 3-11 but 3 goals is more than we've ever scored in a game so that's good. I told them I wanted two goals. The triplets scored a goal each (Hannah, Josie, Charlotte, who are all really in the other team).
On Sunday, we had junior boys, supplemented by Hannah and Charlotte because we only have six real junior boys (also had two baby-faced senior boys playing for them). They were up 5-2 so I pulled the girls out so they could rest for their next game, and the boys couldn't hold it together. They lost 5-6. Hannah scored three goals.
Then we had the big game, the one some of us had been dreading, our true senior girls (B1) versus our junior girls playing senior comp (B2) and they happened to be in the same group so we knew it was going to happen sooner or later (B1 vs B2, the bananas in pyjamas face-off). I train the senior girls on Monday nights and coached them last year, so I know them pretty well and had divided loyalty, a little. To make matters worse, one senior girl defected about a week ago to the B2 team because she wanted to train harder and play with players that were serious. B2 scored first, but B1 equalised, it stayed close but got to 4-2 up for B2 at end of 2nd quarter. It was one way traffic in second half with final score 8-2 for B2, youth and experience overcoming age and lack of fitness. Hannah was in goal first half and scored one goal in the second.
Finally, Rory's team played at 8:45pm, a bit of a long night really. It was against Lynfield and Rory couldn't shoot for shit. He took three shots to score his first, and played hit the goalie (he won that but that didn't help the actual score). They won 11-4, Rory scored 4 goals, I think.
So two wins, two losses. Could have been worse.
SPORT
Well, England won the test, and the series. I couldn't bear to watch. It was as I expected, just wish I'd put some money on the Poms.
New Zealand won the Hong Kong Sevens for the first time in seven years, beating South Africa.
Chelsea lost to Middlesbrough 0-1, Liverpool beat Everton 1-0, Newcastle got a rare win 4-1 over Spurs, Arsenal beat Bolton 3-2, and Man U beat Villa 4-0.
There were New Zealand Olympic trials at the pool we use most for training and games (which meant I couldn't swim). One poor bugger missed the qualifying time by .01 of a second. He's not going, what a rotten trick. He tried to buy some of the new Speedos that they reckon reduce drag by 5% and he couldn't, wonder if that could have made the difference.
I really didn't notice the Super 14, the Blues squeaked a win, Crusaders won, think the Chiefs beat the Highlanders, not sure about Hurricanes.
MY SAD LIFE
Sarah and Scott were walking the twins last Monday, when outside the dairy they saw a friendly looking homeless person (unshaved, no shoes, hasn't had a haircut for six months, but smiling), you know the sort of thing. Then it said hello and she realised it was Rory. I am so proud. At least he didn't wait until she gave him some change.
I did manage to see Sarah and the babies on Friday, briefly. Jack was slightly awake but Samantha wasn't. They are seven weeks old tomorrow but still look a little newbornie.
On Saturday, Rory went off to play canoe polo with some friends. They'd never played before and were basically a gimp team for others to prepare for a tournament. Rory joined the Gavin club by falling out of his boat (five times, actually). They are tiny little kayaks and are very very manoeuvrable, so quite easy to fall out of. I think everyone in the team fell out at least once.
The house was a proverbial train station over the weekend. Rory was away on Friday night (and played taxi driver for Maddie's parents), Hannah away at party all day Saturday, and at Girls Day Out on Sunday. Other people came and went, forcing Rory to hide in our wardrobe at one point because he was only wearing underwear.
Meanwhile, when out of the wardrobe, Rory was doing a speech for school on Sunday which kept us entertained before the three polo games in the afternoon.
At polo training on Thursday we got to see a former Western Springs College guy swim in a race. He was fastest over 100m but dropped off heaps in the second 100. Turned out he was just trying to register a fast time for the 100 to qualify for some other event. The kids were all pretty rapt to see someone from their school competing.
Hannah is off to inter-school champ of champs today. I might try go see it.
My ADSL got upgraded this week to almost above third world speeds (5mb down about 0.5mb up according to speedtest). So I tried a skype call with Paul and it worked pretty well. Cool.
I am having a shoe crisis. All my shoes are wearing out. I did have too many, really, so it's bring balance in a way. However, I have no walking shoes and that is a problem (yeah, I know, all shoes are made for walking, aren't they?).
THE COST OF GAS AND THINGS
Ian says it is £1.05 in UK for petrol per litre, how much is it in Aussie, Holland, Germany, Singapore, and Australia? It's about NZ$1.80-$1.90 here.
Would be also interesting to know cost of milk, butter, and cheese, too. There are rumours that 1kg of tasty in Australia is about $9 whereas it is about $15-$17 depending on brand here.
31 March 2008
24 March 2008
A large Government accounting lapse, the naked truth, things a bit grim in the cricket - 24/03/2008
LOCAL NEWS
On Tuesday an arrest was made for the murder of the Scottish tourist. It was a 14 year old boy who I am pretty sure was mentioned early on.
The IRD revealed a cockup in their confession of decreased revenue, a mere $600m. Funny how they react to smaller errors the taxpayer makes.
We had two die in a boy racer incident on Tuesday night on the north shore.
Yet again we had the Easter trading drama, again, and nothing changed, again. This whole religious holiday thing is so outdated it is ridiculous. The latest census says over half the population is Christian but I would struggle to think they are practising Christians.
The Easter holiday road toll got off to a pretty bad start. Four Chinese tourists died when they lost control in Clevedon and skidded into the path of a 4WD.
An English family touring New Zealand all got food poisoning from honey, turned out they reckon the bees had been gathering from something called a tutu bush which meant a build up of the poison tutin in the honey. Other people have also been poisoned, the culprit is a hobby apiarist who is denying culpability.
A local alternative TV station is going to do nude news but it's so old hat and sad that it's not interesting. I think perhaps if they got an illiterate person to read the news or people with speech impediments it would have more appeal.
WORLD NEWS
The China and Tibet thing seems to be timed to maximise coverage before the Olympics. Every country out there is scared of China. It owns half of America now, and all others trade too much with them to rock the boat. Later in the week we had a story about how Chinese living here think we get the wrong angle on what Tibet is really like and it is actually Tibet that is naughty. Who knows what to believe, but China can do what it likes in Tibet and they certainly won't get invaded like Iraq.
