May 2010
The Weekender 30/05/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 30/05/2010 - 23:32Well we have some on the weekender list who are picking up some house guests. We just got back from dropping my brother, his wife & son, off at the airport as they move to America. Who would want to leave after a beautiful sunny day like today!
Sport
Well the news of the week & possibly the year is undoubtedly the All Whites latest game. In build up to the football world cup the All Whites had a friendly game against 15th ranked Serbia - and won. The 1-0 win for the All Whites was an amazing result and while it probably doesn't mean too much as far as the world cup goes (honestly we'll be lucky to get a goal), it's just a fantastic result against a team which has players from the likes of Manchester United.
Last week the All Whites had a (not very) "friendly" against Australia in which a couple of Australian tackles were so brutal even their coach (& the Aussie media!) slammed his own players that were involved. NZ got an early goal against Australia & then they eventually levelled, but Australia scored in injury time to win however it was mostly a psychological victory for the All Whites knowing that if the game hadn't been a "friendly", two Australia players would have been sent off and the result could have been much different.
I realised something the other day. The Super 14 season was almost over (it's now over & - yawn - the Bulls beat the Stormers 25-17) and I hadn't watched a single game, not live nor on T.V. I think that's a first for me.
The All Blacks are preparing for another international season, but they'll have to do it without a few injured players. Chiefs players Richard Kahui and Mils Muliaina are the latest to pull out injured. Ma'a Nonu and Isaia Toeava are also injured to heap pressure on the mid field selection.
New players announced for the All Blacks this season are Aaron Cruden, Israel Dagg, Benson Stanley and Victor Vito.
The NZ Warriors made up for their win last week with a 50-6 thrashing by the Tigers.
In Origin league, Queensland continued their recent dominance with a 28-24 win after half-back Johnathan Thurston produced his greatest Origin performance.
Kiwi track specialist Marc Ryan came sixth in a stage of the Ras cycling tour in Ireland this week. Julian Dean and Greg Henderson both continue to do well in the Giro d'Italia. On Friday Julian came second and Greg fourth!
In school girls netball the NZ Secondary Schools team beat the School Sport Australia team 29-23 in the final of the International Schoolgirls Netball Challenge.
In netball, NZ has three teams with chances of making the trans-tasman league play-offs after the Southern Steel had an upset 52-47 win over the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic. Then this weekend the Southern Steel thrashed the defending champs Melbourne Vixens 52-39.
The Black Caps were beaten by seven wickets in the second of their Twenty20 matches against Sri Lanka in Florida.
NZ News
The killer of Wanganui woman Marice McGregor handed himself in to police this week. He had been on the police radar as a person of interest.
There have been huge floods down Otago way with the Met Service estimating up to 30mm of rain falling every hour, slips all over the place & buildings being washed around. For most of a day, Dunedin was almost an island with the main highway both in and out (north & south?) closed.
There have been lots of complaints as a Mt Eden Prison development takes place. The eight-story jail block will tower over the Southern Motorway. The Auckland mayors have said their pleas to Labour leader Phil Goff (when he was the corrections minister in 2007) were ignored.
Anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune has pleaded guilty to four charges after his attacks on a Japanese whaling vessel. He could face up to 15 years in prison.
The government has passed a controversial three-strikes law this week after a vote of 63-58.
4: th ranked city in the world to live in is Auckland - Wellington was 12th
140: mm downpour north of Auckland was a relief for farmers who have claimed this was their driest summer in 20 years
6,000: $ fine for a company falsely claiming NZ made on their products
56,000: $ payout for a man sacked after working at a manufacturing company for 29 years
300,000: $ in income wasn't declared by a man who claimed he didn't know what the "$" sign meant - he pled guilty to filing false tax returns
375m: $ NASA satellite project to collect data on greenhouse gases are working with Niwa & using a location in Lauder, Otago
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4704 (+0.0012)
EUR 0.5539 (+0.0135)
USD 0.6795 (+0.0003)
AUD 0.8022 (-0.0140)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Morrie Stanley
Morrie got an award from the Australian's this week. Forty four years ago in Vietnam, he & two other kiwis were with an Australian company of 104 people when they were attacked by 2500 to 3000 Viet Cong soldiers. The three kiwis were on the front line, directing artillery fire which eventually drove back the attacking Vietnamese troops. Read all about his Australian Unit Citation here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10648292&ref=rss
Civil War Re-enactment
Thinking his son would enjoy seeing the re-enactment of a Civil War battle, my niece's husband took the boy, Will, to the event but the poor child was terrified by the booming cannons. During a lull, Will's dad finally got him calmed down.
