Playtime

Circa: We are going to Circa to watch a play tonight - a freebie if we complete an online survey. This follows on from our attending the play about Darwin.

Healthcare USA style: Or should I say Soviet style. Now it has been passed into law half the population seems to think that a Communist state is just around the corner. One even said the state would now own every Americans body. Said it before and will say it again - they have more than their share of the loonies. Still they system they are adopting is crazy.

Quiz: Going well with us winning for the second week in a row and also sharing the bonus with two other teams which meant a $100 windfall. Valerie, Joe's mum knew the Bonus answer. Great stuff.

The down side is that the week before the Bonus was up to $500 and it went to one team. The question was What Australian State was named after William Lamb.? We said Launceston - he said it was Perth and the winning team were over the moon particularly as they do not normally come in the top 3. However - Angela mentioning it to an Australian at her work was told the answer was wrong and it was Melbourne.

Looking it up on the Net and it was Melbourne. We have mentioned it to the Quizmaster and told him we are not concerned as we had the wrong answer and we wouldn't have been concerned even if we had been right. The problem is that if one of the teams that said Melbourne finds out there could be trouble.

Anyway we will let sleeping dogs lie.

Radio

Listening to Radio NZ during the week a couple of interesting stories came up.

Genome: They interviewed an American telling how a firm in the US has patented a Genome and therefore any disease associated with it requires a payment to them. In this case they won't accept the payment as that Insurance company does not deal with them. They remain lunatics.

I see their healthcare bill is about to come to the vote.

Stories: They also had a person saying how the old stories of their life which used to be put down in letters etc had disappeared. I think they overlooked blogging.

We all have interesting or humourous stories. I have already told my favourite about the dustbins and the Soviet Union so here are a couple for today -

I worked at a Bank Agency ( a small office that was basically a tellers only setup) and we had posters on the wall. In those days colour posters were expensive so they put special clips in the branch so that they clipped onto the wall and didn't become dog- eared. This meant they could be used over and over again.

Stapling or using drawing pins to attach them was a real No-No.

However, at the Agency we didn't have the special clips so we used drawing pins. One day a top executive from Head Office came in to cash a cheque and he saw the drawing pins. He almost had a heart attack, spitting out "drawing pins !! drawing pins !!'

The chap I worked with was from the West Coast and did everything in slow motion. He slowly walked out of his tellers box, went across to the wall and slowly studied all four corners of the poster, carefully looking at the pins.

He then turned to me and said " You know Wayne, he's right, they're drawing pins".

I of course just cracked up. They guy stormed out and naturally complained to our Boss. We got some of the clips with a few days.

The other one is when I went to the Waiheke Island Agency. We used to get the ferry (the Baroona) and usually got back to the mainland (Auckland) about 6 PM. We then had to take the money and put it a safe along with the 38 calibre revolver that we had as protection in those days.

I used to keep my revolver in my coat pocket but this day I forgot to leave it in the safe. When on the bus I felt something heavy in the coat pocket - having completely forgotten about the gun - I put my hand In my pocket and pulled it out. A couple of people looked at me as I hurriedly put it away. They didn't say a word and we all just continued on our journey.

Would have been a different story today.

Stormy Weather

Mini Tornado: This morning we went to Probus for the first time since December. In the afternoon we were at Sarah's Playcentre giving them a hand as they are having a garage sale tomorrow. Suddenly the weather turned really bad - a mini-tornado ensued - rain, hail, thunder, lightening, wind. It just torrented down and the wind just whirled around..

Rhett was outside but our next door neighbour brought him in. All trains on the Hutt Valley rail line were suspended as a tree had brought down the line and after we got home we got a message from Angela and had to go in to pick her up. The roofing iron at St Bernards School was blown off and was blowing around the area but when we took Angela home we went past the school and it was it all tied down .

Cricket: The story against Oz followed the usual pattern - easily beaten

Tsunami

Tsunami: I should say how the Chilean earthquake affected us.

It didn't.

I woke up that Sunday morning after knowing about the quake the night before and when I heard Sean Plunkett's voice on Radio NZ I knew it was reasonably serious. However it was a very low swell and we were helped by the tide being out at the vital time.

Monty's Birthday and more

Monty's birthday: We held it a few days later so that Brian & Valerie could be there. It was a lovely sunny hot day as the weather lately has been just like that. Summer is here.

Christine and the man of the hour

Mum and the man of the hour

His cake

Kipp up his ladder

Soccer: I don't usually follow this very much but the Wellington Phoenix have exceeded all expectations and are into the preliminary finals which I think is soccer speak for semi-finals. Anyway, win the next game and they are in the finals. They had about 30,000 people at the last game; filling the Stadium. But to put it into perspective, I see the viewing figures on SKY were 49,000 while the lowest Rugby game of the weekend got over 200,000.

However, it is a great effort.

Internet Banking: To prove they are incompetent - I want to get a system set up so I can view the Rotary accounts online. Just look at them - no transactions. The account has to change from a Non Profit to a Business and we would lose the interest earning ability and may (they can't seem to decide what really does apply) charge some fees. Went to see the BNZ and it seems that they are worse as they will definitely charge a monthly fee. What seems so simple is impossible. I will have to write again - not that they ever respond in writing. It is by all telephone - they are frightened to commit themselves.

Telecom: They are all saying that the CEO will get his bonus cut at the very least due to the XT debacle. I see it differently. He will say to the Board how he conned the Commerce Commission into letting them (Telecom) be able to set the fees themselves without regulation for when you phone another company like Vodaphone. So they get between 4 - 7 cents when it should be 1 cent or less. This will mean millions of dollars in their pocket.

Rotary Quiz: As I will not be able to take part I have volunteered to set the questions. We will be in Auckland for Christine's Nurses re-union.