World famous suspected paedophile Arthur C Clarke died this week. I believe he wrote some science fiction as well. Funny how double standards exist sometimes. I never really liked his stuff.
REAL SPORT
No games this week because of Easter, so one extreme to the other. Hannah had first training with her new soccer team this week. Although many of them have been in her team before, this team is very different from last year.
SPORT
Blues finally got a win, Chiefs won, Crusaders won, Highlanders still haven't won one.
Newcastle actually won a game 2-0 but it was only Fulham. Man Utd thumped Liverpool 3-0, Arsenal lost 1-2 to Chelsea.
The final test started on Saturday with New Zealand missing a couple of key players. England staggered to about 4/3 before settling down and getting a respectable score. Then New Zealand looked good for a while before collapsing. It is not going to be a draw but I don't think New Zealand will win.
MY SAD LIFE
So, the house was quieter, the bathrooms more available, and less food was consumed for the two nights Rory was away. Pandora waited outside his room for him one morning, which was cute.
I performed a parenting experiment on Rory this week. He has a tendency to procrastinate and after a particular example of this I removed his latest favourite game, and every time he asked for it back I said "yep, sure, in a minute" and it drove him nuts. It was an amazing example of getting your own back and it was delightful.
Went swimming with the kids on Saturday. The pool was set to 50m and was really tough compared to normal. There is Olympic trials there this week.
We went on a vineyard tour on Saturday with Gavin and Yana. The kids were atrocious, fiddling with things (weighing their cellphones, stealing safety goggles, changing labels on stock shelves, and more, it wasn't a proud parent thing at all). Then they squashed grapes, at least they were allowed to do that. It was unusual, clear juice not red or stainy (the red wine gets the colour from skins and seeds over time). Then we went out to Muriwai for a while.
It is Koos's birthday today, he had a barbecue last night. The Goodins went too. There was some pretty bad volleyball played, and some badminton. Pippy came and had a lovely time, was suitably tired at the end of it.
Rory had a couple of friends stay on Saturday night, they weren't any real bother. Maddie's away at war birds in Wanaka so he's not so busy.
On Tuesday an arrest was made for the murder of the Scottish tourist. It was a 14 year old boy who I am pretty sure was mentioned early on.
The IRD revealed a cockup in their confession of decreased revenue, a mere $600m. Funny how they react to smaller errors the taxpayer makes.
We had two die in a boy racer incident on Tuesday night on the north shore.
Yet again we had the Easter trading drama, again, and nothing changed, again. This whole religious holiday thing is so outdated it is ridiculous. The latest census says over half the population is Christian but I would struggle to think they are practising Christians.
The Easter holiday road toll got off to a pretty bad start. Four Chinese tourists died when they lost control in Clevedon and skidded into the path of a 4WD.
An English family touring New Zealand all got food poisoning from honey, turned out they reckon the bees had been gathering from something called a tutu bush which meant a build up of the poison tutin in the honey. Other people have also been poisoned, the culprit is a hobby apiarist who is denying culpability.
A local alternative TV station is going to do nude news but it's so old hat and sad that it's not interesting. I think perhaps if they got an illiterate person to read the news or people with speech impediments it would have more appeal.
WORLD NEWS
The China and Tibet thing seems to be timed to maximise coverage before the Olympics. Every country out there is scared of China. It owns half of America now, and all others trade too much with them to rock the boat. Later in the week we had a story about how Chinese living here think we get the wrong angle on what Tibet is really like and it is actually Tibet that is naughty. Who knows what to believe, but China can do what it likes in Tibet and they certainly won't get invaded like Iraq.
World famous suspected paedophile Arthur C Clarke died this week. I believe he wrote some science fiction as well. Funny how double standards exist sometimes. I never really liked his stuff.
REAL SPORT
No games this week because of Easter, so one extreme to the other. Hannah had first training with her new soccer team this week. Although many of them have been in her team before, this team is very different from last year.
SPORT
Blues finally got a win, Chiefs won, Crusaders won, Highlanders still haven't won one.
Newcastle actually won a game 2-0 but it was only Fulham. Man Utd thumped Liverpool 3-0, Arsenal lost 1-2 to Chelsea.
The final test started on Saturday with New Zealand missing a couple of key players. England staggered to about 4/3 before settling down and getting a respectable score. Then New Zealand looked good for a while before collapsing. It is not going to be a draw but I don't think New Zealand will win.
MY SAD LIFE
So, the house was quieter, the bathrooms more available, and less food was consumed for the two nights Rory was away. Pandora waited outside his room for him one morning, which was cute.
I performed a parenting experiment on Rory this week. He has a tendency to procrastinate and after a particular example of this I removed his latest favourite game, and every time he asked for it back I said "yep, sure, in a minute" and it drove him nuts. It was an amazing example of getting your own back and it was delightful.
Went swimming with the kids on Saturday. The pool was set to 50m and was really tough compared to normal. There is Olympic trials there this week.
We went on a vineyard tour on Saturday with Gavin and Yana. The kids were atrocious, fiddling with things (weighing their cellphones, stealing safety goggles, changing labels on stock shelves, and more, it wasn't a proud parent thing at all). Then they squashed grapes, at least they were allowed to do that. It was unusual, clear juice not red or stainy (the red wine gets the colour from skins and seeds over time). Then we went out to Muriwai for a while.
It is Koos's birthday today, he had a barbecue last night. The Goodins went too. There was some pretty bad volleyball played, and some badminton. Pippy came and had a lovely time, was suitably tired at the end of it.
Rory had a couple of friends stay on Saturday night, they weren't any real bother. Maddie's away at war birds in Wanaka so he's not so busy.
17 March 2008
No party for party pill sellers, a beneficiary scores big, a small town hijacking, and a fatal escape - 17/03/2008
Today is St Patrick's Day. Why we make such a fuss of it compare to other days, I don't know.
LOCAL NEWS
New Zealand made the news about one of our sons, a drug dealer in LA, who kept the body of his dead girlfriend on ice for a year. We are so proud. Who need's Rachel Hunter and Peter Jackson?
Meanwhile the parenting prowess of a woman in Hamilton was under the spotlight after locking her 10yo and 2yo out of the house in the evening, telling them to go to their uncle's house, and then heading off to the pub. She then said she was "getting the bash" from her partner and wanted the kids out of harm's way. Shame the kids didn't know how to get to "uncles" house.
