Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

3.15am - the alarm goes off. Nicky has already been up for a few minutes. It’s cold and dark, and we are off to The Block to watch The Match. We take our seats and as the game starts we are drinking tea and munching on bacon and egg savoury muffins. It wasn’t fun to watch, and at times was more like sumo wrestling than rugby, but the All Blacks won in the end and are in next weekend’s final. Big sigh of relief. It was about quarter past six when we got home (sky just beginning to lighten) and we went back to bed for a bit for some more zed’s. Nicky has been back at work this week, and the repaired washing machine was returned on Monday, so it has been a more normal type of week. Nicky isn’t right yet and still has a cough, but is walking to work via the beach to get some exercise into her routine. The weather has been reasonably good (Friday afternoon was summer like with sun shine and a northerly breeze) so that has helped with the washing backlog. I have had little work again bu...

What with Nikcy’s health and my work, it has been a difficult week. It has however, ended better than it began, and not just because the AB’s stuffed the French in Cardiff, but that helped. Nicky was still really suffering with her upper respiratory tract infection at the beginning of the week. The coughing and resultant vomiting were meaning that she was getting little sleep, and the laxative effect of the antibiotics made sure she was getting even less sleep. She was back at the Doctors on Tuesday, having decided to make early use of a blood test form which he had given her awhile ago because she just felt so unwell. On getting the results he informed her that she has diabetes. We think she is actually pre-diabetic as the Doc didn’t put her on any medication, and has given her three months to “get her act together”. He doesn’t think there is much wrong with her diet though asked her to cut out cakes, biscuits, crumpets and other high-sugar foods. His main concern is her lack of ...

Nicky has been at home all week, with an upper respiratory tract infection and laryngitis. She started feeling under the weather at the end of the previous working week and over the weekend, but by Monday morning was really not well so went up to the doctor. He signed her off until Thursday/Friday, gave her antibiotics and told her to stop taking - like that was going to happen (apparently she hasn’t said as much as she would have done if it were not for this instruction!). She was back at the doctors again on Thursday after a very poor night on Wednesday. He signed her off again until next Wednesday. The infection has given her a very bad cough, and bouts of coughing leading to vomiting. In addition, the antibiotics have caused havoc with her intestines and she is rushing to the toilet every few minutes. The net result has been very little sleep, which hasn’t helped her recovery. She has been better this weekend but is still far from well enough to return to work. It has been the...

The social elements of our week have again been the most enjoyable, along with some lovely spring sunshine on Tuesday and Wednesday. The temperatures are generally starting to lift. We are not using the heater as much in the evening (it’s still nice in the morning to take the edge off) and we have taken our American starry quilt off the bed. It has been the second weekend of the Heritage Festival, and we have again been busy. We started yesterday with a good late breakfast of tomatoes and bacon on toast, before heading off to two separate events. I dropped Nicky at the Leys Institute in Ponsonby for a tour of the building and the library. This she found very interesting and enjoyable, helped by it just being a small party of seven. I headed into town to park the car, and then walk round to St Matthew-in-the-city for a bell ringing demonstration. This was fantastic. We had an introduction on how the bells work before climbing the 53 steps to the rope room. We were then able to go u...