Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 I didn’t think my memory was failing me, and now I know that it wasn’t. My recollection was that buying eggs was much cheaper just before we moved to Whanganui than it is now. The weekly item in The NZ Listener from Statistics NZ confirmed this fact this week: My assumption is that the bulk of the increase in cost is the changes in farming methods forced upon the famers by the animal rights folks. The new methods for raising chooks are more expensive and less productive. I just hope the chooks are twice as happy as they were, because the eggs are not twice as good. Our week has been quite a sociable one. On Tuesday after Home Group at Dale and Bob’s new home in central Whanganui, everybody stayed for a cuppa and piece of banana cake. I joined them, as I was collecting Nicky after doing the shopping. On Wednesday morning Nicky’s book club, Decibelles met for morning tea in a Upokongaro cafe. In the afternoon she undertook her monthly Hospital visiting of Anglican patients. On Thursday

 We have made National News this week - not Nicky and I, but Whanganui. The Sarjeant Gallery re-opened on Saturday, a little behind schedule and a big smidge over budget, but it is fantastic. When we first came to Whanganui 2019 looking for our retirement location, checking out the local library was part of the routine. We saw the building site next to the Davis Library and learned that it was the gallery, due to re-open late 2020 or early 2021. It ended up being yesterday. The old 1930’s building has been completely refurbished and brought up to current earthquake standards. In addition, a whole new building has been added more than doubling the exhibition space. The opening date was announced a few months ago and Nicky immediately said that she wanted to attend. I didn’t expect to do so with it being a Saturday morning, but we didn’t sail this weekend as I will explain later. Shortly before 9.30am we ambled up the hill to the new gallery entrance along with quite a few other locals,

 Our week started with a Public Holiday for Labour Day. The morning was suitable for laundry and ambling while Nicky cleaned at church, but I was rained off from working in the garden in the afternoon. I made some wholemeal pasta for the lasagne that I was preparing for dinner, but it wasn’t what I would call a success. Back to refined flour next time. Libby (from Nicky’s book group) and Graham came over for morning tea on Tuesday, so Nicky made muffins. She didn’t go to the Vestry meeting in the evening because just after dinner she started vomiting. We haven’t figured out the cause, but 24 hours later Nicky was feeling fine and helped us achieve 11th place at the quiz with 77 points. However yesterday she met two others who’d had the same complaint, over the same time span. Much of Nicky’s week has been taken up by helping prepare for the Parish Fair at church, punctuated with her usual commitments. My week has been one of working in the garden, laundry in Nicky’s absence, and some M

 We have had a warm week with temperatures 5-10ºC higher than usual for this time of year. The breeze has been cool at times, but by the end of the week it turned to a northerly, and kept up the temperature. Nicky returned from Auckland on Monday having had a lovely weekend with Stella. We have concluded that flying from our cute little airport is way better than going by bus. On Tuesday she had pizza for lunch cooked by NZ’s most recently appointed archbishop, along with 50-60 of others out at Castlecliff. They had a service of blessing at a couple of the prefabricated houses that the Wellington Diocese has had built on St Luke’s land. Nicky staffed the Aramoho library on Thursday and had a prayer ministry training session which was very good. On Tuesday we had Phil and Kristina over for dinner, so there was much discussion about the paddle steamer. I served crumbed fish with new potatoes and sautéd veg. Our apple, pear and lemon curd flan was accompanied by a tiramisu that Kris had m

 We have used Whanganui airport for the first time this week, and it’s cute. It has two small car parks, just a couple of check-in desks, one gate, a well appointed seating area and a small café.   Nicky was flying up to Auckland on Friday morning for a couple of things. She became a subject in an osteoporosis study about 12 years ago and the team running the study had invited all the participants to a presentation of the findings. In addition she wanted to see her sister Stella as it is two years since she visited us in Whanganui. The airport is about a 15 minute drive from our home, but we had been warned about roadworks causing up to 30 minute delays. Our delay turned out to be less than 30 seconds so we arrived very early. Being a small airport as people started to arrive and check-in it felt quite busy. When the flight was called a lady with a clipboard and a list of passengers checked every body going through the gate. It was just a short walk to the aircraft: Nicky enjoyed seein

 We have been social butterflies this week. On Tuesday Denise and Doug came for lunch. It was their cats which Nicky had been feeding last weekend while they were away. The mystery of why Denise and not been returning Nicky’s call’s and text’s was resolved. Denise had accidentally blocked Nicky’s number on her phone. Denise was very apologetic and presented us with a lovely PNG/Australian vine “Wonga Wonga”. Dale and Bob were also planning to join us for lunch but Dale had a migraine on Monday and then one of their much loved dogs became very ill on Tuesday. We still managed to enjoy ourselves, and the gluten free ciabatta rolls which Nicky had made. On Friday evening Krystyna and Mark came over for dinner. I served Boston beans with walnut bread, which went down well (it’s the creaminess of the mascarpone that does it). For dessert I prepared a Mary Berry Express Apple and Pear pie. We have started watching her “Makes it easy” series on TV, and the dish took our eye. My version wasn’t