Some end of the week words

Went for a walk with the dogs (ours and Sarah's) and the boys today. One of the few fine days lately. Quite pleasant.

Ma'a Nonu, minus one boot, makes the break that led to
the All Blacks' dramatic last-gasp try in the thrilling win over South Africa.

Rugby: What a game. Who would have thought with 3 minutes to go that a score of SA 22 - NZ 17 would end up as a win for the AB's 29 - 22. A draw would have been a fair result (especially in John Smit's 100th game) and not made us get too overconfident. But I thought the scoreline was a good reflection of the way the game worked out. We had many more opportunities than them, although our try leading to the draw came from an obvious forward pass.

French and Travel: We looked after the boys last weekend so we went into town and went to the Travel Show while they were at French. We then swapped cars and brought them back with us. The show was nothing much but they were doing a roaring business.

Australia: The Australian election has ended in a 'hung' parliament so we will need to see what pans out over the next few days. Listening to the radio this morning the ex-Wallaby Peter FitzSimons was telling the story how Opposition Leader Tony Abbot used to be his Rugby coach. Abbot is a Catholic so he would have been a rugby man - the opposite of N. Z. where the Catholics play League.

Anyway, he said, one night at training it was raining and cold so half the team hadn't turned up. As they were short on numbers the coach, Abbot, volunteered to prop. The next minute the scrum broke up and coach and player were at each other in an all in fight. They had to be dragged apart and today his opponent on the night is now his shadow Treasurer.

Abbot is often called the 'Mad Monk' as he is quite crazy in some of his ideas. However , during the campaign he has impressed with his steady performance.

An Oz story: The word kilometre should be pronounced with no emphasis on the O as in Kilogram. This is because anything not tangible is pronounced with no emphasis on the O - so speedometer, gasometer and the like should be pronounced speed-om-meter and gas-om-meter with emphasis on the O. The Yanks seem to be the biggest offenders.

However, when they were going metric the Australian Prime Minister at the time, Gough Whitlam, pronounced it incorrectly. It was mentioned at a press conference by a reporter and Gough, who could be very imperious, said in his withering way " I'll have you know I took Greek at Sydney University under the tutelage of the famous British politician Sir Enoch Powell (of rivers of blood in regard to immigration fame) and I am correct."

When it was referred to Sir Enoch his response was "I knew that boy would never amount to anything!"

More words: When Kipp was with us at the weekend he criticised my way of pronouncing the word 'address'. He said it should be said American style, in two syllables 'add-ress' because that is how Sarah says it. I tried to tell him, no, it is one word. But I am wrong - mum is right.

I know I am fighting a losing battle, as most younger (ie those under 40) people in Enzed speak American now; especially with the word de-fence. I don't think I have ever heard an All Black in the last 15 years pronounce it correctly.