May 9th
This week was just routine Monday to Thursday (apart from Sheffield Wednesday being relegated), but Friday was exciting. I had a Mac job to do in the morning, but once I got home and had some lunch, I went in search of UK election result information. As ever, the BBC were on the ball with a website providing auto-updating information. Not only that, but to my great surprise, we were also able to see the TV coverage. Normally, we just get a message saying the video stream can't be viewed in our part of the world, but not this time. So Claire and I sat down to watch David Dimbleby and the crew present the results. I think about 15 seats had been declared when we started watching. I have watched the coverage in the past in the UK, but usually give up and go to bed around 1am, so it was a real treat to be able to watch the results being announced in warm afternoon sunshine with a mug of tea.
Around 4ish we went off to Ranui, partially to pick Nicky up from work, but also to visit the Ranui Community market and hear a band. It is Waitakere music month, and a Ukulele band called The Nukes had be booked to play at the library from 4.30 to 5.30. They were very good and we thoroughly enjoyed them. The market was also very good. It runs every Friday in the Community Centre car park which is also where the library is situated. Claire and I had a pretzel each ($2 each) while wandering round. We bought a couple of loaves of bread, a wholemeal walnut and a Turkish Pide ($5 each and scrummy) and some Gruyere cheese with Cumin seeds ($8 for a small piece). It has taken me awhile to realise that lots of markets here are not like markets in the UK, where you expect to find "cheap goods". Here, many of the markets are for premium products. They may come direct from the farm or bakery or manufacturer and therefore be cheaper than in a shop, but they are not necessarily cheaper than the easily available equivalents. However, we really enjoyed everything we bought (Nicky and I had the walnut bread and cumin cheese for lunch yesterday), and it is good to have a treat once in a while.
Once we got home, we got back to the election coverage while preparing and eating dinner, and continued watching it into the evening. By the time we went to bed a hung parliament had been confirmed, though there were still about 30 seats to declare. I think whoever ends up in power, they are going find governing difficult and I guess there will probably be another election in 12-24 months. So, I will try and get my act together so that we can vote. Listening to the Broadcasting House podcast, the commentators expect the debt issue to be a problem for another 10 years or so.
On Saturday Nicky and I did our usual housework type things, and I made chicken pie for dinner (one of Claire's favourites). Stella and Katie came over for a while in the afternoon and it was good to catch up and have coffee and a chat. Claire went over to Ryan's for the evening while I watched the telly box and Nicky slept on the sofa.
Today has been Mother's Day here. Claire made Nicky millionaire shortbread and Nicky made us French Onion soup (even though the onions are NZ ones). We had exciting though expected news this afternoon when Paul rang to say the Naomi and Doug's first born, Alex, had arrived. Naomi had been induced because the babe appeared to be no longer gaining weight, and arrived at 2.2kgs. We shortly plan to consume some alcohol to celebrate.
The weather has been largely dry again this week, with lower temperatures but still relatively mild in the middle parts of the day. The sun is still very warming when it is around.
That's all for now. I shall go open a bottle and watch the Monty Python documentary before wandering off to bed.
Rick
Around 4ish we went off to Ranui, partially to pick Nicky up from work, but also to visit the Ranui Community market and hear a band. It is Waitakere music month, and a Ukulele band called The Nukes had be booked to play at the library from 4.30 to 5.30. They were very good and we thoroughly enjoyed them. The market was also very good. It runs every Friday in the Community Centre car park which is also where the library is situated. Claire and I had a pretzel each ($2 each) while wandering round. We bought a couple of loaves of bread, a wholemeal walnut and a Turkish Pide ($5 each and scrummy) and some Gruyere cheese with Cumin seeds ($8 for a small piece). It has taken me awhile to realise that lots of markets here are not like markets in the UK, where you expect to find "cheap goods". Here, many of the markets are for premium products. They may come direct from the farm or bakery or manufacturer and therefore be cheaper than in a shop, but they are not necessarily cheaper than the easily available equivalents. However, we really enjoyed everything we bought (Nicky and I had the walnut bread and cumin cheese for lunch yesterday), and it is good to have a treat once in a while.
Once we got home, we got back to the election coverage while preparing and eating dinner, and continued watching it into the evening. By the time we went to bed a hung parliament had been confirmed, though there were still about 30 seats to declare. I think whoever ends up in power, they are going find governing difficult and I guess there will probably be another election in 12-24 months. So, I will try and get my act together so that we can vote. Listening to the Broadcasting House podcast, the commentators expect the debt issue to be a problem for another 10 years or so.
On Saturday Nicky and I did our usual housework type things, and I made chicken pie for dinner (one of Claire's favourites). Stella and Katie came over for a while in the afternoon and it was good to catch up and have coffee and a chat. Claire went over to Ryan's for the evening while I watched the telly box and Nicky slept on the sofa.
Today has been Mother's Day here. Claire made Nicky millionaire shortbread and Nicky made us French Onion soup (even though the onions are NZ ones). We had exciting though expected news this afternoon when Paul rang to say the Naomi and Doug's first born, Alex, had arrived. Naomi had been induced because the babe appeared to be no longer gaining weight, and arrived at 2.2kgs. We shortly plan to consume some alcohol to celebrate.
The weather has been largely dry again this week, with lower temperatures but still relatively mild in the middle parts of the day. The sun is still very warming when it is around.
That's all for now. I shall go open a bottle and watch the Monty Python documentary before wandering off to bed.
Rick
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