Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

I have been under the weather this week with having a cold, but have started to improve this weekend. I have not had much work on but technology changes at home have kept me occupied. Jancis has given us her TV which is a major step up from the one we bought from Dawn and Barrie about 8 years ago. This morning I have updated Nicky’s user guide for when I am not here to press buttons. The second week of school holidays has made the library very busy, and the lovely sunny weather has probably contributed to people being out and about. Tuesday was ANZAC day, so Nicky had the day off which she started by attending the parade and service at New Lynn RSA. We had lunch on the Rattigan but it got a little warm when the breeze died down. Nicky mowed the lawn and Jancis popped round. Nicky has had a couple of evenings out with prayer groups, and over three evenings we have watched all of Humans series 2, which we enjoyed. I have also thoroughly enjoyed reading a of book of unpublish

The big underwhelming (because we are not involved) event of the week has been the World Masters Games, which officially opened on Friday. This is the Olympics for the more mature athlete, but more than that in my view, it is proper sport. None of the events appear to be televised (though I have just discovered there is a YouTube channel for it), and I can’t find anyway of going to watch the events as they happen. The competition is for the competitors - no big money sponsors, no TV rights wrangles, no my logo’s bigger than your logo arguments, just sport for those who want to do it. Proper amateur sport, the way it should be. Refreshing. And is this a minority event? No, there are two and a half times more athletes than at the conventional Olympics. It is the biggest sporting event which has ever taken place in NZ in terms of competitor numbers. They are doing random drug testing apparently, but I wonder if this is more of the “have you taken your statins today love?” type. Just in c

We’re not sure if it’s a Cleansweep or a Nimbus, but we know it isn’t a Firebolt and I’m pretty sure it’s not a Comet. Nicky made it for me at work and I think we might have got a little over excited about it. It has been storm week again. This one worse then the last one but again we only caught the edges and the impact in our area wasn’t as great. The same can’t be said for the east coast and the Bay of Plenty area. When it hasn’t been raining, and Wednesday was our wettest day, we have had some nice warm sun shine. The Fit for the Future program has passed another milestone for Nicky at work this week, with the main announcement about the mechanism for reapplying for their jobs being made. It is not making life easy. She also had every evening out out except for Friday, with prison prayer group, Alpha, hair do and foot washing. It’s a good job it was only a four day week. I have also had work of one sort or another every day, and seen a couple of new customers this

The weather has really changed this week, from hot and sticky (almost tropical), to a definite suggestion of autumn on the way. Which of course it is. However, the sun is still warm when we get it, which we did on Monday after a foggy start. In the middle of the week we had another major storm system which brought flooding and land slips, but we have been lucky again and have not been directly affected. I have been busy all week, even though I haven’t worked every day. Nicky has had a mixed week with some good days and some not so good. We have watched a couple of good films on DVD - Jack Reacher (which we had seen before) and Golden Years about oldies doing bank robberies - great cast and good fun. Nicky had an evening out at Alpha, and I had a couple out with Deep & Meaningful and drinkies up at The Block. Yesterday was our first really cool start to the day for this year. However, with the sky being clear the sun was warm so we had post-breakfast tea and coffee on The R

We had a bit of virtual planetary alignment this week, as Friday was not only the end of the working week and the end of the month, but also the end of my financial year. It has been my ninth year of freelance Mac support here in Aotearoa, and my best yet in terms of hours and profit. It is still a very small business, and the income is still not as good as it was in the UK, but it is growing steadily, if slowly. To celebrate we had a Thai takeaway from a new place which has opened up the road and proclaims “no MSG used” in its literature. I am assuming that is the case as it is now Sunday evening and Nicky doesn’t seem to have suffered any ill effects. We enjoyed our takeaway, but I didn’t think it was as good as the Indian/Nepalese food at Mt Everest Kitchen. There again, I have preferred Indian cuisine to Asian cuisine for quite awhile. I haven’t actually done that much paid work this week, but I have been busy running around delivering equipment and doing failure assessments.