The motorway has moved closer.

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With the Waterview tunnel now open, our nearest motorway junction has moved from the Great North Road interchange with SH16 to the Maioro Street junction on SH20. From there we can head south to the airport and SH1 to Hamilton and beyond, or north and have the choice of SH16 & SH1 over the harbour bridge, or SH16 over the Upper Harbour Highway to SH1, or to stay on SH16 to head west. There has been an immediate impact on traffic this week. Everyone I have spoken to feels that the traffic on Blockhouse Bay Road and Great North Road is lighter, while traffic through the tunnel has also been free-flowing when I have used it. The schools are now on holiday for two weeks so it could be August before the traffic patterns settle down and we see the real impact of the on congestion.

I have had a very busy week with work; on-site or travelling between appointments all day and every day except for Thursday afternoon, when I worked on a Mac at home. Thursday afternoon was also when we had the America’s Cup victory parade through town, which might have had something to do with it. I thought about going into town but by the time I could have headed-off the parade was already starting, so I watched some of it on the tellybox instead while eating my lunch.

Nicky has had a steady week at the library and on Monday all the new working schedules were published. She was dismayed to find that she would be working Tuesday to Saturday when she had been told weekend duties would only be occasional. Also, she was only allocated 30 minutes for lunch expect on Saturday when she got the full hour. She communicated her feelings to her new manager and has been able to get an hour for lunch but there was nothing that could be done about the Saturday duty. Still she is being philosophical as it is work and not for ever. Now that she knows her schedule we have been able to really look at travel arrangements, and things have changed a lot since she last used to commute to Henderson. There are now 6 trains an hour instead of 3, and the journey time is 12 minutes when it was 20. The dual-line and electrification have made a big positive difference. There are also more bus options to get to and from the station with the new bus routes and times that started last month, though when the weather is fine she is looking forward to walking down to the station. She will probably be getting back to New Lynn around 6.15pm so I should be able to pick her up most evenings.

We have had a lot of rain this week, so with that and my being out much of the time my laundry routine has been really compromised. I have been doing small loads of just what is required and drying them inside in the main.

After breakfast yesterday morning Steve collected Nicky and nipped over to Stella’s for Scrabble. In the afternoon we went fabric shopping (but the shop was no longer there) and then met up with a few folks from church for ice cream at The Tannery. We had a nice chat and of course really enjoyed the Kohu Road ice cream. In the evening we watched the telly and I stayed up to see the delayed coverage of the last All Blacks - Lions test. I though a draw was a fair result for the match and the series.

Today after church Nicky went off to to prison, and I have done  the weeks’ ironing and watched a DVD. The focus of our evening has been the concluding episode of Apple Tree Yard.

Take care, Rick.

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