Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

We have finally had some proper summer weather this week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were just gorgeous, with hot sunshine and fluffy clouds. Kim, Sean, Shani and Tai came over for dinner on Monday, so we celebrated the good weather with our first BBQ of the season. We had a couple of salads and new potatoes with the steak and mushrooms in white wine sauce, followed by Derby Pie. This fitted in well with their commitments as Monday was Shani's first day of her week long drama course up at Blockhouse Bay Primary school. On Tuesday I had to go and see a customer in Devonport so called on Letty who was fortuitously available for lunch, so we were able to have a good chat at the Narrow Neck beach café. Meanwhile, back in New Lynn on the way to work Nicky was knocked down by a car at the junction outside the library. Lucky the car wasn't going very fast so Nicky wasn't seriously hurt, but her right arm is grazed and badly bruised and her hip is also bruised. She went down t...

It has been a very routine week - Nicky at the library and me doing a few hours Mac work and house husbanding. I had some blood tests done on Monday because the Doctor decided it would be a good idea due to my age. I can't remember when I last had any done (probably also due to my age), but it would have been in England. We are slowly coming out of holiday mode as the end of the school holidays is now in sight. More business are opening their doors after their summer break, and there is more traffic on the roads. The rush hours have not yet returned to their usual levels, but the roads are busier than a week a ago. The weather still isn't fantastic, but we have not had much rain this week, the temperatures have risen a little more, and we have some good sunny spells most days. When we do get the sun, it is very hot. We are just not getting the day after day of blue sky which I have got used to associating with NZ summers. I have also noticed that the days are getting a littl...

We have had a very quiet week. Nicky has had a full week at work, and I have done some Mac work too which has been welcome. The social highlight of the week was Wednesday evening. We had invited Jancis Barlow (friend from Loughborough who is in NZ again for a few months) and her cousin Pat, and Pat's husband John over for dinner. Pat brought a lovely apple, rhubarb and strawberry crumble with her, along with wonderfully think custard. The evening gave me the chance to try out one of my Christmas presents - the Hairy Biker Perfect Pie cook book which Katherine and Ben sent. We chose a steak and ale single crust pie. It took me most of the day to make, what with cooking the filling for two hours in the oven and resting the pastry for an hour or so, but the results were worth it. I have never made or tasted a pie quite like it. The flavour was deep and rich, and even though the puff pastry wasn't as puffy as I expected, it was still good. Claire called in on Saturday and had c...

We are slowly working our way into the New Year. There are still quite a few places which are closed for the holidays and traffic is quiet. Nicky had Monday and Tuesday off with them being public holidays. This gave us chance to finish our Harry Potter film marathon on Monday with the last three films. When ever we saw the films for the first time they were always a disappointment because of so much of the books being left out, and things changed for no good reason. However, watching them all back-to-back improves the experience because of the development and flow of the story. The books are still better (I am now re-reading them and Nicky is re-listening) but we found our marathon a more enjoyable experience than I think we expected. This was aided and abetted by the weather which was still poor, but by late Monday afternoon the rain had stopped and we had some clear patches of sky so we had an enjoyable evening walk down to the beach. On Tuesday morning Nicky went to Spotlight, a b...

A very Happy New Year to you all. We started the week with a public holiday. With Nicky only getting the statutory holidays this year we decided to try and make the most of them. After having a lovely Christmas Day, we decided on Boxing Day to travel up north to Uretiti. The weather wasn't brilliant when we got up, but it wasn't raining, so we packed a goodly supply of food and hit the road. After a quick stop in Mt Albert to deliver presents to the Moss-Mason's we headed north through Helensville to avoid the reported traffic jams on SH1. It was lunchtime when we got to Uretiti, and very quiet. As soon as we walked over the dunes and got to the beach we knew why - the wind. It was pretty terrific. We set up our wind break and spread out our rugs, and within minutes they were covered with the sand that was being whipped up by the wind. We ate some lunch but the sand was spoiling it so we decided to move on. A gentle drive down the cost took us to Mangawhai Heads and t...