Once was toy-boy

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We have been continuing to enjoy the Rugby World Cup this week, with the last of the pool games taking place this evening. Only some of the games are shown live on the free TV channels, but we can follow each game on the RWC website.


On Monday evening Nicky went to the annual Ballentynes fashion show which seemed to involve lots of food and people from church. She had a good time as usual. Nicky was hosting house group on Wednesday with Helen and Warwick (the usual hosts) being away, so Claire suggested that she and I go out for a drink for the evening (with her as the nominated driver). We went to De Post in Mt Eden where they sell a wide range of Belgian beers. Ryan joined us and we had a very pleasant evening. I had a taster tray of their six main draft beers, which also happens to come with a portion of chips. I liked the darker beers the most.


The bulk of our fun this week occurred yesterday. Nicky was helping with the spring cleaning of the church in the morning, while I was doing laundry at home. I then went into town on the bus to meet up with a group of photography enthusiasts which I have discovered through the MeetUp website. This was the first meeting of the ShutterBugs. We had lunch at the Britomart before going on to the World Press Photography Competition exhibition. I think it is only the second time this travelling exhibition has been to Auckland. It contained a wide range of images from press photographers from all over the world. Many depicted the violence and poverty, primarily in third world countries. Seeing so many images together was quite an intense experience especially as some of them were quite disturbing. I came out of the exhibition feeling lucky to have the life which I lead.


I then walked up to the museum to meet Nicky to have a look at a special exhibition of maps of Auckland through the ages (last couple of hundred years really). This was being presented as part of the Auckland Heritage Festival and was very interesting, though we both have a week spot for maps. An early 20th century pictorial map was very impressive.


We came home and had some dinner, and I was fancying watching the England - Scotland match, though it wasn't being shown on free TV. So we drove down the road to the Cock and Bull (a chain of "English-style" pubs), as they are showing all the games on big screen via SkyTV to see if we could get in. Not only did we get parked, but also easily found a table which a couple were just thinking of vacating. We asked if we could join them and got chatting and they ended up staying for the whole of the match. We didn't get to know their names, but they were good company, and were fascinated to find out that I was Nicky's toy-boy (ha!!), they we had met as students, and that we were still together. Not a very frequent experience in NZ it would seem. They were disappointed that Scotland lost, but overall I thought it was an enjoyable evening, partially because the pub didn't get as packed as I expected. There was still seating available even at the busiest period.


Today we have had a day at home, watching the delayed coverage of a couple of yesterday's games, and then live coverage of the All Blacks and Canada. Steve came over for Scrabble and we had crumpets for tea while watching the rain pounding off the deck. The weather has been settled all week with clear skies, cool nights and sunny days, but a low pressure took over yesterday and the rain started this afternoon.


Work this week has been as usual for Nicky and Claire, and I have had a bit of Mac work too. My stitches have been giving me a bit of grief, and things went downhill on Tuesday morning when I took my night dressing off along with quite a bit of skin. I think it was because of the angle that I was pulling. So, now I am leaving the dressing off all the time which is OK but interrupted my sleep a bit for the fist couple of nights. Nicky is putting a small dressing on for me so that I can have a shower at night because after three days of not having a decent shower I was getting very itchy. I am having the stitches out this week and am looking forward to getting back to having a proper shower as soon as the wound finished healing.


That's all for now,

Take care, Rick

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