D, as the Romans would say

Well what an exciting week it has been dear reader, though you know I have fairly low standards. Not only have we had the Olympics, days of fun and new experiences, and lovely weather, but this is also the 500th post on this blog. For those of you who have been with us for all those posts, I’m stunned.

Nicky had Monday off as TOIL, so we decided to get the bus into town (after a large and leisurely breakfast), have the morning in the art gallery, have a nice lunch in their café, and then do a bit of the coast-to-coast route in the afternoon to work off a couple of the calories. Not long after we arrived in the gallery we heard an announcement about a free guided tour starting in 10 minutes, so we decided to join it as even though we have been to the gallery many times, we haven’t had a guided tour before. Not long after the tour started I had a couple of phone calls, the second one of which was quite long and culminated in me agreeing to go and see the customer in the afternoon. So, after the tour ended we both felt like a cup of tea so went off to the café and had savoury brioche with the tea. I then departed to get a bus over to Mt Eden while Nicky stayed in the gallery. We eventually met up again at home at the end of the afternoon, Nicky having enjoyed the rest of her time in town, and me having made some positive progress for my customer.

On Wednesday Nicky had her Community Day. As an employee of the council she is supposed to have a day off each year to do something for the community, but this is the first time that it has materialised. She had arranged to do some tree planting at Atiu Creek Regional Park and I had agreed to go with her. The park is located on the east coast of the Kaipara Harbour, about 5kms west of Port Albert. We packed up a picnic and our best gardening gear and headed off up SH16, enjoying the views as we went. The weather was glorious and sunny, and even though it took a hour and half to get there, it was a pleasant trip. Once we had met up with the “ranger” and gone through the paperwork, we were taken out to the planting area to join the other volunteers. We planted manuka and kanuka and helped them beat their previous record of 1600 trees in a week. By the time we stopped at around 3.30 in the afternoon we had done 2000. Bruce, the man in charge, was very pleased. We had another enjoyable drive home past the Gibbs Sculpture Farm and had smoked fish pie for dinner. Nicky didn’t go to life group in the evening as she was feeling a little jaded.

Our next excitement came on Thursday. Nicky was up early to make scones for Kelly’s morning tea at work (she has done a lot of chauffeuring for the staff recently) and just happened to need some Quality Testing done and then went and left some behind!! I was very lucky to have scones with breakfast AND morning coffee. Then, at lunchtime Nicky brought home the freshly printed programme for this year’s Heritage Festival, which as you will recall dear reader (what do you mean you don’t remember, just how attentive are you?) we always look forward to. It looks as good as ever. I went through the programme to select what I fancied, and even though I thought I was being very circumspect, I noted 27 events. Having now combed through them and selected our preferences where things are on at the same time, we have got it down to 16.

I suppose our final bit of excitement for the week was Eliza McCartney getting a Bonze medal in the pole vault at the Olympics. This is not only because she was the only Kiwi in the final, and the youngest competitor, but by dint of the two-degrees-of-separation thing that happens here in NZ, I know her. Well, sort of. Her parents are customers of mine and I was asked to check her technology for backup and security before she left, so I had about 20 minutes with her going through how her software was configured and what to do if she had issues. She is a lovely lass, so watching her compete was just an extra bit special. Its like meeting the Mayor on Queen Street - you actually get to meet the sort of people that in England you would only ever see on the telly. I think that’s quite fun.

I have done a good amount of work this week, and the library has been busy but not too bad and the week has been helped along by the weather. We have had cold clear starts with lots of warm sunshine. The blossom thinks it’s spring. When I came home from work on Tuesday afternoon, it was 29ºC in the lounge. OK, we had both been out all day so the house was closed up with the sun streaming in, but it’s still only the middle of August. We are also starting to notice it getting lighter in the mornings and the evenings as the days start to lengthen. It gives one a feeling of optimism which is bound to be undermined by a blasting Southerly in the not too distant future.

Yesterday Nicky was quilting in the afternoon - it was their 2 year anniversary. We both had time in the kitchen, Nicky making a Pacifica Mess (fruit, cream, crushed meringue pavlova/Eaton mess crossover) and me Stuffed Puds (Yorkshire Puddings filled with potato and lentil curry and topped with a slice of black pudding) for the evenings celebrations at church. It was its 118th birthday, so an International Evening was held with everyone being asked to bring food representative of their culture. I really enjoyed the bangers and mash.

Nicky was in prison this morning and I did the ironing and watched the Olympics. Stella and Steve came over for scrabble this afternoon, and this evening we are looking forward to a brand new (to us) series of Lewis starting on the telly, but perhaps the DI Hathaway Show would be a better title. We shall see.

Take care, Rick.