Week 2 of 2007 has been survived, now for some work (sigh) - 15/01/07

LOCAL NEWS

Pretty quiet news week, generally. Got in depth news on all sorts of crap like a bishop saying that the radiographer strike was morally wrong and other things that would not rate a mention normally. Minority sports should have their big tournaments this time of year.

Mainly moronic politico Jim Anderton has announced that "Iraq is another Vietnam". In response, the entire world's press went "crikey, we'd never thought of that". As a result, GW went away to rethink his whole foreign policy and military strategy. I can't believe anyone reported such abject drivel. This time of the year needs a good tsunami to give the news something to talk about.

Troubled teenagers made 700,000 calls in New Zealand last year. Most couldn't find money for P or pizza, which made them depressed.

Another piece of "stating the bleeding obvious" news, New Line Cinema said they won't work with Peter Jackson ever again after the legal proceedings over revenues from Lord of the Rings. Well why would anyone want to deal with anyone who they are fighting in court.

There were less than 100 drownings in New Zealand for the first time since records began (although they didn't mention when that was).

A ten yo Zimbabwean girl living in Christchurch, died in hospital, evidence suggested she had been strangled. Big news is that her family is "distressed". Not half as much as the poor girl while she was fighting to breathe, I suspect. There has since been rumour of dodgy goings on.

A teen bitten by a police dog may lose his leg. No mention was made of whether the dog would get to finish off what it had started on the leg. He was found hiding under a house at 3am, but did not deserve to be attacked by a dog. Poor lad, so unfair. He was there looking for his choir music that he thought had been blown there by the wind.

A Melbourne teen saved his 9 yo brother but his father drowned in a hunting accident. I suppose it was a hunting accident, because they were in the bush to hunt, but drowning in a hunting accident makes sense really only when you are hunting sharks or something in the sea.

The woman hit by a dolphin is now having competing bids for her story. Oh dear, you really have to wonder about the economics of sensation. I suppose it is what Paris and others do professionally, by generating "stories" that people want. Prince William's girlfriend is possibly the flip-side, not courting publicity but unable to avoid it.

Not a good weekend for older women. A 52 yo mother of nine (!) was murdered in Waitara. The offender has been apprehended. There has been another murder on North Shore, a 77 yo, I suspect that will be resolved pretty quickly too. I know it sounds like we have lots of murders but I think every single one is reported, which probably makes it sound worse that it really is. Mind you, I think the bulk of them in New Zealand are crimes of passion, as compared to gangland slayings and the result of armed robbery or burglary.

WORLD NEWS

The two kidnapped boys found in the US with a 41 year old abductor was interesting news. You don't often expect missing kids to show up four years later. Wonder if the offender is going to survive until trial.

SPORT

David Beckham is off to play for LA Galaxy for about $1.5m per week. That's the end of his career, and what a bucket load of money the LA team will be losing.

Knights (woeful local soccer team) have won two games and drawn one, but not enough to get them off the bottom of the table.

The Black Caps have gone to play Australia and England in an ODI series. They lost the first game against Australia, but Bond got a hat-trick and new man Taylor got 84.

Newcastle beat Spurs 3-2, Man Utd beat Villa 3-1, Liverpool beat Watford 3-0, Arsenal beat Blackburn 2-0 with only ten men, and Chelsea prevailed 4-0 against Wigan.

MY SAD LIFE

The trip to the cabins was pretty uneventful, apart from a diversion to buy me togs and a quick look in junk shops in Paeroa. The junks shops seem to sell complete crap for ridiculous prices. We stayed with the usual suspects - the Lanes (Gary, Ange, Matt, Britt), the Edmonds (Paul, Karen, Nicky, Matt), and the Clarks (Rob, Kerry, Britt, Duncan). We have a rule, you can't come unless at least one of your party has the same name as someone else. Hannah's friend Josie also came along (her Father's name is Kerry, which is a duplicate, so that is why she could come, although Kerry didn't stay long). Paul came for a couple of days as well. We have been occupying camps around the countryside with these guys for a few years now. The kids are definitely getting noticeably more capable (and able to stay up later than their parents).

The first day was pretty wet, everyone went to a hot spring, except for a couple of people including me (I hate hot pools and spa pools). Went to Mt Maunganui on second day to the beach, was okay but waves not great for boogie boards. Took the boys to nearby pool, I did my lengths while they just floated in wave pool. Then a floater meant they had to get out (just a faecal incident, not a whole person). Went to a kayak place on the Wairoa river on Thursday, kids had a great time, including riding kayaks down a water slide. Did some paddling up and down the river and took some photos of people hitting the water. The weather got a bit nasty on Friday, but still managed a walk down to the waterfall with Paul and Gary. Managed to land on my arse on slippery bit, the path was quite steep. The weather didn't improve so we decided to come home a day early. Was probably a good idea.

Mother went for a short trip, but it was okay, she broke her fall with her face. She has a suspected broken scaphoid (very small bone in wrist, hard to tell if it is broken but doctors are paranoid about scaphoids). She is recovering, reckons she looks like she has had botox. Sounds like people are keeping an eye on her.

