Feast to famine

So what have we been up to in this, our 259th week in NZ? Well for me it has been a case of from feast to famine work wise. I have only done two small Macs jobs, one of which was on the phone yesterday. This has given me plenty of chance to wash clothes, dry them, iron them, and do some shopping and cooking too. Excellent. I have also slipped in a quick visit to the Pah Homestead, the home of the Wallace Art collection. You may remember, dear reader, a few weeks ago I did a modelling session with a group of other naked people for a photographer. His entry into the Wallace competition had been accepted as one of the finalists and was on display at the homestead. This is the first time (that I am ware of) that any piece of art which has me in it has been exhibited. Personally I didn't care for the finished product, but then I find art very subjective. Should any of you want to pop a long to see the exhibition, it is on until November 11th.

I have finally started walking my usual 5-6km routes again in a morning. It has taken me weeks to get over the effects of the cold virus and feel energetic enough to cope with my morning walk regime, but I seem to be there now.

On Wednesday evening Nicky and I were joined by Ros, Stella, Claire and Louise (a friend of Claire's from Whitcoulls) for a StoryLines Big Kids quiz at Takapuna library. It was a quiz unlike any we had done before. Each of the seven 6-person teams had a buzzer on the table which we had to press to answer the question which the quiz master read out. 2 points were awarded for a correct answer and 1 was taken off for an incorrect answer! The questions were very hard. I only managed to win us 2 points all evening. I was also the ONLY man on any of the teams. We ended up coming fifth but enjoyed ourselves all the same. We were served a range of snacks which included some cinnamon-type biscuits and crisps and a humus like dip which Nicky went for big time.

Staff at the library were each given a half day off work to acknowledge all the hard work then had done recently with the shelf changing. Nicky took hers on Thursday afternoon. As the weather was sunny and fine I picked her up at lunchtime and we drove over to Cornwallis. We started off with a picnic lunch at Mill Bay, then drove round to Cornwallis Beach and sat in the sun in the car  to warm up as the chilly breeze had cooled us down while picnicking. We then strolled down the beach before returning home. During the afternoon Nicky started to feel a migraine coming on (she suspects the dip she eat with relish on Wednesday evening) so we had a quiet evening at home and she didn't go to work on Friday.

As I am sure you will have read above, we had our five year anniversary of arriving in NZ this week. I have mentioned before that this year the days coincided exactly with five years ago, so it has been good to recall what we were doing on our trip across America. Then only problem was on Thursday, as we missed out Thursday 13th September 2007 by crossing the international dateline while flying from San Francisco to Auckland. In order to celebrate, as five years does seem a little bit special, we had decided to go out for lunch together. However, with Nicky not feeling well Claire came to us and I got fish and chips for us from up the road. It was quiet and low key but very enjoyable. We feel we have achieved a great deal in the last five years, and Claire got a degree too!

Yesterday Nicky felt she was on the mend and went off to church for a woman's breakfast which went well, and then to have her hair cut by a member of her house group who lives down Blockhouse Bay Road. I got two loads of washing done and the first one dried just before the rain set in. The second load dried inside during the afternoon. Nicky and I watched a documentary on DVD about some Chinese students in Wellington who had come to NZ to do their last 1 or 2 years of school before going onto university. They had all left their families in China and lived with NZ families while at school. It was very interesting seeing the different ways in which they coped (or not) and integrated (or not) to NZ life.

The weather has been pretty good for most of the week, but winter reminded us that it is not long gone with a couple of very cold nights and some thunderous rain. On Thursday morning it was only 2° in the roof - colder than any night during winter.

Today started off wet but the rain stopped mid-morning and we have had a lovely sunny afternoon. Nicky was in prison this morning and then has been Scrabbling and sewing this afternoon. I have been ironing and typing my fingers to the bone.

That's all 'til next week,

Take care, Rick