Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

The autumn rain made its presence felt for the beginning of the week, but sunshine interleaved with showers from Thursday onwards, following major thunder and lightening on Wednesday evening. Work kept me busy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening. In between times I performed my usual duties and continued getting things ready for our trip to the UK. Nicky has been at work even though she is still not completely well. She is improving little by little but wasn't up to prison prayer group on Monday night. On Tuesday afternoon we had an excursion to Mt Roskill for her mammogram.  Thursday was a public holiday for ANZAC day, and we went over to help Stella with packing up, prior to departing from Duart Avenue on Friday. This all went pretty well, and Stella, Katie and Tim are now with us and preparing themselves for their new roles as our house sitters. Saturday was a day for errands - collecting Claire's IKEA chair from Jancis and Nicky's new eternity rin

Autumn has started to arrive this week with rain most days, but the temperatures are still in the low 20's and when we get some sun it's still warming. I have had Mac work most days, and did a modelling session at AUT (Auckland University of Technology) in Town on Friday morning. Had a good chat with Claire on Wednesday over a coffee. Nicky has come down with a bad cold this week and shouldn't really be going into work, but they are short staffed and she doesn't have any sick leave left, so we have had a very quiet weekend at home, mainly reading. We did go out to do a bit of sheepskin slipper shopping yesterday morning, and I popped up to the supermarket to buy tissues and soup, but we have been home the rest of the time. The weather has made getting the laundry done a bit more of a challenge, but we managed it between us so have had lots of lovely ironing to do for exercise this weekend! It has been a quiet week. Take care, Rick

No public holidays this week (much sighing stage left), so the sunny weather has been observed through the windows as opposed to being experienced at the beach. Never mind. It is chilly first thing in the morning but the sun is very warming during the day. Nicky has been as busy as ever at the library, and I had Mac work on Wed, Thurs and Friday. I picked up our travel documents this week and was quite surprised how things have changed since we arrived five and a half years ago. No actually physical air tickets any more - they are all electronic ones now. Also, the baggage limits have been reduced - we can only have 20Kg each! Claire came over on Friday to borrow thread, cereals and coffee. Not sure we will see any of them again but I have fond memories. In the evening we watched Birdsong on DVD, the film of the Sebastian Faulks book, a story of love and war set between 1910 and 1918. A the start of the DVD we could see that the film was in two parts, so I suggested to Nicky

We started the week, and the month, with a day off, due to it being Easter Monday. Always a good way to start the week. We had sort of thought of going to the beach but the weather wasn't quite as good as it could have been, and Nicky wasn't too well and was needing the toilet every few minutes. The weather was good enough for us to use The Ratigan for much of the day, and Jancis came over for an afternoon Mah Jong tutorial and stayed for tea, so we ended up having a very pleasant day. This has however, been our first Easter in NZ when we haven't made it up a volcano. Must try harder next year! Nicky went to see Dr V. first thing Tuesday morning and didn't go into work. The medicaments he prescribed seem to be working now and Nicky was back at work on Wednesday, and also went to house group even though she wasn't 100%. She had a "How to set up a display" training course on Thursday at the Central Library which was very good. I have had Mac work t