The Rain Cometh

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The week began with long hot sunny days, and has finished more like an August Bank Holiday: wet, though a little warmer.

After doing an on-site job in Mission Bay on Monday morning, I trundled down to Botany to collect Rachel (my niece), who was up in Auckland for a skating camp. While I was out doing this, Nicky had a meeting with WINZ about social housing and discovered that we don’t qualify, basically because we have pension funds. So that’s one option off the list for when we leave our current abode next year.

After lunch and a good chat with Rachel, I dropped her and Nicky off at the skating rink in Avondale, did some shopping, prepared dinner, and then collected them again. We ate on The Rattigan and enjoyed a lovely bottle of Man O War wine.

We were up early on Tuesday morning so that I could get Rachel to the airport for her 7.55am flight to Queenstown. I took advantage of the weather to do lots of washing.

I took Nicky to work on Thursday morning because the rain was so heavy, she would have got drenched walking from the car to the station entrance, let alone from the station to the library at the other end. With the school holidays starting the library has been quieter, though Saturday was rather non-stop. She had Friday afternoon off and used it to make Christmas cakes to give to people (we are due to be one of the recipients - I should make sure we have enough cheese!).

I had a busy work day on Wednesday with a couple of on-site jobs, and went into town on Thursday for my Deep and Meaningful group. I didn’t linger after the meeting (as I normally do) as I had arranged to meet Nicky down at the Britomart station and then walk round to Brew on Quay for a Loughborough Alumni gathering. Unfortunately, when we got there we couldn’t find any body who had been to Loughborough University (though we did have some interesting conversations), so we walked back up Queen Street and got a bus home.

On Friday lunchtime I had my Christmas Office Party - meeting up with other self-employed Deep & Meaningful members for a BYO picnic. The weather almost scuppered our plans but we toughed it out for the first hour and then it started to improve. It was ultimately worth the effort.

Steve came over for Scrabble when Nicky got home from work yesterday, and I really enjoyed reading The Dry by Jane Harper which Stella had recommended. It’s a crime drama set in Australia.

Today has gone from dull to wet. While Nicky was at church I moved the Christmas tree from the garage to the lounge, and this afternoon we have decorated it. Nicky has been busy wrapping presents.

The forecast for Christmas Eve is very wet, and Christmas Day just wet. I don’t think I will be cooking on the BBQ for our 16 guests.

Take care, Rick

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