Stress City

Stress - worse than Rugby. What is - the America's Cup.

Race 3 was the most incredible ever although I have to agree with the Swiss that it probably should not have gone ahead as it was indeed just a lottery.

I woke at about 3.55 AM and thought well the race will be over so I will listen to the Radio NZ news at 4AM which I did and it said Team NZ had over a minute lead.

WOW!!

Never wanting to miss a great Kiwi win I turned on the TV. Althought I thought it odd that they were still racing (not knowing about the 2 hour delay to the start) I thought they must be on the last beat. I duly started to watch only to find of course they were only just around the first marker. I then had the stress of watching Alinghi catch up and then pass us.

Grrrr - I was too stressed out so went back to sleep.

But the next morning was the great victory news. Now back to 2 all so it is all on.

I won, NZ won and NZ lost

I won - an HP Notebook computer. I entered a competition - my motto is "You've got to be in to win " - and a friend rang to say he had seen my name in the newspaper as winning a HP Laptop PC as displayed here.

I am not that unlucky although I enter and those who don't win don't enter!!

The All Blacks also won. A good game but not a good performace as far too many errors.

Team NZ - LOST. Doesn't bode well for the races to come but we shall see. At least we made the finals.

Sarah, Joe and Kipp back safely from Vanuatu. Lucky for them that the weather today was reasonable as they left 27-30 degrees behind. When picking them up I updated them on all the past weeks happenings except the winning of the PC for which I held my tongue as Christine didn't think I could. It is funny that I enter a lot of competitions and we were saying only this past week that we hadn't won anything for the past 8-9 months then we won film tickets, 2 days in a motel and visit to a winery and now the laptop.

Its all go and the top film

It is all go indeed!! We have certainly had a lot on this week.

What with a couple of friends having big operations, in addition to all the usual goings on we had to go into Wellington four times (Sarah/Joe/Kipp twice, Federation AGM and Christine taking part in a Focus Group) , extra teaching at SeniorNet, having Reno with us, dog training, extra helping at school reading, lousy weather, plus the periphary (is there such a word - should it be "peripheral events" ??). Events such as the Bain decision, plus to come the Netball (Sting vs Force), AB's versus the Boks and the America's Cup - sport is important.

I see that the online vote for best film carried out locally gave it to The Shawshank Redemption. A good film - but the best ever - I don't think so. I see in the NZ vote we didn't go back more than 20 years for most films. As it happened the Yanks did the same thing although this was the Film Critics etc list and they are a much more discerning lot. So in their selection no really recent film made it into the top ten. And where did The Shawshank Redemption rate - 72nd.

And the American winner was (and I agree).


I think the most recent film selected in their top ten would have been Schindlers List.

Some predictions for the weekend - all with heart and not my head

444 Sting
444 All Blacks
444 Team NZ (but not overly confident of this one).

Federation Meeting

Went to the SeniorNet Federation's inaugaral meeting today at the airport conference rooms. A very ejoyable mrning and I was very impressed with the Exceutive Committee. A couple of interesting ideas came up which I will raise with our Committee.. The really great thing is that we took the "Flyer" bus into Wellington and, at $5-00 for a return trip, is a great deal.

Todays News

Todays News - Was looking for a banana republic picture from Google to describe Fiji and found this. Just another of the Pacific Isles degenerating again. Are they THICK - Yes !!

Further News was the killing of a 3 year old by its "parents" and their conviction for Manslaughter (Baby-slaughter) but not murder. How we can't seem to bring in a murder conviction is unbelievable. Even if it is overturned on appeal at least the politicians can then see what the people think as opposed to the legal pedantics. Like most, I can't understand how anybody can continually bash a child with a lump of wood and plead "I didn't think it would kill them".

Tomorrows News - Somebody will kill - murder - their child again soon and it will just carry on.

Looking on the sport side - several big Rugby matches this weekend with the Tri-Nations getting underway plus next weekend the yachting in Valencia will be underway. I find the word YACHT one of the most difficult to spell; should of course be YOT but then again that is English or in this case Arabic.

Having Sarah's Japanese student stay with us for a week which will be different.

All Black but not bright people

Went to the AB's France game. Don't know what anybody could take out of the French 15's effort but the AB's certainly improved on the 1st Test (if it is a test). What I can't understand is why so many go who have no interest in the game - they seem to arrive late, want to leave all the time to get chips and beer etc. I go to watch the game. The last time I went to the Sevens was the same - if Georgia was playing Kenya, I was trying to watch the football but most seemed to want to do Mexican Waves etc. Why do they bother going.

Well onto Canada.

One down - five to win.

CONGRATULATIONS to Grant and the boys (and girls!!).
Italy defeated much easier than I thought possible. Now onto the real race against the "Swiss".

Kipp's Slideshow

Problems, problems, problems all day long

Have had some problems with the previous post not appearing. The problem is that in typical computer style the problem is inconsistent - appearing sometimes and not at others. According to Google it could be because a hyperlink is in the blog and putting a question mark at the end of the URL may overcome the problem. I didn't try that but another suggestion was to clear the Cache, which I have now done. Anyway it now seems to heve fixed itself - I hope.

Reminds me of the Everly Brothers song Problems, problems, problems all day long, the Everly Brothers being one of my favourites. The good news is that a song I heard on the Coast radio station one day - Lucille Starr singing The French Song (1964) - I have obtained a copy. How is another story.

Flickr account

Have opened a Flickr account and loaded some photos of guess who!!
Details are http://www.flickr.com/photos/meredithwv and clicking on the link will take you there.

The slide and Rugby show

Up early as you can see from the slide show time. Damn dog. We have been trying to put him outside at night to get him used to it for when we are away and he will be at "Kipps Place". Not really working and he will probably have to go into kennels.

However created the Slide Show as below which seems to have worked.

Nine of us watching the Rugby (including Kipp) but a typical AB's first up game - fairly disjointed and I think the French have some complaint about the Ref - but still not in the hunt. Oz much better than the previous week and Wales OK in the first half and Africa also held until half-time against England C - or is it D.

Slide Show - Kipp

Rhett Womble

Rhett got hold of a cone and started to look like a Womble.