We got news this week about a guy that leapt out of a brothel during the filming of a raid for some reality show about overstayers. The show screened a few weeks ago. Would he have leapt if he wasn't being filmed? We will never know….
Party pills were reclassified as class c drugs on Thursday by Parliament. People selling them are not happy, there's a surprise.
Being a small country, we can't run to airplane hijackings too often, so an escaped prisoner hijacked an airport shuttle bus (being the closest thing, and all, as you do).
A beneficiary made it in to the news for a good thing. He won $5m on Lotto, so he is no longer a beneficiary (although you could consider, given that Lotto is government owned that he just got a lump sum).
A dead partially naked 52yo woman was found on the side of the road in Banks Peninsula on Friday. The next day it was established it was from a traffic accident when they found her car. Not sure how that explains the clothing.
A teenager was shot dead on a hunting expedition in Tarawera. "It's ironic," said his Mum, "He was such a dear, and he was mistaken for one."
Road carnage wasn't so bad this week.
WORLD NEWS
Gold hit USD1000 this week. Petrol prices continue to rise. The USD is dropping. I think something is gonna blow soon. I really can't see how all these inflationary pressures aren't going to hit us hard.
An Australian woman was in court this week for fatally stabbing her partner because he didn't like Bruce Springsteen. Well, that's what the headlines say, there was more to it than that. Moral is, keep your Springsteen view to yourself for safety. Sounds like the partner was a bit of a prick.
The missing English girl was found in a divan bed base. The English do seem to make such a fuss of their missing children, and it happens rather too often.
REAL SPORT
Too many games to list here (thirteen, I think), Rory played six and Hannah played seven games. Was pretty tough, both teams weren't at full strength. Did not do exceedingly well. Hannah scored two goals, which isn't bad when you consider she was goalie a lot, and the team scored about 8 goals in total. Rory scored about 60% of his teams goals.
SPORT
The second test between New Zealand and England began on Thursday, I forgot it was on. Was sort of evenly poised end of first day but slowly drifted in England's favour over the next three days. It's basically all but over today as New Zealand struggle to score the runs on the last day.
Man Utd beat Derby 1-0, Chelsea beat Sunderland 1-0, Liverpool beat Reading 2-1, Arsenal drew 1-1 with Middlesbrough.
Wales beat France to do the grand slam in the six nations rugby.
Blues lost, not sure what else happened. There were some games.
MY SAD LIFE
I have to make a confession. Rory eats Girl Guide biscuits with hummus. It's disgusting. He gets it from his mother, who used to eat fruit toast with vegemite on it. Please don't tell anyone else.
Didn't really get up to much other than take people to polo games. Only person I've seen that isn't work, soccer or polo-related was Sarah (I walked over again for a quick visit, twins were asleep).
Hannah's club soccer team has been named, looks pretty good team, possibly strongest team she's ever played in. I am not coaching, which is probably a good thing.
We managed to go for a small trip as a family on Sunday, just up Mt Eden and walked around the crater. Needed some time outside and was nice day out there.
Gave Pandora a nocturnal surprise the other night. I got up just before I went to sleep, and as I turned on the kitchen light I kicked her just as she was throwing up (not deliberately, it was mid-stride). Now, it's quite an interesting sound that a cat makes when being whacked mid-chunder. I felt awful but I couldn't stop myself from laughing as she took off and then emptied some more just inside the cat door. For my efforts I got to clean it up before returning to bed.
Rory is away at biology camp for a couple of days, left this morning. Just as long as he doesn't do any human biology. It is up near Goat Island, they will be snorkelling there. A few of you foreigners have been there.
I think we are looking forward to Easter but suspect we are going to be utterly bored. Might need to come up with a plan.
Stay tuned (assuming that you are mind bogglingly bored, yourself)
LOCAL NEWS
New Zealand made the news about one of our sons, a drug dealer in LA, who kept the body of his dead girlfriend on ice for a year. We are so proud. Who need's Rachel Hunter and Peter Jackson?
Meanwhile the parenting prowess of a woman in Hamilton was under the spotlight after locking her 10yo and 2yo out of the house in the evening, telling them to go to their uncle's house, and then heading off to the pub. She then said she was "getting the bash" from her partner and wanted the kids out of harm's way. Shame the kids didn't know how to get to "uncles" house.
We got news this week about a guy that leapt out of a brothel during the filming of a raid for some reality show about overstayers. The show screened a few weeks ago. Would he have leapt if he wasn't being filmed? We will never know….
Party pills were reclassified as class c drugs on Thursday by Parliament. People selling them are not happy, there's a surprise.
Being a small country, we can't run to airplane hijackings too often, so an escaped prisoner hijacked an airport shuttle bus (being the closest thing, and all, as you do).
A beneficiary made it in to the news for a good thing. He won $5m on Lotto, so he is no longer a beneficiary (although you could consider, given that Lotto is government owned that he just got a lump sum).
A dead partially naked 52yo woman was found on the side of the road in Banks Peninsula on Friday. The next day it was established it was from a traffic accident when they found her car. Not sure how that explains the clothing.
A teenager was shot dead on a hunting expedition in Tarawera. "It's ironic," said his Mum, "He was such a dear, and he was mistaken for one."
Road carnage wasn't so bad this week.
WORLD NEWS
Gold hit USD1000 this week. Petrol prices continue to rise. The USD is dropping. I think something is gonna blow soon. I really can't see how all these inflationary pressures aren't going to hit us hard.
An Australian woman was in court this week for fatally stabbing her partner because he didn't like Bruce Springsteen. Well, that's what the headlines say, there was more to it than that. Moral is, keep your Springsteen view to yourself for safety. Sounds like the partner was a bit of a prick.
The missing English girl was found in a divan bed base. The English do seem to make such a fuss of their missing children, and it happens rather too often.
REAL SPORT
Too many games to list here (thirteen, I think), Rory played six and Hannah played seven games. Was pretty tough, both teams weren't at full strength. Did not do exceedingly well. Hannah scored two goals, which isn't bad when you consider she was goalie a lot, and the team scored about 8 goals in total. Rory scored about 60% of his teams goals.
SPORT
The second test between New Zealand and England began on Thursday, I forgot it was on. Was sort of evenly poised end of first day but slowly drifted in England's favour over the next three days. It's basically all but over today as New Zealand struggle to score the runs on the last day.
