LOCAL NEWS
Well, it looked like the week for joke truck crashes. First we had a truckload of cornflakes spill near Wellington, and no, there wasn't a milk tanker or a truck full of bananas anywhere in sight. Then, on Wednesday, we had cooking oil in College Hill but no sign of French fries. We spent the rest of the week waiting for something else. It never came, it was pretty disappointing.
A Pukehina woman gave birth in a Shell petrol station on Tuesday in Papamoa. Pathetic. Lived 50ks from hospital, you'd think they would have had a bit of a better plan. Worse, they names the baby Michelle (My Shell, geddit? Good thing it wasn't at a Mobil station).
The National Party managed to dig itself a deeper hole this week. I suspect Helen and her friends are rubbing their hands with delight. The use of digital voice recorders is suddenly very fashionable, despite the fact that dictaphones have been around for years.
Tuatara reproduction became the saucy news of the week, with jokes about geriatric sex everywhere. The protagonist was a 111 year old male that had contributed to 12 eggs laid by a 70 year old female and was then being introduced to a couple of other females. Tuatara live a long time and certainly pace themselves in terms of fertility.
A tourist died in a quad bike accident west of the Waitomo caves.
We had four die on North Island roads. One was on a motor bike, when he ran into a ute carrying a quad bike. Still no truck though.
By about Thursday, the Olympic fever was dominating everything, there was no news about much else. Michael Phelps won more medals than most countries pretty early on, as expected.
A man's leg was saved thanks to a heroic night rescue on Tongariro. Searchers have not yet found the rest of the man.
WORLD NEWS
Georgia and Russia did manage some airtime, despite the Olympics. Not sure what is going on exactly in terms of who should own what, but let's hope it gets sorted before there are more tears.
Tall black comedian Bernie Mac died this week, he was only 50. Pneumonia and sarcoidosis were the culprits. Nasty. Meanwhile tall black actor Morgan Freeman had a car accident that broke his marriage. Naughty man. Tall black singer Isaac Hayes completed the trio by dying at age 65.
The murder of the father in law of the US volleyball team coach in Beijing was big news because the coach is New Zealand born.
REAL SPORT
Well, we had confusion and drama in real sport this week. Hannah's school soccer game was a semi-final against a depleted Avondale College team looked like it would be a default win to us, then they got some more players so we played with ten a side. Then they had another player arrive, didn't tell us, and we were playing a man down. Then another arrived so they played with 12. Like I said, confusion. Anyway, despite them levelling at 1-1, the pressure told in the end and we won 8-1.
Hannah's club game conflicted with a polo game (which she had to miss). They were playing Hibiscus Coast at home, they scored two goals early but couldn't get any more, final score was 2-0.
The team I help coach played nearby straight after. It was nil all at half time, but we managed to score a goal in the second half. Soon after the goal, the coach, Andy, collapsed and had a seizure. I tried to keep the girls focused, but his daughter on the field had no idea what was happening. I had to sub her off, she asked where her Dad was, and I had to tell her what was happening, and ask her whether he was epileptic or diabetic and things while the ambulance was on the way. He came out of it after about 15 minutes, but they took him away in the ambulance. The father of one girl in the team is a physician of some sort which was very handy.
Rory's U16 team had two wins over the weekend without Rory, who is staying away while his shoulder injury recovers.
Hannah's U16 girls polo team played Rotorua on Sunday. Hannah scored the opening goal, and although it was close early on they pulled away to win 9-3.
SPORT
Not sure why there was no tri-nations rugby. Auckland managed to fend off Taranaki. Last week there were some legendary upsets I failed to mention including Northland beating Waikato, Counties-Manukau beating Auckland, and Manawatu beating Canterbury. Wellington and Bay of Plenty are top of table after two weeks.
I am not going to bore you with Olympic stuff, there are plenty of people already doing that. And no, I did not see any of the opening ceremony, live or highlights. I see no relevance of a bunch of idiots dancing as far as a sporting tournament is concerned. Even worse are the idiots commentating for hours on end by basically telling us what we can see.
Man Utd beat Portsmouth 3-1 on penalties in the Charity Shield. UK Football Premier League starts next weekend. Man Utd play Newcastle.
MY SAD LIFE
I crippled myself again on Monday, I keep doing it. Pulling things in my legs, this time calf on right leg. I either need to warm up or do some stretches or both. Too old to learn new tricks. Over it now, mostly.
Ross got a weird text from Diana. I'm sorry, it's the technology Ross.
I got a text from Heidi saying Jan Willem and Janekke got married on Friday (on the 8th of the 8th, so he can remember his anniversary, I bet).
Got an email from Andy yesterday to say he was back home from hospital and nothing serious in cat scan, not even a cat. I was quite relieved, he's not allowed to drive for a little while but otherwise okay.
Not sure that much actually happened this week, it just seemed to fly by. Pretty much the usual combination of physio trips, trainings, and logistical planning and replanning that seems to occupy our weeks.
