Email, and a classic Kiwi day

Our week has been shaped by two things: Nicky being on annual leave and ill; and all my Mac work has been dealing with email issues.

The weather has been mainly warm and sunny, but we have had a few showers here and there, and the nights have been cooler, getting down to 14°C. People are already starting to talk of autumn - way too soon in my opinion. The mozzies still think its summer.

Nicky booked the week off to give her a break between finishing at New Lynn and starting at Blockhouse Bay. She had already started with a sore throat at the weekend, and as the week progressed her cough was getting worse and she wasn’t getting any better. She managed a couple of days of reading and some sewing and getting her sewing machine fixed, but decided it was time to see the doctor on Thursday. He prescribed antibiotics and sent her for a chest X-ray. She started to perk up on Friday and has been considerably better over the weekend. Not right yet, but much less coughing and much more energy.

I have had some Mac work everyday but Wednesday, and as I said at the start, all the issues related to email configurations. Friday however, was a real treat, one of those days that only happens occasionally. The weather was hot and sunny, I did two short jobs on the North Shore first thing, had a lovely swim at Takapuna beach, came home for lunch, then got the bus into town to do what turned out to be another short job. We had fish and chips for tea from up the road, and I went out for a beer in the evening. A good Kiwi sort of day.

Nicky’s new season of prison prayer group started on Monday evening, and we celebrated Shove Tuesday with pancake stacks. For those not in the know, from top to bottom that is pancake - bacon - pancake - banana and maple syrup - pancake. Cream, yoghurt or ice cream on the top is optional. We also bought a lawn mower this week, our biggest domestic purchase since arriving almost six and a half years ago. As I mentioned last week, Dawn and Barrie are not getting any younger and have asked us to take over the care of our lawn, which is not a large area. After suitable research we chose a battery powered mower made by a New Zealand company. Nicky had a play with it yesterday and it worked well. Pretty easy to use, quiet by mower standards, and very easy to recharge. We could have borrowed D&B’s petrol mower, but it is becoming so unreliable (especially with starting) that Dawn is thinking of replacing it.

We had a culinary treat this week to celebrate Nicky’s holiday - our first half dozen hot cross buns (many thoughts of my sister-in-law). We made them last three days (a stunning amount of restraint I think), but there is nothing quite like a mug of tea with a hot bunnie in the sunshine.

Both weekend days have started cloudy and turned to sunshine and fluffy clouds by mid morning (it is currently 26° in the house as I write this late on Sunday afternoon). Much pottering has been done over the weekend with sewing, laundry, ironing and scone making (yum). Jancis called in this morning for a chat, and Nicky has gone off for Scrabble at Stella’s with Steve this afternoon, via Waitakere Hospital to visit Denis, a fellow parishioner. We watched the first episode of the new Sherlock series last night and I was not impressed. I think the people writing it are the same crew who have done the last series or two of Doctor Who, and it suffers from the same problem - too little plot and too much navel gazing. I’d be asking for my licence fee back if I was paying one. We enjoyed HP and the Philosophers Stone on DVD much more, though didn’t quite finish it, so we may do that tonight and follow it with the Chamber of Secrets.

I started to get a sore that in the middle of the night, so I don’t know if I have caught something from Nicky or was just horse from complaining about standards slipping at the BBC.

Take care,

Rick