June 20th

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The major excitement here this week has been the New Zealand football team drawing 1-1 against Slovakia in the world cup. The general joy was heightened by the Australian 4-0 defeat the day before. I knew there was a level of rivalry on the sports field between Australia and New Zealand, but I hadn't realised how deep it went until this week, seeing the anchor-persons on the news talking up New Zealand's goal and really rubbing salt into the wound of Australia's defeat. In the small hours of tomorrow morning New Zealand play Italy, so the Australians who drew 1-1 yesterday with Ghana may have new ammunition for their rhetoric.

For us, work has been busy for Nicky and I. Claire has sat her last two exams and now has a few weeks off before the next semester starts. Both exams went OK, and on Friday we had Ryan over for dinner with special veggie lasagne and cheesecake which Claire bought to celebrate the half way point of her degree.

Nicky took Friday off work to make cakes and savories for today. Our vicar got married in the UK three weeks ago and today had a blessing and celebration here. On Saturday Nicky was at a Ranui quilting day which went well, and spent the evening decorating the cakes and watching a film - Julie and Julia - which we both enjoyed.



Today we have been up a church and then down to the RSA (Returned Servicemen's Association) for the vicars wedding celebrations, and the spent the late afternoon and evening relaxing and watching more films.

The weather has been more wintery a couple of days this week. We had a large high pressure move over the country for three days which brought clear skies, so sunny days but very cool mornings, 4°C at 5.30am when Nicky was getting up. It has warmed up a bit for the weekend, the clouds keeping the warmth in while raining on us.

Bye for now,
Rick

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