17th Auckland Road Cone Conference (ARCC)

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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 group meetings on Monday (new location, got lost twice). On Tuesday I went to Orewa for a new Deep and Meaningful Meetup group and had some very good fish and chips. Nicky and Jancis went to an Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday (coincidence?) at St Dominic’s on Bolton Street where Nicky did one of the readings. We both went to the Community Centre on Thursday for a meeting about the Auckland 10 year plan and were disappointed with the negative comments of much of the audience because we think Auckland is a great place to live. I went up to The Block on Friday for a drink and the place was heaving, probably because of the balmy weather.

Nicky has been back at work this week. The new library computer system which was due to “go live” while she was on holiday has been delayed, so she hasn’t missed out on all the fun and games that its launch will be. She is very busy with organising things for Green Living week and has had a couple of poor nights sleep. On Tuesday morning Nicky made us pancakes for breakfast with us not being home together for dinner, and it was a lovely treat and a great way to start the day.

I have had some Mac work, and a couple of new customers, which is always good. Along with my usual duties of shopping, cooking, laundry and ironing I have managed a couple of morning swims over at Herne Bay which has been great.

The weather has been of the good summery variety (great for the ARCC) all week until the weekend, where we have had some cloud and rain. Nicky and Mary had a well-attended (10) quilting group yesterday and I made some lemon curd. Today has been church (N), Karekare (R) and Scrabble with Stella who brought some lovely bran biscuits with her (sorry about the crumbs). Tonight, even more so than usual on a Sunday evening, the tellybox and PVR will be getting hammered.

And finally dear reader, because I haven’t had one before, here is a picture of me at work at Corban Arts the other week.
Take care, Rick

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