I DON'T BELIEVE IT!

 

The New Zealand All Whites soccer team lost to Costa Rica this morning in the World Cup qualifying match. This was after dominating the game with superior attacking and positional play. Admittedly the Costa Ricans scored in the first 3 minutes to take the game 1-0 but this was an easy goal attributable to a bit of All White fumbling. The All Whites had many goes at scoring but missed every time no thanks to this geezer:

"Yes, red, not like the new balance in my bank account though."

The UAF referee was either totally incompetent or was favouring Costa Rica for some reason(s).

He: disallowed a good and fair goal to New Zealand; gave a red card and sent off a NZ player for doing the same thing that the Costa Rican players did several times; ignored many infringements by the Costa Ricans or simply waved a yellow card at them; allowed the Costa Ricans to seriously slow down the game and use up time without penalising them. Sheesh!

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There's a lot of skill in the All Whites team but I only noticed one Polynesian/Pacifica name. Where are all of the multi-talented, ball-skill wielding, athletic and big Maori and Polynesian players? Is soccer (Football) to namby-pamby for them? Do the schools they attend ignore soccer the way that St Pat's college did when I went there?

OK, maybe soccer doesn't need the Jonah Lomus and great hulking forwards (or does it?) but what about the skilled and strong Maori and Polynesian kids who don't get selected for the top rugby and rugby league teams due to the fact that they are a bit too small?

There must be n incredible pool of fast and skilful players of outstanding athleticism out there who could really turn New Zealand's rankings around. It has to have something to do with the attitude that schools engender against soccer - reinforced by that religious twonk Israel Folau that somehow it's unmanly or even gay to play the game.

"Poofters and soccer players will go to hell"

LAST MAN STANDING

 

I feel like Bruno Lawrence in The Quiet Earth (although I don't imagine that I'll dress in a woman's negligee).

This morning, at tennis I was the only person, of a gathering of 12 who wore a mask. I don't wear it when playing but I do put it on when we sit about waiting for a game or when everyone breaks for coffee. I wear my mask and make sure that there is a reasonable space between me and the others.

A joker named Roger* arrived late, just as people were leaving the courts for the coffee break. He was wearing a dressing gown and 'lounge pyjamas' - certainly not the usual tennis garb. This guy is a pain in the arse. He has some kind of bi-polar issue which is kept in check by medication but occasionally he refuses to take the medication and flips out. He is an anti-vaxxer, against mask wearing and believes that Covid is either just another form of flu or a conspiracy dreamed up be world governments. I've mentioned him before in a post. See: BOTH BARRELS

While the group sat about in the sunshine drinking coffee Roger* dozed in a chair in the shed. When someone asked what was up he replied that he was dozing as he'd only just woke up before he came to tennis. He then said that he's been feeling a bit 'crook' as he's had "a bit of Covid off and on for the last week". I moved well away.

Some of the others who had heard what he said huddled (not a good idea in a pandemic) and discussed him. I abandoned tennis and came home. I don't want to associate with an idiot like this particularly if he's infectious. I'd bet that if he does have Covid that he hasn't been vaccinated and hasn't reported it to the health authorities. He's in the majority of this where most infections are going unreported by  stupid people because of no mandatory testing.

The Old Girl and I are taking precautions against the virus. We wear masks when in groups whether public or not. We always wear masks when shopping. We use hand sanitiser. We do not attend public gatherings. We avoid using public transport. We have been vaccinated and had the booster shot and plan on having another when it is available to us. I know that Covid can still infect people who have taken these precautions but that's no reason to not take them. We may still get Covid as other sensible people we know have but we will still try and keep away from it for as long as we can.

* Roger is his real name

JOB FOR THE BOY

There were some Cabinet changes today in government.

Kris Faafoi and Trevor Mallard are leaving Parliament to be replaced by  Dan Rosewarne and Soraya Peke-Mason and Poto Williams will drop the Police portfolio to take on Conservation and disability issues.

There are no surprises here as Potu has seemed to be out of her depth as Police Minister and Faafoi had indicated he wanted to step down for family reasons.

The real surprise to me is Mallard - not that he's leaving Parliament - he should have done that years ago, but that he will  be taking a diplomatic post in Europe.

WTF!

That's like appointing Genghis Khan to be a peace ambassador at the United Nations or Donald Trump to be a trade negotiator. 

Mallard has made an arse of himself for years. I've mentioned this before - see here: TIME TO GO.

