Cross Country

Literally. We live on the sticky-out bit (as my daughter describes it) on the East Coast of New Zealand marked A, and the golf course she was playing today is on the West Coast, marked by B. It takes an hour. New Zealand is a *very* tiny country.

Differences? WAVES! Whenever we want to have fun belly-boarding, we cross country to Piha or Muriwai for the purpose. Muriwai is a famous black-sand beach. This is where Bruce McLaren of Team McLaren raced for practice. However, I have never been to Muriwai Golf Course; and such was my purpose today.
Beloved Daughter has done rather well at golf of late. Last week she spent three days up in Whangerei, having been selected for the Northland Quadrangular Girls golf tournament; this week came word that she was playing in the North Harbour foursomes, which feature six player per round in three pairs; thereby clearly demonstrating nothing at all to do with the number four.
Rained all the way and rained on us at setup time, thus ensuring that my hair would resemble a badly-washed paintbrush for the duration of the game. Then it cleared up and we had sunshine for holes 10-18 and a bit of 1 and 2, before the skies dimmed and the rain and wind returned for the remainder.
Beloved Daughter did rather well, ending fourth Stableford (don't ask. I have it on good authority).

Change of plan. Write bestseller, retire to this part of country.

Funky Gibbons

So, ballet concert night. One that could put my lot to shame, mind you. Admittedly the focus of the school is on stagecraft; and if that was what I was after this place would have my hands-down vote. They make a promise that your child "WILL be in the next full stage production", and by God, if someone has to suit the brat up in a full-body fur cover and kick them onto the stage to skid into position, so your kid WILL be in the next production.
OK, I exaggerate. But not by a lot.
Anyway; all very spectacular and full of showmanship, and my Beloved Daughter's friend should be proud of herself; she has clearly put in a lot of hard work and performed brilliantly. The Riverdance sequence was amazing, truly amazing; and the one en-pointe dance was spectacularly professional; I actually got to my feet to applaud that girl. Which is more than I did during the Funky Gibbon.
I. Do. Not. Pay. To. Attend. Ballet. Concerts. Where. I. Am. Expected. To. Stand. Up. And. Do. The. Funky. Gibbon. Especially to cover a major backstage scenery shift. Imagine the audience being told to hop up and do the hokey-pokey while the stagehands shift the castle so Odette can perch on a windowsill and watch Odile do thirty-two fouettes, I do not bloody think so.
Okay, technically I did not pay to attend this ballet concert. Beloved Daughters' friends' parents did (have I lost any orphan apostrophes there?) in much the same way as we buy tickets for them for Shani's ballet school concerts (please God not an empty auditorium) but the principle remains. Either way, I found myself sitting next to the Glowering Russian Mother, who is (happily) no longer glowering. This may have to do with New Man at her side. I'm happy for her. Russian Mum is Russian, and also in computers. She Mums one of Beloved Daughters' former classmates, a breathtakingly good swimmer, allowed to squeeze in a little dancing when swimming does not require her. I have never seen her do anything but glower, whether at school functions or her daughters' incredibly elaborate and expensive 11th birthday party. Tonight she was happy, communicative; even gave a pleasant little finger-wave to Eugene (estranged father of swimmer daughter) and that's the chummiest I've seen them. She's still pretty forthright (when adorable baby Dumbo appeared she asked loudly, "Is rat or elephant?" ) .
They're thinking of going to Dubai. Because she can't get the pay increase she needs here.
Damn, I thought I was drastic.

You're doing it wrong

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10717366

Bullying is set to become a crime for the first time in Australia as concern grows at the rise of abuse that has destroyed lives and driven workers and teenagers to suicide.

(Wrong. Bullying has always been a crime. Just not a punishable one.)

Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark is expected to introduce amendments to stalking laws in the state Parliament tomorrow, placing workplace and cyber bullying under the Crimes Act.

The new legislation will provide penalties of up to 10 years' jail.

It follows the 2006 suicide of 19-year-old cafe worker Brodie Panlock, who was subjected to "merciless" bullying by four colleagues at Melbourne's Cafe Vamp.

She was abused, spat upon, had fish oil poured over her and, after one failed suicide attempt, was laughed at and advised to try rat poison before jumping from a multi-storey carpark.

Her abusers, head waiter Nicholas Smallwood and waiter Rhys MacAlpine, with chef Gabriel Toomey and cafe owner Marc Da Cruz, were fined A$337,000 ($432,337) under occupational health and safety laws in what the dead woman's father, Damian Panlock, described as a "slap on the wrist".

No criminal charges were brought because bullying is not a crime anywhere in Australia, and is instead covered by workplace, compensation, discrimination and similar legislation.

Last year a Sydney security guard was awarded a record A$1.9 million in damages after bullying that included threats of violence, financial penalties, racial and sexual abuse, and excessive and unpaid working hours.

But until Victoria's new move, governments have been reluctant to include serious bullying in criminal law, despite research estimating that one in four employees is likely to suffer from it at some stage.

(Is casual bullying OK? Or comic bullying? Wake UP! Bullying is bullying, and trying to fence off serious bullying is a mistake.)

Workplace bullying is also estimated to cost Australia between A$17 billion and A$36 billion a year in lost productivity, damage to mental health and staff turnover.

The new Victorian legislation will also cover cyber-bullying, another area of increasing concern, especially among teenage students.

(And you're going to police this how? A recent attempt to introduce software enabling parents to monitor their kids mobile phone communications was greeted with howls of horror and cries of 'controlling behaviour', 'invasion of privacy' and 'violation of civil liberties' by the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties spokesman Batch Hales - see http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10714812)

Last year Victorian police used stalking laws to convict a 21-year-old man who hounded a teenager to suicide - but the cyber-bully was sentenced only to community service.

(Isn't that the teeniest bit like sentencing a paedophile to working in a nursery? Isn't the point that the bully has HARMED the community?)

A three-year survey of 16,000 children by Edith Cowan University found that during the period of the study the number of victims grew from 15 to 25 per cent of respondents.

(No. The number hasn't grown. The children have just learned that there are no repercussions, so they're willing to talk)

Clark said yesterday that under the new legislation - already known as "Brodie's law" - serious bullying would be treated as a crime if it could cause someone physical or mental harm.

(OK. Now just HOW are you going to go about defining serious bullying. Is there non-serious bullying? Where's the line?)

Mr Panlock told a press conference yesterday that the new law was better late than never.

"If someone else can be protected from scum like these people, and they know that they are going to be charged, and they are going to have jail time, they might think twice," said Mr Panlock.

(Yes, because that deters SO many murders in the States and so many child abusers and killers in New Zealand. Grow UP!)

And on a sadly related note:

Hail-Sage McClutchie

??/11/07 - 27/09/09

RIP