The Weekender 20/09/2009

Welcome to this week from NZ!

Sport

Well last week when we started with the tri-nations rugby the news wasn't so good, this week it is. The final game was playing for the wooden spoon in the tri-nations with both the tri-nations & Bledisloe Cup already decided. Australia lost the game & won the race to the bottom. The All Blacks actually played really well, nice running rugby which we all want to see (& which the South African's squash out of every game they play in). So the final score was a 33-6 thrashing (compared to the average 5 points difference between the two teams). The All Blacks even did ok in line outs (in the second half).
Unfortunately for my cousin over that way, the All Blacks have pulled out of playing a Bledisloe Cup match in Denver, USA next year, with concerns about too many tests.
Finally in international rugby, the Argentina Pumas have been invited to join a Four Nations rugby series from 2012 to replace the tri-nations.
On to Air NZ Cup rugby. Hawke's Bay beat Otago 32-10, North Harbour's new coaches (Craig Dowd & Jeff Wilson) enjoyed watching their team beat Auckland 14-16, and Northland had a deserved 25-18 win over the Manawatu Turbos. Waikato aren't looking like champions but they are staying in the hunt with a 23-18 win over Wellington, and Canterbury had a five minute scoring blitz to beat Taranaki 29-17 in a Ranfurly Shield challenge after a half time score of 14-14. Southland had a comfortable 14-6 win over Counties Manukau and Bay of Plenty beat Tasman 24-13.
Table: Canterbury 29, Southland 28, Bay of Plenty 25, Hawke's Bay/Auckland 21, Tasman 20, Wellington 19, Taranaki 18, Waikato 17, Manawatu 16, Northland 15, Otago 14, North Harbour 12, Counties Manukau 11

Team New Zealand has won the final regatta of the MedCup yachting series after they had already secured the series title. They had a 3, 2 & 1st placing the other day & on the final day got a 2nd behind Synergy from Russia. Team NZ won four of the five regattas & look forward to the Louis Vuitton World Series at Nice, France in November.

The Silver Ferns had a comeback but failed by one point, losing to Australia 46-47 in the fourth netball test against Australia - and that is the series gone as well. The 3rd game in Brisbane saw Australia win 36-33. Those games are always soo close!

The IndyCar series is set for an exciting finale after Scott Dixon won the Japan 300 in Motegi to jump to the top of the table on 570 points with team mate Dario Franchitti on 565 points and Australian Ryan Briscoe on 562. The final race is at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 10th.

The business end of the NRL rugby league season is on, and although the Warriors aren't there, there are some great games on. Last night the apprentice beat the master when the Ivan Henjak coached Brisbane Broncos beat the Wayne Bennett coached Dragons 24-10. Bennett coached the Broncos for 21 years.

West Aucklander Jason Wynyard has won a second lumberjack title, winning the world championship in Switzerland this week. He won four of the six disciplines to take the overall title - and added the title to the one he won in the US in June.

NZ News

It seems that justice is served even to those who normally dish it out. A police officer avoided a drink-driving charge because of a legal loophole. He went to the station for the blood test but "injured" himself in the toilets and was taken to hospital. And the law states that blood collected in a hospital for alcohol testing can only be used if the suspect was hospitalised because of the car accident. Very crafty. But now he has been charged with perverting the course of justice.

This week the Microsoft Chief Financial Officer (I think 3rd highest Microsofty) Chris Liddell who also happens to be a Kiwi, announced that Microsoft has donated more than $5.5 million in software & funding to 288 non-profit organisations through NZ in the past 12 months. While all that is great - I'm sure the recipients are very grateful - it would almost seem like an accounting error when Chris is dealing with the $30 billion in cash reserves he mentioned at the TechEd conference I heard him speak at on Monday morning. I think he looks a lot like Bruno Lawrence!

Probably the biggest news of the week has been the announcement that the NZ Geographic Board decided that the town of Wanganui should be renamed Whanganui, matching a change made to the spelling of the river & National Park back in 1991. Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws has slammed the decision as racist and the Wanganui Council is set to appeal the decision, after the Geographic Board seemed to ignore the two Wanganui referendums which both overwhelmingly voted to keep the current spelling. However the Land Information minister - Maurice Williamson - has the final say.

The Numbers Game

29: degrees in Alexandra at lunchtime this week - summer temperatures have arrived early
61: people have been charged over the infamous Undie 500 Dunedin Uni "event" - but they include 50% high school students & other trouble makers
64: to 58 as the Super City bill is passed into law after a long debate under urgency
73: schools have been found to be leaky as the leaky "house" toll soars ($240m worth of leaky home claims in Auckland alone)
83: more homes (on top of the 365) are to be taken for Auckland's western ring road for road widening
100: Mbps broadband promised within the next 10 years with a billion dollar plan being finalised by the government
122: hours of tenpin bowling is the new world record after a Lower Hutt man "smashed" the Guinness Books world record by two hours... (smashed?)
129: drink driver charges after 40,000 drivers were breath tested in a massive Auckland blitz
2,000: Maori owned houses are to be insulated after a deal between the Maori Party and National over the Emissions Trading Scheme
12,000: $ fine for a BOP farmer who allowed effluent to leak into local waterways
100,000: $ three day pro-am style golf tournament is being staged at Hamilton and Ngaruawahia golf clubs early next year
145,472: rugby players in NZ - a 4% increase

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.4363 (+0.0112)
EUR 0.4826 (-0.0035)
USD 0.7098 (+0.0018)
AUD 0.8186 (-0.0016)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Janet Frame
EDGE OF THE ALPHABET
"Mixing and revolving words with the skill of a warrior handling a Taiaha, novelist Janet Frame made an pre-eminent edge of the alphabet contribution to international literature, coming as she did from the peripheries of art and society. In Aotearoa's literature she has taken a Flymo to the dictionary and reconfigured the wor(l)d."....
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/frame.html

Joke of the Weekender

Nutritious Eating
According to a recent article I just read on nutrition, they said eating right doesn't have to be complicated. Nutritionists say there is a simple way to tell if you're eating right. Colours. Fill your plates with bright colours. Greens, reds, yellows.
In fact, I did that this morning. I had an entire bowl of M&M;'s. It was delicious! I never knew eating right could be so easy.
I now have a whole new outlook on life.

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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