That's when the Confederate general hollered, "Fire at will!"
Check
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Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website:
www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
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The Weekender 23/05/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 23/05/2010 - 19:07Welcome along, the week has been a bit wet, but Saturday was nice enough for another ride!
Our cyclists have been doing well overseas this week. Greg Henderson finished second in the 13th stage of the Tour of Italy after finishing fifth in stages one & five and eighth in stage nine. And Julian Dean finished third in the 230km 10th Stage. The stage winner & Julian's teammate paid tribute to Julian for the great lead-out work.
In the Twenty20 world champs, England thrashed Australia in the final with a seven wicket win, while in the women's final NZ came up three run short against Australia.
A kiwi filmmaker has won the grand prize at a film festival - the Semaine De La Critique, which runs parallel to the Festival de Cannes. The Daniel Joseph Borgman film called Berik was funded from Denmark, however Daniel who lives in Paris is currently writting a debut feature film which will be filmed in New Zealand.
Budget Numbers:
0% the new amount claimable for depreciation on buildings by landlords and businesses
2% increase to all superannuation and other benefits to counter the rise in GST
15% the new GST rate (up from 12.5%)
28% the new company tax rate - down from 30%
33% the new tax rate for those earning over $70,000 - down from 38%, all tax rates drop
$500m extra per year for health $2.1b over the next four years, including $1.7b of new operating funding
$750m for KiwiRail over the next three years as part of the $4.6b turnaround plan to turn it into a self sustaining business
$1.4b extra funding for schools over the next four years which includes $350m in new operating & capital funding
83: average life expectancy for women, men are on 77
80: people are to lose their jobs as TelstraClear outsource half of their call centre work force to the Philippines
97: % fat free ice cream has won NZ's Ice Cream Supreme Award - that's terrible! It was Tip Top's Creamy Yoghurt Ice Cream Strawberry
20,000: $ in coins were all a thief got after damaging $400,000 worth of parking meters & stolen four wheel drives - he is being sentenced next week
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4692 (-0.0178)
EUR 0.5404 (-0.0324)
USD 0.6792 (-0.0284)
AUD 0.8162 (+0.0170)
The Weekender NZer of the week
William Hudson
SNOWY MOUNTAIN ENGINEER
New Zealand Engineer Sir William Hudson was the man and motivator behind the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. It is acclaimed as one of the great engineering achievements of the 20th Century, that not only irrigated the Australian interior and generated hydro-electricity, but changed the nature of Australian culture.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/hudson.html
My father began teaching business classes at the local prison through a community college. On his first night of class, he started a chapter on banking. During the course of his lecture, the subject of ATMs came up, and he mentioned that, on average, most machines contain only about $1500 at a given time.
Just then a man in the back raised his hand. "I'm not trying to argue," he told my father, "but the machine I robbed had about $3,000 in it."
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}
The Weekender 16/05/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 16/05/2010 - 16:24Welcome along for the ride, let's see what happened around the country this week.
Sport
Rugby's Super 14 regular season has finished and while the semi finals will both be in South Africa, the South African's also gave us the Lion's team who became the first team to lose every game in a season, after being thrashed 59-10 by the Cheetahs. The Blues finished their season with a win - and the Chiefs with a loss, after the Blues beat the Chiefs 30-20 in Auckland. The Highlanders had a close game against the Reds - well not to start with. They were down 24-3 at half time, had a stunning comeback to lead 36-31, before the Reds managed another try right at the end to give them a 38-36 win. The Stormers beat the Bulls 38-10 to secure a home semi (how convenient?). So it was simple for the Crusaders and the Hurricanes, to reach the semis they had to win. The Hurricanes continued their typical plan of doing well up to the end an rolling over, they lost 32-16 to the Waratahs, the Crusaders will be playing again after thrashing the Brumbies 40-22, it is the ninth straight year the Crusaders have been in the semi-finals.
