The Weekender 11/01/2009

Welcome to 2009! Well I had a great break up the Coromandel over New Years (link to photos below) and I'm now back into work.

Sport

The NZ Breakers haven't been doing quite so well with three loses - but Kirk Penney picked up his second consecutive player of the month award in the ANBL.
The Breakers were first beaten by the Wollongong Hawks 11-94 and then beaten by 86-85 by Sydney Spirit 24 hrs later. Last night the Breakers missed the chance to lead the ANBL outright when they lost 112-115 in overtime to Melbourne's South Dragons.

Cricket has been all around us - just like it should be for any decent summer! Daniel Vettori seems to be shining as captain and has joined an elite group of seven to reach 3000 test runs and 250 wickets (he's on 285 wickets). Sir Richard Hadlee had the record when he retired of 431 wickets and 3124 runs, and he is one of the inaugural inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. Captain Dan has also reclaimed the top spot on the ICC's one-day bowling rankings.
On to the results. The second test with the West Indies was a draw. The West Indies won the first Twenty20 match, the two teams tied the regular game & required a "super over" - and Gayle was on fire. The Black Caps squared the series in the second match winning by a very good 36 runs. In the One Day series, the first game was washed out, the Windies won the rain affected second game. The third ODI was an easy seven wicket win for NZ after Ross Taylor and Daniel Flynn had an unbroken 89 run partnership. Before the fourth ODI, Jesse Ryder was axed again because of his drinking problem - and his replacement Martin Guptill made the most of his chance, making an unbeaten 122 on debut - the second highest ODI debut score ever! Unfortunately, NZ's 275/4 was meaningless as rain washed out the Windies chase.
In cricket news not related to NZ, firstly South Africa had a great test match series win over Australia which no one saw coming, and what about the English cricket fiasco!

Australia has called on NZ as it plans for a bid for the World Cup. NZ won't be getting any games (I guess that's good to know up front!) but would be an ideal venue for training bases. Australia is going for the 2018 football world cup.

Last Sunday the Wellington Phoenix beat the defending champs 3-0, which means that for the first time in their history they won't be finishing at the bottom of the table!

Despite being the local favourite for the ASB Classic tennis tournament, Marina Erakovic was beaten by top-seed Elena Dementieva in straight sets after making the second round. Elena D. beat fellow russian Elena Vesnina in the final.

NZ News

In the last weekender, I prematurely mentioned that that Fiji had expelled the NZ Acting High Commissioner. They hadn't actually done it, although they said they were. Then they backed down, and then they finally did it. NZ immediately retaliated and the Fijian commissioner was immediately kicked out of NZ. It's all been quiet since then.

Perhaps the "silly season" is the best way to describe it, but things have been crazy over the past three weeks. I won't catch them all, but there have been drownings all over the place, deadly house fires, and accidents everywhere. A man drowned in the Hauraki Gulf after falling from a dinghy. The provisional road toll from the Christmas-New Year holiday period was 24 - six more than last year. Young Warrior player Sonny Fai has been missing presumed drowned after being washed out to sea while trying to help someone else. A doctor was killed in a jetboat accident near Wanaka on Boxing Day. Four children aged 1 to 15, were killed in a house fire in South Auckland. Two Indian born Australian visitors were killed at Fox Glacier after ignoring warning signs for a better photo at the base of the glacier - a 'garage-sized' piece of ice fell down killing them both, although only one body has been recovered. Two bodies have been recovered from rivers near Christchurch in separate incidents.

I'm always happy to pick up the political hot potato so here goes. Congratulations to John Key who has ditched Labour's past record of beating up on Israel for every attack. The opposition - particularly the Greens - have been very vocal protesting everything Israeli over the past few weeks (including a girl at the ASB Tennis classic!). I personally want to go along to a "peace rally" with a sign saying "where were your protests over the years when Israel was being attacked while they followed the cease-fire?" I think there is a huge difference between lobbing random rocket attacks into a city, and targeting specific people and infrastructure. Don't get me wrong, war is never nice, (there will always be child casulaties when your enemy hides at schools) but it's naive to think it's unnecessary. I'm very glad the new government has changed tack.

The New Years honours list included MP Steve Maharey, entertainer Oscar Knightley and driver Scott Dixon.

The Numbers Game

0: drunk drivers were found after 200-300 drivers were tested over 1hr at Orewa at the end of the Northern Motorway
1: st commercial aviation test of biofuel for Air NZ last week - one engine ran a 50:50 mix
1: # names for 2008 are Jack & Sophie
1: year today since Sir Edmund Hillary died
3: c/L dropped off petrol prices early in the New Year
6: hrs of swimming more than 5km to safety for 'down to earth' diver Ian Foden after becoming separated from his boat
9: directors from failed finance companies Bridgecorp and Nathans Finance are facing having to pay $500,000 each in compensation
13: people were treated for jellyfish stings at the Mount Main Beach
40: degC was (unofficially) recorded in parts of Christchurch on Thursday
50: % of people polled early Dec expect to be a better financial situation in the next 12 months - 25% expect no change, much better than earlier in the year
60: yr old Rewi Kemp sailing from Fiji to NZ was presumed dead when pieces of his yacht were found - but he had made it to an uninhabited island & was fine
60: firefighters were required to battle a fire at a reclaimed paper premises in Penrose
70: minute delays at Auckland Airport on Christmas Eve after a fire alarm forced an evacuation
9,000: tickets a month for NZ's busiest fixed speed camera on East Coast Rd, North Shore, Auckland
100,000: $ fine for a kiwi involved in a global spamming operation
3.3m: $ was raised over 4 years for the Indian Ocean tsunami relief fund
10m: $ battle against pollution in Rotorua's Lake Rotoiti is on target
32m: $ Kopu Bridge replacement is now a matter of national priority
300m: $ insurance bill for the winter storm damage around the country

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.3894 (+0.0051)
EUR 0.4319 (+0.0195)
USD 0.5892 (+0.0153)
AUD 0.8337 (-0.0097)
(since the last weekender)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Ernest Godward
INVENTOR, OVER-ACHIEVER, INVERCARGILLITE
An innovator of many talents. During the 1930s he was the world's leading expert on the internal combustion engine. He built power tools, eggbeaters, burglar proof windows and hairpins. He was a champion sportsman, a fine musician, a talented painter, an expert on international weapons. In short Ernest Godward was a brilliant over-achiever.
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/godward.html

Joke of the Weekender

Getting Ready
A man pacing back and forth glanced at his watch and yelled upstairs to his wife, "Honey, are you ready yet? We're going to be late for the costume party."
Shouting back, the woman replies, "For crying out loud, Ed, I've been telling you for the last half hour that I'll be ready in a minute!"

Weekender Photos

Here are some photos from my Coromanel holiday. If you're interested there are also photos there from Christmas and one of my orchard!
Check out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42/Coromandel20089#

Darren Harrison: darren@harrison.gen.nz
The Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website: www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
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