Man Utd beat Derby 1-0, Chelsea beat Sunderland 1-0, Liverpool beat Reading 2-1, Arsenal drew 1-1 with Middlesbrough.
Wales beat France to do the grand slam in the six nations rugby.
Blues lost, not sure what else happened. There were some games.
MY SAD LIFE
I have to make a confession. Rory eats Girl Guide biscuits with hummus. It's disgusting. He gets it from his mother, who used to eat fruit toast with vegemite on it. Please don't tell anyone else.
Didn't really get up to much other than take people to polo games. Only person I've seen that isn't work, soccer or polo-related was Sarah (I walked over again for a quick visit, twins were asleep).
Hannah's club soccer team has been named, looks pretty good team, possibly strongest team she's ever played in. I am not coaching, which is probably a good thing.
We managed to go for a small trip as a family on Sunday, just up Mt Eden and walked around the crater. Needed some time outside and was nice day out there.
Gave Pandora a nocturnal surprise the other night. I got up just before I went to sleep, and as I turned on the kitchen light I kicked her just as she was throwing up (not deliberately, it was mid-stride). Now, it's quite an interesting sound that a cat makes when being whacked mid-chunder. I felt awful but I couldn't stop myself from laughing as she took off and then emptied some more just inside the cat door. For my efforts I got to clean it up before returning to bed.
Rory is away at biology camp for a couple of days, left this morning. Just as long as he doesn't do any human biology. It is up near Goat Island, they will be snorkelling there. A few of you foreigners have been there.
I think we are looking forward to Easter but suspect we are going to be utterly bored. Might need to come up with a plan.
Stay tuned (assuming that you are mind bogglingly bored, yourself)
10 March 2008
Our fugitive returns, the single sculls fizzles to a conclusion, and man leaps to fame after falling asleep - 10/03/2008
LOCAL NEWS
Nai Yin Xue, our very own international fugitive, touched down at 7:15am this morning, so he is no longer international or a fugitive. I suspect bail is unlikely to be an option.
Stats released this week say that mortgage applications have reduced in number over the last year or so. I don't really see that as a problem, as that would suggest there is less debt out there and people might be staying in houses longer. I guess the banking sector isn't so happy, but that doesn't bother me a lot.
Big fuss this week when the government changed the overseas investment rules overnight effectively knackering a Canadian bid for control of Auckland Airport. Now classed as a strategic asset, the company should stay in local hands.
It was the 20th anniversary of Cyclone Bola this week. I remember that week very well, it was not long after we moved in to our house in King St and big willow tree blew over.
We had another police chase evader die in an effort to avoid an interview with plod.
The fire at MOTAT resulted in the arrest and charge of eight 15-16 year olds, four of which came from Western Springs College.
Middlemore Hospital appears to be drumming up business by selling Listeria-ridden sandwiches from it's cafeteria. Yuck.
Truly bizarre situation this week in Wellington. An 18 yo man fell asleep next to his fiancée (27, but let's not go there. That bits creepy as well) in a movie theatre (a chick flick). She left him there, went home, later realised he hadn't returned. He woke up in the theatre at 3am, 18 missed calls on his phone, tried to get out and continued to set off alarms until he finally made it out, where he was confronted by police. Now, he has become the Herald reviewer of chick flicks, he is no longer engaged (lucky escape if you ask me, what a bitch for leaving him there and a cradle snatcher too), and is probably going to start giving relationship advice as well. It's a bit like that pseudo-streaker who somehow still seems to be considered a "celebrity".
A bizarre incident in Remuera when a 63 year old female cyclist was punched and thrown off a bridge by some crazy guy. She survived but is not going to try bungee jumping any time soon.
A bad weekend on roads, sort of. One died when a ute rolled down a 100 foot dune at Bethells Beach. Two other motorcycle riders died in a crash during a race. There were a few other fatalities. I think they were all male.
A prisoner is in hospital after being beaten severely at a barbecue rewarding good behaviour. Interesting reward, the atmosphere must have been dripping with irony.
WORLD NEWS
Norwegian scientists have found that whale meat is the cheapest in terms of greenhouse gases when compared to chicken, beef, lamb. In not such big writing, most fish and seafood is the same as whale. Somehow I can't see us all buying whale burgers. The sad thing is that it's a bit like Colombians releasing a study saying cocaine is the best drug for greenhouse gases. It may well be true on some level, but it really isn't relevant.
Six people were shot in a Memphis shooting. Three were Elvis impersonators, so it's not all bad.
Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy role playing game for anoraks world over, died this week. I guess he failed to make a saving throw.
INTERSTELLAR NEWS
Talk about mountains and molehills. Some guy reckons he's found that a star that is close to going nova is pointing at us and we could be thumped with gamma rays from 8000 light years away. Now, you could say it hasn't happened yet, so who cares about 8,000 years from now but it could have gone nova already and the light telling us this hasn't got here yet. Nevertheless, I wouldn't panic just yet. The news item about it led with all sorts of panic mongering, calling it a "death star" and all sorts.
REAL SPORT
Well, some serious defending paid off and Rory's summer soccer team managed to clinch a win in their final game 2-1.
Friday was lots of games. Senior Boys won about 15-3 against Green Bay (I saw Rory score 2 but not sure how many as I could only watch first half). Senior girls lost 0-15 to St Mary's. Junior Girls played Marist I think and lost but I cannot remember the score. Junior Boys drew 5-5 with Massey, their best result in grading so far. B2 Junior Girls playing senior lost 0-9 against Mt Roskill but it was 0-1 at half time.
SPORT
The big third and final sculling showdown was postponed due to weather on Tuesday, great for news agencies to extend the story but bad for the athletes. The final race fizzled as Waddell struggled and Drysdale screamed in. Waddell then revealed all about a heart irregularity thing that happened early in the third race.
The Aussies failed to level the finals series against India so it was all over 2-0 to India, not a happy result for Australian Cricket. People making lots of noise about how it's all over for them. I wouldn't count on it.
End of day three the first test against England looked like it would end in a very tame draw. The morning of the fourth day, we were still going on England's first innings and then it all went crazy with the Poms getting a hat-trick and New Zealand struggling, before declaring on the fifth day and bundling out the Poms for 110 about 190 short of their target.