So the final table for the season is: Bulls 47, Stormers 44, Waratahs 43, Crusaders 41, Brumbies/Hurricanes 37, Blues 36, Reds 34, Sharks 33, Chiefs 26, Cheetahs 21, Force 19, Highlanders 17, Lions 4.
In other rugby news Justin Marshall has announced his retirement from all rugby. The most-capped All Black half-back is playing in the semi finals for Saracens in the English Premiership this weekend, and will return to NZ after his season ends. Troubled Chiefs player & former All Black Sione Lauaki has signed for French club Clermont Auvergne. Sione was in court twice this week for an assault charge and a driving charge.
In yachting, Team New Zealand are at it again in the MedCup in Portugal this time. They have extended their lead today winning the 60km coastal race. Dean Barker & his men dominated the race to give themselves a 14-point lead going into tomorrow's last two races.
The New Zealand Warriors beat North Queensland 24-12 to snap a 3 game losing streak. The game saw the return - and departure of Manu Vatuvei who returned after a month off with a hamstring injury. The key warrior limped off during the match. Brett Seymour was also back after injury.
In Netball the Waikato/BOP Magic continued their winning ways with a 72-52 win over the Canterbury Tactix.
In the women's Twenty20 cricket world champs, the White Ferns beat the West Indies by 56 runs to reach the final.
In the men's Twenty20 champs as expected it was always going to be difficult for the Black Caps against a red hot English team. NZ reached 149 for six but saying that England cruised to a three-wicket win was a little misleading. It got quite tight at the end and still could have gone either way but England did deserve their 5 ball victory.
Shane Bond announced he has retired from all forms cricket when he returned back to NZ this week.
In Tennis the NZ women's No 1 Sacha Jones was named Tennis Auckland player of the year, she reached a career high ranking of 157. Marina Erakovic was knocked out in the first round of the ITF tournament in Kurume, Japan.
NZ News
Police are investigating a case where a motorcyclist died after crashing in thick fog in the early hours of Thursday morning near Oamaru. The man was found half an hour later and a car was found burned out (with plates removed) 15km from the motorcyclist crash scene. The family of the dead man had buried his grandmother only hours before the accident.
A four year old boy from Whakatane was "roughed up" last week for wearing a red shirt - the colours of a local gang. This week the police have arrested a "wannabe" gang member for the assault. They thanked members of the public for tracking the man down.
Back in June 2008 a woman chased the man who snatched her handbag, but was then run over and killed as he made his escape. This week the jury decided they didn't believe his story that he hadn't seen her and he was found guilty of murder. Five others who were also in the stolen vehicle were found guilty of being accessories to murder and helping the 'snatcher' avoid arrest.
South Africa's sport & recreation minister, the South African Rugby Union, and the NZRU this week publicly apologised to former Maori All Blacks who were excluded from All Black teams in the 40's & 60's due to apartheid.
Police have spent the week searching for Marice McGregor of Wanganui. They have found a body down a ravine in dense bush but haven't yet confirmed the identity.
John Key has had an interesting week. He announced early this week that Urewera National Park was not going to be signed over the Tuhoe as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement. Apparently Tuhoe have always documented that they want Te Urewera and after 18 months of negotiations they believed they had the support to get private ownership of the New Zealand National Park. So he has been hassled a lot about that. Then a few days later he made a joke about enjoying a dinner at marae on the East Coast. He said "the good news is that I was having dinner with Ngati Porou as opposed to their neighbouring iwi which is Tuhoe, in which case I would have been dinner...". Now given that in context, I would have assumed he was meaning they would have "had a go" at him and hassled him some more. But some how the reporters managed to run it with the headline "PM slammed for cannibalism comment", which then was soundly condemned around the country & even picked up in various newspapers around the world.