This coming Wednesday is our 20th wedding anniversary. To celebrate it we are going to probably do pretty much the same thing as every other of the 7,305 days.
Hannah's junior soccer girls play in their final this Wednesday. Should be a bit exciting.
That will do for now.
11 August 2008
4 August 2008
The All Blacks surprise everyone, the weather continues to be more than polite conversation, Rory reaches 16 - 04/08/2008
LOCAL NEWS
Well we had more weather, hard to describe really, as it just seems to be raising the bar on storms and wetness. Wednesday we have flooding on many roads in Auckland making them impassable. Northland was still flooded from the previous event on the weekend and so took little time to drown on Tuesday and Wednesday.
There were bridges out, roads cut off, slips, 12 metre cracks in the ground (12 metres sounds like it is too big to be a crack, it's a gorge or a valley). Meanwhile, 15 houses in Torbay were evacuated as there was concern about houses falling down the hill.
They reckon four people have died in the weather so far, which for us is a very big number. More than people killed in South Auckland even.
Blue ink was spilled into the Heathcote River near Christchurch. It was supposedly inert, and non-toxic. Better than it being brown I guess.
The SPCA came across two overweight fox terriers this week. Ernie weighs 20kg and Bert a massive 32kg, which is a fair amount for what is in theory a small dog. Bert looked like a dog shaped, over-stuffed cushion, with legs sticking out.
Meanwhile, continuing with the animal theme, a cat that pinches stuff has been in the news more times than I can count. Quite odd, really. That it's in the news, I mean.
There seemed to be lots of coverage about some cruise that went wrong when they were caught in bad weather. Didn't see much myself but lots were talking about it. It listed to port and someone broke a hip (but it was full of pensioners anyway, they break a hip just raising an eyebrow) and someone else lost a finger when a door slammed on it.
A man and woman were shot in Napier, both died, police were looking for the shooter. Then they decided the man was the shooter. Then they stopped looking.
Antonie Dixon, the crazy eyed guy previously found guilty of murder, was found guilty of murder again, despite the sob stories of Jehovah's Witnesses beating him up. He is appealing the verdict. Nice use of public money.
Whakatane is now being treated as a swear word, by some phonetic filters on the internet (like Google). Pronounced by some (including in a good ad on TV) as "whack-a-tane", it seems okay, but pronounce it correctly and it is considered dodgy.
New Zealand and Australian people have been caught up in some internet ticket scam for Olympics, not surprising really.
The National Party seems to be starting to finally unload it's policies, some of which appear likely to lose them some voters, possibly more than they will gain.
WORLD NEWS
A spammer escaped prison, killed his wife and child, then killed himself. As a spammer, quite happy that he had the decency to kill himself, but not sure his wife and child deserved it. Unless they were spammers, too, of course.
REAL SPORT
Well, we had zero real sport this week. Hannah's school soccer team had a bye, but it was cancelled for everyone else. Club soccer was cancelled. Rory didn't play polo while we tried to sort his shoulder out (his left should is knackered and has been since before the Panpac tournament and we really needed to sort it out).
The soccer fields have already been closed for today, and I suspect the rest of the week.
SPORT
Well, the All Blacks won against the Wallabies in the second game, winning 39-10. I was particularly surprised.
Meanwhile the Warriors ended a winning streak by losing to the Rabbitohs.
MY SAD LIFE
Jack has two teeth. Samantha is behind, the pressure is on now.
Rory's 16th birthday passed with little more than a murmur. It was pretty low key. We ended up having a fairly quick dinner at a local restaurant Diana has had her eye on for a while. It was actually very good, quite reasonable, and we were very full. Hannah and I walked home in the rain, before drying off, going to the pool, and getting wet again. Then we dried off again.
For some inexplicable reason, I went to Sylvia Park on Friday morning, before 7am. At least it was easy to find a car park. The 501st guys were in their gear and Kristy was interviewed and there was free coffee (although I had hot chocolate). Meanwhile, Rory slept in to after 11 (and again on Saturday).
I got a talkie watch in the post from Brett on his travels. It's like a talkie toaster, but less obsessive about bread. It goes wild when you change the time.
The Grannies came to dinner on Friday, and Maddie attended also. Maddie made a maple flan thing. I am not normally a flan fan but this one was good, very rich.
A real sportless weekend was very weird, and we felt like we had nothing to do. I did some more work on a problem window sill, it is now ready to start sanding the whole thing to repaint. Hannah and I managed some remedial gardening, between the showers. Nothing major, though, there wasn't time. Garlic has been planted. Much trouble was had, particularly between the children, as the boredom and excess energy from no sport needed to be used.
By Sunday it was getting so bad with sun deprivation that if the sun came out for 30 seconds people all over would go outside and stare at the sky and stagger zombie-like in the bright light. Hannah, Diana, and I went out to see the Lower Nihotupu dam, and it was very full, baby. Then we went to a beach to collect golf balls (as you do, we found three). We managed to hide from the showers in the car and otherwise meander around Mill Bay. We could see the far end of Cornwallis Beach which sort of came and went with the visibility.