The Blues lost to Sharks 17-22, Crusaders won, Highlanders lost, Hurricanes won. Not sure about Chiefs.
Both Man Utd and Chelsea lost their FA Cup quarter final matches 0-1. Minnows Barnsley and Portsmouth go through to semi-final glory. There is only one Premiere team left in the FA Cup now.
MY SAD LIFE
Went mental last Monday, after deciding I had sod all to do and stripped down one of the bathroom windows and repainted it. It was pretty bad, and now it looks great. I was very pleased with myself. Hannah even noticed! The big question is whether I will do any more.
Tuesday, I went another kind of mental and swam, Forrest Gump style (swim, Rob, swim!). I tried to go for an hour but my feet and legs started cramping so I stopped at 55 minutes, but I reckon I did over 100 lengths in that time (2.5 ks). I am not sure I will repeat the attempt soon, that was the most I have ever done in one go. Weird that it wasn't my arms that failed, they do all the work. Thursday I did 60 lengths in just under 30 minutes.
We all raced down to the Dignan St market for the last one of the summer on Thursday night, before heading to the pool. We were there for about 30 minutes, spent quite a bit of money in a short time (four tasty muffins, three mussel fritters, two t-shirts, and a loaf of Turkish bread). The t-shirts are ones that say "Point Chevalier" inside the Chevy-style logo. They are pretty cool, nice to have some parochialism out there.
Hannah, Diana, and Elsie went to Pasifika, the annual Pacific Island festival at Western Springs lake, on Saturday. The traffic around the area was awful, as usual. Had to get the car as close as I could to drop Elsie off because she can't easily handle long distance walking.
Didn't see much of Rory over the weekend, Maddie came to polo then stayed Friday, then they went to Cassidy's party so we didn't see him until Sunday lunch time.
Hannah and I spent a chunk of Sunday making a model wardrobe for English. Didn't actually take too long. It's not finished yet, but we made good progress, especially with the mini-coat hangers. We also spent some time kicking a ball because she has her club soccer trial tonight and she needed to spend some time with a ball at her feet.
The kids have both got the North Island Secondary School polo champs this week, starting Thursday, so busy end of week and weekend.
Nai Yin Xue, our very own international fugitive, touched down at 7:15am this morning, so he is no longer international or a fugitive. I suspect bail is unlikely to be an option.
Stats released this week say that mortgage applications have reduced in number over the last year or so. I don't really see that as a problem, as that would suggest there is less debt out there and people might be staying in houses longer. I guess the banking sector isn't so happy, but that doesn't bother me a lot.
Big fuss this week when the government changed the overseas investment rules overnight effectively knackering a Canadian bid for control of Auckland Airport. Now classed as a strategic asset, the company should stay in local hands.
It was the 20th anniversary of Cyclone Bola this week. I remember that week very well, it was not long after we moved in to our house in King St and big willow tree blew over.
We had another police chase evader die in an effort to avoid an interview with plod.
The fire at MOTAT resulted in the arrest and charge of eight 15-16 year olds, four of which came from Western Springs College.
Middlemore Hospital appears to be drumming up business by selling Listeria-ridden sandwiches from it's cafeteria. Yuck.
Truly bizarre situation this week in Wellington. An 18 yo man fell asleep next to his fiancée (27, but let's not go there. That bits creepy as well) in a movie theatre (a chick flick). She left him there, went home, later realised he hadn't returned. He woke up in the theatre at 3am, 18 missed calls on his phone, tried to get out and continued to set off alarms until he finally made it out, where he was confronted by police. Now, he has become the Herald reviewer of chick flicks, he is no longer engaged (lucky escape if you ask me, what a bitch for leaving him there and a cradle snatcher too), and is probably going to start giving relationship advice as well. It's a bit like that pseudo-streaker who somehow still seems to be considered a "celebrity".
A bizarre incident in Remuera when a 63 year old female cyclist was punched and thrown off a bridge by some crazy guy. She survived but is not going to try bungee jumping any time soon.
A bad weekend on roads, sort of. One died when a ute rolled down a 100 foot dune at Bethells Beach. Two other motorcycle riders died in a crash during a race. There were a few other fatalities. I think they were all male.
A prisoner is in hospital after being beaten severely at a barbecue rewarding good behaviour. Interesting reward, the atmosphere must have been dripping with irony.
WORLD NEWS
Norwegian scientists have found that whale meat is the cheapest in terms of greenhouse gases when compared to chicken, beef, lamb. In not such big writing, most fish and seafood is the same as whale. Somehow I can't see us all buying whale burgers. The sad thing is that it's a bit like Colombians releasing a study saying cocaine is the best drug for greenhouse gases. It may well be true on some level, but it really isn't relevant.
Six people were shot in a Memphis shooting. Three were Elvis impersonators, so it's not all bad.
Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy role playing game for anoraks world over, died this week. I guess he failed to make a saving throw.
INTERSTELLAR NEWS
Talk about mountains and molehills. Some guy reckons he's found that a star that is close to going nova is pointing at us and we could be thumped with gamma rays from 8000 light years away. Now, you could say it hasn't happened yet, so who cares about 8,000 years from now but it could have gone nova already and the light telling us this hasn't got here yet. Nevertheless, I wouldn't panic just yet. The news item about it led with all sorts of panic mongering, calling it a "death star" and all sorts.
REAL SPORT
Well, some serious defending paid off and Rory's summer soccer team managed to clinch a win in their final game 2-1.
Friday was lots of games. Senior Boys won about 15-3 against Green Bay (I saw Rory score 2 but not sure how many as I could only watch first half). Senior girls lost 0-15 to St Mary's. Junior Girls played Marist I think and lost but I cannot remember the score. Junior Boys drew 5-5 with Massey, their best result in grading so far. B2 Junior Girls playing senior lost 0-9 against Mt Roskill but it was 0-1 at half time.
SPORT
The big third and final sculling showdown was postponed due to weather on Tuesday, great for news agencies to extend the story but bad for the athletes. The final race fizzled as Waddell struggled and Drysdale screamed in. Waddell then revealed all about a heart irregularity thing that happened early in the third race.
The Aussies failed to level the finals series against India so it was all over 2-0 to India, not a happy result for Australian Cricket. People making lots of noise about how it's all over for them. I wouldn't count on it.
