On the road

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It has been a busy week. We have had a couple of days on the road to investigate new home locations, starting with Northland. Whangarei on Monday, and Ruawai (south of Dargaville) on Wednesday were both interesting trips, but we have ruled them out. Ruawai was too small (population of approx 426) and too remote, and Whangarei and it’s immediate environs is out of our price range. We would need to head further north, which takes us into more rural and remote communities. We acknowledge that we are townies at heart, but as we expect to reside in our new location for 20 years or so, we know medical care is going to be a serious consideration in the long term, and in the short term the possibility of work for me is an issue. However, we enjoyed the countryside and the the trips and feel we have gained information.

I have been quite busy with work during the rest of the week, though not all of it desperately productive. I had an enjoyable discussion at my MeetUp group on Thursday evening and have squeezed in some shopping, washing and ironing too.

Nicky had a free “express” pedicure on Tuesday, using a voucher given to her by Valda. Later in the day she went to see The Chaperone with Pam from church and thoroughly enjoyed it. On Wednesday she made brioche, which turned out rather well. We saved some in the freezer for Saturday morning breakfast, and when toasted it went very well with scrambled egg and bacon. In addition to her Henderson library volunteering, she has had her Auckland Writers Festival volunteer induction this week.

Yesterday Nicky cleaned out the pantry, while I did some work admin and some planning of further home location trips. We watched a very interesting film in the evening, The Devine Order, about Swiss women campaigning to have the vote. The film was serious but with a light touch, but what was stunning was the fact that it was taking place in the 1970’s. The last canton’s to allow women the vote didn’t do so until the 1990’s!!

Nicky has been to church and prison today, and Stella, Steve and Ros have been over for Scrabble this afternoon. I made some fruit bread for tea which we enjoyed with the telly. Our regularly sunny and mild weather has come to an end today with much rain, and the week ahead looks more like autumn than we have been enjoying so far. Ah well, it had to happen.

Take care, Rick.

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