Sir Edmund Hillary's house was this week moved to the South Auckland school Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate. The valuable Remuera property it was on, was bought by Auckland businessman Terry Jarvis who donated the house to the school.
The Ngati Kahungunu Iwi have banned tobacco for all events that they control. The third-most-populous iwi stretches from Wairoa to Wairarapa and their CEO Ngawhiwi Tomoana said "It's the greatest contribution we can make, greater than any Treaty claim".
2: nd lowest tax burden for NZers in the OECD when superannuation and other compulsory taxes are counted
48.4: % support for Manukau Mayor Len Brown in a poll for the Auckland Super City mayoral race, Auckland City mayor John Banks is on 37%
104,000: $ awarded to Sir Robert Jones in a defamation case
4.36m: is the current population of NZ after the highest population growth since March 2004
30m: $ more for tourism announced in the budget
225m: $ boost to funding for science (pre)announced for this week's budget
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4870 (+0.0036)
EUR 0.5728 (+0.0122)
USD 0.7076 (-0.0073)
AUD 0.7992 (-0.0064)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Robert Burchfield
DICTIONARY DON
Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "the greatest living lexicographer", Dr Robert Burchfield is regarded as the pre-eminent lexicographer and linguistic scholar of our age. As editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and responsible for its revision, Burchfield has played a crucial role in the study of the sources and development of the English language.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/burchfield.html
Van Problem
The fist knocking on the door belonged to a cop. Bracing for the worst, the yard foreman opened the door. "Is that yours?" asked the officer, pointing to a company van that was jutting out into the narrow street.
"Uhh, yes it is," said the foreman. "That is, it's our company's."
"Would you mind moving it?" asked the officer. "We've set up a speed trap, and the van's causing everyone to slow down."
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}
The Weekender 09/05/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 09/05/2010 - 18:21How are you all going this fine week.
Sport
The Rally of New Zealand has been running this weekend and Finn Jari-Matti Latvala won the title after an interesting final day. Sebastien Loeb finished third and Mikko Hirvonen was fourth.
Both the men's & women's Twenty20 cricket world champs are running at the moment. The White Ferns beat Sri Lanka by 47 runs for their second win after beating India by 10 runs on Friday.
The Black Caps made it through to the Super Eights and then promptly lost to South Africa by 13 runs, but made a come back and beat Pakistan by one run with Ian Butler the pick of the bowlers taking three for 19 off his four overs. The need to beat England (who have been doing well) next to continue.
The Super14 has more bad news for most of the NZ teams. But first with bad news for a South African team, the Stormers semi hopes were dealt a blow when they were upset 20-14 by the Sharks. The Blues thrashed the Lions 56-14, the Waratahs thrashed the Chiefs 19-46 and the Chiefs end the season not having won a home game - ouch. The Hurricanes reignited their semi hopes with a 44-21 thrashing of the formerly hot Reds, and the Crusaders lost 40-35 to the Bulls, but not without a try to Bull Francois Hougaard after the final hooter after what seemed to be a forward pass. The Brumbies beat the Highlanders 31-3 and the Cheetahs beat the Force 29-14.
So there is still (some) hope that NZ teams will be in the semis, although it's not assured like in previous seasons. Both the Crusaders and Hurricanes are capable of making the semis - if they win next week, in the last round. The Crusaders have a possibility of a home semi if they win well and if other results go their way.
Table (all after 12 games): Bulls 47, Stormers 39, Waratahs 38, Brumbies 37, Hurricanes 37, Crusaders 36, Reds 34, Blues 32, Sharks 29, Chiefs 26, Cheetahs 21, Force 18, Highlanders 17, Lions 5
In other rugby news, Jock Hobbs has stood down as chairman of both the NZRU and Rugby New Zealand 2011 for health reasons.
Hamilton Boys High School have won the world secondary schools rugby tournament in Japan when they beat England's Truro College 40-8 in the final.