End of day three the first test against England looked like it would end in a very tame draw. The morning of the fourth day, we were still going on England's first innings and then it all went crazy with the Poms getting a hat-trick and New Zealand struggling, before declaring on the fifth day and bundling out the Poms for 110 about 190 short of their target.
The Blues lost to Sharks 17-22, Crusaders won, Highlanders lost, Hurricanes won. Not sure about Chiefs.
Both Man Utd and Chelsea lost their FA Cup quarter final matches 0-1. Minnows Barnsley and Portsmouth go through to semi-final glory. There is only one Premiere team left in the FA Cup now.
MY SAD LIFE
Went mental last Monday, after deciding I had sod all to do and stripped down one of the bathroom windows and repainted it. It was pretty bad, and now it looks great. I was very pleased with myself. Hannah even noticed! The big question is whether I will do any more.
Tuesday, I went another kind of mental and swam, Forrest Gump style (swim, Rob, swim!). I tried to go for an hour but my feet and legs started cramping so I stopped at 55 minutes, but I reckon I did over 100 lengths in that time (2.5 ks). I am not sure I will repeat the attempt soon, that was the most I have ever done in one go. Weird that it wasn't my arms that failed, they do all the work. Thursday I did 60 lengths in just under 30 minutes.
We all raced down to the Dignan St market for the last one of the summer on Thursday night, before heading to the pool. We were there for about 30 minutes, spent quite a bit of money in a short time (four tasty muffins, three mussel fritters, two t-shirts, and a loaf of Turkish bread). The t-shirts are ones that say "Point Chevalier" inside the Chevy-style logo. They are pretty cool, nice to have some parochialism out there.
Hannah, Diana, and Elsie went to Pasifika, the annual Pacific Island festival at Western Springs lake, on Saturday. The traffic around the area was awful, as usual. Had to get the car as close as I could to drop Elsie off because she can't easily handle long distance walking.
Didn't see much of Rory over the weekend, Maddie came to polo then stayed Friday, then they went to Cassidy's party so we didn't see him until Sunday lunch time.
Hannah and I spent a chunk of Sunday making a model wardrobe for English. Didn't actually take too long. It's not finished yet, but we made good progress, especially with the mini-coat hangers. We also spent some time kicking a ball because she has her club soccer trial tonight and she needed to spend some time with a ball at her feet.
The kids have both got the North Island Secondary School polo champs this week, starting Thursday, so busy end of week and weekend.
3 March 2008
Pumpkin's Dad caught with cunning plan, the Olympic sculling battle rages on - 03/03/2008
Wednesday is World Maths Day. We should all solve a quadratric equation to celebrate. Or perhaps find the square root of minus 1.
I waited until the second single sculls race was done before sending this (see Sport for more).
LOCAL NEWS
Believe it or not, they caught the fugitive Nai Yin Xue (father of girl nicknamed "Pumpkin" who was abandoned at a Melbourne train station) with the cunning plan they told everyone about. I have to eat my words. He obviously doesn't read the newspapers or my email, and he did get quite a surprise. He was recognised by some members of the Chinese Community and tied up in a blanket until the police arrived. Meanwhile, redneck vigilantes in the US have caught 19 other suspected Nai Yin Xue's and the Chinese community in the US is not happy with these random apprehensions. "They all look the same to us" one man, Cletus Moonshine the Fifth, said. One of the 19, an afro-American, felt that he didn't resemble Nai Yin Xue at all. But seriously, they are using an immigration issue to extradite him quickly rather than piddle around with the murder charge.
A trailer full of cheese caught fire on the road. We had fondue jokes all over the show.
A backpacker won a million dollars from Lotto two days after arriving in Christchurch. Lucky sod isn't going fruit picking now.
I didn't really notice this when it occurred, but some 45yo man tried to run over his son, after the son called him a paedophile because he was going out with his son's 18yo ex-girlfriend, now pregnant to the father. He has been given home detention, in his house bus. Now, given that he tried to run over his son with a motor vehicle, is confining him to a variant of his weapon of choice really a good idea? They have taken his license for a year but I am not sure how effective that will be.
Tagging continues to be news, with some kids arrested for 29 incidents. One has to wonder why it has suddenly become an issue when it has been around a long time. They are talking about banning aerosol sprays, now, which would actually be a major hassle for those of us with legitimate needs for them (we use them in school projects quite a lot).
A year 12 boy (so about 16 years old) had a heart attack in PE and was brought back with the aid of a defibrillator. Lucky kid.
Big crash in Mangere on Wednesday night when a car load of hoons flew out of control through many obstacles (fences, roofs, other cars, houses). There were six on board and a number of six packs.
Nasty situation in Christchurch this week where the occupants of a small retirement village are getting the boot because the "owner" hasn't kept up with mortgage payments. In other words, the occupants have all paid the management company for their license to occupy but the company hasn't paid the bills. Raises all kinds of questions about that sort of situation.
On Friday, there were leap day stories everywhere about birthdays and getting married and so forth. I guess it's okay to trot them out once every four years, but really it's not news is it? I mean, we all know about leap day. I am sure the other 365 days of the year feel a little unrecognised as a result.
The Wings and Wheels airshow in Hamilton staggered to a big fail this week. It appears to have been either a scam from the start or run incompetently. The organiser has disappeared but many appear to be on his trail. Fallout includes all sorts of organisations that are out of pocket and some strange woman who did a dodgy calendar for the event (but all in the best possible taste). Maddie's Dad was involved in filming some bits for the story and borrowed our copy of the flyer for the story on Campbell Live, so our junk mail is famous.
An elderly woman was run over outside her home by another elderly woman, she died on the way to the hospital. The other elderly woman was a long time friend, wonder if she's going to give up driving.
Friday night there was a fire at Motat 2, the air museum near us that the kids walk past to get to school. It sounded like it was getting pretty serious and there were heaps of appliances there, but couldn't see anything from the road the next morning.
News this morning about the kind of calls we get on our emergency 111 service. They include a woman who needed help threading a needle to fix a dress and she was running late, a guy concerned about two hedgehogs "fighting" on his lawn, and a man who was scared of a cow that was in his letter box (police sent around an imaginary farmer to take it to a nice farm with lots of hay). People should be charged for vacuous calls.
