Exciting week

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It was quite a wedding wasn’t it? TV coverage started here at 5pm with some scene-setting programmes, and went on to 1pm this morning with live coverage of the wedding and procession round Windsor. We thought it all went very well (and not just because of the wine that we were drinking), and were very pleased at how good the weather was. Nicky is just watching edited highlights again as I write. It was all done very well and with some excellent touches and departures from the norm.

But it wasn’t the only excitement we have had this week. It has been the Auckland Writers Festival this week/weekend, and I have been to four sessions both today and yesterday. Nicky didn’t go with working yesterday and being very tired today what with a number of poor night’s sleep and a late night after watching The Wedding. I enjoyed the majority of what I saw at the festival, and as ever, the atmosphere was very convivial. I noted a couple of amusing soundbites:

Alan Taylor, the founder of the “Scottish Review of Books” in a session talking about the Art of the Critic happened to mention that many writers, such as J.K.Rowling, produce sentences with no cadence. This brought an audible intake of breath from the audience, which illicited this response from Alan: “My wife warned me: New Zealanders are very nice - up to a point!”

In a session about the British Empire, this was quoted: “The sun never sets on the Empire. Even God doesn’t trust the English in the dark!”.

On Monday we had lunch up at Café Icoco in the Bay with Ivan and Faye Stanton who were visiting from Christchurch. We had the Great British Bake Off Final (2017) and watched the last two episodes of Bancroft which I had recorded. Nicky had a very good AEC meeting in town on Thursday though some of the attendees found the depiction of the consequences of a volcano erupting in the Hauraki Gulf just too much to take (and had to leave).

The library has been busy, I have had more work than the last couple of weeks and the weather hasn’t disrupted my laundry routine too much. We finished the working week with fish and chips as I was late back from the North Shore. Today has been a gorgeous sunny day as was yesterday to begin with, but rain came by lunchtime. The temperatures have started to drop as we finally seem to be getting into autumn, even though winter officially starts in two weeks!

Take care, Rick

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