Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

One way and another it has been a different sort of week. We started in style by having fried eggs and bacon for breakfast on The Rattigan. Decadence personified. This was a suitable pre-amble to our day of cleansing; car washing, window washing (outside and in), mowing. Nicky also made another dessert for Alpha and finished the day off with prison prayer group. We did have a little rain, but not until we had washed everything clean! Nicky’s work week started with a training day at Takapuna library about personal safety in the workplace. The course was run by an ex-policeman and was very good. I took Nicky up to Takapuna in Luna on my way to a job in Whangaparoa. Fortunately we left in plenty of time because the traffic around Exminster Street (we quickly discovered) was virtually stationary, and it was very heavy all the way to the bridge. She came home on the bus. The rest of her working week has been much more routine except for Thursday where she got muddled up with her hours....

It has been a week with an improving feel to it. As it has progressed the weather has improved, and on Tuesday the new series of The Great British Bake Off started (I don’t bother with the Oz imitation). This is with the new Channel 4 crew, Sandi T etc, and we enjoyed it. Monday started with a major low pressure system heading our way, and although we had wind and rain, it wasn’t as bad as our winter low pressure systems can be. Even though we are now officially into autumn, the weather can still be very nice. The sun is now pleasant to sit in as it is warm without being like a Regulo 8 grilling. Nicky has had a good, busy and fairly routine week at the library. She was on Alpha kitchen duty on Wednesday evening. I have had work every day so along with my usual house-husbanding contractual obligations it’s been quite a busy week. I had a lovely swim at Red Beach on Wednesday. The sand and rock were smooth and comfortable to walk across and the sea was warm and like a millpond....

It is now still dark when we rise around 6am for our first pot of tea and to get ready for the working day. We are officially into autumn now but the weather can still be very warm and sunny (lovely). It hasn’t been as humid as it was before we had our holiday. It has been a back to work week for both of us this week, but we didn’t rush into it. We started off with porridge on The Rattigan on Monday before it turned into a hot sunny day. I did lots of work admin and some food shopping, and Nicky did some shopping for ingredients for a dessert she made for Alpha up at church. We had dinner on The Rattigan as it was cool enough by then, and Nicky did some mowing before got stuck into tellyboxing. Work has been busy for both of us. I spent W/T/F on the road doing site visits, and when Nicky got to work on Tuesday she was invited to a staff dinner that had been organised for the evening. She was also due at the church AGM later so I zipped over to Henderson for 6.40pm and managed ...

We have been on holiday (returned yesterday), but you won’t have received any post cards as we didn’t send any. This wasn’t meant as a slight. It was because of an unusual experience. We looked for postcards, in all sorts of places, but found very few, and the ones we did find we didn’t much care for the pictures, so we didn’t buy them. So, please accept our apologies. You will have to make do with this: Rotorua (1 night) We left BHB after Nicky had returned from church, we had packed the car and had some lunch. Our first overnight stop was the PSA holiday home (the PSA is the union of which N is a member) in Rotorua. It was a warm drive so we enjoyed a pot of tea while unpacking, and an amble in the cool evening air down to the lake. We found a quilting shop that was first thing on the list the following morning after cleaning and leaving the PSA home. The shop was very good. We left Rotorua heading for Napier, and on SH5 near Taupo stopped at Lava Glass, as they had a sign...