Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

The Mortein fly killer is back on! I put it back on while getting diner ready on Saturday as the fly's have returned with the good weather. For those of you who don't recall, last year we bought a Mortein fly spray with an automatic dispenser. It is a container with a battery that you put the fly spray aerosol into and it presses the plunger every 13 seconds, and to me, it sounds like a farting asthmatic cat. We have had some lovely weather this week, even though some of the days have started very cloudy, by mid-morning we have had blazing sunshine. The roof temperature got up to 40°C yesterday and 43°C today. It was 28°C in the lounge at one point this afternoon, even though the ranch sliders had been open since breakfast. I have had some Mac work and some modeling work so it has been a better week for me. Nicky has been as busy as ever though things have been a bit quieter towards the end of the week. Claire hasn't done any extra hours at Whitcoulls this week but that won

The major excitement this was Thursday - the release of the new Harry Potter film (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1). We had decided not to go to one of the midnight showings, so Nicky and Ryan both booked annual leave and I booked tickets for the 11am showing in Albany. We had decided to go up the the cinema in Albany as opposed to St Lukes because we prefer the venue, and because I had the idea of going out for a "Hogwarts breakfast" before the film. Googling for somewhere good for breakfast had revealed a café near Albany. However, in the end I decided to cook breakfast at home (bacon, sausage, hash browns, beans, poached eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and toast, served with freshly squeezed orange and tangelo juice and tea and coffee). We ate at the gate leg table on the patio, which was breezy, not too sunny and very pleasant. Ryan drove us up to Albany as it seemed pointless going in two cars. We had a wander round the mall after collecting our pre-booked tickets;

We have had a bit of a change of routine this week, now that Claire has finished at University for this year. She has started doing more hours at Whitcoulls, and did five consecutive days finishing last Monday. She also worked Friday in addition to her usual hours, so has been quite tired. However Francis, who she works with, came over on Wednesday and they made wonderful cookies for a birthday gift. These were given to the birthday girl at a diner on Friday evening. Nicky's week has been very busy. She stayed late on Monday to clear a backlog with books for the home-bound, and also Wednesday so the Chorus guy could upgrade the internet connection. By the end of the week things were finally under control. Much of the extra work load has been due to the SuperCity changes. Now that people can access all 55 libraries in Auckland, they have been making use of the additional resources which has also increased the staff's workload. My week, by contrast, has been quiet. I have only ha

The weather has got its act together again this week, apart from Friday (more later). Most days have had good amounts of sunshine which has been very warm, but the breeze is still southerly so has quite a cool edge to it. So much so that yesterday I was getting goose bumps while sitting in the sun having my lunch, but today has been lovely because the wind has dropped. Nicky has had a very busy week at work. There are lots of new procedures to get used to now that the 55 libraries of the seven old regions are now a single operation in the new SuperCity, aside from the fact that there have been lots of borrowers using the library this week. Claire did her last exam this week, and it went better than she expected even though she felt two of her answers were not as good as her other two answers. I am not sure when she gets her results - 2 or 3 weeks I think. Anyway, that is her second year over so we celebrated with smoked salmon and penné followed by a bottle of dessert wine. Then on Thu