Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

As the end of July approaches, the weather hasn’t quite grasped that it is, in theory, still winter. It has been largely dry, just a few foggy starts, and warmer than would be expected. When the sun gets to shine, particularly in the afternoon, it has been noticeably warmer and our lounge has really benefited from the solar gain. We have had the ranch sliders open a couple of times, and even resorted to wearing shorts around the house some days! Nicky has had a busy week. In addition to her regular activities of Seniors Church and volunteering at the West Auckland Research Centre, she and Steve have been working in Stella’s garden (their birthday gift to her). She has also added a new “membership” to her list - the BHB Historical Society, and attended her first event this week: the opening of the old school house up at the primary school, which turned out to be a great experience. This weekend she has done a couple of workshops at the library, one on knotting and the other on card...

It has been a quieter week for us, which has been a bit of a relief. On the future home front, with much discussion and the help of our lawyers, we have produced our preferred version of a sales agreement. The builder has sent us a detailed floor plan and some 3D images which are very interesting, and apart from some details I think we have a design which we will settle on, should we get the chance to build it. Nicky has been busy with being retired, with three mornings at church (Seniors and Holy Communion), volunteering in Henderson, and BHB quilters. I have had a modest amount of on-site work and quite a busy time at my desk, and a good Deep and Meaningful discussion on Thursday. The film festival is on at the moment and on Saturday afternoon I went to The Civic in town to see Apollo 11 - a narrator-free documentary of largely unseen footage of the journey to, and walking on, the moon. It was very good, a pleasure to see The Civic again, and an appropriate way to mark t...

We have had quite a bit of rain this week, so drying the laundry has required some indoor-outdoor flow in a way that I don’t think any of the TV house makeover designers envisage. Work has been very light for me, just dealing with one customer with a vexing email issue, but it has required my attention a number of times throughout the week, and is still “on-going” from my perspective. We had a meeting with a lawyer and a solicitor on Wednesday to discuss the contract we had received for the purchase of the section in Whanganui. This was very useful as they explained the implications of the things that we didn’t understand, and it wasn’t good news. Basically, the vendors want us to do quite a bit of work and spend quite a sum of money getting the section ready for sale, ie: before we own it. You can imagine our reaction to that. So, we are now working on changes to the contract to send back to the vendors lawyer and see how they react. Nicky went up to Seniors Church on Monday ...

The emotional high’s and low’s with buying the section we like and designing the house we want have continued this week, and I suspect they will for awhile. On the house front our builder has been great at including our modifications and making some good suggestions. On the section front, we asked the estate agent to get the ball rolling on a contract to purchase on Monday. On Wednesday, due to issues the vendor is having with the council, the agent called us to say it might all be off. On Friday, she called so say a contract had just been emailed to us, so we are on again. However, a range of clauses have been added which could be problematic, so we will go and have a chat (we hope) with one of our lawyers colleagues as he is on holiday for the duration fo the school holidays! Even though the above issues have been the backdrop to our week, we have done other things to, sometimes for a bit of distraction. Nicky has started helping at and participating in Church Seniors on Monday ...