Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

We have been very lucky this week to have been chosen as the suburb to host the Annual ARCC. As you can see from the photos a couple of the breakout session workshops were set up on Blockhouse Bay road (some folks  actually think they are roadworks!, laughable isn’t it?). The plenary sessions (held in a portacabin in the car park of the Samoan church) have been covering the leading edge issues demonstrated in the breakout sessions - flow, structural convergence, sequence management and replicability, all fascinating stuff. Unfortunately, even though it is now in its 17th year, the conference has not yet gained international recognition, but once we have the new Sky City gambling-chips-with-everything Conference Centre in the CBD there will be no stopping the spread of the cones! Anyway, onto the more mundane matters of our week, where ours noses have been heavily pressed against the “evening out social grindstone”. Nicky was at the first of the seasons prison prayer gro...

Nicky has been on holiday this week, and I have only had one Mac job, but we have spent most of the week at home because even though the weather has been dry and warm, we haven’t had a great deal of sun. N insisted on doing lots of cleaning (when she wasn’t on the web) and she did get her hair done. Wednesday was sunny so after card shopping in Ponsonby we went to Muriwai, via the scenic route. We arrived just in time for a very good lunch at the Sand Dunz café (Nicky had chicken salad an I had a Gannet breakfast). After walking off our lunchtime calories on the beach we pitched camp for reading and snoozing.  Jancis came over on Thursday afternoon and we fitted in a few games of Mah Jongg before I went into town for my Meetup group. We saw Jancis again on Friday evening for the annual “fish and chips in the Bay at the free music event with Midge Marsden, again.” Coffee and hot chocolate was also consumed as the on-shore breeze was quite cooling while sitting. The music was g...

Aotearoa seems to get getting back to normal after the l o n g summer break; the schools are open again, the traffic is busier, the weather is indecisive and Friday was Waitangi Day. The week began sunny and hot, but because we had planned our first BBQ of the season for Nicky’s house group social at our place, it started to rain on Wednesday. I had bought fresh charcoal and firelighters (this probably encouraged the rain even more) during the morning, along with some steak and bangers to cook. In the end I decided to use the indoor BBQ (aka: the grill) to cook the meat and it all worked out very well and we had a very good evening. Nicky had made a spicy plum pizza on Tuesday evening which didn’t look promising but tasted very good. The lobs served us dinner on Thursday and Friday. We have never been to a Waitangi Day celebration, so because this year is the 175th anniversary of the signing and felt we should remedy this situation, so on Friday morning we drove over (in the rain...

The big thing about February 1st of course, is that it is now possible to stop wishing everybody “Happy New Year” just because you haven’t seen them for awhile. Isn’t it? Along with the first of February, we have had some other firsts this week: Friday - heard my first cicada of the summer at home. Had heard one at a beach a little while back, but we hear loads here usually. Friday - bought my first hot cross buns of the year, and very nice they were too after corn on the cob for tea on Saturday. They always make me think of my sister-in-law the elder. Saturday - felt almost normal for the first time on a Saturday since the first weekend of the year when I had my vertigo. I was getting a little concerned that something in my routine was causing me problems which materialised on Saturdays. I will keep my hopes up for next weekend. We started the week with a public holiday in our part of Aotearoa to celebrate Auckland Anniversary Day, and not just any old anniversary, but 175 y...