WORLD NEWS
A women in New Guinea was badly hung (as compared to well hung) by the crazy villagers after her neighbour died suddenly. She then gave birth while suspended from the neck, mother and child are doing well (they went into hiding after she was cut down). I think she could touch the ground, not sure how far the baby fell.
Huge fuss about Prince Harry being outed in Afghanistan, has been on news every day nearly all week.
REAL SPORT
The summer soccer team won their playoff 3-0, so are in 5th-6th game tonight. Rory scored the first one, he and Cassidy left at half time when they were up 2-0.
Hannah helped the junior boys a little on Friday, who lost 0-11, the B2 girls then lost 1-12 against a reasonably good team. Rory's team drew 3-3 against Mt Roskill. The junior boys played again on Sunday losing 2-8 (Hannah scored one goal) and the senior boys won 7-2, Rory got three goals. Hannah then played for Kelston Boys and they won 10-2 but lost by default. Was a pretty fun game with one goal scored from a header disallowed by the ref who was giving the player involved a hard time.
SPORT
Man Utd beat Fulham 3-0 (Ji-Sung Park scored the second, sounds like a place not a person). Chelsea beat West Ham 4-0, the Arse drew 1-1 with Villa, Newcastle lost 0-1 to Blackburn. Liverpool and Everton both had 3-1 wins this morning (over Bolton and Portsmouth).
The Blues had another away win in South Africa, the Crusaders also won but didn't get the bonus point. Hurricanes beat Chiefs, Highlanders lost to Waratahs, I think. Blues are top of table now.
Otago managed to beat favourites Auckland in the provincial cricket ODI final. Brendon McCullum led the chase with a record-setting 170 including the fastest ever century and highest score ever.
Mahe Drysdale won the first race in the best of three trial with Rob Waddell for the Olympic nomination in the single sculls, their second race was at 9am this morning and Waddell just managed to edge ahead so it is one-all leading in to tomorrow's final race.
Big win for local golfer Mark Brown in the Johnnie Walker Classic in New Delhi, which gains him entry to European events for two years and half a million bucks in prize money.
Sachin Tendulkar scored his first ever century in Australia in an ODI to beat the aussies in the first final of the tri-series.
MY SAD LIFE
Forgot to mention me and the kids popping in to the twilight market in our street, at the bowling club, last week. Hannah was pretty keen to go so we raced in for about four minutes. Went past a guy with a barbecue, making fritters. Rory asked me if I was going to get one, I said I didn't know what sort they were. The guy overheard me and said "Mussel fritters, mate. They are sensational!". He kept going but Rory said "I think you made that sale with the first six words". Was kind of funny. Anyway, bought one, Hannah got some fudge, and Rory got a t-shirt with "Pt Chevalier" on it in a Chevrolet logo shape. Oh, and the fritter was pretty good.
Visited the twins on Tuesday, at two weeks old they are settling in to a sort of routine. Don't think Sarah is looking forward to Scott returning to work today.
Walking has been a bit of a theme this week. I walked over to visit Sarah and Scott (and Jack and Samantha), walked to Pt Chevalier shops with Hannah and Josie one day, where we were stalked by Daphne from the Homestead, and went for a walk with Diana three times around the lake.
Rory has driven solo a couple of times this week. He had a whinge about how he could do it more if he had his own car, but we pointed out that he could do it more if he got out of bed before lunchtime.
Our neighbour, Jim, returned quietly on Wednesday. The big wedding was Friday and he was pretty keen to be there as it is going to be the biggest family gathering for quite a while. I think he's struggling, but he did well to get out of hospital in time for it. I went to visit him on Sunday and it took a while to coax Pandora inside to say hello but she did and then Ollie showed up without any invitation (he never goes over there).
Diana and Hannah went of to see the Trinny and Susanna roadshow on Saturday morning, which they enjoyed.
I've been reading about perpetual motion machines, unbalanced wheels and the like. The first recorded one dates back to 1240AD or so, I am guessing many have tried and failed. The US Patent office has special rules for such devices, demanding a working model as well as drawings unlike most patent applications. There are some interesting variations out there, but they all use gravity, heat, or magnetism so the laws of thermodynamics are preserved.
Hannah has athletics day today, Rory isn't going this year. The kids both went to interschool swimming on Thursday. I think they won a couple of relays but not sure about anything else.
BUT THEY DON"T TEACH US ABOUT ONES
Rory has an Australian kid in his maths class who can't handle equations with ones in. He reckons he never got taught about ones, so anything with the number one in has him confused (like 12/1, 15*1, 8^1). He struggles to dial emergency services, too.
I waited until the second single sculls race was done before sending this (see Sport for more).
LOCAL NEWS
Believe it or not, they caught the fugitive Nai Yin Xue (father of girl nicknamed "Pumpkin" who was abandoned at a Melbourne train station) with the cunning plan they told everyone about. I have to eat my words. He obviously doesn't read the newspapers or my email, and he did get quite a surprise. He was recognised by some members of the Chinese Community and tied up in a blanket until the police arrived. Meanwhile, redneck vigilantes in the US have caught 19 other suspected Nai Yin Xue's and the Chinese community in the US is not happy with these random apprehensions. "They all look the same to us" one man, Cletus Moonshine the Fifth, said. One of the 19, an afro-American, felt that he didn't resemble Nai Yin Xue at all. But seriously, they are using an immigration issue to extradite him quickly rather than piddle around with the murder charge.
A trailer full of cheese caught fire on the road. We had fondue jokes all over the show.
A backpacker won a million dollars from Lotto two days after arriving in Christchurch. Lucky sod isn't going fruit picking now.
I didn't really notice this when it occurred, but some 45yo man tried to run over his son, after the son called him a paedophile because he was going out with his son's 18yo ex-girlfriend, now pregnant to the father. He has been given home detention, in his house bus. Now, given that he tried to run over his son with a motor vehicle, is confining him to a variant of his weapon of choice really a good idea? They have taken his license for a year but I am not sure how effective that will be.
Tagging continues to be news, with some kids arrested for 29 incidents. One has to wonder why it has suddenly become an issue when it has been around a long time. They are talking about banning aerosol sprays, now, which would actually be a major hassle for those of us with legitimate needs for them (we use them in school projects quite a lot).
A year 12 boy (so about 16 years old) had a heart attack in PE and was brought back with the aid of a defibrillator. Lucky kid.
