Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Well where do I start? It has been such an uneventful week I don't know quite where to begin! Nicky has had another good but busy week at work. She went to the Central Auckland Library on Thursday with some of her colleagues for a tour which she enjoyed. Claire has been in end of term mode with the first half of this semester coming to a close with the usual assignment deadlines. She now gets a couple of weeks off. I have had a little Mac work and have also been to see the people who run the elections, to see about helping with the running of the general election in November. It was the first time that I have actually met a bone fide Returning Officer. The weekend however has been much more fun. Yesterday was cleaning and laundry along with Dawn and Barry re-sealing the shower in Claire's bathroom as one of theirs has started to leek so they wanted to check ours. I did the camera club newsletter and we squeezed in some reading-about with Nicky finishing another Lee Chil

The weather has hit the headlines this week, due to the first snow in some parts of the country in many years. Apparently it's around 20 years since there was snow in Auckland, but it didn't fall for long or settle, but it still made the news! By Wednesday we had blue skies and sunshine, but the temperatures were still low due to the southerly wind. The good weather has continued right through the end of the week and the weekend, we even had lunch and much of the afternoon on the deck yesterday. (I don't usually call it the deck as it is made of concrete and I associate decks with wood, but there you go). What hasn't made the national news is the ducks. A pair of ducks seem to have adopted our garden and drive way this week. The usually appear in the afternoon and settle themselves in a good spot on the grass or on the deck looking in through the ranch sliders. We had a brief visit from John this week. He flew up from Nelson on Friday afternoon and Claire and I me

Claire wasn't feeling so good when she came home last Sunday night, so she rang the doctors first thing on Monday morning and got an appointment straight away, so I zipped her up to Avondale in the car. She was prescribed some anti-biotics and some additional asthma medication (reliever). The upshot of this has been that as the week has progressed her health has improved, which is good, as she has been as busy as ever with Uny and Whitcoulls. Nicky has had another full week at work, but a quiet week socially. I was out at camera club on Monday, but other than that I have had a very domestic week. The weather has been holding at pretty good, in spite of dire warnings on the forecasts, as the worst of it hasn't made it this far north. I realised on Friday morning that we had a completely free weekend. Non of our regular activities were coming up, and now that Ryan has taken over taking Claire to and from work, we had no taxi or feeding responsibilities either. A quick scan

Our major headlines this week are the weather and the fact that we have had light news week, apart from the USA's credit rating of course. Apparently it is now the same as New Zealand's but their's is on the way down and our is possibly on the way up? The dry and sunny weather of last Sunday has continued for most of the week. We had some rain on Friday (and today) and yesterday was cloudy, but other than that it has been hard to believe that we are in the depths of winter. There have been a couple of occasions when it has been warm enough for me to walk up to the shops in a t-shirt. The southerly wind has still been nippy at times but the warmth of the sun has kept the heater switched off for most of the day. Nicky has been as busy as ever at work. Claire has been busy with University too, but has had another relapse with her cold/infection and had Wednesday in bed. I have had a smidge of Mac work. On Thursday I was seen by the General Surgical Consultant (a very nice man