Not long now…

As what was the New Year awhile back is now the Old Year in it's final hours (just about 26 to go), I sit down to post my last for 2012. You never know dear reader, 2013 might hold scintillating treats such as better writing, but I doubt it.

This week, as happens every year, has been Christmas week. The weather was better than I had expected on Christmas Eve (Monday), quite hot, but that didn't stop me spending the day in the kitchen making cranberry topped turkey and ham pies. The Hairy Bikers suggested that each pie would make 4-6 servings, so I decided to make two as there would be some 20+ people sharing lunch. One would have been enough, but never mind, Nicky and I valiantly working our way through the second one.

Claire and Ryan popped over in the evening to exchange gifts. They both seem to be well but tired, and it was good to see them. Nicky was pleased to be finishing work for a couple of days.

The weather didn't start out well on Christmas Day (wet) but we enjoyed having croissant's for breakfast, and then a leisurely opening of our gifts. Nicky had invited a friend from church (Mary) to join us for Christmas lunch as her grown-up family had decided to do other things, and once she arrived we drove over to Paul and Jenny's. As ever, we had a very enjoyable time with lots of excellent food, and even a break in the rain for an hour or so in the afternoon. We had a quiet evening at home and after dark wandered up the road to see the lights on the sails that adorn Blockhouse Bay.

We had another lazy start on Boxing Day, Skyping the farm to chat with Gill, Dave, John and my Mum. We then finished off the croissant's stuffed with scrambled egg and accompanied with mushrooms. We had a lazy day at home, the wet weather not encouraging us to venture out, and no desire to join the throngs at the shopping malls.

Nicky was back at work on Thursday, and even though the weather still wasn't great I had an enjoyable few hours walking on the beach at Whatipu. In the evening we were joined by Lisa, who works with Nicky, and moved here from America 13 years ago. We had a good chat exchanging experiences.

I battled with the weather to get washing dry on Friday, had the hinge seen to on the car which we are borrowing so that it should pass it's warrant on re-examination, and pottered round the house. I experimented with the bread maker which Claire had given me some time ago, but it worked even less well for me than for her - the paddle never stirred the mixture. Never mind. I carved up the remaining ham into reasonable sized portions and froze them, and got the ironing done.

You could have been forgiven for thinking we were in a different country on Saturday morning, as the day dawned and stayed sunny and hot. We got all the washing done and dried by early afternoon, and finished listening to the Donna Leon audiobook we started about 3 weeks ago. Nicky gardened while I sun bathed, and in the evening we watched The Mystery of Edwin Drood on DVD loaned to us by Ros. It was very good. Dickens last work which he didn't complete, but somebody else had for the BBC.

Today has been a bit wet again, but not as bad as we thought. Nicky went off to church and I later went off to work and set up a router and iPad. It was Mah Jong this afternoon in place of Scrabble, then Nicky and I went to see Quartet at the cinema in St Lukes (getting the Movie Money used!). We found the film to be gentle and enjoyable, a good way to finish the weekend.

Take care, and have an excellent New Year,

Rick