LOCAL NEWS
Twelve high school kids were washed away in a swollen Mangetepopo river on Tuesday, near the Outdoor Pursuits Centre in Tongariro National Park. It was not good. By the next morning the bodies of six students and a teacher were found. While the word tragedy seems more than appropriate, it's over-use makes it less so. The kids were from the Elim Christian School in Howick. God was clearly not on their side this week. Of course we then had the media frenzy. A press conference at 7:15am by the headmaster, who handled things pretty well, was then fired with questions like "how has this impacted your school community". He managed to restrain himself and not say "How the hell should I know, we've only known for the last 12 hours, they found the last two bodies two hours ago, and most people haven't heard yet that's why we're having a press conference."
For the rest of the week we were treated to examples of how invasive and morally bankrupt the media can be as they exploited every possible opportunity and angle to cover the story.
A man was killed by lightning while horse-riding near Dargaville. The horse was also killed.
All reports on the Kahui case were deeply disturbing as character assassination occurred between the father and the mother, amid woeful delivery from the defence lawyer who wouldn't last five minutes on Boston Legal. As the week wore on you couldn't help but realise what a total pair of scumbags the two parents were, although basically the whole week involved them character assassinating each other they both had plenty of dirt to dish (she was "trying" P the week before they died, is one example). We came to the realisation that the twin boys were probably better off dying young than becoming long term destructive forces to society. Some background on the mother for you, Macsyna King, she has had six kids, to about five different men, and all the surviving ones live with their fathers. And you need a dog license, eh?
A 2yo in Hastings died when he pulled a fireguard over onto himself. Nasty, horrible when safety measures go bad.
They finally found a body in the Waimakiriri River on Thursday. It was expected to be the missing girl, and was eventually confirmed, but after losing seven on Tuesday, coverage of one dead in a river seemed almost petty.
Confirming my ever-popular "bigger bastard theory" (which originated while kayaking but is useful on the road, it goes like this: no matter whether you have the right of way or not, if the other guy is the bigger bastard, give way rather than end up being a red hood ornament.) an 87 year old on a mobility scooter learned a terminal lesson when they took on a light truck near Mt Maunganui. The way I think is this, if the big guy hasn't seen you, your day is going to be ruined a lot more than his.
A toddler that presented with inexplicable head injuries in Manukau died on Friday. His parents are facing firearms and P charges this week. Nothing changes, eh?
Latest polls have National ahead in most areas.
The young doctors are threatening a 48 hour strike tomorrow. We are trying to avoid injury. The DHB came out saying they weren't giving them a higher percentage increase than everyone else, but if they are underpaid comparatively how will they redress the balance?
WORLD NEWS
Julie told me about a woman who was also twice widowed. Her first husband killed himself. Her second husband was the recipient of her first husband's heart, and a few years later he also killed himself. I am assuming the heart isn't being recycled again, the whole thing is quite Edgar Allan Poe-esque. It happened a little while ago now, but it seemed topical.
There was news from Reuters that Neanderthals spoke like new zealanders. I wonder if they knew about jandals and buzzy bees?
REAL SPORT
Only had Hannah's soccer game this weekend. They lost 1-2, but were so much better than the other team, they just struggled with the small field which was a three quarter pitch.
Hannah has been picked in the A netball team at school. God knows how she will fit it in, and there are some grumpy club players who didn't make the A team. Seems quite contentious but the trials took ages.
SPORT
New Zealand cricketer Brendan McCullum scored 158 not out in a 20/20 game in India, highest ever score in a 20/20 match.
Man Utd drew 1-1 with Blackburn, Liverpool beat Fulham 2-0, the Arse beat Reading 2-0. Newcastle beat Sunderland 2-0, Villa thumped the Brummies 5-1.
The Chiefs beat the Crusaders (didn't see that coming) 18-5, Highlanders and Hurricanes lost, Blues had a bye.
MY SAD LIFE
The "river tragedy" this week reminds me of what happened when I was in 7th form. Koos was there, as was Jono's sister Steph. We were taking depth readings in the river for a rate of flow exercise for Applied Maths, a practical application of the Trapezium Rule. Some of us were nipple-deep in water at times in a slowly angrying river. We were meant to be spending the night out there under flysheets, so we had sleeping bags and things with us. The weather wasn't good, it slowly got worse, and when the teacher realised maybe we needed to get out it was probably later than it should have been. Steph was suffering from hyperthermia and as we trudged out of the bush we came across a bunch of army cooks who had cooked up a big feed in the middle of nowhere for nobody in particular and we all got shelter and food. I may be wrong but I think they even transported some of us back to our bus. We were exceedingly lucky, Steph in particular.
Hannah did a face plant on the bottom of the pool on Tuesday, she was mucking around. Wasn't happy but she will live.
Rory impressed everyone with his brilliance this week. Went back to school Thursday night to get his media book, that was actually sitting on the coffee table. Nice. He did ace an algebra test, so perhaps his brain cells were fatigued.
Both kids disappeared Saturday night so we had a peaceful house and went out for breakfast. They stayed at Maddie's house. Not the same Maddie. There are too many Middies.
Sasha Bamberger turned five yesterday. She has only been called Sasha for 4 years and 43 weeks.
It would have been my father's 70th birthday on Thursday. It is Rory Hughes' birthday today, but haven't actually heard from him in ages.
Koos ran away from home for the day, yesterday. Something about a party and lots of 14 year old girls. I don't blame him. We went to Takapuna Beach with the Goodins, Pippy, and Koos, and no kids. There was an ocean swim going on there, some man died but we didn't notice. The dead guy didn't warrant a mention on the TV news this morning, but a dog that did the swim was given plenty of coverage.
OH, AND IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING
No Berocca incidents this week. I know you probably weren't wondering.
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