The ANZ Netball champs also continue and the Waikato/BOP Magic continue to do well beating Central Pulse 56-44, and beating the Northern Mystics 49-46 earlier in the week. They are second on the table.
Having a rugby league test match during the NRL is always going to make it difficult for the Kiwis to catch the Kangaroos off guard - which is what you need to do when your players combined worth is less than half that of your opposition. But the final score on this years ANZAC test match was a creditable 12-8, so the Kiwis will be looking forward to the Four Nations which start in October. And we can't forget that the Kiwis are reigning World Champions!
NZ News
Economists were stunned this week when the March quarter jobs data was released, showing the steepest quarterly drop in unemployment for the last 24 years. The number of unemployed dropped 25,000 to 140,000, and the unemployment rate dropped from 7.1% to 6%.
John Key has been travelling a bit this week. He coped some flak from one of his trade delegation members this week. After the air force crash on ANZAC day, John Key who was in Gallipoli (on his way to the Middle East for trade talks) changed his plans & headed back to NZ for the funeral of the three airmen - men that he personally knew after having flown with them a number of times. But Dr John Langley said that his decision to miss the delegation for the funerals was short-sighted and lost a critical chance to build links. Dr Langley's views were not those of the board he was representing - in fact not many people agreed with him, but it did get lots of news coverage. John Key then headed to Afghanistan to meet with the NZ troops that are over there.
4: degrees above average winter is expected for the North Island, and plenty of sunshine
5.1: richter scale earthquake in the central North Island
6: th best place to be a mother in the world is New Zealand
46: % of emergency calls (to 111) are not real emergencies (people bumping their phones, children playing or prank calls)
55: % of surveyees (in the "Better Banking survey) were happy with ASB, BNZ got 46%, National 43%, Westpac & ANZ 40%
111: Corrections Department staff were sacked or suspended in 2008 & 2009 for illegal or inappropriate behaviour -
134.3m: $ funding for families-based social services initiative Whanau Ora over the next four years - not including current contracts
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4834 (+0.0071)
EUR 0.5606 (+0.0131)
USD 0.7149 (-0.0125)
AUD 0.8056 (+0.0183)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Harold Williams
VOICE OF THE WORLD
Harold Williams is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's greatest linguist, said to have spoken over 58 languages fluently. He was foreign editor of The Times, "the most brilliant foreign correspondent" his generation had known. Friend of statesmen and companion of writers HG Wells and Hugh Walpole.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/williams.html
Cinderella Question
The tax accountant had just read the story of Cinderella to his four-year-old daughter for the first time. The little girl was fascinated by the story, especially the part where the pumpkin turns into a golden coach.
Suddenly she piped up, "Daddy, when the pumpkin turned into a golden coach, would that be classed as income or a long-term capital gain?"
Check
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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}
The Weekender 02/05/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 02/05/2010 - 18:55Welcome along for the ride. I hope you've all had a great week. Let's see what happened around the country this week.
Sport
Well I almost wish I could ignore the Super14! The Bulls beat the Sharks 27-19, the Force beat the Lions 33-12 and the Brumbies beat the Reds 32-12. The Reds may have been upset by the news that star flanker Daniel Braid is returning to NZ next year to compete for an All Blacks jersey. The Chiefs continued their disappointing season letting the Hurricanes away with a 33-27 win near the end of the game. The win did give the Hurricanes a chance at a semi-final spot. The Blues had their semi hopes smashed by the Cheetahs when they were beaten 36-32 in Bloemfontein, and the Crusaders were rocked, thrashed 14-42 by the Stormers. In a game no one would have picked the Highlanders beat the Waratahs 26-10 to dent the 5th placed 'Tah's semi hopes. The table is: Bulls 43, Stormers 38, Crusaders/Reds 34, Waratahs 33, Hurricanes 32, Brumbies 31, Blues 27, Chiefs 26, Sharks 25, Force 18, Highlanders 17, Cheetahs 16, Lions 4.
Matt Giteau was fined $6,300 for criticising kiwi ref Steve Walsh. The TAB has ignored the poor kiwi form in the Super14 to put the All Blacks as tournament favourites for the Rugby World Cup.
