Happy Easter
It has been a week of endings - half term for Claire and I, and the glorious spell of weather had ended with autumnal temperatures and some rain. We put the clocks back last weekend which has given us earlier sunrises, but the night time temperatures are now dipping into single figures. This gives us chilly mornings but by mid-day when the sun is out it warms up nicely.
The end of the first half term for Claire was marked with a test essay in Social Policy and a short tutorial in Maori so that the lecturers could go home early! For me it meant a day of practical assessment on Tuesday followed by an Anatomy and Physiology theory exam on Wednesday. I passed the practical but won't know about the exam for a couple of weeks. I will reserve comment on the exam until I know the outcome. We then started our surface anatomy course - identifying the muscles which lie directly under the skin, and by mid-afternoon we were all feeling quite drained and looking forward to the Easter break.
Good Friday greeted us with sunshine. I nipped down to Bakers Delight and bought croissants for breakfast which we all enjoyed, and hot cross buns for later, which we really enjoyed. It tends only to be on public holidays that we get to eat breakfast together these days. Last year on Good Friday we went up One Tree Hill to have a look at the view, so I had suggested that we do a volcano or two every Easter while we are in Auckland. So, after clearing up from breakfast we went up Mt Albert (we might do Mt Eden tomorrow). The views were great (see below) and for me it was good to see Auckland as somewhere which is starting to become familiar, but also still has an element of the unknown about it. I want to explore more as looking out over Auckland from the summit I got a sense of being a tourist again, which was good.
We all felt very jaded in the afternoon and were nodding off to sleep while watching Wallace and Gromit in the Were-Rabbit (it is a bunny related film - and its Easter - see the connection????).
Yesterday, Saturday, Claire brought Ayesha home for work for dinner and Scrabble as Nicky always enjoys a game of Scrabble, and then we all played Trivial Pursuits until way too late. The evening was injected with a new experience when we had an hour Skyping with the Cockers in Chester. For those of you unfamiliar with this verb, it is free video conferencing over the internet. We had a good chat and I was able to give them a tour of the house courtesy of the camera in the laptop.
We have had a lazy day today. Nicky and I went for a walk for an hour or so along a coastal path that goes through Blockhouse Bay and some bush before working our way back along residential streets. Another public holiday tomorrow will round off the long weekend.
Bye for now,
Rick
The end of the first half term for Claire was marked with a test essay in Social Policy and a short tutorial in Maori so that the lecturers could go home early! For me it meant a day of practical assessment on Tuesday followed by an Anatomy and Physiology theory exam on Wednesday. I passed the practical but won't know about the exam for a couple of weeks. I will reserve comment on the exam until I know the outcome. We then started our surface anatomy course - identifying the muscles which lie directly under the skin, and by mid-afternoon we were all feeling quite drained and looking forward to the Easter break.
Good Friday greeted us with sunshine. I nipped down to Bakers Delight and bought croissants for breakfast which we all enjoyed, and hot cross buns for later, which we really enjoyed. It tends only to be on public holidays that we get to eat breakfast together these days. Last year on Good Friday we went up One Tree Hill to have a look at the view, so I had suggested that we do a volcano or two every Easter while we are in Auckland. So, after clearing up from breakfast we went up Mt Albert (we might do Mt Eden tomorrow). The views were great (see below) and for me it was good to see Auckland as somewhere which is starting to become familiar, but also still has an element of the unknown about it. I want to explore more as looking out over Auckland from the summit I got a sense of being a tourist again, which was good.
We all felt very jaded in the afternoon and were nodding off to sleep while watching Wallace and Gromit in the Were-Rabbit (it is a bunny related film - and its Easter - see the connection????).
Yesterday, Saturday, Claire brought Ayesha home for work for dinner and Scrabble as Nicky always enjoys a game of Scrabble, and then we all played Trivial Pursuits until way too late. The evening was injected with a new experience when we had an hour Skyping with the Cockers in Chester. For those of you unfamiliar with this verb, it is free video conferencing over the internet. We had a good chat and I was able to give them a tour of the house courtesy of the camera in the laptop.
We have had a lazy day today. Nicky and I went for a walk for an hour or so along a coastal path that goes through Blockhouse Bay and some bush before working our way back along residential streets. Another public holiday tomorrow will round off the long weekend.
Bye for now,
Rick
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