Second attempt

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. Laundry, shopping and cooking have also got squeezed in, sometimes helped by the weather being a little dryer (Thursday especially). We are still having to conserve water, but apparently as a city we are getting better at it, especially on the days when it rains! Some of the evenings are still warm (Thursday was balmy) and we have dined on the Rattigan a couple of times (including Friday).

Nicky took Monday off as annual leave and had a good day which included a trip to the cinema with Jancis, Jan and John to see Lion, have pots of tea, and prison prayer group. She has had two other evenings up at church with Alpha and the monthly prayer group meeting. Work has been busy, hectic and stressful, but on Friday she got her new hearing aids so once they settle down hopefully communication will be a little easier for her again.

Yesterday we had a really good day. I nipped over to Green Bay High School to do some e-recycling of dead computer bits, and bought fresh bread rolls on my way home. We were having a second attempt at taking Jancis to the Awhitu Lighthouse at the Manukau Heads, and the weather was much better this time.

However, before we set off we went to the auction of 10 Matata Street, which if you are paying attention Dear Reader, you will remember is the house we rented for a year when we first got to NZ and before we lived in our current abode. It is on a big section (1600m²) and the house has been “upgraded” with internal renovations. Unfortunately I think the reservations were half-hearted and had not been done in-keeping with the character of the house so look silly, and if a developer buys the place they will pull it down anyway. Nicky’s pre-auction research indicated that the vendor was hoping for $1.7M to $1.8M. The auctioneer opened with a request for $1.5M and was met with absolute silence, which was maintained, so the auction quickly came to an end with the property not sold. I dropped Jancis a quick text and she met us at our place where we packed Luna with the grub and set off.

The Awhitu Lighthouse is only about 35kms from the CBD as the crow flies, but it is the thick end of a two hour drive through some lovely country-side to get round the Manukau. The views were as good as when we were there last time, though it was a bit hazier. The sun was warm as we sat down at a picnic table to consume our very welcome picnic lunch. Jancis did really well getting up the path and all the steps inspite of her knees to see the views from the lookout and the top of the lighthouse. We didn’t rush as there is no need to when enjoying the view, but eventually returned to the car and drove round to the Awhitu Regional Park. The walk down to the beach was OK, I had a lovely naked swim and we had a couple of hours just enjoying relaxing on the beach. An unexpected treat for the day was having a really good view of all the airplanes coming into the airport which is at the other end of the Manukau.

We could just see Sky Tower

Our view at the beach

As the afternoon started to cool and we started to feel hungry again, we walked back to the car park, pitched our chairs on the grass, and set-to with the fish pie and salad. The drive home was less busy and we made good time, but were very pleased to have a pot of tea and hot cross buns before putting the clocks back an hour and toddling off to bed.

Today has been a much better than than expected. With changing the clocks we had quite an early start and I went off to Karekare long before Nicky went to church. She had tea with some of the ladies up the road afterwards, and then went over to Stella’s for Scrabble while I ironed and made spelt bread for tea. She is currently finishing off in the garden after giving the grass its second mowing of the day due to the mower battery needing recharging.

After tea I’m guessing its going to be the tellybox for us this evening.

Take care, Rick