Party, party, party.

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’Tis the season for Nicky to be inundated with social commitments. She spent Monday afternoon making lemon curd and cheesy biscuits for her contribution to the group gift for Helen and Warwick, who run the life group. Tuesday evening was the work Christmas bash at Zoo Eatery in Henderson. The food was beautifully presented but Nicky found her fish of the day rather bland. Wednesday night was life group doing nine lessons and carols, along with three birthday celebrations, so she came home with lemon cake. Friday night was a much better than expected dinner at the RSA in Henderson with the prison outreach group, Maranatha.

The other highlights of Nicky’s week have been getting her Gold HOP card and the crown on her tooth. We went down to the station in New Lynn on Monday morning armed with her newly acquired Super Gold Card and purchased her gold HOP card to replace her blue HOP card. This gives her free travel on bus, train and ferry between 9am and midnight on weekdays, and all through the weekends. It means that for the rest of her time at work she will only be paying a fare three times a week. On her late duty days and all her journeys home will be free, and she usually takes the car on Saturdays.

Nicky’s temporary crown came out on Monday, so first thing on Tuesday she zipped through a major thunder storm to get to the dentists for a swift re-fitting. She returned on Wednesday afternoon for the real thing.

The first three days of the week were very quiet for me. Thursday was major Christmas food shopping at our local New World supermarket as it was their special pre-Christmas shopping day so if your spent more than $50 you earned quadruple FlyBuy points. I spent $224. The freezer is stuffed to the gunnels and we have more dried fruit than sticks can be shaken at. I had the evening in town having a Deep and Meaningful discussion. Friday was busy with work which was good., and I ended the week having a drink up at The Block with Paul Williams.

Most of the week has been sunshine and showers, or as on Tuesday morning major rainstorm It was as black as night at 8am and we had 30,000 lightning strikes and a number of power cuts in Auckland. Four cows died. Friday and Saturday were glorious sunshine with a cool southerly breeze, which was just in time for yesterday’s Blockhouse Bay Santa Parade. I walked up the road to return a book to the library and stayed to watch the parade. I found what turned out to be a sheltered spot and got very warm in the sun, as did the washing so I got ironed it in the afternoon. I made a gluten free fruit loaf for Tanya and Steve coming over for tea today, and Nicky Scrabbled at Stella’s after work.

We both woke this morning feeling quite congested. Even though the weather was nice I stayed home feeling somewhat under par while Nicky went to church. She made some gluten free date and orange fingers before going off to prison. Steve (Collard) came over for some technical support which turned out to be both frustrating and a learning experience for me. Nicky returned in time for us to prepare tea before Tanya and Steve arrived, at which point we discovered that Tanya is not gluten intolerant, but saturated fat intolerant. We had a good time all the same, and the fruit loaf and fingers were enjoyed, along with the smoked fish, crudités and humus. They brought a bottle of Brown Brothers Dolcetto & Syrah with them which went down very easily.

Finally, our other adventure on Monday was visiting the ambulance station to buy a Christmas tree, which is now acclimatising in the garage and drinking almost as much water as Nicky does tea.


Take care, Rick

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