Well, that's about enough weather for Auckland, would anyone else like some?

LOCAL NEWS There has been some controversy about a competitor at the Commonwealth Games (oh, yeah, they are on, not sure very many people care) who was born a man but is competing as a woman. I am not sure how I feel about this. It seems highly improbable that a male athlete would be motivated to become a woman primarily to gain a competitive advantage, but conversely, it seems quite unidirectional (like people born women are not likely to ever have the ability to compete as men, perhaps in gymnastics. It would seem that I missed some pretty wild weather in Auckland on Tuesday. The usual sort of power out and such was reported, I didn’t see it as being anything beyond an average storm. You know things are bad when Hannah posts that she has power at the bakery. It appears to have been a lot more serious than the usual ones, our house was without power for nearly two days. Wednesday night Hannah had to shower at Rory’s house because her house didn’t have power either, and Diana did at Sarah’s house. The weather just kept going, even today there is more stormy weather coming. A tanker rolled in Dunedin blocking traffic. I think I forgot to mention a truck that rolled in Pt Chev a few weeks back, I saw it, and weeks later I noticed some decorative shrubbery boxes that were pushed and toppled by it that were still in the wrong place. WORLD NEWS So apparently not winning 30 popularity polls in a row is a reason to stop being prime minister in Australia. Part of me wonders how effective government is if it is merely a popularity contest. Some drug impaired Tasmanian man drove the wrong way up a street in Melbourne in a campervan, apparently the fact that he was Tasmanian explained a lot. Another drug addled man was restrained by an off duty policeman after crashing his car, removing his clothes, and causing disturbance. The clothing removal was “accidental”. A road rage incident in Australia resulted in a punch up then one winner wandered around threatening people with a “live” chainsaw (not my word, but they meant it was turned on). He didn’t use it. All news I heard all week was mostly how Australia was basically winning all the medals at the Commonwealth Games. That and how they told everyone living on the Gold Coast to leave and how all the hospitality people had no customers and how tinder was really busy at the games village. REAL SPORT I have reinstated this section to honour young Tom (and I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that not sure I know his actual surname, but Anna and Jono’s 15yo son). We watched him play soccer on Saturday morning for his regular team, he was playing centre back, wasn’t too happy there prefers centre mid (like they all do). Anyway, he did okay, but the team lost 2-3. Then Jono drove Tom and teammate Reuben (and me) on a scenic tour of Sydney soccer grounds before getting to a second game about 30 seconds before kick off. This was an under-18 game for which the team was more than decimated by a wedding (what under 18 boy cares about a wedding, let alone half a sodding team?). Anyway, short version is they had eleven for the first half including three ring-ins, was 2-2 as half time. Second half they started with nine, got bolstered to ten, then with one going to hospital they ended the game with eight for a good 25 minutes. They nearly had a player red-carded when he went to pick up the ball and the ref walked in between and thought it was a physical attack, but the player did very well to defuse the situation and remain on the pitch. About ten minutes before the end Rueben fed a ball to the now mostly crippled Tom, having played about 150 minutes of football, limping since before half time, and now playing centre forward, Tom got in to the box and put the ball in front of another player who slotted it for a goal to put them 3-2 up and after ten minutes of dour defence they came off the field utterly exhausted but delighted with a most unexpected win (the other team had three subs). The two boys were basically physically hollow husks of cramps, but they were fizzing at the result. MY SAD LIFE Work was mildly mental this week which provided some challenges. Madelaine felt I was working too much and on Monday I probably was, but it was all things that would hold up other things and it was a perfect storm of multiple events all hitting my desk at once. Despite this, I managed to go for a walk with Madelaine and Brett (separately) which meant I got some breaks. Madelaine took me into an Italian supermarket, and my brain imploded. Having tried to speak in French, in a store very much in Italian, listening to Australians, it was very confusing. Also interesting. We went to Madelaine’s daughter’s house for dinner, the boys have grown, they were a little shy at first but were very chatty. I can’t tell who is who easily, one of them was searching how to unlock a character in their Lego Batman 2 game on the tablet and his typing was slow but his vocab was pretty good for seven. Brett got bitten by a suspected spider on Monday night but didn’t realise anything was amiss until Tuesday evening. He saw medical professionals on Wednesday and had various tests, by Wednesday night the suspicion of the spider had diminished and it was released on bail. Brett still isn’t completely certain of the cause of the problem, and (I think) it prevented him going to the gold coast with the family on the weekend. Tuesday night Auckland got an actual storm, it was weird being out of it. Even more so as my understanding of the extent of it slowly unfolded. Diana sent me a couple of emails that just didn’t hit my radar for a while. I did hear the next day that even at Guide Dog Central they had trees down, fences damaged, but the dogs were fine. Their kennels are pretty solid. Tuesday in Melbourne I went in to the city, and bought a bag to replace the one I use on walks, which used to be the swim bag, and has had exceedingly heavy if occasionally intermittent use over more than ten years. On the return from the tram I also did a typical Rob thing and purchased a ridiculous number of socks. My cheapy white socks have become far too unreliable and at home I actually carry a spare pair in case I blow a sock because blisters are a serious business. This week I had two packages being delivered so last week I tried to negotiate delivery without signature, then this week customs wanted more info about the packages, then they wanted invoices, then they wanted duty, then they didn’t. I have never had so many emails about a package (or a pair of packages), it was bizarre. I wasn’t in any particular hurry for them and I think in the end they were out for delivery the day they were originally expected despite everything. Diana said the weird mystery parcel also was reported again, and then I got notification it was delivered, but I really don’t think it was. The fictional parcel that wouldn’t die. The way Wednesday unfolded for me was exceedingly