Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

I hope you are having a great week. For sure, your week would have to be pretty abysmal to be worse than those of Rolf Harrisment or Oscar Pistolnotorious.

My mum always said that when things get bad, remember there is always someone worse off than yourself. Somehow the thought of someone else basking in misery makes us feel a reassuring warm glow of smugness. Not that I've had a bad week; it's been quite good. However, I found myself thinking of Judith Collins a lot this week.

It's one story I reckon the majority of NZers are sick and tired of hearing about. It seems no real new information has come out and the opposition is barking down an empty fox hole. Or simply barking mad.

That; and which team Benji Marshall is likely to play for. Note to national media: We really don't care any more. Let Judith Collins have dinner with her husband's mates and get on with running the country. I reckon she's done a pretty darn good job of being Justice Minister, isn't that what really counts?

My wife is allowed to have dinner with me and my business associates, why shouldn't embattled Judith? Everyone, from all walks of life, gain some intangible benefits from their own particular networking skills. Whatever walk of life you're in, networking skills are at play, consciously or not.

So what if her family may have benefitted from some Oravida success? You jolly well hope that they would! Poppy-pruning at its best, combined with a bit of political sniping. There's nothing more to see here, folks. Move on.

The good and the bad
So all this talk about good weeks and bad weeks had the RR Researchers attempting to define what exactly makes the perfect week. To our astonishment, it turns out the start of this week could rate right up there within the perfection ratings.

It began with the lads getting together for a spot of shooting. You can't get much better than a combination of blokes, guns, boats, dogs and mud. Great conversation, hanging out in some amazing natural environments – and even the ducks were happy, since they were mostly somewhere else. A few quiet bevvies after the clean-up, and some more yarns.

Next day, more or less the same thing.

Monday, a quiet day recovering from the weekend. Oh yeah, there was work. But that is purely to remind us of how good the weekends are, so we'll count it as a positive.

Monday night, a run on the beach with a keen dog, and a rum with my Dad.

A feed of flounder from our harbour topped off a great day. We would have invited the Collins, but Cunliffe might have objected.

Beer and oysters
Tuesday, had to go to work. Arduous this time; having to write a review about beer. Which means sampling beer. It's tough job, but someone has to do it. (Check out our craft beer feature, p22-23 in this edition).

Oysters. What better to follow some excellent Croucher beer at Brew, than a stroll down the street with a beautiful woman and partaking of the tempura oysters at Brooklyn. Stunning.

Wednesday, enjoying the friendly professionalism of our amazing team at Sun Media; working hard to crank out the best news service in the Bay, and bringing you this fine weekly publication.

It was about this point I realised my week was going a whole better than Rolf's. And we weren't even halfway through. There was still the prospect of some more hunting and fishing along the way; reviewing a new car or two; plus catching up with Nigella, who is visiting me and my mate Keith in the Marlborough Sounds, and is taking the opportunity to shoot some chocolate commercials while she's here.

The end of the week looks promising, with the Canon Media Awards, in which SunLive is a finalist for our excellent breaking news coverage. What a way to end the week, lining up to pee in the long grass with the Big Dogs of the news business.

And there the perfect week may come unstuck – having to endure my two least favourite things: Wearing a tie and driving to Auckland. Oh well, as Judith will tell you, it's hard to get it all right.

My thanks to our dedicated team for achieving the finals of the Canon Media Awards. You're worth putting on a tie for.