Sunday, September 18, 2005

Election Fever

It's been another busy week and a quiet weekend. Getting stuck into series 4 of 24 which started here recently. Invited L&M round ours to watch the latest episode Fri, then down to the lovely Kingslander where you can order a real pint (568ml rather than 500ml) - woohoo! - a rarity in these parts it seems. A pleasant evening was had.

No other interesting news apart from the election which happened yesterday - it's not really clear who's won yet as there's still another 25,000 "special" votes to come in (from overseas and other electorate) and the "winning" party - Labour - doesn't have a majority as yet.

Labour are ahead so far, with 1 seat more than National, so they have to form a coalition with one of the other parties. No-one would say who they wanted to co-align with but I'm sure it's all been agreed months ago.

The TV3 broadcast was amusing with John Campbell - presenter extrodinaire with similarities to Jeremy Paxman but much much funnier - interviewing MPs and their over-excited supporters. Photographers waited outside Helen Clark's (current Labour PM) and Don Brash's (rival National Party leader) homes for hours waiting to see who would come out first to make a non-committal celebration/commiseration speech - weird & fascinating TV!

Talking of NZ TV - we're particularly loving the coverage of stories which wouldn't make page 38 of The Sun:

Resident Calls Police Over Neighbour's Noisy Flag Pole - the poor Dutchman was only trying to show his love for his new country by flying the New Zealand flag outside his house, and when one night, he forgot to take the flag down, his pesky neighbours called the police to report his breach of noise levels! A top item on the TV news here.

Man In Residenital Unit May or May Not Have Bomb - Major news item this week: A man was reported to have explosives on him which he was threatening to detonate unless he spoke with Prime Minister, Helen Clark. Reports throughout the day revealed.....nothing! Turns out there was no bomb. I wonder if he got to have a nice chat with Hels tho?

Also, and perhaps more importantly, the fashion choices of the news and weather presenters has to be seen to be believed! No smart monochrome with the odd snazzy tie or top under a more conservative suit here. Rachel wants to get a job as a stylist to the stars well, TV presenters anyway, and smarten them up a bit. No more bright green huge floral A-line high waisted skirts pleeeease (see Carol and Mihi here and some of these others for examples)! Jazzy clothes are fine, just not on the TV.

The election evening's excitment was interspersed with a news item about a light-aircraft stolen from a local airfield. The pilot was threatening to fly the plane into Auckland's Sky Tower all night. As a result, Sky Tower was evacuated, but the pilot eventually crashed the plane into one of the local beaches with seemingly no major injuries. It appears his motivations were more emotional than political but the timing was coincidentally appropriate. Read more of this fascinating story here!

Bye for now x

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