Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

I can not blog this week without mentioning the devastating events in Christchurch. At 12.51pm on Tuesday afternoon an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale occurred. At the time of writing (Sunday evening) there have been 147 fatalities and around a thousand hospitalised with injuries, about 10% of which are very serious. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Christchurch. I have been surprised at the emotional impact the earthquake has had on me. We have had no physical impact here in Auckland, some 500 miles north of the event, and no noticeable consequences other than the introduction of the national state of emergency which has been declared in order to manage the nation's resources in the most effective way. The only change in our daily routine has been the 24 hour news coverage on the TV. We have been able to provide only a very small bit of help. On Friday a request started for old phones to be donated. Most people in Christchurch it would seem have these

We have had a slightly more normal week, with Nicky being at work for a day and a half, though we have also had an English visitor and Claire has been on holiday. Nicky had Monday afternoon and all day Thursday at New Lynn again. This went well though she was obviously tired on Thursday evening. Claire went to the airport at Monday lunchtime to collect Rachel Rhodes, who she was at school with. Rachel is spending a year working in NZ as part of her Tourism degree, and flew up from Queenstown on her way to Oz for a family 80th birthday party. On Tuesday Nicky had to visit Auckland General to have a heart monitor fitted. The aim of this is to find out if there is any irregularity in her heart rhythm. Irregularities can cause pooling and clotting of the blood. On the way to the hospital we dropped Claire and Rachel off so they could walk to Parnell across the Domain. We met them at Ubertec and the had a wander down Parnell road and consumed refreshments at the Chocolate Boutique. Ryan cam

Nicky has had a really good week this week, and gone back to work part-time. She is still not "back to normal", but is having longer and more periods of feeling OK. With her having missed out on her two weeks holiday, we have tried to do few things this week. On Tuesday the three of us went to the Morris and James pottery in Matakana to choose a wedding gift for Naomi and Doug. We selected a deep blue platter with pohutukawa flowers. While we were there, I suggested to Nicky that we choose something for each other for a joint Valentines Day gift. After agreeing it would also be a joint wedding anniversary gift for later this year, we choose a sentinal in red and white: After packing our purchases carefully into the boot of the car, we drove on to Omaha and had a stroll along the beach before returning home. On Wednesday we had a family outing to Ponsonby as Claire wanted to go to Nosh (an up-market supermarket) and it gave us the opportunity to wander up and down Ponsonby Roa

Well, that's January over and done with then. Monday was Auckland Anniversary day (a public holiday). Nicky was having a pretty good day so we went to see Ruth in the afternoon, and then had a very nice ice cream and stroll along Kohimarama beach. Nicky has again had good and bad days so we have been taking each one as it comes. I have had a little Mac work and Claire has done some extra time at Whitcoulls, but that is now tailing off. On Friday Nicky and I popped to the airport to collect Jancis and Nel who are visiting from the UK. Jancis is running the listening course that Nicky is hoping to go on in a couple of weeks. Today has been one of Nicky's best days for ages, so much so that she wanted to do something to celebrate, so I took her out for lunch. I have started a file of "Brunch reviews" from the weekend newspaper supplements which Ros gives us. We picked Tongue & Groove in Birkenhead on the North Shore. Nicky had Warm Lamb salad and a tropical smoothie.