The House of Requirements
or the Come and Go house. For those of you who don't get the Harry Potter reference, see the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 18 Dumbledore's Army, page 343 in the UK edition.
The week began with wonderful weather. The clear skies and gorgeous sunshine of Sunday continued throughout Monday and Tuesday. When Claire and I returned from the airport after collecting Rachel Rhodes on Tuesday it was 28°C in the lounge - all due to the free heat from the sun. It got cloudier and turned to rain by the end of the week, but it's not to bad for winter time.
Rachel was making her final visit to us after having an excellent couple of weeks in Fiji. She came back for just one night to have a roast chicken dinner and collect her skis. This thoroughly confused the immigration officers at the airport both on arrival and departure as her visa expired on Wednesday, and they couldn't understand why she came into the country for just one day. She claimed it was just because of her skis, but I think my roast chuck had something to do with it. It was very good to have Rachel stay with us again and we look forward to her return sometime after finishing her degree.
Nicky has had another busy week at work. On Monday evening she had a staff do at Bricklane and took advantage of the Early Bird dinner discount. Apparently the food was excellent as usual and she had a good evening. On Tuesday morning we were back at Green Lane Clinical Center for Nicky to see a gynecologist. The ultra sound last week found fibroids in her uterus so they are going to book her in for an operation, but it is not an emergency so she is quite relieved.
Claire has started the last semester of her 3rd year at Massey. Decisions are yet to be made about further study, but this will take her to the end of her Bachelor of Arts course. Honours, Masters, etc await as possible future options. She was also due to start her Supervisor role at Whitcoulls on Friday and Saturday, but came down with a cold on Thursday which turned really bad and included vomiting on Friday and Saturday. By this morning she had turned the corner and started to improve, but was disappointed not to have been able to go into work and to Uni. Ryan stayed over on Friday night to help look after her. I was reminded how ofter in our family life that ill health strikes us either at the end of the working week, or the beginning of a holiday.
Somewhere in the week I have also done some Mac work, and quite a bit of my time has been taken up reading about the new OS which Apple released on Wednesday, and which I upgraded my Mac to on Saturday. Much has changed and will probably create some issues for some of my customers.
On Saturday morning, Nicky and I zipped down to the airport again to collect John Sidda, my sisters youngest. He has six weeks in NZ, the first of which he is spending with us. It was dark and wet on the way back from the airport so he didn't get to see much, but the weather brightened up mid morning and we had a wander down to the beach and through the local amenities. After lunch the winter sun was temptingly warm so John and I strolled down to the park as he still felt like stretching his legs after 24 hours in the air. Nicky had got the three of us tickets for a Mid-Winter dinner at the community centre organised by the church. I made roast vegetables and a Christmas Pudding and we joined 257 other's for food, quiz and live music, along with quite a few chat's while queuing and eating. It was a very good evening.
Today we went up to Pat and Clem's to celebrate the arrival of their second grandchild, Tai, son of Kim and Sean. John started coming down with a cold - not caught from Claire he thinks as he had suspected something on the flight over, but he still felt well enough to come with us. I had made Parkin (a week ago as recommended by the recipe) which didn't look like I remember but certainly tasted like I remember. I also made Portuguese custard tarts. I discovered these in Lisbon and have encountered nothing like them since until Nicky brought a cook book home from the library this week with their recipe in it. I couldn't resist the opportunity to give it a go and they turned out quite well. Next time they need thinner pastry and more filling.
After our very sustaining lunch with Clam and Pat and a good selection of other family members, we took John (and Becky K) to Stanmore bay for a stroll along the beach. I couldn't resist having a paddle though the water even though it wasn't very warm.
We have had a quiet evening at home as John was not really feeling very well at all by the time we got back and Claire is out with Ryan. We enjoyed watching Lewis on DVD and eating Nicky's scones.
That's all for now,
Take care, Rick.
The week began with wonderful weather. The clear skies and gorgeous sunshine of Sunday continued throughout Monday and Tuesday. When Claire and I returned from the airport after collecting Rachel Rhodes on Tuesday it was 28°C in the lounge - all due to the free heat from the sun. It got cloudier and turned to rain by the end of the week, but it's not to bad for winter time.
Rachel was making her final visit to us after having an excellent couple of weeks in Fiji. She came back for just one night to have a roast chicken dinner and collect her skis. This thoroughly confused the immigration officers at the airport both on arrival and departure as her visa expired on Wednesday, and they couldn't understand why she came into the country for just one day. She claimed it was just because of her skis, but I think my roast chuck had something to do with it. It was very good to have Rachel stay with us again and we look forward to her return sometime after finishing her degree.
Nicky has had another busy week at work. On Monday evening she had a staff do at Bricklane and took advantage of the Early Bird dinner discount. Apparently the food was excellent as usual and she had a good evening. On Tuesday morning we were back at Green Lane Clinical Center for Nicky to see a gynecologist. The ultra sound last week found fibroids in her uterus so they are going to book her in for an operation, but it is not an emergency so she is quite relieved.
Claire has started the last semester of her 3rd year at Massey. Decisions are yet to be made about further study, but this will take her to the end of her Bachelor of Arts course. Honours, Masters, etc await as possible future options. She was also due to start her Supervisor role at Whitcoulls on Friday and Saturday, but came down with a cold on Thursday which turned really bad and included vomiting on Friday and Saturday. By this morning she had turned the corner and started to improve, but was disappointed not to have been able to go into work and to Uni. Ryan stayed over on Friday night to help look after her. I was reminded how ofter in our family life that ill health strikes us either at the end of the working week, or the beginning of a holiday.
Somewhere in the week I have also done some Mac work, and quite a bit of my time has been taken up reading about the new OS which Apple released on Wednesday, and which I upgraded my Mac to on Saturday. Much has changed and will probably create some issues for some of my customers.
On Saturday morning, Nicky and I zipped down to the airport again to collect John Sidda, my sisters youngest. He has six weeks in NZ, the first of which he is spending with us. It was dark and wet on the way back from the airport so he didn't get to see much, but the weather brightened up mid morning and we had a wander down to the beach and through the local amenities. After lunch the winter sun was temptingly warm so John and I strolled down to the park as he still felt like stretching his legs after 24 hours in the air. Nicky had got the three of us tickets for a Mid-Winter dinner at the community centre organised by the church. I made roast vegetables and a Christmas Pudding and we joined 257 other's for food, quiz and live music, along with quite a few chat's while queuing and eating. It was a very good evening.
Today we went up to Pat and Clem's to celebrate the arrival of their second grandchild, Tai, son of Kim and Sean. John started coming down with a cold - not caught from Claire he thinks as he had suspected something on the flight over, but he still felt well enough to come with us. I had made Parkin (a week ago as recommended by the recipe) which didn't look like I remember but certainly tasted like I remember. I also made Portuguese custard tarts. I discovered these in Lisbon and have encountered nothing like them since until Nicky brought a cook book home from the library this week with their recipe in it. I couldn't resist the opportunity to give it a go and they turned out quite well. Next time they need thinner pastry and more filling.
After our very sustaining lunch with Clam and Pat and a good selection of other family members, we took John (and Becky K) to Stanmore bay for a stroll along the beach. I couldn't resist having a paddle though the water even though it wasn't very warm.
We have had a quiet evening at home as John was not really feeling very well at all by the time we got back and Claire is out with Ryan. We enjoyed watching Lewis on DVD and eating Nicky's scones.
That's all for now,
Take care, Rick.
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