Haven't heard much from Brett, so either a) he is away, or b) I have not been offensive or controversial enough. Also haven't heard from Allan in a while, must try to catch up with him.

Have subscribed to an online DVD rental service. Let's see if it is any good. Selection is reasonable but many are out already. The beauty is you queue up the ones you want and get them when it is your turn. Rory is bombarding me with requests, which is getting more than a little tiresome.

Gavin moves house this Friday. I hope I have got all my stuff back off him.

Have now officially given up on the lens I ordered. It is due in a couple of months. Bollocks to that.

Went to the pool last night, mostly to cool down, the temperature has been surprisingly hot since we got back. There were some kids doing water polo training, years 7-9 from Marcellin College. They are training very early. Rory could not resist showing them what he could do in the lane next to them, tosser.

It was Bambi's 40th birthday on Thursday, and Sarah's on Friday (um, 28th?).

Dave and Olwyn are back from Singapore. They went to see Varekai (Cirque du Soleil) with Paul. He didn't talk about it a lot, I assume it was okay. Seems to me you've seen one, you've seen them all.

We are having contraband beans for dinner tonight. Our neighbour, Jim, has a strain that was smuggled in to the country by a chap at the RSA. They are stringless.

So, back in to work today, with a vengeance. Can't say I am looking forward to it.

The passing of a pot noodle icon and home improvement madness 08/01/07

LOCAL NEWS

Older people seemed to be getting into strife rather than the insane youth. A 53-yo woman broke her ankle while using the long drop, and was helicoptered to Wellington Hospital on New Year's Day. No mention was made of whether it occurred before or after she had used the long drop.

There was a jetski fatality on lake Taupo. It was the driver of the jetski, a 52-yo man without a life jacket, who lost control, tipped the jetski, and drowned. His two passengers survived, and had lifejackets. So strictly it wasn't ON the jetski as he died when he was OFF.

The house at the scene of a fatal stabbing on New Years Eve was razed to the ground by the owner. It seems somewhat extravagant, one assumes he isn't contacting the insurance company about it.

Fire-fighters got a nasty surprise when they extinguished a car fire, there was the remains of a person in it. Not sure how old he/she was.

There was a fire in the tegel chicken factory in Christchurch. I will resist all temptation to discuss them selling pre-roasted products.

Bucking the trend, a teenager was shot in the head with an air rifle by a friend while they were trying to unjam it. Ooops. He is not in great shape.

We've had a homicidal maniac on the loose, who I thought had escaped custody but he merely was paroled (after a murder in 1992). The SWAT (called AOS here) team took a house that he wasn't in. He killed another person and wounded five others before finally being apprehended. He was shot in the leg at the time, and has since lost the leg. We all await news of his bail and his rampage on crutches or a mobility scooter.

An 80 yo man did himself in with cyanide, and two police and a third person inhaled the stuff whilst trying to assist him. He had left warning signs around the ute where he did the deed, of which they took no heed.

Six hoons did 150 km/hr down New Zealand's steepest street in an unregistered and unwarranted car. But it was okay, they crashed into a hospice. I don't think anyone was seriously hurt but I really can't see how.

WORLD NEWS

A toddler in Melbourne died in a parked car. They think she got into the car herself, parents were looking for her for a while. Temperatures in Melbourne reached 32 deg C that day.

They got some rain in South Eastern Australia. They've had a hell of a lot of fires.

The inventor of the instant noodle, Momofuku Ando, has died. He was pretty old (96), and nobody heard of him until now. Figures in the Independent suggest that while four pot noodles are sold every second in the UK, five are being eaten every second. Interesting.

SPORT

Woeful display from Black Caps in fourth ODI versus Sri Lanka. They got 262, New Zealand were all out for 73. Craig McMillan (who always goes out for nothing) high scored and was not out on 29.

The Poms fared about the same in the final Ashes test, the Aussies completing the last game of the first whitewash in 86 years. Warne, McGrath, and Langer all retired at the end, and all played an important part in the win.

Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-1 in FA Cup. Man Utd beat Villa 2-1. Most matches are very one sided this time of the year in FA Cup (like Chelsea 6-1 over Macclesfield).

MY SAD LIFE

We puppy-sat for Gavin and Yana on New Years Day. The dog coped fine, the cats handled it in different ways. Ollie just took off, Pandora kept the dog where she could see her the whole time. She followed it off the section four times (it was taken for a walk three times). She was really quite funny with her, would fluff up now and again but just would always keep an eye on her.

Well, we went completely bonkers in the lounge and did all sorts of rearranging and made a hole in the wall. Worked pretty damn hard for two days, but I think it was worthwhile. We now have considerably more storage in the house (the old hot water cupboard was sealed off from the outside world when we re-did the kitchen about four years ago). The Fubar was particularly useful.

There was a floater in the pool at Mums place. Someone drowned. Circumstances not published. I suggested people could go body surfing.

