Bacon, mmmmm

I make notes each day ready for writing the blog on a Sunday evening, otherwise I wouldn't have a clue what we had been up to. Looking through this weeks notes it appears to have been a busy but unexciting week on the whole. My time has been filled with a good amount of Mac work, getting the washing dry in between the showers, and shopping. Nicky has been as busy as ever at the library, and spent most of one day at a meeting in town.

The weather forecast for Friday was showers followed by rain. How are we supposed to know when the showers have finished and the rain has started? Does the weather do some sign writing in the sky or something?

I had one fairly quick appointment on Thursday afternoon, and my shopping for the day pivoted around this. I had to range further afield than usual as a relatively local butchery had won a national award for their maple syrup bacon, and we wanted to try some. I discovered a Repco (like Halfords) in the same block of shops as the butchers and being in need of new windscreen wipers and brake bulbs patronised them after purchasing my bacon. It turns out that there aren't any after market wiper assemblies sold in NZ that fit VW's (or other German cars apparently), so had to settle for just new blades and continue with wiper assemblies held on by gravity until I can be bothered to take Lilly to a main VW dealer.

The bacon was good; a nice thick slice and tasty. More expensive than our usual Henderson bacon and cheaper than the smoked maple syrup bacon I bought from the New Lynn twilight market a few weeks ago. However, not good enough in our opinion to knock the Henderson bacon off our top spot, but good enough to buy now and then for a bit of variety.

The weather turned cold on Friday, at least compared to how it has been so far this winter, but yesterday wasn't quite as chilly, and sunnier, which was unexpected. We had award winning bacon and mushrooms for breakfast, and then I made apple and cinnamon "brownies" (it is actually a muffin recipe which I make in a brownie tin to get 12 slices without using individual cases). These were to by my contribution to the Free Beaches AGM afternoon tea. Free Beaches is a naturist group which aims to promote nudity on the beaches of NZ. The AGM is usually in Christchurch so I haven't been to one before, but this year the committee decided to hold it in Auckland at the private function area of Parakai Springs (just across the road from where we go once a month, and much nicer). The AGM started at 2pm, so I dropped Nicky at Stella's for unpacking assistance and Scrabble, and then drove on up to Parakai. Like other AGM's I have been to, it was not an exciting affair, but getting to actually meet other members of the group for the first time was good, and the free BBQ and hours in very good wallowing temperature thermal pool made it a very good experience.

Today has been warmer and sunny, more like the weather of a week or so ago, so more laundry has been done in celebration, and the ironing has been finished. Nicky was in prison in the morning, and we just had a quiet afternoon at home enjoying the sun followed by onion soup for tea.

Last week the owners of the rental property next door to us pruned/trimmed/hacked one of the trees in the front garden with a chain saw. The result is not aesthetically stunning, but I have now noticed that as a result of this we can just see the top of Sky Tower from the driveway. This may enable us to watch the New Year fireworks from the Ratigan, glass in hand.

Take care,
Rick