Time to stand and stare?

Our (my) weekday morning routines have gone out of the window this week, for various reasons. It wasn’t until Friday that I first did some tai chi, and then not until well after breakfast at quarter to ten. Not until this morning was the correct sequence of tai chi THEN porridge achieved.

Monday was Waitangi Day, a public holiday, and who does exercises on a public holiday? We did exert ourselves after a fairly swift (for us) climb out of bed / pot of tea / race to the microwave for porridge pinging (though Nicky might have had Weetbix with some excuse about the weather being warm). Which is was. A high of 29°C and 42°C in the roof in the afternoon, which is why we wanted to leave for Long Bay Regional Park early. Not only did we want to find somewhere to park, but we planned to do the coast walk and have a swim and get back to the car before the heat of the day really arrived. We achieved this, had a great walk and a lovely swim at Pohutukawa Bay. It was the first time for me that I have been “befriended” by fish - two of them - perhaps another couple enjoying the public holiday. They were about a foot long with quite wide heads, grey bodies with turquoise spots on the upper half and turquoise fins. No idea what they were, but they seemed very friendly and curious about our legs and feet.

When we got back to the car the car park was chocka and we could have sold our free parking space ten times over. We fancied a spot of lunch even though we had shifted a box full of dried fruit and nuts, so headed off to Browns Bay. Absolutely packed. Deck chair rentals must have been going very well. So, onto Mairangi Bay, or so we thought. Passing through Rothesay Bay on the way we spotted a café called Armadillo and there were parking spaces on the road so we stopped. Looking inside at both the menu and retro 50’s styling we decided to stay and each had lovely satay chicken filo rolls, which were very substantial. Nicky also managed a summer milkshake and I had coffee and and expresso and walnut muffin (which was later to wreak revenge on my internals later - it was the sugar in the frosting). We really enjoyed the food, the atmosphere and talking to the staff, and discovered when I posted my review on Trip Advisor that we were not alone in our reaction. Another great location to add to our list (which is very short).

By the time we got home we were somewhat jaded and it was very hot, so we had a lazy rest of the afternoon and tellyboxed in the evening.

At 7.30am Tuesday morning, the van from Danske Mobler with our new chairs and coffee tables arrived, about a month before we were expecting them. Much furniture re-arranging has also ensued as we felt we fancied a change, though we are not sure about our new arrangement yet. Two guys came back at 7.30am on Thursday morning to fit the swing tables to the chairs as I had been concerned about what was occurring when I started to do it. The guys had similar concerns but more experience and got the job done.

Due our Tuesday delivery we had re-scheduled our 7.30am Tuesday conference call with middle management in the Deep South for Wednesday at 7.30. We woke much later than usual so had not made any inroads into starting the day before talking to Claire.

The rest of the week has been busy for both of us with work. Nicky started an Alpha course on Wednesday evening but our full suite of evening activities hasn’t got into full swing yet.

The weather has been all over the place. Very hot Monday and Tuesday, then cloud and rain and iffiness so most of the rest of the week. It’s not cricket, or proper summer.

We had a relaxed start to the weekend yesterday with some sunshine and a southerly breeze. Nicky popped out to do some shopping, Doris dropped in with some veggies, Steve and Stella came over for Scrabble, and then we had an impromptu invite from Jancis for chilli con carne and mah jongg, which we accepted.

Jancis came back with Nicky from church this morning while I was enjoying the sea (after drying out from the rain on the walk there) at Karekare, and spent most of the afternoon with us either avoiding the Open Home at her unit (which she is selling) or hobnobbing with the sophisticated and elite of BHB. Nicky has mowed and hoovered (with the vacuum), and soon we will be having corn on the cob for tea. Another week done.

Take care, Rick.