The Weekender 29/03/2009

Welcome to a slightly late & rather rushed Weekender! I've just returned from a great weekend of camping & swimming on the Coromandel. The weather has been amazing for the past week & it seems to be continuing!

Sport

Ok, Super 14! The Sharks had a bonus point 35-14 win over the Brumbies, the Hurricanes came back to beat the Lions 38-32, the Chiefs and the Reds had a tryfest with the Chiefs winning 26-50, and the Crusaders did something right beating the Stormers 11-7. The Highlanders continued the good form for NZ teams with a 36-12 win over the previously unbeaten Bulls to reinforce that this is a new & greatly improved Highlanders team. The Blues however let the side down losing 27-22 to the Waratahs. So the table has changed and the Chiefs are the highest placed NZ team!
Sharks 26, Waratahs 23, Chiefs/Bulls 22, Hurricanes 20, Highlanders/Crusaders/Blues 18, Stormers/Brumbies 13, Reds/Force 12, Lions 11, Cheetahs 2.

Last weekend the Warriors had a thrilling come from behind win when Stacey Jones engineered two end-of-game tries to lead the team to a 26-24 win over Manly. The Warriors run couldn't continue and were beaten 10-26 by the Brisbane Broncos, and they lost Brent Tate who suffered another season-ending knee injury.
Michael Witt, who hasn't really been wanted by the Warriors this season has signed for the NZRU and will be playing rugby for Otago.

The Black Caps had a good 'day' at the office in the latest cricket test against India. The first innings at Napier saw NZ put on 619 for nine declared including a 151 from Ross Taylor, a 201 for Ryder and a 115 for McCullum. India were bowled out for 305 to give the Black Caps a hint of victory, but Gambhir & Tendulkar have batted through the end of day four leaving India at 252/2 and a draw as the most likely outcome.
In women's cricket the White Ferns had a bad day at the office when they were beaten by England by four wickets in the women's World Cup final last weekend.

Alison Shanks has won gold and is the world champ for women's 3000m individual pursuit cycling when she beat Britain's Wendy Houvenaghel in Poland this week.

NZ News

Helen Clark has been appointed to the third highest role at the U.N., the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme.

It looks like Auckland will be doing away with all the separate 'cities' (like Manukau) and are heading down the road of creating one single super-city council with a single mayor.

After hearing about the 13 year old boy driving his father home, the Waikato police got another shock when they found a 14 year old girl driving, and she had just dropped her younger siblings off at school.

Fisher & Paykel is the first big name signing for the government's proposed nine-day fortnight as one idea to combat the recession.

The Numbers Game

2: % drop in the economy over the past year definitely means NZ is doing better than many other trading partners
3.5: % drop in power consumption for NZ during Earth Hour
5: day per week mail collection by NZ Post after cutting back from 6 days/week due to the tough economic times and a decline in it's use
130: jobs to be lost from Sealord at the Nelson plant
140: year birthday for Southland Building Society - and NZ's newest bank
300: people arrested at the annual Beach Hop - a mix of rock & roll and hot rodding at Whangamata
300: spin doctor jobs are up for review by the government attempting to cut back Labour's bureaucracy
38,859: is the cap on the number of public servants
200,000: $ embezzled by Surf Life Saving Taranaki's former boss Alison Douglas
2.6m: $NZ research award for Otago graduate Rob Knight - an assistant professor of chemistry, biochemistry and computer science

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.3975 (+0.0117)
EUR 0.4283 (+0.0174)
USD 0.5694 (+0.0112)
AUD 0.8204 (+0.0080)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Archibald Hector McIndoe
NO ORDINARY SURGEON
Motivated by a desire to be more than just an ordinary doctor, Archibald Hector McIndoe pursued greatness and became much more than an ordinary surgeon. Appointed plastic surgeon to the Royal Air Force in the midst of World War II, McIndoe brought plastic surgery to the forefront of burns treatment and became a pioneer of what is more commonly known today as 'therapeutic community'.
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/mcindoe.html

Joke of the Weekender

Second Try
Arriving home from work at my usual hour of 5 p.m., I discovered that it had not been one of my wife's better days. Nothing I said or did seemed to be right.
By 7 p.m. things had not changed, so I suggested I go outside, pretend I had just got home, and start all over again. My wife agreed.
I went outside, came back in and, with a big smile, announced, "Honey, I'm home!"
"And just where have you been?" she replied sharply "It's after seven o'clock!"

Weekender Photos

Check out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42

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