I also completed the series of tasks involving the trailer, which included finally take a load to the tip. Organisation of the garage has commenced but is far from complete, however is considerably easier as a result of everything removed for the new cupboard inside and sent to the tip. Rory has been asking me about having days off that are actually days off (his way of saying he doesn't want to help around the house).

Penny and the boys came to stay for a few days this week. They did a few day trips around the place, including the zoo and the pool. It was Penny's birthday on Wednesday, she is now in her 40th year. Hannah was particularly good with the boys and entertained them a lot. Rory not so much. They left about 4am Sunday morning, very quietly.

We managed to force Paul to go swimming, once, almost twice.

We are off to Blair Lodge, somewhere near Tauranga, for this coming week. Leaving this morning via the Goodin factory.

Hello 2007, bye bye Saddam - 01/01/07

To all those behind us time-zone wise, hello from next year.

LOCAL NEWS

Not sure if I mentioned the accident near Western Springs that killed three youths. The driver turned out to be on a learner's license, with a record for evading police, hitting power poles, and failed attempts to make a car fly. He is survived by a 6 month old foetus that will never meet it's moronic father. I know my emotional detachment from such things is possibly a little callous, and I suppose my view could change if one of my children started exhibiting similar behaviour, but I am going to do my best to ensure that this does not happen.

A large twin engine plane made an unplanned landing on mudflats, only the pilot was aboard, and he was fine. Then the CAA cancelled his license and that of the company he worked for. Sounds like the company is in a bit of a mess. Wouldn't want to fly with them.

There was flooding in Ashburton on Saturday. Things got wet.

There was a bizarre incident where a woman at the front of a boat was hit by a flying dolphin. The dolphin was frolicking near the boat and jumped over the pointy end, collecting her on the way through. There has been tons of news about the woman, but little information on whether the dolphin is seeking counselling. Rumours that she was eating an unsafe tuna sandwich at the time are unsubstantiated.

A local Mcdonalds was suffering when it turned out an employee had hepatitis.

An out of control milk tanker hit three houses before it stopped. The driver was choking on a lolly, there are now plans to ban eating lollies whilst driving. The second house has a tanker shaped hole right through it. The third contained a man with a broken ankle, who gained a broken leg when the truck arrived (he could run very fast because of the ankle). But proving that every grey cloud has a silver lining, the driver also set a record for the largest milkshake.

WORLD NEWS

The passing of James Brown was way more interesting than the passing of Gerald Ford, even if some of the younger set think he had a motor vehicle named after him. James Brown was pretty cool.

Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday, the world awaited the reaction. Some papers said NZers would have to pay to see the footage of the hanging. I find this to be most distasteful. It wasn't a boxing match. It should not be available at all.

SPORT

Well, the Poms lost by 99 runs in three days. They don't look that good against the Aussies. I am not sure they are crap, but I know that the Aussies are pretty good at making other teams look like crap.

Some upsets in premiere league, Man Utd beat Reading 3-2, Liverpool beat Spurs 1-0, Man City beat West Ham 1-0, Sheff Utd beat the Arse 1-0 (nice), Chelsea had 2-2 with Fulham (good god), and Everton actioned a 3-0 thumping of poor old Newcastle.

The Black Caps managed to squeak home on last ball to win the second ODI against Sri Lanka. They needed about three runs in last over. First five balls all went for nought. Scored four off last ball to clinch the win. They lost the first one despite getting what seemed like a good score to start.

MY SAD LIFE

Hannah made me play a lot of volleyball. We also played a little tennis. Spent a few more days mellowing out and sleeping in the afternoons now and again.

Our trip back to Auckland was relatively uneventful. Traffic coming the other way was pretty heavy. The Kopu bridge is one-way, which is really quite bizarre for these days. They turned off the signals and did things manually, letting traffic go one way for a good ten minutes. The queues were pretty long. As we got closer and closer to Auckland the weather got worse and worse.

Since returning home, I've been grinding away at my list. I made a list, that I lost. Then I made another on the way home from Coromandel in the car and Diana kept it. Despite this, I have been working away at it. Fixed the bike (with help from Paul), filled the garden bin, emptied the trailer, and rationalised things in the garage. We moved the TV into Rory's room and built a shelf in the space it occupied.

Jono popped in one afternoon, over here for Christmas. He told me that Steph is about to have her second child, about six years after the first one, which is quite a gap. Was good to see him.

Have managed a couple of swims with Hannah. Rory came the second time, fitting us into his busy schedule. He did a timed 50m in 29.25s which is not too shabby. Hannah did 25m in 16.98s which is one of her fastest. Her style has changed, used to be so beautiful and now is definitely more of a water polo style.

We went to the Edmonds for New Year, it was also their 20th wedding anniversary. Saw some of the usual suspects, many of whom we have hardly seen in the past year. We are off with the Edmonds and Lanes to Tauranga in about a week.

Well, that about sums things up for the last week in 2006. Fingers crossed that 2007 isn't quite so busy.
Have a good New Year