Easter

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It has been a busy week for me, and consequently a busy end to the month and to the financial year. This has been sufficient in fact to buck the trend for my little business in that this year turnover and profits have picked up and been better than last year. The graph has started to head in the right direction. A couple of weeks ago the downward trend looked set to continue, but the work I have had as March has come to an end has made a significant positive difference. Long may it continue, I hope.

The weather at the beginning of the week continued to be mainly sunny, so after doing job in Karekare on Monday morning I took my picnic lunch to the beach and had a wander for an hour or so. I couldn't drive all that way and then not have a walk on the beach! In the evening we had a BBQ for Becky, Stella and co, probably our last of the season, and one which I discovered later in the week we shouldn't have had. I knew there had been a ban due to the fire risk because of the dry weather, but my research on Monday afternoon indicated that this no longer covered domestic BBQ's. Turned out I was wrong, which is probably why the steak and bangers tasted so good.

Nicky brought home "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" on DVD on Wednesday which we watched that evening because it is in high demand at the library. We had both enjoyed the book and enjoyed the film too, even though they changed the ending.

With the forecast suggesting a break in the weather I did a major amount of laundry on Thursday, spend large sums of money in the supermarket, butchers, bakers and grocers (some restocking due to having been paid for some of the work I had done), and also did some work in Mairangi Bay. Nicky was up at the church in the evening for an Easter service and did one of the readings. She has been looking forward to the long weekend for awhile with being so busy at work due to staff shortages.

We had quite a sunny start to Good Friday and had croissants for breakfast  before Nicky went to church and then we forged on with ironing and baking. Jancis invited us over for dinner and we had a lovely evening with her, some chilli con carne and a good bottle of Merlot.

Nicky spent most of Saturday doing errands while I made the filling for the steak and mushroom pie for today's family lunch. This made it a busy day for her and she really enjoyed wallowing in the hot water at Parakai in the evening, our first session this year.

This morning while Nicky was at church I made pastry and three pies; one big one for lunch today, a medium sized one as a spare for today, and a small one for Nicky to give to Elaine and Rodney (Elaine is still very ill with her cancer treatment). Today's party up at Clem and Pat's was to celebrate Clem's birthday and Jenny's retirement, and because we hadn't had one for awhile. Nicky's baking on Friday had been a banana cake for Jenny, and one of her borrowers have made "Happy Retirement Jenny" lettering for her for the cake. It looked and tasted great. (My pie was OK too, and the spare didn't get cut into).

We had a good lunch with most in attendance and Alex and Tai being quite entertaining. We had some periods of rain but Nicky and I still managed a stroll up and down Red Beach afterwards and then called in on Claire and Ryan on the home to deliver Easter chocolate. It has been a good day. 

So, to close, here a few pictures from today's lunch. 


Enjoy, Rick.








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