You know how I have been saying the weather's been bad? Well, it's been really bad. Oh, and we should be getting more.
LOCAL NEWS
A retarded kayaker got lost off Mt Maunganui in the bad weather, he deserves everything he gets. Only a mad man would kayak in this weather, when it has been dangerous just to walk on the beach in many places. Rather than being feared dead, I think I feared he might still be alive.
Earlier in the week there was a bit of fun at Lake Karapiro when a press boat sank while getting shots of Olympic rowers. All the footage disappeared but none of the journos died. Shame nobody had a camera to record the news people becoming the news.
A burglar in New Plymouth was well caught when he chose a flat occupied by a Hurricanes loose forward. He was tackled and held until police arrived.
Bit of a controversy over an airline charging adult rates for a 14 year old passenger then not allowing him to accompany his 2 two year old sister (on the return journey, not the outbound journey, which is a little inconsistent).
As well as Maori Language week, it was Australasian Rail Safety Awareness week. This meant we got lots of ads about being careful around trains. Meanwhile, various shows slipped in some meaningless Maori babble here and there, it was most disconcerting. Today it is back to normal.
Winston went from the frying pan and into the fire this week, with another healthy sum coming from big players in the racing industry (and he is Minister of Racing, don't ask why they need a minister for horse racing, they don't have a minister of roller hockey or scrabble).
Then things went from worse to 28x more worserer for Winston as it turned out Bob Jones had been donating via some anonymous vehicle called the Spencer Trust. Meanwhile Winston continues to show his contempt for the law and I think he has got to the point where only the most irrational voter would consider him worthy of elected office. However, there is no shortage of irrational voters, is there?
This week we also had Condoleeza Rice visiting us, Winston's best mate. Lousy timing for Winston because he should have been basking in reflected glory, but it mostly backfired.
We got tons of coverage of the sob story about how psychopath Antonie Dixon was abused by his mother and Jehovah's witnesses. This, of course, means that chopping limbs off people is completely understandable and rather than jail he should spend time shelving books in public libraries for an hour a week to make up for it.
The coach and father of a young tennis player got the player disqualified for coaching during the game with a concealed earpiece.
A motorcycle collided with a horse, the man died, they didn't mention the horse. Or the motorbike.
Bodies kept showing up in unexpected places. We had one in a central Auckland street, another near the Kowai river, wherever that is, then a man's body was found on the side of the southern motorway on Friday night. Then the kayaker was found on Matakana island (the one who went missing at Mt Maunganui).
A climber died on Mt Aspiring, but it wasn't really a case of finding a body, the other three in his group saw him slip (while wearing running shoes instead of his boots, which were on his back) and when he came to rest 100m down, he was in a state ready to be laid to rest. So they saw him become a body, I suppose.
Hanover Finance, with a supposedly rock solid reputation, became the 23rd finance company in New Zealand to fail. They haven't entirely failed but they are basically knackered because who will invest with them now?
The two major shareholders of Hanover Finance were prominent on the rich list published a few days later. Interestingly enough, John Key also made the list, which I don't think will help him get votes.
A woman was shot in a dairy in West Auckland on Saturday. She wasn't body-fied, and should be okay.
A man was fatally shot on Sunday morning in Waharoa, the place with the straight to Matamata (or from Matamata depending on your point of view). Sunday night, his house got burned. Supposedly as revenge for being shot. I don't think gang members have quite got this revenge thing figured out.
Google must have read my email last week because that added Maori soon after I mentioned it last week. Well they said they had, but I can't find it.
Our youngest convicted murderer, Bailey Junior Kuariki, is back in prison after breaching parole by using drugs.
WORLD NEWS
Fugitive ex-president Radovan Karadzic was apprehended, I didn't actually know he was a fugitive. They seemed surprised he was using a false name, but I can't imagine him hiding for long using his real name. One commentator said that it did nothing for the reputation of faith healers, personally it does not surprise me that they included genocidal maniacs in their midst. Naturally, he will be defending himself, as one would expect.
