Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

The bulk of our excitement this week occurred on Saturday, as ever. We rose early to watch the Olympic Games opening ceremony, and used the event as an excuse to have two breakfasts (well I did anyway). I only saw up to where the teams started to arrive as I had to zip off to Grey Lynn for another modelling session, but Nicky saw the whole event. We thought it was fantastic, very well done and imaginative. We particularly liked the Queen and James Bond parachuting out of the helicopter, and Rowan Atkinson's orchestral accompaniment. Nicky said the lighting of the flame was also very well done. To celebrate the opening of the 30th Olympiad we joined a group of complete strangers in a bar, The Elephant Wrester, in Takapuna. The link between us was graduation from Loughborough University. It turns out there are about 200 known Loughborough graduates in New Zealand, and 15 of us were able to make it to Takapuna. There was quite a wide range of ages (we were not the oldest), and m...

Nicky has been suffering with a cold this week. She went into work on Monday, but had to take Tuesday and Wednesday off. Even though she improved a little and went to work on Thursday and Friday, she has gone downhill again over the weekend. I have had some Mac work at the beginning and the end of the week, and modelling yesterday. On Monday I used my birthday present pasta machine for the first time and made a lasagne. The rolling of the pasta was more difficult than I expected, but I had some left over and tried using more flour while rolling on Wednesday when I made some tagliatelle. The pasta was OK, but I realised I was unrealistic in my expectations of the taste. Being made from just eggs and flour it is quite bland,. It is the texture which is different with freshly made. So, further experimentation is required, which I am looking forward to. While doing some ironing on Wednesday, our iron (which we bought while we staying in Clare Cottage shortly after we arrived in N...

If I recall correctly, back in the dim and distant past of a couple of years ago or more, Claire used to have "reading weeks". I could never tell the difference between reading weeks and holidays, but I am told there was one. Anyway, the relevance of this is that Nicky and I have had a "reading weekend", which is a more compact version, and we have read. We have both enjoyed a Lee Child "Jack Reacher" novel which we have not read before (Nicky is currently on her second reading), and I have also completed my first Alex Kava - another action/thriller writer, which has been enjoyable, though not as good as Lee Child. Reading has not been our only occupation this weekend. Nicky took advantage of the last of the fine weather yesterday to do the laundry, while I did a modelling session in Grey Lynn - the first of four, all the same pose each for three hours. Today Nicky has been in prison again, and the rain arrived. The beginning of the week started ...

The major news this week is probably the weather, because other than that it has been a pretty average week. Monday was quite wet, Tuesday turned from wet to absolute down pour, with flash flooding in parts of Auckland. I think we had about a months' worth of rain in half an hour or so around lunchtime. We had some warming sun Wednesday afternoon, then major English style fog on Thursday (which closed the airport all day), and more again on Friday but the breeze cleared it by mid morning. Then the sun came out, and we have had two and a half days of cloudless blue sky, and wonderful warming sun. Work has been much the same for Nicky, and a bit thin on the ground for me, but that has left me time to cook, iron, and battle with the weather to get washing dry. Yesterday we enjoyed the sun at home, sewing, baking and laundrying (I think that's a proper word really). I will leave you to guess who did which. Today we took advantage of the winter sun by taking a picnic to Mu...

So as another week draws to a close down here in Godzone, it is time for me to report on our happenings for the week. It really is a very nice place you know. Those of you who haven't been should come for a visit for awhile. Well, that's my plug for 100% New Zealand done, onto the news for the week. Nothing all that exiting actually. Nicky has been hard at work at the library all week, I have had some Mac every day this week apart from Tuesday, and the weather has been a mixture of sunshine and showers. The weekend has been fine but cooler. We have had our coldest night so far on Friday night, 3°, and we could really feel the difference on Saturday morning. On Monday evening Nicky had a mid-winter works do at Mosaic, just across the road from the library. It went well and seemed to be enjoyed by all. On Wednesday afternoon she went to a hospice with June, our neighbour from Matata Street, and had a ride home in a 45 year old limousine, before going on to life group. ...