weird, initially I missed it then slowly begun to see how much of a storm had hit Auckland. A friend had no damage except for one heavy wooden outdoor chair being knocked over, then later in the day Diana shared a photo of our outdoor bench seat having kamikazeed off the deck (despite my boots holding it down, I hope my boots are okay). I went for a bit of a wander late morning Melbourne time. Didn't quite see the super courteous drivers that seemed to be abundant earlier in the week and particularly the night before. I nearly got cleaned out by an Indian in a hurry. I do enjoy just walking and exploring and it is nice to do it somewhere beyond the mundane at home. I reckon I walk the main routes in Point Chevalier about 150 times a year, double if I have to go both ways, that gets repetitive. So in short Wednesday was actually pretty good until just after I wrote the paragraph above while slurping a flat white on Sydney St. Then one of those finely balanced emotional/assumption hand grenades hit me in the face, courtesy of a phone call from Guide Dogs about Maddie. She needs surgery on her eyelids, may (as in very probably) not stay being a breeder and could possibly go in to guide dog training. We should know more by the end of this coming week. Meanwhile about five different outcomes exist and Maddie becoming a mother seems the least likely of those. It’s hard to say it wasn’t a shock, but we have always known Maddie wasn’t our dog, and we don’t make the decisions. That being said, the whole thing is hard to get used to when the new status is so thoroughly uncertain. I am not putting anything on facebook until the outcome is more known. I had a last supper with most of Brett’s family on Wednesday night, the boys had been to see an Avengers holiday thing in Federation Square, and we watched Back to the Future part 3 to celebrate Brett’s acquisition of a DeLorean for them. Madelaine included some of the anchovies I bought at the crazy Italian supermarket into one of the three sauces on the pasta, she told me the name of it, wide ribbony stuff, pappardelle, I had to check the spelling. We also tried some weird whitebait in a jar that I had to try at the Italian supermarket. I have had times this week when the dual time zone thing messed with my meagre head. I should be better at this but I am clearly out of practice. Today is the 30th anniversary of the Goodins promising an earnest young priest that they would procreate profusely and raise their horde in the Catholic way. The very same people who’s number one daughter thought Easter was about the birth of Elvis. Also, two isn’t really a horde by any measure. So really it’s about 30 years since they told porkies to jesus. I wonder if the priest is still priesting? He certainly hasn’t made it to Pope yet. I was able to use the lounge at the airport, which was why I chose Virgin but it never worked in the US for domestic flights so I wasn’t too optimistic. It was relatively quiet but a nice venue. I started to get a little fidgety though so I went off for a wander after I had charged my phone. It was weird, the free wifi wouldn’t allow me to send emails but I could enable my automation testing no problem. I walked up and down from gate 1 to 10 and back and forth for a while. The three or so days with Jono and family were a bit of a blur. To go with Gunther being ill and on all sorts of drugs, Elke blew a leg and we had to take her to the vet on Friday night. She started limping about 20 minutes after I arrived on Thursday night, but I deny any responsibility. She slept with me while I stayed at Jonos on the ground floor because going up the stairs was a bad idea. To be fair, Elke was a pretty good roommate except for after she got up for her morning pee and would just lie in the middle of the bed. Isabel remembered me from Christmas and wanted to know where Maddie was. Being with Jono in Sydney was my turn to be the embarrassing guy that pestered strangers about their dogs. Friday morning, Jono thrust me in to the outside world before I was ready, we dropped Issy at school then stopped at a very cool little patisserie called Choco Cannelle run by a very French man. Jono had a chat to him, and it was very interesting, and I think Hannah should talk to him some time. We visited the shop twice more in the following two days, quite an achievement given that he was shut on Sunday. Thankfully, work on Friday was a little calmer than it had been earlier in the week, it usually does go a little quieter on Fridays, usually. I managed two swims at Jono’s and was a little sun burned on Saturday afternoon, not seriously. Jono ditched me at the airport only to pick up his parents from the city on the way home. I am not sure how Elke feels about sharing her bedroom with two people. The flight home from Sydney was absolutely packed with children, being the first weekend of the school holidays in New Zealand and NSW. There’s a lesson in that. The woman in the seat next to me had a sub-one year old baby with her and was an exceedingly good example of a high maintenance demanding customer that is very probably utterly certifiably bonkers and would typically send any rational person screaming for the hills. Despite my misgivings about brats on the plane, it was quite uneventful and really just flew by. I think Tuesday would have been my father’s 80th birthday. Maybe 81, but I think 80. It doesn’t matter terribly, either way, I suppose. I have passed day 50 of continuously practising and learning Francais. This coming week, Diana has volunteered us to board Lulu, a golden retriever and one of the terrible trio that includes Lewis and Lightning. Lulu is the one that met Jacinda a couple of weeks ago. I am totally okay with us having a furry distraction, it will be nice to have a dog around while we wait for news of Maddie. When I walk Lulu I intend to tell people it’s just Maddie, and she’s had a bad dye job and hair extensions. This morning I went for a solo walk, got a little distracted, forgot I was supposed to be on an audio at 9:30 and did it while walking. The park at Western Springs was half closed with workers trying to clear trees, one tree had been sliced off at ground level and the trunk was a larger diameter than the table on our deck. Elsewhere the foliage continues to be in a state of wandering freely and our street looks like some gardening guys went mad then gave up before they hauled it away (which is basically true). There are dead fences, broken railings, and all sorts, and the weather is rough again today. PHILOSOPHY CORNER (possibly inspired by a certain passenger sitting adjacent to me recently) Sometimes you need to be enough of a friend to tell someone that they are just being a total batshit psycho. I hope I have at least a few friends willing to do that with me. I have a sneaky feeling that sometimes they might be doing it but on a level too subtle for me. Right, that’s it. There should be more, but I have to send it. Rob PS Expect Golden Retriever photos next week.