Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing.
Dad found in the bush after son’s gut feeling and help from a goat
This one is a real beaut. 72 year old Brent Harrison spent two days lost in the Tararua Ranges last week before he was found by his son Luke. Mr Harrison senior suffers from Parkinson’s and after getting lost on the track, called his son who then dropped everything and joined the search,
Here’s where it get’s a little spooky. “Luke said he was calling for his dad as he tramped through rough terrain. ‘I instantly got a funny noise come back, straight away, like an answer but from an animal. I come round the corner and I was just like face-to face with a really big majestic looking goat, with really large horns. It was really beautiful actually.’
“Luke continued on but later realised it was a sign. ‘He kept stopping and looking back at me… It wasn’t til later that I thought about it and I was like, that goat, there was something really significant about that.’ He had to wait for the helicopters and dogs, but once he was allowed back into the bush he was determined to search where he though his dad was. ‘I just had a really strong feeling I was going to find him.'” (Source: “‘Majestic’ goat and intuition lead son to dad missing in the bush,” by Charlotte Cook and Kate Pereyra Garcia, 29th February, www.rnz.co.nz).
Luckily for all Mr Harrison was found and is now recovering after his ordeal.
5 stars – gut instinct and helpful signs from the universe go a long way!
Entertainment is ruining the entertainment
I sat myself down last week to watch a bit of a T20 cricket match between NZ and Australia. We don’t need to talk about the result, enough said. However, I found that my curmudgeonly response to the baubles of contemporary live sport was stretched even further by a newly added feature to the televising of the game. Players mic’d up so they could be talked at by one or more of the commentators.
Why? When did the game itself stop being enough? Why the need for fireworks and music and flashing lights and now, heaven above, chit chat from the players to the talking heads in the commentary box? Is the game so boring it necessitates almost constant distraction?
So, I was further surprised reading a report of the same thing occurring on the rugby field. Apparently rugby too is in need of a shot in the arm from the marketing geniuses who don’t actually understand what it is that they are marketing. What’s next? Adding more ‘fancentric’ features until the game itself just dissolves into the background?
0 stars – let’s not dumb it down so much that it just ends up being dumb.
That one time you don’t want a golden ticket
Expectations and reality. Every now and again they fail to align and the disappointment is crushing. Imagine then, if you will, the expectant joy of kids promised a multi-visual chocolate extravaganza to rival the insides of Mr Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Imagine instead a poorly decorated warehouse and a handful of jelly beans and a plastic cup of lemonade.
This was the reality for a number of kids and their parents in Glasgow, Scotland recently when they were confronted with the downside of their chocolatey fantasy that they had shelled out 35 pounds for.
“The event publicity promised giant mushrooms, candy canes and chocolate fountains, along with special audio and visual effects, all narrated by dancing Oompa-Loompas – the tiny, orange men who power Wonka’s chocolate factory in the Roald Dahl book which inspired the prequel film.
“But instead, when eager families turned up to the address in Whiteinch, an industrial area of Glasgow, they discovered a sparsely decorated warehouse with a scattering of plastic props, a small bouncy castle and some backdrops pinned against the walls.
“After an immediate and angry response from early arrivals who demanded their money back, organisers called a halt to the event only hours after opening, but failed to inform later attenders, some of whom had travelled substantial distances and are now demanding their train costs be refunded too.” (Source: “Glasgow Willy Wonka experience called a ‘farce’ as tickets refunded,” by Libby brooks, 27th February, www.guardian.com)
1 stars – you can’t be messing with kids’ dreams like that – the one star is for the refund.
