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.
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