I shudder at him being any sort of ambassador for New Zealand and hope that they find some innocuous place to be posted to. The Vatican would be good. He could tell them all how he edited out any mentions of God in the Parliamentary prayers. I hope that he doesn't get posted to any major places like London, Paris or Berlin. He'd be telling the locals to take their heads out of their bums and to go fuck themselves. You can take the boy out of Lower Hutt but you can't take Lower Hutt out of the boy. New Zealand's reputation would be going downhill very quickly.

MONDAY MORNING - WHAT'S IN STORE THIS WEEK.

 There have been a lot of silly posts written on this blogging community recently and I should know - I've written most of them.

We need to take things a bit more seriously given the issues facing us as a community, a country and in society in general so, for the next few posts I for one will be stepping up and reporting on some of the important issues like:

• Amber Heard can barely afford to fly in chartered jets after the Depp judgement.
• Prince Andrew wants his royal status 'reinstated, recognised and respected' and to return to Royal duties.
• The Queen only gives William and Kate Windsor Castle, keeping Buckingham Place for herself.
• Kim Kardashian can't find knickers big enough for her arse.
• Jesus wasn't a carpenter at all but was a stonemason. Will Robert have to learn to do one of those funny handshakes?
• Scientists discover a link between Evah Pirazzi strings and Monkey Pox.
• Teenagers are worried about 'skin purging' - older generations referred to this as having spots.
• Paula Bennett bitches at having to be tested at the border after returning from holiday.
• Christopher Luxon tries to shoot himself in the foot but misses and hits the toady Chris Bishop who was, as usual, standing too close to him.

Rest assured that I and other members of The Curmudgeon's Inc.ⓒ will research these and other stories and report back to you.

LOAFING ABOUT

 The cold grey weather continues with intermittent rain so another day indoors is happening. If it gets cold I'll put a heat pump on as I can't be arsed going out to get wood for the wood burner.

I've got a hankering for sultana loaf for afternoon tea so set to making one.

As I assembled the ingredients The Old Girl reminded me that we need a new wholemeal loaf so I started one of those going as well.

The silver one is making a 500gm fruit loaf and the white one a 750gm wholemeal loaf.

In a couple of hours the kitchen will be redolent of the warm rich smell of freshly baked bread.

As you can see I use electric bread-makers so purists can walk away now. I don't make bread the way my grandmother did - mixing in a bowl and waiting for the yeast to rise and then baking in an oven. I also, for convenience use an espresso coffee machine, an electric jug and toaster and a microwave oven. OK?

I hope all the other bloggers are staying warm and cozy. Maybe Robert can get his pie-maker out and bake a few dozen pies. Some recommendations are butter chicken, lamb and vegetables, savoury pumpkin, fish, steak peas and potato or mince.

Richard said that he'll be practising on his violin so poor Shelley will no doubt be forced to go outside unless she has a good set of earplugs.

Oh, that reminds me, dinner tonight is left-over pumpkin and lentil lasagne from last night with a tomato sauce base and bok choy.

NEW POST - THE NOSTALGIC CURMUDGEON

 

SUMMER HOLIDAY

JUST PART OF THE SERVICE

 I woke this morning to see this:

I felt obliged to correct the obvious typo in it:

 NO NEED TO THANK ME.

NEW POST - THE CULTURED CURMUDGEON

 START SPREADING THE NEWS ....

COSY

 There's something primally satisfying about lighting a fire on a cold day.

It's a bit wild outside and definitely cooler so I have no plans for outdoors activity. We have heat pumps but I prefer a fire which, in addition to heating the house, creates a cosy glow.

The wood stocks are holding up quite well in the woodshed and should see us through winter. 

Because of the heat-pumps and new replacement HRV ceiling ventilation units, we haven't used the fire much this year so far. A bit of reading and maybe watching a film on TV will do the job nicely. Being June, I searched for The Longest Day on the various video platforms we subscribe to but surprisingly none have featured it. Bummer.

I made a leek, potato and ham pie last night and we have enough left over for lunch.

At tennis yesterday one of the players gave me some snapper he had caught that morning so it'll be home-made fish 'n' chips for tea tonight. That'll make Robert happy because he's always interested in what people have for tea and, being a Catholic he will approve of having fish on Friday.

How's your day going?

NEW AWARD

 Yes, you heard it here.

The more observant reader will have noticed the new accolade on The Curmudgeon's home page. The Curmudgeon has been awarded the inaugural Google Blogger Most Promising Blog Award 2022.

All congratulations gratefully accepted.