Big crash in Mangere on Wednesday night when a car load of hoons flew out of control through many obstacles (fences, roofs, other cars, houses). There were six on board and a number of six packs.
Nasty situation in Christchurch this week where the occupants of a small retirement village are getting the boot because the "owner" hasn't kept up with mortgage payments. In other words, the occupants have all paid the management company for their license to occupy but the company hasn't paid the bills. Raises all kinds of questions about that sort of situation.
On Friday, there were leap day stories everywhere about birthdays and getting married and so forth. I guess it's okay to trot them out once every four years, but really it's not news is it? I mean, we all know about leap day. I am sure the other 365 days of the year feel a little unrecognised as a result.
The Wings and Wheels airshow in Hamilton staggered to a big fail this week. It appears to have been either a scam from the start or run incompetently. The organiser has disappeared but many appear to be on his trail. Fallout includes all sorts of organisations that are out of pocket and some strange woman who did a dodgy calendar for the event (but all in the best possible taste). Maddie's Dad was involved in filming some bits for the story and borrowed our copy of the flyer for the story on Campbell Live, so our junk mail is famous.
An elderly woman was run over outside her home by another elderly woman, she died on the way to the hospital. The other elderly woman was a long time friend, wonder if she's going to give up driving.
Friday night there was a fire at Motat 2, the air museum near us that the kids walk past to get to school. It sounded like it was getting pretty serious and there were heaps of appliances there, but couldn't see anything from the road the next morning.
News this morning about the kind of calls we get on our emergency 111 service. They include a woman who needed help threading a needle to fix a dress and she was running late, a guy concerned about two hedgehogs "fighting" on his lawn, and a man who was scared of a cow that was in his letter box (police sent around an imaginary farmer to take it to a nice farm with lots of hay). People should be charged for vacuous calls.
WORLD NEWS
A women in New Guinea was badly hung (as compared to well hung) by the crazy villagers after her neighbour died suddenly. She then gave birth while suspended from the neck, mother and child are doing well (they went into hiding after she was cut down). I think she could touch the ground, not sure how far the baby fell.
Huge fuss about Prince Harry being outed in Afghanistan, has been on news every day nearly all week.
REAL SPORT
The summer soccer team won their playoff 3-0, so are in 5th-6th game tonight. Rory scored the first one, he and Cassidy left at half time when they were up 2-0.
Hannah helped the junior boys a little on Friday, who lost 0-11, the B2 girls then lost 1-12 against a reasonably good team. Rory's team drew 3-3 against Mt Roskill. The junior boys played again on Sunday losing 2-8 (Hannah scored one goal) and the senior boys won 7-2, Rory got three goals. Hannah then played for Kelston Boys and they won 10-2 but lost by default. Was a pretty fun game with one goal scored from a header disallowed by the ref who was giving the player involved a hard time.
SPORT
Man Utd beat Fulham 3-0 (Ji-Sung Park scored the second, sounds like a place not a person). Chelsea beat West Ham 4-0, the Arse drew 1-1 with Villa, Newcastle lost 0-1 to Blackburn. Liverpool and Everton both had 3-1 wins this morning (over Bolton and Portsmouth).
The Blues had another away win in South Africa, the Crusaders also won but didn't get the bonus point. Hurricanes beat Chiefs, Highlanders lost to Waratahs, I think. Blues are top of table now.
Otago managed to beat favourites Auckland in the provincial cricket ODI final. Brendon McCullum led the chase with a record-setting 170 including the fastest ever century and highest score ever.
Mahe Drysdale won the first race in the best of three trial with Rob Waddell for the Olympic nomination in the single sculls, their second race was at 9am this morning and Waddell just managed to edge ahead so it is one-all leading in to tomorrow's final race.
Big win for local golfer Mark Brown in the Johnnie Walker Classic in New Delhi, which gains him entry to European events for two years and half a million bucks in prize money.
Sachin Tendulkar scored his first ever century in Australia in an ODI to beat the aussies in the first final of the tri-series.
MY SAD LIFE
Forgot to mention me and the kids popping in to the twilight market in our street, at the bowling club, last week. Hannah was pretty keen to go so we raced in for about four minutes. Went past a guy with a barbecue, making fritters. Rory asked me if I was going to get one, I said I didn't know what sort they were. The guy overheard me and said "Mussel fritters, mate. They are sensational!". He kept going but Rory said "I think you made that sale with the first six words". Was kind of funny. Anyway, bought one, Hannah got some fudge, and Rory got a t-shirt with "Pt Chevalier" on it in a Chevrolet logo shape. Oh, and the fritter was pretty good.
Visited the twins on Tuesday, at two weeks old they are settling in to a sort of routine. Don't think Sarah is looking forward to Scott returning to work today.
Walking has been a bit of a theme this week. I walked over to visit Sarah and Scott (and Jack and Samantha), walked to Pt Chevalier shops with Hannah and Josie one day, where we were stalked by Daphne from the Homestead, and went for a walk with Diana three times around the lake.
Rory has driven solo a couple of times this week. He had a whinge about how he could do it more if he had his own car, but we pointed out that he could do it more if he got out of bed before lunchtime.
Our neighbour, Jim, returned quietly on Wednesday. The big wedding was Friday and he was pretty keen to be there as it is going to be the biggest family gathering for quite a while. I think he's struggling, but he did well to get out of hospital in time for it. I went to visit him on Sunday and it took a while to coax Pandora inside to say hello but she did and then Ollie showed up without any invitation (he never goes over there).
Diana and Hannah went of to see the Trinny and Susanna roadshow on Saturday morning, which they enjoyed.
I've been reading about perpetual motion machines, unbalanced wheels and the like. The first recorded one dates back to 1240AD or so, I am guessing many have tried and failed. The US Patent office has special rules for such devices, demanding a working model as well as drawings unlike most patent applications. There are some interesting variations out there, but they all use gravity, heat, or magnetism so the laws of thermodynamics are preserved.
Hannah has athletics day today, Rory isn't going this year. The kids both went to interschool swimming on Thursday. I think they won a couple of relays but not sure about anything else.
BUT THEY DON"T TEACH US ABOUT ONES
Rory has an Australian kid in his maths class who can't handle equations with ones in. He reckons he never got taught about ones, so anything with the number one in has him confused (like 12/1, 15*1, 8^1). He struggles to dial emergency services, too.
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