It has not been the best of weeks

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The news regarding Nicky’s job is not good, but at least now we have a good idea of what is going to happen. She was told on Tuesday morning that she, along with all the other people who had applied for 38 and 40 hours per week positions, would be receiving their phones calls with the outcome of their application on Tuesday afternoon. The call didn’t come, which left everyone very anxious and assuming the worst. On Wednesday Nicky was told that the calls hadn’t been made on Tuesday after all. On Thursday she received her phone call and was told that her application had not been successful, and that her options were going to be to apply for any un-filled posts (currently all very senior for which she is not qualified) or redundancy. So, we are assuming that she will be made redundant at the end of the month. As you can imagine, this is not what we had been hoping for.

The news of Nicky’s redundancy didn’t put us in the best frame of mind for my birthday on Friday, but we spent the day as planned and enjoyed it. We started off with cups of tea, presents (jigsaw, beer, chocolate, and towels to add to my pepper grinder) and phone calls in bed. After fighting my way through the bubble wrap (best bit!) we headed up to the Icoco café in Blockhouse Bay. I chose it because it’s the one of the three cafés in the Bay where we haven’t eaten. We both had eggs Benedict, Nicky with avocado and smoked salmon, me with avocado and mushroom, and enjoyed it very much. We sauntered back home, having a couple of conversations on the way, and put our picnic lunch of pork pies, tomatoes and fruit together before walking down to the cinema in New Lynn. The documentary about Bruce McLaren has just been released and I thought as he had died on my birthday in 1970 it would be suitable to see the film on my birthday. Even though it was a sad ending, the film was very good, mainly about the man and not the racing, so Nicky found it interesting too.

We had our lunch in the lounge by the cinema so were nice and cosy, and then caught a train into town. Next stop was the Art Gallery to see the Body Laid Bare exhibition from the Tate which is here at the moment. We are both pleased to have seen it but enjoyed the sculpture much more than the paintings. The paintings on the whole seemed to lack any humanity. After a restorative cup of tea in the café we got the bus home for good sized slice of birthday cake (double stodge fruit) and more tea. I just had time to watch the news before going up to The Block to meet with Paul (with whom I share my birthday) and company for drinkies and a couple of platters. So, a long and busy day which we enjoyed and helped take our minds off things.

I have sort of had a second birthday celebration today as Pat organised a Queen’s Birthday weekend Sunday lunch at their place, which was great. Pat did the mains, Stella and Jenny took salads, we took desserts and Jenny also made a birthday cake for me. We took Stella and Kate with us so that Stella didn’t have to drive with her broken wrist. As ever, it was a very enjoyable gathering and too much was eaten (by some of us). Below are a few photos.

Cutting my second birthday cake with Clem directing





Take care, Rick

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