Not quite winter yet

By -

It has felt more like spring than winter towards the end of this week, which is a little bit odd as it is not yet August which is usually the coldest month. We have had some fog and some rain but the sunshine has been warming.

Nicky wasn't well at the beginning of the week with a bug which is doing the rounds at work. She returned to work on Wednesday but didn't actually feel improved until Thursday, when she was well enough to pop up to church in the evening for a prayer group.

I had a busy day with work all day Tuesday, and another job on Wednesday, but the rest of the week has been paid-work free. I went to see "Weekend of a Champion" at The Civic on Monday evening with Claire and Ryan. It was showing as part of the FIlm Festival and was a Roma Polanski documentary of Jackie Stewart racing at Monaco in 1971. It was fascinating to see the detail of what life was like for a Formula One driver on a race weekend on the 70's.

I made a chocolate cheesecake on Thursday following a recipe I had seen Nigella Lawson do on the telleybox, in preparation for Friday night. We had decided to have pizza from Dominos to use a discount voucher, and we all enjoyed them and found they were better then we were expecting. The cheesecake turned out to be just scrummy, and even though Nicky isn't a fan of chocolate she has requested one for her birthday.

I managed a swim on Wednesday and a walk on Kerikeri beach on Friday, to give my exercise "regime" a bit of variety.

Yesterday was warm and sunny if you were not in the shade and sheltered from the breeze. We had scrambled egg and mushrooms on toast for breakfast with Stella before packing up a picnic and heading into town. We dropped some cheesecake into Claire at Whitcoulls, popped into Pyrenees, a French deli in Mt Albert, and then to Auckland General so that Nicky could visit Ruth. Ruth is improving greatly (also enjoyed some cheesecake) and if she continues with her current progress might be back at St Andrews next week. I met up with Nicky after a wander round the domain and we drove down to Tamiki Drive so we could have our picnic with a nice view, while staying in the car to keep warm. Nicky made us a bacon and egg pie for dinner before we drove unto Parakai for a wallow in the hot pools in the evening.

On a Sunday morning while Nicky is at church I normally watch Q&A, a weekly political analysis and current affairs programme. Nicky found the opening item sufficiently interesting (about the Labour party - current opposition - plans to cool the housing market) that she stayed watching it after finishing her breakfast. So, she went to the 11.00 café style service at church accompanied by Katie instead of her usual 9am service.

Claire popped over in the afternoon with some flowers for Nicky and an empty food delivery container (lasagne I think) and stayed for a chat. We all tried doing a Harry Potter word search for a Whitcoulls competition but didn't all finish in time. After tortilla chips with a lovely ragu dip, toasted muffins and scones for tea, we settled in front of the tellybox for the evening and finished off a bottle of wine which we had started on Friday.

A good way to finish the week.

Take care,
Rick

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Challenging week

By -
Image
 It has been a challenging week. At the beginning of the week Nicky was still getting worse, so she arranged an appointment with the GP on Tuesday afternoon. The GP confirmed that Nicky had bronchitis and sinusitis, but that her chest sounded clear. With the infection being viral, there was no medication that could be prescribed, but some additional painkillers were in order to manage the symptoms and assist with the pain caused by congestion, coughing and vomiting. As the week progressed Nicky started to improve slowly. The periods of incessant coughing and coughing induced vomiting started to subside yesterday. She was able get a little more sleep and keep a little more food down. The washing machine has been very busy with regular changes of PJ’s, dressing gowns and bedding. Some of the laundry has been dried outside but the winter weather has deteriorated over the last couple of days. While Nicky has been unwell she has cancelled all her commitments. I have been running errands...
Read more

Tea and Tissues

By -
Image
 We have had a quiet week at home, doing jigsaws and listening to Harry Potter. Nicky seemed to be getting better at the beginning of the week but it was short lived. As the week has drawn to a close she has actually started getting brighter and felt like doing some things round the house. Nicky got dressed for the first time this week on Friday to go to the hospital for a blood test, and we did a little shopping on the way home. Yesterday she made a couple of lemon cakes and delivered one to Eleanor for her birthday. Nicky found the few minutes walk there and back exhausting. Meanwhile, I gradually got worse through the week until Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday I ploughed through a whole box of 240 tissues, and most of a packet of throat lozenges. Paracetamol helped with the general aches and temperature fluctuations. This weekend is the first time I have done my morning exercises in over a week, and I even managed a short amble this morning in the lovely (almost spiring-like) ...
Read more

Easter

By -
Image
 Steve continued his convalescing with us at the beginning of the week, and continued to improve each day. He decided to start the journey home on Tuesday by driving to Te Kuiti. As Monday was going to be his last evening with us he provided another take-away dinner from the Spice Guru, which we enjoyed as much as the previous one. Steve and I were a little early collecting it, so while we were waiting I was having a look at the buildings at the bottom end of Victoria Avenue and spotted this: I think Whanganui rivals Napier for the quality of its Art Deco architecture. Before Steve left on Tuesday morning, he and Nicky went to the Splash Centre to have a wallow in the thermal pool. This had been recommended by Nicky’s physio when she had seen her on Monday. Nicky had a short swim too and they both enjoyed their time. We were very pleased that Steve felt sufficiently recovered to start his journey home, as it was not good seeing him in as much pain, as when he first arrived. It was ...
Read more