Bonfire Night
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 Thursday lunchtime she started a 5 day stint at Whitcoulls (they have a special promotion on from Thursday to Sunday which really brings the shoppers in so they need more staff than usual). She celebrated this by falling over the new vacuum cleaner at the end of her shift, badly bruising her thigh and a couple of other areas. She didn't sleep to well on Thursday night due to her injuries but Friday night was better. Two other staff members have now also tripped over the new vacuum.
I haven't had any work this week which is depressing, so I have just been house husbanding - shopping, cooking, laundry, ironing and keeping Claire amused. This is all good fun, but I would like to earn some money too.
We didn't get to a fireworks display again this year, but we got closer than last year. On Thursday evening I gave a massage to Glen from church, and he said their was a display on at his daughters school and that we would be welcome to come along. However, Thursday night and Friday morning were very wet and I had a text from him to say that the display had been cancelled. The weather perked up for the rest of the day until I was going down to the station to collect Nicky in the evening and some big black clouds were rolling in. It ended up being quite fine however, and we heard and saw lots of fireworks in the vicinity which was quite good.
On Wednesday I finally started work on a project which I have had in mind for a couple of years - disposing of my record (vinyl LP) collection. The first stage of the project went well. I located my records in the garage, sorted out the ones which can go straight away from those where I would like to retain some of the music. Onto stage two - setting up a turntable and amplifier so that I could connect a Mac and "record" into a file and then import into iTunes. I extracted my prime turntable (the RD80) from the garage, and my old Sugden amplifier, and started to set them up. It was awhile before I noticed that part of the tone arm on the RD80 was missing. I had taken it off and packed it separately, probably many years ago. So, on Thursday I set about hunting in the garage for the SME box which would have the business end of the tone arm in it. No joy. On Friday, I go my other turntable (an RD40) out of the garage, and quickly noticed that the tone arm on that had got bent in transit sometime.
This meant I spent most of Saturday not only moving all the stuff round in the garage to try and fine the SME box, but going into the boxes to check what was in them as my search on Thursday had been somewhat cursory. Still no SME box to be found. Nor the blue Christmas lights that we last saw in January 2008. I did find some DVD's which Claire has not had sight of since we left England, and I got both the garage windows cleaned (they were filthy due to being inaccessible) and their net curtains washed (the garage is a bit shy so it likes to have some nets up). I have now put all the gear and the records back in the garage and will ponder on what to do next.
While I was doing all this, Nicky was busy gardening with having bought plants and compost from various locations during the morning. In addition to her mothers pots (one of which is already delivering a strawberry every couple of days) she has bought two potato bags and planted things in them. Other things are planned after having a chat with Dawn and Barry (landpersons) who are encouraging Nicky as they like having us as tenants and want us to stay as long as possible. We are very pleased about this because we like living here so much. It is a great house in a lovely spot.
Steve and Ros came over on Saturday afternoon. Nicky and Ros went fabric shopping at Spotlight in Henderson, and Steve stayed with us for dinner and then a quick game of Scrabble with Nicky.
Today Nicky has continued pottering round the house and garden, and I have spent a couple of hours making vitamin D by lying in the sun. Nicky invited Mitra and her mum up for tea and scones this afternoon, which was very pleasant. Who is Mitra I hear you ask? Back in 2008 when were looking for somewhere new to rent after our year at Matata Street, we found a place on Puketea Street, which is the next road up from Matata and runs parallel with it. It was a really nice place. The couple who own it were planning to have a few years in the UK and wanted to rent it out while they were away. This didn't end up happening as they didn't go to the UK and we found Exminster Street, but there was an empty plot of land next to the house. They said it was owned by a local architect and that she was planning to build on it at some point. A few months later we noticed that building work has started and we have been keeping an occasional eye on progress. Three or fours weeks ago Nicky was off to a do a leaflet drop for church on the estate (a rarity in Auckland) just of Matata Street, and I was off for my morning walk having missed out one or two during the week for some reason or other, so we walked down together. As we passed the house there was a lady doing some gardening in the front, so Nicky struck up a conversation (as she does) and it turned out this was the architect lady, Mitra. We stayed and chatted for awhile and finished by exchanging contact details, and Mitra and her mum came up the the Heart of the Bay do last Saturday and we saw them again there. So, that's how we met Mitra. I bet you regret asking now don't you? Serves you right.
