One of our trees is missing

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As I sit down to write this week’s post the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony is just starting. Our TV viewing has been dominated by the Games, and The Crown series 1 on DVD. We have greatly enjoyed both, for quite different reasons. The Women’s Rugby 7’s final was a little tense but came out with the right result in the end.

The other major event of the week has been the storm that hit Auckland on Tuesday night. It didn’t have a name because it wasn’t a tropical cyclone, but unlike the two cyclones that we only caught the edge of over the summer, we got the full force of this. Unfortunately I was out on Tuesday evening working. The weather was fine when I left home, but coming back a couple of hours later was quite a different story; street lights and traffic lights were out, trees and debris were blocking parts of the roads, and the heavy rain made visibility difficult. When I got home we had no power so it was out with the candles and off to bed. Most Auckland homes suffered a power cut overnight, but some 100,000 people out in the sticks won’t get their power back until sometime next week. Some traffic lights were still not working on Friday. Nicky also had power issues at work yesterday. Our only damage was a couple of swan plants blown over, but up the road one of the iconic BHB pine trees was ripped apart halfway up its trunk. We now have a big gap:



On a lighter note we bought some new bedding (quilt cover, pillow cases and sheets) on Monday while shopping for a birthday card, as you do. We went to an interesting retirement planning seminar in town in the evening. Food for thought.

Nicky lost one of her hearing aids on Friday while walking to the bus stop, so she is now using a mismatched pair (we had kept the one from her first set after she lost one while we were on holiday last year).

Following the storm the weather has been both cooler and wetter, and a very wet weekend was forecast so I started doing a jigsaw yesterday while Nicky was working and Scrabbling at Stella’s. Today we have had a quiet day at home with neither of us going out this morning, though we did get some unexpected sunshine this afternoon.


Take care, Rick

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