The Weekender 22/08/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 22/08/2010 - 21:30
Hi again everyone, I hope you've had a good week.
Sport
The tri-nations returned early this morning as the All Blacks took on South Africa at home. All the All Black's needed was a single point from their last games and they got it with a 29-22 win - which many South African's will be questioning whether they deserved to win. Ritchie McCaw scored off a forward pass and then Israel Dagg scored the winner a minute later off the kick off turn over. The South African's certainly turned up to play however they weren't able to give Captain John Smit a victorious 100th test appearance.
There has been lots of discussion from the South African Rugby Union this week about how they want to get out of SANZAR - again. They've done this before when they feel like they are getting the short end of whatever stick they happen to be looking at.
On to rugby's ITM Cup National Provincial Championship. Auckland beat Northland 26-13, Southland continued their unbeaten run with a 23-20 away win over Hawke's Bay. Tasman caused an upset when they beat Canterbury 27-25 and Counties Manukau continued their great run with a 35-14 win over Manawatu. The Wellington Lions have a new coach with Andre Bell and beat Waikato 26-14, Taranaki beat Bay of Plenty 24-15, and North Harbour beat Otago 35-23. Last week Taranaki beat Waikato 33-23.
Table: Southland 17, Counties Manukau/Taranaki/Wellington/Auckland 14, Canterbury 13, Northland 10, Tasman/Waikato/North Harbour 8, Bay of Plenty 7, Hawke's Bay 3, Manawatu 2, Otago 1.
In the final rugby story, the Black Ferns kicked off their Women's Rugby World Cup campaign with a 55-3 win over South Africa in England.
On Wednesday the Silver Ferns had a netball test against Jamaica on Wednesday and won 58-35, on Saturday night there was another & they won 62-40. They are building up to a three test series against Australia starting in a week. The Silver Ferns have had a few 'old hands' return to the side with Temepara George back as well as Anna Scarlett back after three years on the international volleyball circuit.
The Warriors will have to wait another week to see if they will make the play-offs after losing 19-16 to the Manly Sea Eagles.
NZ hadn't won a medal at the Pan Pacific swimming champs for 13 years until Emily Thomas got a bronze medal in the 50m backstroke in California on Friday.
The Wellington Phoenix got their first win of the season in their second game & the third round, with a 2-0 win over the Central Coast Mariners.
NZ News
There is another young child missing, this time four year old Lucas Ward from Gisbourne. After six days the police are winding down the search, 99% sure that he isn't in the nearby creek. The boy went missing from his grandmothers house as she unloaded groceries and answered a phone call, and he hasn't been seen since.
During the recent round of law changes over alcohol, the government didn't go far enough for quite a number of people. So as this government tends to do - when enough people start complaining, they do something and they've announced that raising the alcohol purchase age from 18 to 20 will be covered by new legislation due within two weeks and it will be a conscience vote for the National Party.
While on law changes, the government is changing the Holidays Act to ensure that workers don't lose four day's leave when companies shut their doors over Christmas and New Years.
They have also made changes to the welfare system including sole parents having to look for part time work when their youngest child turns 6.
The news of the weeks was to do with one of National's coalition partners, the Act party. For the second time recently, Act's deputy leader, Heather Roy, tried to organise an coup against party leader Rodney Hide. It didn't work and the party kicked her out. It didn't stop there though with someone who worked for Roy releasing a "confidential" dossier on all the terrible things Rodney Hide did and describing him as bullying and menacing. Don't forget that this was all months after she tried to overthrow his leadership so sounds like sour grapes on her behalf. Her dossier on Rodney Hide was basically surrounding his request to view a defence report she had written. She tried to block him seeing it as she wasn't sure if he had the security clearance (although all MP's have that security clearance). He was trying to check it because she had produced a defence paper containing swear words and other inappropriate language. Act founder & former Labour MP Sir Roger Douglas was a supporter of Roy, so his re-involvement with the party is at a cross roads.
Not really NZ news, but Australia had a hung election the other day. One suggestion I heard was that England should send over a jailer to look after things till they get it sorted out.
2: c/L drop in petrol from Shell & BP this week
49: whales died after stranding themselves on a Northland beach & are to be buried by DOC & the local Ngati Kahu iwi
200: mm of rain for the area between Whakatane and Opotiki last week, lots of flooding & evacuations
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4537 (+0.0007)
EUR 0.5533 (-0.0005)
USD 0.7046 (-0.0015)
AUD 0.7923 (+0.0009)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Rewi Alley
GUNG HO
Rewi Alley, social reformer, educator, fireman, writer, poet, translator, great internationalist, industrialist, revered citizen, potter, soldier, hero and friend of China. Edgar Snow: "Rewi Alley is unique because he has achieved greatness in a country where few foreigners ever manage to achieve an authentic ripple." The man who introduced ‘Gung Ho’ into the Western idiom.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/alley.html
Store Safety
While attending college, I worked evenings at a retail store. On slow nights my co-worker Susan would often sing along with the radio while we did paperwork or restocked merchandise.
One evening as the manager was leaving I expressed my concern to him about our safety, being two women working alone at night.
"Oh, you'll be fine," he said, waving of his hand. "If you see anybody who looks suspicious, just warn him that Susan knows karaoke."
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
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