Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

It has started to become spring-like this week, until the weekend. Even though it has still been quite cool and wet at times, the sunshine has had on optimistic edge to it. I have had a reasonable week with work, though not commitments every day so I have also been able to keep on top of my domestic duties. Shani joined us for dinner again on Wednesday before going to her rehearsal, and I had Thursday evening out at my MeetUp group. Nicky has had a busy, and at times very difficult week at work, some of which was caused by borrowers shouting at her. As a result her sleep has been disrupted. Her life group meeting on Wednesday and church prayer meeting on Thursday were both good. We have enjoyed watching “The Village” on DVD this week. It is set “somewhere up north” at the time of the first war - a bit like Downton Abbey, but with grit. The story is well told and many of the location shots are in the Edale valley which I really enjoyed. We had a very quiet day yesterday as w

This week, weekdays particularly, has been a week of bits. We have had sun for awhile, showers, dry cloudy bits, bouts of ironing and shopping, and I have done some work every day, but they have all been small or short jobs. Nicky has had some steady days at the library, and some very busy. She was out at prison prayer group on Monday, and had her hair done by Doris on Tuesday evening. I was up to Orewa for a MeetUp discussion on Thursday evening, and Shani joined us for dinner again on Wednesday. In-between all this I have read The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, which was very good. Yesterday we had a fun day. It started greyer then we had expected but began to improve as we munched our way through bacon and poached eggs on toast. At the beginning of July the new electric trains started running on our section of the railway system, so we decided to walk down to the station and take the train to Newmarket. We were very impressed. The new rolling stock is smooth and quiet and ve

As August progresses we are starting to notice the additional daylight at both ends of the day. It is particularly welcome in the early evening. Apparently, according to some, we are starting to get the first signs of spring (which I could understand today), but with the wind and rain and temperatures down to 3° it has felt more wintery than springlike. I have had a busy week with work, Thursday was particularly long but good. I have still had plenty of time at home for doing my contracted duties (washing, ironing, shopping, cooking), and a couple of evenings out. Tuesday was a Chamber of Commerce event and Thursday the MeetUp group which I attend. Nicky’s week at work has been steady with busy periods. There are still bugs about but she has been on the mend most of the week, but not sure if she was coming down with another bout of something yesterday. Shani (daughter of Nicky’s nice Kim) joined us for dinner on Wednesday as she has some drama rehearsals nearby for a few weeks, a

My biggest excitement this week was seeing a seal this morning while I was walking at Karekare beach. I started to approach it to take a photo (with caution as they are known to have a vicious bite) and it took a flap or two towards me before deciding that returning to the sea was a more attractive option. It's the first time I have seen a seal "in the wild" and to have the experience on a beach which I visit regularly was a real treat. The rest of my week has been less wild. Work was quiet until Thursday and Friday; two long on-site jobs ended the working week on a positive note. The changeable weather has made getting the washing dry a little taxing. We had very heavy rain during Wednesday night which woke both of us, and we spent half an hour or so soaking water out of the ranch slider runners with towels. I think we had a pot of tea before settling down again. Nicky is still suffering with a bug, but slowly improving through the week but not back to full health

We have had rain at some point every weekday this week except for Thursday, which also happened to be the only day where I didn’t have some paid work. As a result, most of the washing was done on Thursday or dried inside, and July has ended up being a reasonable month for me. The library seems to have been back to normal - either steadily busy or manic. Nicky started with a sore throat towards the end of the week. Nicky had life group on Wednesday evening and prayer group at church on Thursday evening, and I went into town for my MeetUp group. On Monday and Tuesday evenings we binged watched the first 5 episodes of Fargo which I had recorded. We were not sure how we would get on with it but so far OK. Looking forward to the next episode this week. We had a bit of a treat on Friday evening. I planned to cook baked stuffed mushrooms because we hadn’t had them for ages, so I popped into the butchers to get something to go with it. I discovered they had some “individual” beef Well