Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

By my reckoning it’s five years since I last wrote a blog post on Christmas Day, and I think it is fair to say that today has been the highlight of the week. Nicky and I were awake around 5.30 this morning and started with the life-giving pot of tea, which was quite quickly followed by a second pot of tea and some present opening. Nicky hadn’t had much sleep with having been to midnight mass and then doing some more present wrapping and tidying up before coming to bed, but we managed to open a brilliant selection of gifts all the same. Breakfast was a bit of departure from the usual as I tried to recreate the one we had on Nicky’s birthday at the Woodside Café. I served cheese with onion marmalade on buckwheat toast with some really nice thin and spicy pork sausages which Nicky had given me for Christmas. It wasn’t quite the same but enjoyable none the less. We then got on with our final preparations for the desserts we were taking to Clem and Pats, made more phone calls and h...

It is true that not everything that glitters is gold - some of the other things are rubies, emeralds and diamonds. This we discovered on Monday in Tiffany’s (Auckland branch), which was one of the highlights of Nicky’s birthday. We had started the day with card and present opening (very Harry Potter book orientated) followed by a drive to Birkenhead. We collected Maria (internationally famous TV chef amongst other things), and drove round the corner to her daughter and son-in-law’s café, Woodside. They focus on natural foods and are 100% gluten free. We had fantastic cheese and onion relish on buckwheat toast tartines, tea and coffee, sunshine and good conversation. After dropping Maria near her home, we headed into town to have a look at the Lego Christmas tree. It isn’t quite as big as I had expected, but it’s fun nonetheless. We walked down to Galway Street and found our way into Tiffany’s. The only products that were priced were what I assume is the cheap stuff, mainly fou...

As the end of the month, the end of the year, and more significantly it would seem, Christmas approaches, I contemplate making a folder called 2017 inside my folder called Blogging. It is a small respite from the social whirl that now has us firmly in its grasp. Just to add to the jollity, as you may have already heard, our Prime Minister John Key has stepped down. He will be replaced by Bill English tomorrow in an un-contested election buy the caucus of 59.  Nicky has been busy in the library again, and their pre-Christmas roadshows have begun. This is where various members of staff go to local Residential Homes to entertain the residents with carols, skits and mysterious tales of book classification systems. Apparently the roadshows go down very well. My working week has been very quiet, with just one short job this morning adding a little to the coffers. The usual shopping, cooking, laundry and ironing has been completed, along with a morning immersed in the parceling and p...

Summer is finally starting to arrive here in Aotearoa. Not only are we now into December (the official start of summer) but it has also started to get warm enough for me to wear my shorts. Nicky and I have had separate “specials” this week. On Friday evening I took Nicky over to Swanson for a 24-hour retreat with her fellow prison prayer group members. This turned out to be much less structured than she thought it might be, and was enjoyable and relaxing. My special was doing the Auckland Coast to Coast walk with Jan, John and Heather (a friend of Jan’s). Nicky would have joined us but wasn’t allowed the day off. We did it North to South, starting at the Maritime Museum and finishing in Onehunger. It was more able than ramble, taking us around 7 hours to do the 16kms, though that does include a good and leisurely lunch at the Cornwall Park Café. It was a good walk, taking in a variety of Auckland views and environs. Work has been busy for Nicky, and a little quieter tha...