Diminishing Assets

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As March comes to end, I am still marvelling at the weather, which is still relatively settled and dominated by high pressure. As a consequence, the washing of clothes and the making of ironing has continued in a well organised fashion, though I have to admin to not having got round to the ironing this weekend.

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a reporter on the NZ Herald, wanting to talk about Ladies Bay, one of the Auckland beaches used by naturists. It has gained a bad reputation over the years for people masquerading as naturists and using the beach for improper activities. Last Sunday the item appeared in the Herald, and the Free Beaches group (of which I am a member) was contacted by Radio Hauraki. As a result, I found myself setting off for the CBD at 7am Tuesday morning for a live interview on their breakfast show. I was quite nervous, not having done a live interview before, and not knowing what their approach would be. Fortunately it turned out OK, as the interviewers were quite positive, not confrontational, and I don’t think I said anything stupid.

I have had a quieter week work-wise. This has given me time to do some admin in the office, and a brief tutorial for Janics. Nicky continues to get to grips with her new post at BHB library, and got very excitable towards the end of the week when I bought new wheel covers for Lilly. We hadn’t had her for very long before we lost three of the original ones, and she looks much happier with nice shinny new ones (secured with cable ties).

Our highlight of the week was going to the Balloons over Waikato festival on Saturday for the “night glow”. We had a quiet morning, pottering round the house, and doing some preparation for our trip to Hamilton. I made a chicken and pasta salad and Nicky made some orange and date scones. She decided while doing the dishes that our brass weights needed some attention with the Brasso, in spite of my comments about her similar cleaning of the the scales pan removing enough metal to unbalance them. She was not to be swayed (my arguments obviously were not weighty enough), so now the scale’s assets are shinny but potential diminished!

By the time we had got organised, packed the car and called in on Jancis, it was 4pm before we headed south, but the roads were not busy and we got to one of the park-and ride locations about 5.40pm. The bus whisked us the remaining 7.5kms to the University of Waikato, which was also celebrating its 50th birthday, along with Hamilton’s 150th birthday. We enjoyed our pasta and scones (accompanied by fresh tea and coffee) while listening to live music, watching the sun go down, and the crows grow. Apparently it was the biggest crowd they have had at an estimated 80,000. Eventually the show began with a range of hot air balloons being inflated an illuminated with their burners, accompanied with a selection of contemporary music. The finale of fireworks was excellent, especially as we had missed out in November.

It was all over by 8.30pm, so we packed up and made our way to catch the bus back to our park and ride, but the organisers were not quite prepared for so many people, and we waited an hour and a quarter before being able to get a bus. By the time we got home it was after 12, so we were very pleased to get to bed but had really enjoyed the evening.



Being quite tired today we have had a gentle day. Steve picked Nicky up after she came back from church and went over to Henderson for Scrabble. I have made some lemon curd, and we have watched HP7 this evening.

That’s all for now,

Take care, Rick

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