Distracted by jigsaw et al
Sorry, I forgot to update the blog last night. I was distracted by doing the Wallace and Gromit jigsaw which my sister sent me for my birthday, watching the last episode of the BBC's Sherlock which has been airing on NZ TV for the first time, and the knowledge that today is a public holiday due to the Queen having another birthday so yesterday didn't feel quite like a normal Sunday. Well they are my excuses anyway.
So, how has the week been? Well, Nicky has been well and has had another full week of working at New Lynn library. Claire has had her last week of lectures for this semester so is now on "study leave". I have had a little Mac work, but I think more phone support than on-site work.
On Monday evening I had a camera club committee meeting, and I think due to the weather and the re-arranged date that were only 5 of us present. The impact of this was that we had some very good and lively discussions, which made for an enjoyable evening. On Tuesday evening Nicky was providing food for the Alpha course up at church again.
We decided that even though my birthday was on Thursday, that I would open my presents on Wednesday evening as the next time we would all be together would be Saturday evening. Ryan came over and Nicky made a lemon yoghurt birthday cake so we had an enjoyable time of presents and cake.
To celebrate on Thursday I went down to New Lynn and Nicky and I had lunch together in the Mall. Then after taking Claire to work and doing the supermarket shopping, Nicky and I came home and had egg and chips for dinner! This all came about because many years ago Nicky asked me if I would like anything special for dinner on my birthday and my answer was that as a kid I always wanted egg and chips. She might have done it for me, I can't remember. Anyway, this idea came front and centre again a couple of weeks ago when seeing an advert on TV where they were using chips as soldiers instead of toast. I, of course, thought this was a wonderful idea. So, while I unpacked the supermarket shopping (including a packet of white rolls or baps depending on your location) and boiled some eggs, Nicky walked up to the chip shop for some chips (we haven't used this chip shop before but the chips turned out to be very good). The egg, chips and chip butties were excellent. We both ate too much but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
To complete my birthday celebrations I cooked a special meal for the four of us on Saturday night; fresh fettuccine with a choice of sauce - either roast vegetable or bacon and mushroom carbonara, with salad and garlic bread. We had some birthday cake left over but I also made chocolate vanilla surprise. This used some vanilla cupcakes which Claire had made on Friday and which tasted very good, but were virtually impossible to get out of the baking trays. I repurposed them as a base layer and topped them with un-sweetened chocolate mouse. It turned out very well.
On Saturday morning after taking Claire to work I took Nicky over to a quilting session in Ranui so that I could have the car to go and have a look at a Mac in Grey Lynn. This turned out to be fortuitous as I had to bring the Mac home to backup and work on and the weather had turned very wet by this time. I picked Nicky up later and then got on with preparing dinner.
Yesterday, Sunday, we had a quiet day at home, doing laundry (the sun came out early on and stayed with us all day) sewing, and tackling the Wallace and Gromit jigsaw. This is turning out to be more of a challenge that I expected. The picture is of one of the stamps from last Christmas - enlarged to 50x60cm and cut into 1000 pieces, so as you can imagine, there is not that much detail on each piece. In addition, the jigsaw also includes the perforations round the edges of the stamp, and a completely black border all the way round that. So we have a large amount of edge pieces which are all the same shade of black! Ah well, we will get there in the end.
Bye for now and I will try and be on time next week.
Take care,
Rick
So, how has the week been? Well, Nicky has been well and has had another full week of working at New Lynn library. Claire has had her last week of lectures for this semester so is now on "study leave". I have had a little Mac work, but I think more phone support than on-site work.
On Monday evening I had a camera club committee meeting, and I think due to the weather and the re-arranged date that were only 5 of us present. The impact of this was that we had some very good and lively discussions, which made for an enjoyable evening. On Tuesday evening Nicky was providing food for the Alpha course up at church again.
We decided that even though my birthday was on Thursday, that I would open my presents on Wednesday evening as the next time we would all be together would be Saturday evening. Ryan came over and Nicky made a lemon yoghurt birthday cake so we had an enjoyable time of presents and cake.
To celebrate on Thursday I went down to New Lynn and Nicky and I had lunch together in the Mall. Then after taking Claire to work and doing the supermarket shopping, Nicky and I came home and had egg and chips for dinner! This all came about because many years ago Nicky asked me if I would like anything special for dinner on my birthday and my answer was that as a kid I always wanted egg and chips. She might have done it for me, I can't remember. Anyway, this idea came front and centre again a couple of weeks ago when seeing an advert on TV where they were using chips as soldiers instead of toast. I, of course, thought this was a wonderful idea. So, while I unpacked the supermarket shopping (including a packet of white rolls or baps depending on your location) and boiled some eggs, Nicky walked up to the chip shop for some chips (we haven't used this chip shop before but the chips turned out to be very good). The egg, chips and chip butties were excellent. We both ate too much but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
To complete my birthday celebrations I cooked a special meal for the four of us on Saturday night; fresh fettuccine with a choice of sauce - either roast vegetable or bacon and mushroom carbonara, with salad and garlic bread. We had some birthday cake left over but I also made chocolate vanilla surprise. This used some vanilla cupcakes which Claire had made on Friday and which tasted very good, but were virtually impossible to get out of the baking trays. I repurposed them as a base layer and topped them with un-sweetened chocolate mouse. It turned out very well.
On Saturday morning after taking Claire to work I took Nicky over to a quilting session in Ranui so that I could have the car to go and have a look at a Mac in Grey Lynn. This turned out to be fortuitous as I had to bring the Mac home to backup and work on and the weather had turned very wet by this time. I picked Nicky up later and then got on with preparing dinner.
Yesterday, Sunday, we had a quiet day at home, doing laundry (the sun came out early on and stayed with us all day) sewing, and tackling the Wallace and Gromit jigsaw. This is turning out to be more of a challenge that I expected. The picture is of one of the stamps from last Christmas - enlarged to 50x60cm and cut into 1000 pieces, so as you can imagine, there is not that much detail on each piece. In addition, the jigsaw also includes the perforations round the edges of the stamp, and a completely black border all the way round that. So we have a large amount of edge pieces which are all the same shade of black! Ah well, we will get there in the end.
Bye for now and I will try and be on time next week.
Take care,
Rick
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