Around Takapuna for 80 minutes

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It has been a mixed week, in a number of ways.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous and sunny, and also mild and wet. We have had winds from every direction it would seem.  Some of the wind has been almost warm, while at other times it has been a chilly southerly.

Nicky has had a busy week in the library, particularly with the preparations for Diwali celebrations which started on Saturday. On Monday evening she was at a prison group prayer meeting while I watched the final episode of the "Story of England - Kibworth" series (which was as good as ever). She took Tuesday afternoon off work to attend Jan's mum's funeral (Jan is a friend from church). Afterwards she delivered a birthday cake to Ruth Duffus. On Friday afternoon we had a quick trip to Green Lane Clinical Centre so that she could have an x-ray for the osteoporosis study in which she is participating.

I have had quite a busy work week, with on-site visits at the beginning of the week, and support via email and text at the end of the week. In between I have squeezed in most of the laundry and ironing, with just a bit left over to deal with over the weekend, and went out for a swift pint on Friday evening.

The major event of the week was going to Takapuna on Wednesday evening for "An Audience with Michael Palin". He is here promoting his book and TV series on Brazil. We were in an audience of about 500 while he was being interviewed and then taking questions. I took a photos afterwards as he prepared to sign books but they were all very poor, unlike the interview, was great. Michael was as eloquent, humble and funny as you would expect. We met Claire and Ryan there and gave them a lift back to the Devonport ferry terminal afterwards, so we had a very enjoyable evening.


Nicky went into the library yesterday morning for the first of the Diwali events that she has organised. I stayed home pottering and depriving the rain of re-wetting the last load of laundry. We watched a couple of films on DVD which Nicky had brought home; The Ides of March which is a very good American political drama (take note CED - writing up to Arron Sorkin quality), and Moneyball, the true story of the change in baseball at Oakland Athletic in the early part of this century. Even though we missed many of the subtleties with not understanding baseball, watching a man change attitudes in a very conservative environment was quite a compelling story. 

The weather has been sunnier today, but with quite a cool breeze, so we have mainly been reading, Scrabbling, hoovering and watching the tellybox. We watched "My week with Marilyn" this evening which was good.

That's it for now,
Take care, Rick.

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