The Weekender 23/05/2010

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.

 

The Super14 is down to the finals and it's all South Africa after the Crusaders were beaten 39-24 by the Bulls, and the Stormers thrashed the Waratahs 25-6.

 

The Black Caps have started a series against Sri Lanka with a 28-run win. The difference in this Twenty20 series is that it is being held in America, with the first game in Florida.
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.

 

In netball, Wellington's Central Pulse have won only their second game ever in the transtasman competition when they beat the Canterbury Tactix 45-43. The Waikato/BOP Magic also beat the Canterby Tactix this week, thrashing them 72-52.

 

The NZ Warriors maintained their spot in the top eight with a 26-24 win over Robin Hood's South Sydney Rabbitohs this afternoon (we say Robin Hood yesterday - not bad).

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.

 

This week has been budget week. The basics are that GST is going up to 15% and tax is dropping. There are hundreds of scenarios and the National government is giving lots of examples of how people will be better off (no surprise there), and the Labour opposition is giving examples of how people will be worse off (no surprise there). But I think it basically comes down to the point that if you earn more than you spend, you'll be better off. So I don't think that's such a bad thing to be encouraging!

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

 

The body of a kiwi missing in London was last week pulled from the Thames River. Johnny Sleigh had been working in London for about six years. The police have confirmed that he drowned and are not treating it as suspicious but are still trying to figure out how he got into the water.

 

Police have smashed a major "P" drug ring after raids and arrests in the Coromandel this week. Five men and two women were arrested.

 

Interesting. A news story says that an AA (that's Automobile Association for all the Americans!) Survey found that women crash more often but accidents involving men are more serious because the travel faster. At first glance it sounds plausible but "a survey"? Sure, people can say how fast they drive & sure the survey found that 24% of men admit breaking the speed limit most of the time compared to 16% of women, and sure men are held back by fear of demerit points while women are held back by fear of safety. But the rest of the article is pumped up by the statistic that on average men's accidents cost $2450 and women's cost $2257 - that's less than 8% difference. They fail to give the stats on how often women crash compared to men, but the worst part of the article is that they pick a couple to prove their baseless accusations. A couple from Europe who have been in NZ only three months and where the 28 year old woman has been driving for 10 years and the man, only two.

 

The police confirmed that the body they found in the ravine north of Wanganui was that of missing Wanganui woman Marice McGregor, the police are continuing their investigation.

 

The police this week begun a crack down on illegal after ball parties providing lots of alcohol to minors. The police sent letters to about 40 high schools last week saying they would not accept justifications offered for illegal after-ball functions. At least four parties have been axed including one in Christchurch after it was revealed that students were been encouraged to get "crazy drunk". However many parents support the events and are encouraging them at secret locations.

 

There was an armed robbery in Hamilton. While that is neither typical nor unusal, the interesting part is that my wife's school had a lock down while they tracked the suspect. We don't really know if the gunman even went through the school but the armed police were enough to scare some of the teachers that saw them!

30: the new median age for giving birth in NZ
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

ATM Correction
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."

I've added a bunch more wedding photos (finally), and also some family photos!
Check out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42