Thanks Winston

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Nicky has been off work all week, primarily with what ever I had been suffering from, but Friday was due to a temporary crown being fitted by the dentist. She goes back next week for the real thing. In addition to normal Philippa activity (reading about, tea drinking, writing emails) and attending the Advent service on Wednesday evening, she has been through a couple of significant experiences. She has submitted her letter of resignation prior to her retirement so that her boss can get on with looking for a new member of staff. She has also received her Super Gold Card, thus confirming her “senior” status. This came with a range of literature providing advice for managing as she gets older (marry a toy boy), and notes for her care giver (remember that your senior is for life, not just for Christmas!), etc.

More tangentially but no less exciting for Nicky was to join me in a visit to our GP who wanted to discuss my back Xray results. I will transcribe verbatim for those who understand these things: “marked retraction in intervertebral disk height at L5-S1 and moderate reduction in intervertebral disc height L3-4. There is at least mild L4-5 and L5-S1 facet joint arthrosis”. His summation can be abbreviated to “almost stuffed, improve your posture”. So I am now doing a different range of back exercises and am keeping a closer eye on how I sit.

The four days of rain which were forecast didn’t really materialise and much of the week has been pleasant, sunny and getting warmer. We have taken to using the two chairs we are storing for Jancis, similar to this design:


on The Rattigan for tea and light meal consumption, and it is getting warm enough to enjoy having the ranch sliders open.

I have had a little work this week, but overall November has been a very poor month. I have three customers in the process of buying new equipment so I hope that things will improve in the near future.

Nicky was back at work yesterday and had a busy day, then Scrabbled at Stella’s before returning home to vege flan. Today has been much better than expected so I went out to Karekare and enjoyed the sea and warmer air than recent visits while Nicky was at church. When I got back Nicky was chatting with Valda on The Rattigan, and after Valda departed we nipped down to the ambulance station to buy a Christmas tree, which is now slumbering in the garage. Summer is obviously arriving!


Take care, Rick

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