Eggs, the third way (other than boiled or scrambled)

Summer it trying to make it’s presence felt, and the shops are starting to gear up for Christmas.

Nicky took Monday afternoon off as she was due some TOIL (time of in lieu), and Monday is one of the best staffed days in the library. The weather was also lovely - sunny and warm. I got two loads of washing dried easily and the food shopping done before picking Nicky up at lunchtime. We went over to Glendowie to see Ruth, who is looking well. While Nicky and Ruth chatted I went for a walk through the Roberta Domain and Glendowie Park. It felt like a late summers day in England - the place was warm as if the ground had got thoroughly heated through by the sun over a number weeks, and the mulch left from grass cutting a few days earlier smelt like the stubble in the fields after harvest. We drove home and had some dinner before Nicky went off to prison prayer group.

Nicky has been as busy as ever at work. The move of staff throughout the 55 Auckland libraries which was announced months ago has been put on hold until well into the New Year, so Nicky is pleased that she is going to be at New Lynn for a while yet.

I have also had a busy week with quite a bit of Mac work. New things for me to learn in a school - how to manage 30 iPads with some new software which Apple have produced. A steep learning curve but I’m getting there. Claire came over on Thursday to do some file conversion on her old PowerBook, so I took her back in the afternoon as the tropical rain was heavy when it came down.

Nicky was doing a late duty at work on Friday so had her hair down first thing. I went out for a pint in the evening after collecting her from work.

Lilly went down to the panel beaters this week for the third time in our ownership, having her front fixed again. This was as a result of a young lad reversing into her while Nicky was on her way to work just before I got back last month. As ever, A1 Panelbeaters have done a wonderful job, and cleaned her inside and out too. They loaned me a courtsey car which way very helpful with having quite a bit on this week.

The Friday evening weather forecast for the weekend was excellent - wall to wall sunshine and in the low 20’s. Unfortunately the weather didn’t deliver - as usual I blamed Jim Hickey the weatherman. We had a very unpromising cloudy start yesterday, but it wasn’t raining so we got started on the washing. We had poached eggs on toast for breakfast. I mention this because of our new facilities for poaching eggs. We were very taken with the silicone “cups” that we saw Ben using when we had our first UK breakfast in May. As a result, Felicity very kindly sent us a couple (with an “extracting from the hot water” accessory) which arrived while I was away last month. We found them great to use, but with us both wanting two poached eggs each for brekkies it had to be slightly staggered. I spotted some more of the silicone “cups” when buying the chairs for Jancis at Farmers in Albany a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t buy them, and quickly regretted this. Last week, when I was in the mall looking for some cables, I popped into Stevens, a kitchenware chain, and they had something similar; 2 for $20. I thought this was a bit expensive so decided to have a quick look in our Farmers (also in the mall), even though it is much smaller than the one in Albany. To my pleasant surprise they had the same ones I had seen in Albany, and they were 3 for $10 - but it gets better. When I went to pay for them the assistant said it was a BOGOF day on some products, and the cups were one of them -  so I got 6 for $10! Saturday morning’s poached eggs tasted very good.

Later in the morning the sun came out and we got all four loads of washing dry. Nicky’s back was giving her some grief so I gave her a massage, then Stella, Katie and Steve came over for Scrabble in the afternoon. I got some sunbathing in before Nicky made us pancakes for tea and we settled down to an evening of reading.

Today has been similar to yesterday with a cloudy start, and even though the sun has been out this afternoon, it wasn’t for as long as yesterday as the cloud returned before tea time. Nicky packed us up a picnic lunch when she got back from church (I was still doing the ironing) and we headed off to the domain to see the Red Bull Trolly Grand Prix (http://tgp.redbull.com/nz/en). Unfortunately everybody else in Auckland seems to have had the same idea, got there before us, and taken all the parking spaces within an hours walk of the domain. So, we philosophically decided to do what we did in the same situation with the Lantern Festival a few years ago - go back next year on the bus. We drove down to Judges Bay where the upgraded facilities have been completed, but they are still working on the car park. We walked up to the Parnell Rose Gardens (we think it is the rose festival next week) and many of the blooms were out and not too many people about, so actually more pleasant than attending the festival. We walked back down to the Bay and had our picnic, and the sun came out, so we stayed there while Nicky finished her book (which I am now reading - the last in the Hunger Games trilogy) and then came home for a pot of tea and to potter at home (reading, sewing and ironing basically).

Take care,

Rick