Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

The weather has been sunny for most of the week, but the heaters have been really appreciated first thing in the morning for taking the chill off the lower overnight temperatures. Nicky has been as busy as ever at the library, and I have had a good week work-wise too. When I get paid for it the bank balance will gain a welcome improvement for a little while. On Monday I made some pork pies, using the Hairy Bikers recipe, on the whole. Their recipe was to make four 2-person pies. For the pastry this required 50g of butter and 150g of lard. I replaced the lard with rice bran oil, curious to see how it would turn out. I also omitted the jelly as I don't like it and it is the worst part of the pie to make. The end results were very interesting. I was very pleased with the pastry as it had the crunchiness that you expect with a pork pie, without having to use a pneumatic drill to get through it. The filling was OK, not as good as Dickinson & Morris (Of Melton Mowbray), as

We have had a wetter week this week, but when the sun has come out it has warmed the house nicely. The temperatures are dropping and last night was clear so we can feel a bit of a nip in the air today. Consequently, I have broken out our two main column heaters from the garage this afternoon. They have timers on them so I have set them to come on a little before we get up as the beginning of the day is the coolest.  Nicky has had another busy week, both at work and with two prayer group evenings this week. I have been doing my usual household task, running errands and doing a bit of Mac work. I saw a new customer this week who lives close to Claire, and due to the inclement weather and good timing I ended up picking her up from Whitcoulls on Wednesday and running her home. Yesterday we had a very late start to the day (Saturday is the only day Nicky has the chance of a lie-in) but really enjoyed our brunch. We popped down to the library in the afternoon to listen to an Argent

The weather has become more autumnal this week, with some sunny days and some rainy days, but it has been a fun week all the same. While checking our bank account on Tuesday morning I noticed there was more money than I was expecting - always nice. On investigation I discovered we had won some money with the Bonus Bonds, our first win. (Bonus Bonds are like Premium Bonds) Yippe!! It took me all to day to decide how to spend the $20, and it went on food in the end, but it's the principle which is important. Now we have won once, the $1 million prize can't be far away. Can it? The other major event, which unlike my Bonus Bonds win did make the national news, was the capture of a fly, a Queensland Fruit fly to be specific. This is an Australian pest which if it took hold here could destroy the whole of the NZ fruit growing industry apparently. The news reported that the fly was caught in Mt Roskill, ie: just down the road from us, but the following day the location had c

They have done it - and it is all the sweeter with their main rivals being United. For those of you who haven't been paying attention, Sheffield Wednesday have finished the season second in League One, beating Sheffield United to the the automatic promotion place by 3 points. As the season drew to a close United were in second place and Wednesday in third for a number of weeks. Then they switched places and with just a few games to go I have been checking the results with bated breath each week to see if Wednesday could maintain their second place behind Charlton, and avoid the promotion play-off's. With the last games of the season yesterday they did just that, so will be playing Championship football next season. That's still Division Two in old money, but better than Division Three. Back here, the weather has been lovely this week. Warm sunny days tempered with a gentle southerly breeze, though by mid-morning on Saturday the wind eased and it was a still and very w