Another New Year

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It’s always good to start the week with a public holiday, though the Queen’s Birthday on Monday will be our last one until Labour Day at the end of October. We had an early start, going up Mt Roskill before dawn to look for Matariki, the constellation that rises at the beginning of the Maori New Year. We didn’t get to see it, but the sunrise was quite nice and we had a good breakfast when we got back home. Nicky spent much of the morning making kites for the Matariki events at the library and listening to Harry. In the afternoon we went down to Silo 6 in the Wynyard Quarter to have a look at some of the Photography Festival, but it wasn’t stunning.

Blockhouse Bay library re-opened on Tuesday, and it was manic, particularly with book returns, which didn’t really get to more normal levels until Thursday. Nicky started with a sore throat on Thursday and was not too well on Friday so was sent home to have the afternoon off as sick leave. I also wasn’t feeling brilliant so we had a restful afternoon and evening and were feeling improved by the end of it.

In contrast, I have had a very quiet week. The only paid work being some training on Saturday afternoon. Tuesday was a really good drying day so I got three loads of washing out and dried in the sun and the breeze. The rest of the week has seen an increasing rate of showers though the northerly wind has also raised the temperatures so it has felt quite mild.

I did some more laundry yesterday morning after Nicky went off early again, this time to Cornwall Park to attend the tree planting ceremony on top of One Tree Hill. Nine trees and protective shrubbery were planted. In time, this will be thinned to just one tree, whichever fairs best. Like many others (and lots attended), Nicky found the event quite moving. She stayed for the free breakfast and additional speeches, so by the time she got home the clear blue skies that had greated us were now 10/10th’s cloud cover. Stella and Steve were over playing Scrabble by the time I got back from doing my training.

Today has been dampish and cloudy at times and cool. While Nicky was at church I went to Karekare, but did’t stay too long as both the wind and the sea were cold this week. I had taken a flask of coffee with me which was very welcome after my dip in the incoming tide.

Happy Valley finished this week on the TV. We have a couple more UK series starting this evening so we might give them a try, but Happy Valley was very good. I particularly enjoy watching something were people speak a variety of English which I can understand without a problem. Apparently some folks round here have been having difficulties with it. They seem to manage Coro though. Ah well.


Take care, Rick

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