The descent begins

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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 posting of Christmas and birthday goodies to far flung corners of the earth and Dunedin.

The weather has been pretty good most of the week, with some good sunshine and pleasant temperatures (low 20’s). Saturday was the wettest day.

And now, Dear Reader, we come to the social section, which this week is probably easiest to cover in list form:

Monday: nothing at all, but we did have dinner on the Rattigan though it did get a little cool.

Tuesday: Nicky to Corrections Volunteers Christmas meal in Green Lane with Grace. Enjoyed.

Wednesday: House Group end of year social at Lai Tai in New Lynn. Both of us went to this and had lovely food and good conversation. Playing musical chairs confused the staff when it came to billing, but we had an enjoyable evening.

Thursday: after dinner Nicky went over to Te Atatu to join Fay and the crew in carol singing.

Friday: Nicky collected by Tanya after dinner (on the Rattigan again) to go and see the enormous nativity scene at St. Benedict’s. Good, large, and fortunately no lobsters were harmed in the production of the display.

Saturday: after toms on toast for breakfast, Nicky went up to church to get ready for the BHB Santa Parade. All went well apart from one float near the end which was going very slowly, holding up Santa so much that the reindeer bugged off. Then it was home for a quick change and off to Ferndale House in Mt Albert for a 70th Birthday lunch - the Vicar’s mother, Glennis. They had organised a sit-down afternoon tea style affair with birthday fruit cake included. All the food was very good and we enjoyed the event very much, especially meeting people we hadn’t seen for awhile.

Back home Nicky set to baking a dessert for us to take with us in the evening (a fruit flan - v.good) and a cheese-free cheesecake for work on Tuesday (for her birthday). This is still a work-in-progress as I write. We headed off to Henderson for the Maranatha Christmas meal (this is the prison outreach group the Nicky belongs to). We arrived what we though was a little late, but turned out to be half an hour early, so we enjoyed a stroll round the environs for 20 minutes. There were just seven of us (I was the only spouse) so we had a cosy and enjoyable evening.


So there you go. Today has been a bit quieter. I went off to Glen Eden to see a customer this morning and Nicky went to church. Steve and Stella came over for Scrabble mid-day so Nicky made a couple of plates of sandwiches which we all enjoyed, and finished off some lobs desserts from last night. This afternoon we had a good chat with Claire (28 today) before I made a chocolate Christmas pudding and Nicky did the lawn and the hoovering. Nicky had commissioned the production of a ring for Claire’s birthday which we are all very pleased with:


This evening will be cheese and crackers and tellybox.


Take care, Rick

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