The Black Caps did well in their first game of the Twenty20 world champs. Yesterday Nathan McCullum (Brendon's older brother) was man of the match against Sri Lanka with a fine bowling performance (1 for 17 off the first three overs), then in the field he took three catches and then chasing 136 and coming in to bat at 117 for seven he hit 16 off six balls to win the game with a six of the penultimate ball.
In the warm up games the Black Caps beat the West Indies by seven runs, and Ireland.
In other cricket, former Black Cap captain Stephen Fleming coached the Chennai Super Kings to the Indian Premier League cricket title last week with a 22-run win over the Mumbai Indians.
The NZ Warriors had their third loss in a row being beaten 23-16 by the Canberra Raiders. The table is: Dragons/Titans* 12, Panthers* 10, Sea Eagles/Rabbitohs/Roosters/Wests Tigers 8, Bulldogs/Eels/Knights*/Warriors*/Raiders* 6, Sharks/Cowboys*/Broncos 4, Storm* 0 (* 8 games compared to 7).
Scott Dixon won his first race of the season in the IndyCar series at the Kansas Speedway today. He led the final 150 of 200 laps and won by more than 3 seconds. With the second win in a row at Kansas, he took over the lead in the championship.
Kiwi golfer Richard Lee set the lowest-ever score recorded in a professional tournament in New Zealand this week. His second round 59 in the Tauranga Open included eight birdies and an eagle.
Kimberly Smith has broken Allison Roe's 29 year old NZ women's marathon record when she finished in the top-10 in the London marathon this week. She finished eighth in two hours 25 minutes and 21 seconds.
NZ News
Legislation has been introduced so that driver licences can be suspended when people don't pay overdue traffic fines. They will be sent a warning giving them 14 days and then their licences suspended. That makes sense to me - only a little surprised they are only just starting doing it now.
There has been some rain around this week - we even had a night of nice gentle rain. Queenstown & Southland in general has had huge amounts with Lake Wakatipu flooding a few streets around Queenstown over the last two days of the week. Some places around Southland had up to 700mm of rain over the three days and flood warnings were everywhere. The driest spots in New Zealand are still Northland with rainfall inconsistent around the district - but fairly consistent in not being enough.
470: public service positions to be cut by the end of next year as National try to cut back the huge number of bureaucrats that Labour installed during their reign
850: calls to Quitline (compared to the normal 2-300) after news broke of a big tax increase for tobacco with cigarettes to be $17 a packet -
20,000: people turned out in Auckland to protest the government's proposal to mine on conservation land (not the 50,000 they claimed) - funny how the Green party didn't protest when Labour were doing it!
39,292: $ claimed for air travel by ministers for the first three months of this year compared to $134,054 in the September quarter, after it was opened up to public scrutiny
325,000: ticket applications for the Rugby World Cup in the first three days, the sales have been "fantastic" according to RNZ chief executive Martin Snedden
1.35m: $ surplus for New Zealand Football following their on field success in qualifying for the Football World Cup
30m: $ pavilion for NZ at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai - it is already proving to be a hit
400m: $ expected cost to host the Rugby World Cup
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4763 (+0.0097)
EUR 0.5475 (+0.0114)
USD 0.7274 (+0.0100)
AUD 0.7873 (+0.0139)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Dave Moriaty
You won't find this name in the NZ heros list, but Bomber Comander Dave Moriaty won the rare Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for an act of bravery over the Normandy battlefield in 1944. He died this week in Wanganui aged 88.
I've just read his story and it's amazing, you should take the time to read how he saved his crew after being hit by shrapnel.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10641907&ref=rss
Pupil's Question "And that, my master, is fate?"
A young pupil asked, "Master, what is fate."
"Ah, my son, it is what has brought great nations together. It has made the world a smaller place in which to live. It has inspired men of worth to work endless hours. It will some day enable men to span the universe and light years of travel will soon become mere seconds in time."
"Oh, fate! I thought you said freight."
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}