The Model T is 100 years old this week. I guess that means 100 years of global warming.
Barack Obama set a record for clichés and tired aphorisms in his speech in Berlin. He will be awarded the Cybill Fawlty fellowship for stating the bleeding obvious on his return to the US.
A 15 year old boy in Winnipeg had his fate tarsealed when a truck load of asphalt was dumped and he was buried in it.
Mick Jagger is a senior citizen this week, turning 65 on Saturday. Meanwhile Ron Wood keeps his youth by running off with Russian teenagers.
The credibility of the global warming theory took a hit with "soft hail" in Sydney. It wasn't snow, apparently.
THE GOSS
Okay, this one is real. There was a piece about how film makers were digitally removing Sienna Miller's Brazilian. You have got to be kidding. This is just as bad as the one about them giving Justin Timberlake some artificial shrinkage in some music video (too much salami). Any body that suggests that either change improves the artistic merit of a movie or a video, feel free to explain that one to me.
Also this week, we hear about the disease Winston has been battling since Wednesday. Pecuniary Amnesiitis is the disease of the brain which makes you forget where the money went. We find out how he's been living a secret life without cash, using taxi chits and purchase orders to get by.
We then learn how the majority owners of Hanover Finance appear to have suffered the same affliction.
Police this week will decide not to press charges against Tony Veitch, because he's suffered enough. Being wealthy, white, and short are all things he has to live with and he just wouldn't survive in prison.
Subsequently, the will be a riot at Mt Eden prison as inmates demand refunds on raffle tickets. The prize was getting Mr Veitch as their bitch for a week.
REAL SPORT
Well, despite the continuing rain, we played school soccer on Wednesday. This was the final round robin match and they won 5-0. The don't play next week and play 4th place the week after.
Club soccer was cancelled, again.
Rory's U16 polo team played on Sunday, won about 12-1 versus a B team, as you would expect. However, the girls A team lost 2-3 to a B team which we didn't expect.
SPORT
The much over publicised Deans v Henry game resulted in a clear win for Deans with the Wallabies winning 34-19. I still think that the media here heavily overestimates how obsessed we are with the All Blacks. I wonder if the Rugby Union are starting to realise what most of us already knew.
Warriors had another win, tight game 8-6 over the Storm.
The Waikato (think they are Waikato) Magic made the final of the transtasman netball series which is played tonight.
MY SAD LIFE
I went to see Hannah's teachers this week. Two said she was very quiet in class. "No, Hannah CLARKE," says me. They assured me they had the right person. I still think these things are a complete waste of time. Her English teacher was MIA, I don't think we've managed to see her yet. I suspect she could be fictional.
Saw the twins briefly, and taught Jack to say "Mama". He did it three times, although slowly, it still counts. I did point out to both of them that whoever says "Mama" first gets to be the favourite, I think that motivated him. They are about five and a half months old now.
Brett's gone to Singapore and Hong Kong for work, lucky bugger.
Spoke with Gavin, briefly, Maria is walking. Haven't seen them for ages.
Diana and I went to see the Dark Knight on Friday night. Man, it was long. Yes, aspects of it were quite good but overall it felt laboured, I think. It's not one for the kids.
Hannah and I went jeans shopping. Well, actually, I went shoe shopping and she went jeans shopping. I didn't think any would fit me, because usually they don't stock ones big enough for me in Jeans West, but I ended up down sizing twice before I got the right ones. Third from biggest is pretty unusual for me. Maybe they are just stocking larger sizes. They are stretch jeans, my very own stretch-n-grow.
We popped in to the Goodins on the way to the polo game. Their house is chaos as they prepare for some reconstruction to sort out the leaking issue. Hannah stayed there to make afghans while we went to Millennium.
Rory turns 16 this Thursday. Nope, nobody around here is feeling old….
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment