The Weekender 20/06/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 20/06/2010 - 15:33
Welcome to a cosy winter's day all you All White supporters!
Sport
Well no one expected it but the All Whites got New Zealand's first point in the Football World Cup. The kiwis played well at the start of the game but looked to be a little outclassed by Slovakia in their first World Cup game. Slovakia went ahead early in the first half and as the game got closer & closer to the end it looked like there was no hope. But after three minutes of injury time, Shane Smeltz managed to chip a kick towards the Slovakian goal and towards the head of Winston Reid for the 1-1 draw. The draw that felt like a win all over New Zealand, all week! Suddenly everyone is excited and there are reports about Italy (!) being a little scared. The game against World Champions Italy is early tomorrow morning & I'll be watching, just like the almost 750,000 (!) were last game - that's almost as many at 11:30pm as watched the All Blacks at 7:30pm!
The All Blacks continue their international season and farewelled Dunedin's Carisbrook stadium when they beat Wales 42-9. It was quite a close first half but the All Blacks ran away in the second half with Dan Carter getting 2 penalties, a try & a conversion to kick off the half.
As for other internationals... as the tri nations gets closer everyone is practising. Australia lost their second test against England 20-21 and the Springboks won a scrappy 29-13 game against Italy.
This weekend saw the NZ Maori take on Ireland - and win 31-28. That helped their centenary celebrations over in Rotorua!
The Waikato/BOP Magic were in danger of missing out on the playoffs for this years ANZ netball Champs after losing three of the last four games, but they've found some form again, last night beating the second placed Thunderbirds 53-44 to make the playoffs in the final game.
The State of Origin has been the rugby league of the week! NSW "former" assistant coach, legend Andrew Johns got a little carried away in his team talk and made some comments that were considered racial slurs by NSW player Timana Tahu - so he walked out of the NSW team. The talk also fired up Queensland & the target of the comments, Greg Inglis who took only three minutes to score and help the Maroons to a 34-6 game win, taking out the series for a record five straight times.
NZ decathlete Brent Newdick has got passed the 8000 point mark for the first time after he placed sixth in an international meet in the Czech Republic.
NZ News
Manukau Mayor Len Brown has been in the news lots this week. While it's getting a bit boring this has all been about politician spending. A while ago he was found to have some personal spending on his credit card. He cut up his card on TV weeks ago but the story continues. A few weeks ago Mr Brown had 48% support for the new Auckland Super City mayors job, followed by John Banks with 37%. In an unscientific survey the Herald thinks around 13.6% of Brown's supporters have switched to someone else, with Brown & Banks now quite close.
In Labour credit card misuse's, Labour leader Phil Goff returned from China and Shane Jones, Mita Ririnui and Chris Carter have been demoted. However Chris Carter retains his ethnic affairs portfolio but he did require an extra meeting with Phil to apologise to the country.
The navy announced this week their first woman commanding a ship. Lieutenant Alexandra Hansen has taken control of the HMNZS Pukaki, a new inshore patrol vessel. Women are 22% of the regular navy force.
Alastair McWhannell was found guilty of manslaughter this week. Back in March he was operating a bridge swing when he was distracted by a woman he had met over the internet, and didn't tie the rope correctly for first year vet student Catherine Peters.
New Zealand Post has won an award for the people management category at the World Mail Awards.
National and the Maori Party have repealed the Foreshore and Seabed Act. The act which made Labour very unpopular when they put it in, was disliked by almost everyone but for different reasons. The new legislation will mean foreshore and seabed will be removed from Crown ownership and will become a public place with public access guaranteed.
There are new kiwi fruit around, and they are red. I haven't seen any yet but they apparently have an exotic flavour and a creamy texture.
7: months home detention, 100 hours of community service and indefinite loss of licence for a Mount Maunganui woman caught drunk driving for the seventh time - she got off lightly because her adult daughter is mentally ill
186: "please explain"'s send to former Labour ministers Mita Ririnui & Parekura Horomia regarding their credit card spending
391: person increase in unemployment benefit numbers since January - a lower than expected increase after seasonal work ended
3,500: people may miss out on getting in to University next year as Uni's limit numbers to those funded - rather than taking more people like they've done over the recession
35,000: $ fine for Michael Laws who gave an on air tirade about the parents of a boy killed in a trail bike accident
107,000: $ fine for a Canterbury timer company after an employee was killed in a forklift accident
3.6m: $ owed by author Alan Duff, still. After failing to pay any of his creditors, two years after pleading with them to give him until now to pay
757m: $ owed in fines dropping from $800m in the past year
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4767 (+0.0020)
EUR 0.5706 (+0.0003)
USD 0.7058 (+0.0153)
AUD 0.8108 (-0.0016)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Sydney Smith
THE SCIENTIFIC DETECTIVE
In a media age populated with forensic crime thrillers such as CSI, Roxburgh's Sir Sydney Smith (1883-1969) was the original. A forensics pioneer, he achieved world renown through the application of science to justice. From the edge of an Otago goldfield to the telling edge of a murder weapon, Smith learnt to read the stories of dead men - and in doing so changed the way crime was investigated and solved.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/smith.html
Found Cell Phone
When a customer left his cell phone in my store, I scrolled through his saved numbers, stopped at "Mom" and pushed send. His mother answered, and I told her what happened.
"Don't worry," she said, "I'll take care of it."
A few minutes later, the cell phone rang. It was "Mom."
"Martin," she said, "you left your cell phone at the convenience store."
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
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