Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Bruce and Wendy were still with us on Monday morning, which started dryer and clearer than recently, and developed into a hot sunny day peaking at 29º in the afternoon. We had a big breakfast of stuffed mushrooms, scrambled eggs and avocado on toast. Nicky had her 3-month checkup with the GP and I started loads of washing. We spent the morning just pottering and chatting with B&W before they headed south again just before lunchtime. We went off to Ponsonby (N) and Parnell (R) and followed this with sewing, mowing and working in the office. We had very enjoyable lobs for tea. It was great to have seen Wendy and Bruce again and return some of their hospitality. It was wet overnight and this continued into Tuesday morning, but the afternoon was dryer. I had a job in Devonport in the morning and then collected Nicky from the station at lunchtime as she was taking her half-day-shopping-day. The afternoon was sewing and making a tuna and pasta salad for work (N) and shopping and adm

Nicky has not been to work this week, except for Saturday. Monday is now part of her weekend, Tuesday was Waitangi Day (so a public holiday), and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday she took days owing to her for missing out on earlier public holidays which had fallen on a Monday. So, with Bruce and Wendy being in the country, after Nicky returned from church last Sunday we packed up a picnic and headed off to Titirangi to buy some light-weight gifts for B&W. By the time we had found what we wanted it was almost 1pm, so we ate the first half of our picnic in the car park in Titirangi. The we headed south to Mount Maunganui, stopping in Ngatea for the second half of lunch and drinks and sticky buns. We arrived the The Mount in time for dinner and had a lovely evening with Bruce, Wendy and Marnie. We started Monday with a good long walk down the beach with Wendy, concluding with a swim. Bruce greeted us with a wonderful cooked breakfast on our return which we ate al fresco. Nicky

It’s February already - where does the time go? Earlier this week I heard what I think is a good definition of a heatwave: five consecutive days of the temperature being 5º above normal. In England the media seemed to think that a heat wave was a couple of hours of sunny weather on a summers day when it didn’t rain and it was a little warmer than usual. Our “proper” heatwave has come to an end this week, with a big storm system arriving on Thursday and it’s trailing rain and clouds will be with us for another day or two yet. Monday was Auckland Anniversary Day and the last public holiday of January. Nicky had not slept well so I left her in bed while I had my first pot of tea of the day. We had a late breakfast on The Rattigan before it got too hot, and we had tea there too when it was cooling down. In between we had a quiet day of pottering, sewing and ironing. We have been into town before for all the Anniversary events and just felt like having a quiet day at home. The scho