Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

We have had two notable days this week, though for very different reasons. On Monday while driving down to the shops on Margan Avenue I hit a cyclist on the roundabout. Fortunately, because I wasn’t going fast, he only suffered bruises and some damage to his bike, but it was a good 36 hours before the images of the event were no longer right at the front of my mind. I am still concerned as to why I didn’t see him. I have been driving for 29 years and it’s the first time that I have had a collision with a cyclist. Saturday was a much better day as it saw the beginning of our attendance at this year's Auckland Heritage festival. We kicked off with a real goodie - a guided tour of the history of Ponsonby with Edward Bennett. We encountered Mr Bennett for the first time last year on a tour of Mayers Park, and found him to be be incredibly good - informative, entertaining, clear and well-paced in his delivery. He didn't disappoint this year and we thoroughly enjoyed our wal...

Wednesday the 14th was our 9th anniversary of arriving in Aotearoa, so to celebrate Nicky and I had a pork roast takeaway for dinner, to which I added Yorkshire Puddings. We perhaps ate a little too much, but it helped the wine go down, and we did enjoy it. The rest of the week has been pretty quiet. I haven’t had much work and the library has been steady. The weather has been a bit variable but the sun is getting quite warm when it comes out, so I have been getting laundry washed, dried and ironed on the same day. I had another go at yoga this week which was quite interesting. I am not going to go every week as it is quite a strenuous class and it takes me time to recover. We watched a webinar on retirement on Thursday evening which was quite informative, and learnt a couple of things. Our savings plans are going quite well, but I still don’t have a clear picture about how things will pan out. We had a late breakfast on Saturday morning, and the weather was more damp than...

We have had a wonderfull weekend at the Going West Books and Writers Festival. You may, Dear Reader, remember that last year Nicky attended as a volunteer for a day on the Auckland Library’s stand. She really enjoyed what she heard, so this year I booked us both to go for the two days of the weekend (there were events on Friday and Saturday nights too). We have seen a whole range of writers and books presented, read from and interviewed, and been able to meet and talk to them too. Our full day tickets also included morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea, all of which this year have been bathed in lovely spring sunshine. Even though it has meant a great deal of sitting down, we have really enjoyed ourselves (and the food). It is a much more intimate and involving festival than the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival at the Aotea Centre in town, and very easy for us to get to. Stella also came along for the first presentation on Saturday and it was good to have a cup of coffee with her...

In the “Quips and Quotes” section of The Listener recently, these was a quote which has stuck in my mind: “The economy needs economists in the way the weather needs weather forecasters”. I know exactly what they mean, but I think that for most of this week the weather has been listening to the forecasters, as along with Thursday being the first day of spring, the weather has been very spring-like. Mild, often sunny, and decidedly optimistic. The library has been steady, and on the verge of quiet this week. Nicky has commented that the number of borrowers seems to have dropped. After the initial flurry following the refurbishment re-opening, the numbers don’t seem to have returned to their previous levels. I too have had a quiet week work-wise with just one job, until Friday, which was a bit manic. Three separate visits to one customer combined with a 5.30pm appointment in Takapuna. We have had a few sociable evenings with Nicky at life group, and me to Deep and Meaningful (Wha...