Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Friday this week was our 27th wedding anniversary. We had decided to celebrate by visiting Gibbs Farm on the Kaipara coast. The farm is only open for public visits for one day a month, so Nicky booked Thursday and Friday as annual leave as Thursday the 21st was the June open day. We arrived around 10.30 after a pleasant drive up Highway 16 and were met at the gate, given a map, and told that they let the lions out at 2pm so we had better be away by then. Gibbs Farm is around 4 hectares of undulating countryside owned by Alan Gibbs, a NZ entrepreneur. He commissions artists to produce big works for his "farm". There are also animals (giraffe, alpaca, ostrich, hairy cows and sheep) on the "farm", but it was the sculptures which attracted Nicky and I. We had seen a feature on TV back in March of the latest work to be installed which reminded me of Anthony Gormley's "Angel of the North" (for those not familiar with this have a look at http://en.wikip

Winter has made its' presence felt this week with our coldest temperatures of the year so far. It has been down to 3° a couple of nights due to the clear skies, but those same skies have of course given us some lovely sunny days. Getting out of the chilly southerly wind into a sun trap has been wonderful. We have had some rain too, just for variety. Nicky has had another full week at work, and I have done a couple of Mac jobs. One of these was just down the road from Claire so I popped in for a quick visit (twice actually). The quilting group which Nicky got involved with when she worked in Ranui were holding an exhibition this weekend. She took a couple of quillos over on Friday morning before going to work (she was starting late with doing a late night duty), and then went back again on Saturday to help "man" (or woman) the event. The weather has been good all weekend so much laundry has been washed an ironed. Today Nicky was in prison this morning and the

We have had a very quiet, and disappointing week. Monday was a public holiday courtesy of the Queen's Birthday, and for the 52nd year in a row there was nothing for me in the honours list. More waiting. In the small hours of Sunday morning Nicky started with a migraine, the first for 14 months. As a result, she has been off work all week apart from Friday. We finished my birthday jigsaw and enjoyed Monday's afternoon sun. I did some Mac work on Tuesday, and Claire came over on Wednesday and took me to the Stardome to have a look at the transit of Venus (but it was too cloudy) and then joined us for lunch. On Wednesday evening we watched delayed coverage of the Jubilee concert which we quite enjoyed, and today Nicky has been given a recording of four hours of the Jubilee river pageant. Nicky and I have spent much of the week enjoying listening to an audio book of "Betrayal" by Clare Francis. It was a who-dunit written from the point of view of one of the susp

Winter began this week, on Friday, and to celebrate the Met Service gave us two glorious sunny days. We had some rain at the beginning of the week but, most of the time it has been OK. Nicky has been battling with a cold, and took Wednesday off work because all the coughing was keeping her awake and causing her to vomit. A day of rest really helped. I did some Mac work on Monday but the rest of the week has been largely domestic. On Thursday I went on a guided tour of the Wynyard Quarter, part of the waterfront which is undergoing redevelopment as a public area. It was very interesting to hear about some of the details behind what we see as the general public, the engineering, the art and the design decisions. It was entertaining and informative. I treated myself to some sushi on the way back to the bus stop on Queens Street, along with some window shopping. Saturday, as many of you will know, was my birthday. The weather was fantastic; as sunny as Friday but the chilly s