The Weekender 26/07/2009

Welcome to this week! I hope things are going well for you.

Sport

Team New Zealand held their nerve after a great start to the latest round of the MedCup yachting circuit in Sardinia this week. They won their second successive regatta by finishing third, first & second on the final day. They finished 14.5 points ahead of Matador from Argentina.

The Tall Blacks have won their opening match of the Four Nations basketball tournament in Italy with a 91-98 win over Portugal. It was however their first win of their European tour after losses to Estonia last week.

The All Blacks are getting famous for having a good second half (or is that for having a bad first half?) but it wasn't enough in their second tri-nations game this weekend against South Africa. Of course it wasn't unexpected as all the tri-nations hosts expect to win their games. So then it comes down to whether any team is special enough to win away from home - or bonus points. The Springboks won 28-19 (so no bonus point for us).
In other rugby it sounds like Hawke's Bay and Taranaki having joined forces for a bid for the Super 15 spot.
And finally Dan Carter played for his club this weekend - a great step on his road to recovery!

Sarah Walker turned 21 this month, and this weekend won the UCI BMX world champs in Adelaide.

Sir John Walker was given life membership by Athletics New Zealand, a special honour only given to a few people. He said "to be recognised by your peers is probably the pinnacle of anyone's career".

The Black Sox finished the selection rounds of the softball world champs in top spot after a 5-3 win over Japan. Japan were always expected to provide the toughest challenge and with all previous (NZ) games ending by invoking the "mercy" rule, it proved to be the case. Other results: vs Mexico 13-1, vs Denmark 16-0, vs Great Britain 14-0, vs US 15-0.

The Warriors have no hope of making the playoffs after being beaten 29-4 by the Dragons this weekend. The Warriors are currently placed 13th (out of 16).

NZ News

Former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark made the news this week as she made a plea for world leaders to honour their millennium aid promises despite the recession. While that is a noble thing to ask for, I find it ironic that in the booming economy that Helen led NZ in over the past nine years, NZ's aid contribution was (I think) around half what she promised as leader in 2000.

Phil Goff has been making a few mistakes as leader of the opposition recently. The latest is when he tried to create an uproar about a Labour policy to pay the unemployment benefit to laid off workers, even if their partners are on high incomes. So Labour proposed the policy and then tried to attack National when they obviously ruled it out. The way Phil did this was by pushing a man into the news who was likely to lose his house because he couldn't get the dole. It sounded like a very sad story for the first day or two - but then we all found out the man had two other rental houses in Auckland, whoops.

The Australian's clearly don't like people helping out others! An interesting story came to light this week, of a maori couple who were holidaying in Surfers Paradise. They found a man lying in a pool of blood and tried to check for a pulse and find out where the man was injured, when the police (who were walking away from the man) pepper sprayed the couple and three of their friends before arresting three of them. The couple have been charged with obstructing police and have to return to Australia to face charges.

The Milford Sound has been nominated for a spot on the New Seven Wonders of the World. It is one of 26 chosen out of over 260 natural landmarks.

The Numbers Game

14: deaths from swine flu in NZ so far
51: deaths by drowning so far this year, down from the 5 year average of 59
62: children now infected with measles in Canterbury
15,000: $ awarded to a veteran Air NZ pilot after being demoted because of a US FAA rule prohibiting someone being pilot-in-command after aged 60
95,000: sentences handed down by the courts last years - the second highest to 1989 of 111,000
6.8m: $ spent at the movies in July - a new record, so clearly the movies theatres aren't in recession!

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.3996 (0.0045)
EUR 0.4623 (0.0046)
USD 0.6563 (0.0111)
AUD 0.8035 (-0.0014)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Bill Hamilton
RIVER KING
Hamilton loved speed. The free flowing Mackenzie Country rivers were his pulse and challenge. His jet enabled people to travel for the first time with pace up rivers and waterways all over the world. From his homegrown jet propulsion laboratory on the Waitaki and its tributaries, Bill Hamilton brought the jet age to the water, then took it to the world.
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/hamilton.html

Joke of the Weekender

New Diet
Needing to shed a few pounds, my husband and I went on a diet that had specific recipes for each meal of the day. I followed the instructions closely, dividing the finished recipe in half for our individual plates. We felt terrific and thought the diet was wonderful - we never even felt hungry!
But when we realised we were gaining weight, not losing it, I checked the recipes again.
There, in fine print, was: "Serves 6."

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/
{If these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll take you off the list | The Weekender is not a verified news source, sometimes it's even just an opinion}