No bunnies were eaten during the writing of this post.

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. Around 8.45am we got a phone call and discovered she was not down for a late duty! Never mind, books were still borrowed.

I have spent more time travelling to and from my jobs than doing them this week. I have also had, I think, a gastric bug as I began to feel a little uncomfortable on Monday or Tuesday, and then on Wednesday evening had some major stomach cramps after dinner. After a poor night’s sleep I didn’t feel brilliant on Thursday so had an early night and am now on the mend, though still feeling a little tender at times. I am also wondering about having developed an intolerance to lactose so am trying some different milk which Stella has very kindly provided. Spending the later part of the week resting has enabled me to read, and today finish, The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen (a Department Q novel), which was very good apart from the usual problem of dealing with Scandinavian character and place names.

Friday night’s rain continued as heavy showers yesterday, but I was able to walk down to the beach and back and not get wet. In anticipation of the late afternoon Scrabblers I made some frangipani tarts which were OK but quite dry. I replaced ¾ of the required sugar with rice flour and I think that was the problem, though the sweetness was just right for our taste buds. If anybody has any suggestions as what I can use in place of rice flour for the butter/sugar mix, please be forthcoming. The pecan, walnut and cumquat jam tarts which I also made went down a treat.

Today started out with a grey sky for our first cups of tea, but has developed into a lovely warm sunny day, even better than most of the week has been. After church Nicky did Easter card deliveries for the church and was still out and about when I got back from Karekare. Apart from a couple of quick bursts of activity (R putting the table out on The Rattigan for lunch, N mowing the grass) we have had a relaxing afternoon reading. We had tea/dinner/super on The Rattigan as it was cool and pleasant, aware that in a week we will be changing the clocks so evening al fresco eats will probably come to an end for awhile.

Take care, Rick