Oh well, that will do for now. Whole thing seems pretty dull this week.
Well we had more weather, hard to describe really, as it just seems to be raising the bar on storms and wetness. Wednesday we have flooding on many roads in Auckland making them impassable. Northland was still flooded from the previous event on the weekend and so took little time to drown on Tuesday and Wednesday.
There were bridges out, roads cut off, slips, 12 metre cracks in the ground (12 metres sounds like it is too big to be a crack, it's a gorge or a valley). Meanwhile, 15 houses in Torbay were evacuated as there was concern about houses falling down the hill.
They reckon four people have died in the weather so far, which for us is a very big number. More than people killed in South Auckland even.
Blue ink was spilled into the Heathcote River near Christchurch. It was supposedly inert, and non-toxic. Better than it being brown I guess.
The SPCA came across two overweight fox terriers this week. Ernie weighs 20kg and Bert a massive 32kg, which is a fair amount for what is in theory a small dog. Bert looked like a dog shaped, over-stuffed cushion, with legs sticking out.
Meanwhile, continuing with the animal theme, a cat that pinches stuff has been in the news more times than I can count. Quite odd, really. That it's in the news, I mean.
There seemed to be lots of coverage about some cruise that went wrong when they were caught in bad weather. Didn't see much myself but lots were talking about it. It listed to port and someone broke a hip (but it was full of pensioners anyway, they break a hip just raising an eyebrow) and someone else lost a finger when a door slammed on it.
A man and woman were shot in Napier, both died, police were looking for the shooter. Then they decided the man was the shooter. Then they stopped looking.
Antonie Dixon, the crazy eyed guy previously found guilty of murder, was found guilty of murder again, despite the sob stories of Jehovah's Witnesses beating him up. He is appealing the verdict. Nice use of public money.
Whakatane is now being treated as a swear word, by some phonetic filters on the internet (like Google). Pronounced by some (including in a good ad on TV) as "whack-a-tane", it seems okay, but pronounce it correctly and it is considered dodgy.
New Zealand and Australian people have been caught up in some internet ticket scam for Olympics, not surprising really.
The National Party seems to be starting to finally unload it's policies, some of which appear likely to lose them some voters, possibly more than they will gain.
WORLD NEWS
A spammer escaped prison, killed his wife and child, then killed himself. As a spammer, quite happy that he had the decency to kill himself, but not sure his wife and child deserved it. Unless they were spammers, too, of course.
REAL SPORT
Well, we had zero real sport this week. Hannah's school soccer team had a bye, but it was cancelled for everyone else. Club soccer was cancelled. Rory didn't play polo while we tried to sort his shoulder out (his left should is knackered and has been since before the Panpac tournament and we really needed to sort it out).
The soccer fields have already been closed for today, and I suspect the rest of the week.
SPORT
Well, the All Blacks won against the Wallabies in the second game, winning 39-10. I was particularly surprised.
Meanwhile the Warriors ended a winning streak by losing to the Rabbitohs.
MY SAD LIFE
Jack has two teeth. Samantha is behind, the pressure is on now.
Rory's 16th birthday passed with little more than a murmur. It was pretty low key. We ended up having a fairly quick dinner at a local restaurant Diana has had her eye on for a while. It was actually very good, quite reasonable, and we were very full. Hannah and I walked home in the rain, before drying off, going to the pool, and getting wet again. Then we dried off again.
For some inexplicable reason, I went to Sylvia Park on Friday morning, before 7am. At least it was easy to find a car park. The 501st guys were in their gear and Kristy was interviewed and there was free coffee (although I had hot chocolate). Meanwhile, Rory slept in to after 11 (and again on Saturday).
I got a talkie watch in the post from Brett on his travels. It's like a talkie toaster, but less obsessive about bread. It goes wild when you change the time.
The Grannies came to dinner on Friday, and Maddie attended also. Maddie made a maple flan thing. I am not normally a flan fan but this one was good, very rich.
A real sportless weekend was very weird, and we felt like we had nothing to do. I did some more work on a problem window sill, it is now ready to start sanding the whole thing to repaint. Hannah and I managed some remedial gardening, between the showers. Nothing major, though, there wasn't time. Garlic has been planted. Much trouble was had, particularly between the children, as the boredom and excess energy from no sport needed to be used.
By Sunday it was getting so bad with sun deprivation that if the sun came out for 30 seconds people all over would go outside and stare at the sky and stagger zombie-like in the bright light. Hannah, Diana, and I went out to see the Lower Nihotupu dam, and it was very full, baby. Then we went to a beach to collect golf balls (as you do, we found three). We managed to hide from the showers in the car and otherwise meander around Mill Bay. We could see the far end of Cornwallis Beach which sort of came and went with the visibility.
Oh well, that will do for now. Whole thing seems pretty dull this week.
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