I think that's it for this week. I will give my fingers a rest for awhile and go and have a cup of tea. Bye for now,
Rick
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 Thursday lunchtime she started a 5 day stint at Whitcoulls (they have a special promotion on from Thursday to Sunday which really brings the shoppers in so they need more staff than usual). She celebrated this by falling over the new vacuum cleaner at the end of her shift, badly bruising her thigh and a couple of other areas. She didn't sleep to well on Thursday night due to her injuries but Friday night was better. Two other staff members have now also tripped over the new vacuum.
I haven't had any work this week which is depressing, so I have just been house husbanding - shopping, cooking, laundry, ironing and keeping Claire amused. This is all good fun, but I would like to earn some money too.
We didn't get to a fireworks display again this year, but we got closer than last year. On Thursday evening I gave a massage to Glen from church, and he said their was a display on at his daughters school and that we would be welcome to come along. However, Thursday night and Friday morning were very wet and I had a text from him to say that the display had been cancelled. The weather perked up for the rest of the day until I was going down to the station to collect Nicky in the evening and some big black clouds were rolling in. It ended up being quite fine however, and we heard and saw lots of fireworks in the vicinity which was quite good.
On Wednesday I finally started work on a project which I have had in mind for a couple of years - disposing of my record (vinyl LP) collection. The first stage of the project went well. I located my records in the garage, sorted out the ones which can go straight away from those where I would like to retain some of the music. Onto stage two - setting up a turntable and amplifier so that I could connect a Mac and "record" into a file and then import into iTunes. I extracted my prime turntable (the RD80) from the garage, and my old Sugden amplifier, and started to set them up. It was awhile before I noticed that part of the tone arm on the RD80 was missing. I had taken it off and packed it separately, probably many years ago. So, on Thursday I set about hunting in the garage for the SME box which would have the business end of the tone arm in it. No joy. On Friday, I go my other turntable (an RD40) out of the garage, and quickly noticed that the tone arm on that had got bent in transit sometime.
This meant I spent most of Saturday not only moving all the stuff round in the garage to try and fine the SME box, but going into the boxes to check what was in them as my search on Thursday had been somewhat cursory. Still no SME box to be found. Nor the blue Christmas lights that we last saw in January 2008. I did find some DVD's which Claire has not had sight of since we left England, and I got both the garage windows cleaned (they were filthy due to being inaccessible) and their net curtains washed (the garage is a bit shy so it likes to have some nets up). I have now put all the gear and the records back in the garage and will ponder on what to do next.
While I was doing all this, Nicky was busy gardening with having bought plants and compost from various locations during the morning. In addition to her mothers pots (one of which is already delivering a strawberry every couple of days) she has bought two potato bags and planted things in them. Other things are planned after having a chat with Dawn and Barry (landpersons) who are encouraging Nicky as they like having us as tenants and want us to stay as long as possible. We are very pleased about this because we like living here so much. It is a great house in a lovely spot.
Steve and Ros came over on Saturday afternoon. Nicky and Ros went fabric shopping at Spotlight in Henderson, and Steve stayed with us for dinner and then a quick game of Scrabble with Nicky.
Today Nicky has continued pottering round the house and garden, and I have spent a couple of hours making vitamin D by lying in the sun. Nicky invited Mitra and her mum up for tea and scones this afternoon, which was very pleasant. Who is Mitra I hear you ask? Back in 2008 when were looking for somewhere new to rent after our year at Matata Street, we found a place on Puketea Street, which is the next road up from Matata and runs parallel with it. It was a really nice place. The couple who own it were planning to have a few years in the UK and wanted to rent it out while they were away. This didn't end up happening as they didn't go to the UK and we found Exminster Street, but there was an empty plot of land next to the house. They said it was owned by a local architect and that she was planning to build on it at some point. A few months later we noticed that building work has started and we have been keeping an occasional eye on progress. Three or fours weeks ago Nicky was off to a do a leaflet drop for church on the estate (a rarity in Auckland) just of Matata Street, and I was off for my morning walk having missed out one or two during the week for some reason or other, so we walked down together. As we passed the house there was a lady doing some gardening in the front, so Nicky struck up a conversation (as she does) and it turned out this was the architect lady, Mitra. We stayed and chatted for awhile and finished by exchanging contact details, and Mitra and her mum came up the the Heart of the Bay do last Saturday and we saw them again there. So, that's how we met Mitra. I bet you regret asking now don't you? Serves you right.
I think that's it for this week. I will give my fingers a rest for awhile and go and have a cup of tea. Bye for now,
Rick
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