Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

It doesn’t feel like it has been a good week, because the negative things which have happened have occupied our thoughts more than the positive things. It started on Tuesday morning, with a funeral for one of my elder customers. Nicky came with me and although there was joy and laughter in the service, which Helena would have wanted, it was moving and affected us. Then on Tuesday afternoon we had an email from Bert the Builder with some detailed costs about the “additional extras” we had discussed when meeting him in Hawera a couple of weeks ago. We were not surprised to discover they are beyond us, but the confirmation of our expectations was a disappointment. A major fire started in town at the construction site of the new Convention Centre, and though this didn’t affect us directly, it was to have consequences for us the following day. On Wednesday we were up at the library to print out the BHB Quilters Circle 2020 posters in colour, when we met up with a lovely lady that N...

I’m pretty sure today is Sunday. At least I think it is. I have been having difficulty with knowing which day it is all week, and it’s not as if we had a public holiday to mess things up. I think it might have stemmed from the fact that I have only done one on-site job this week, which was on Tuesday, but I think I thought it was Monday, and then somehow I was always a day ahead in my head. Go figure. The rest of my work time this week has been taken up with remote support, monitoring comments on Apple’s new operating system upgrades, and getting to grips with them. I have also enjoyed reading “This is going to hurt”, the diary of an NHS junior Doctor, which was both funny and moving. Nicky had her usual Monday and Wednesday visits to church, along with her last session at the dentist to finish her crown and a check-up at the optician which went very well.  On Friday we had a very long (12 ½ hour) trip into town for some Artweek events. The first one was an art walk wh...

This week has been a little more normal, along with the Heritage Festival featuring large on the social front. I have been busier with work having something on every day, and a machine on my bench over the weekend.  Nicky was at church on Monday morning and then had another visit to the dentist for further work on her tooth. She didn’t make it to church on Wednesday so headed off into town a little earlier than planned for a Festival talk about the St. James Theatre restoration, which turned out to be as good as she expected.  Thursday saw us both heading into town for different events: Nicky for a lunchtime concert (greatly enjoyed) and me for Deep and Meaningful conversation in the evening (interesting discussion of the difference between how we see ourselves and others see us). On Friday we both did a Ranger guided walk round Gitto’s domain, which is not only in Blockhouse Bay, but is also one of the oldest of the 4000 (yes, four thousand) parks and domains...

We have had a tiring week. Even though we had a quiet Sunday to help us get over Saturday evening and a very late bedtime, we were still feeling a little jaded on Monday along with the effects of changing the clocks. Monday was a reasonably normal day with Nicky at Seniors Church, doing laundry, and making brioche, while I did  an on-site job and some shopping. On Tuesday we drove down to Hawera, which is just a few minutes from Normanby, where Bert the Builder has his office. The first two thirds of the route was the same as going to Wanganui, but it made a pleasant change to have a different final third, which included some coastline. We would have also enjoyed seeing Mt Taranaki if it hadn’t been shrouded in cloud and rain. We had arranged to see Bert on Wednesday afternoon as we had booked a visit to a stained glass artist near New Plymouth on Wednesday morning. We were really inspired by his work and very impressed with his attitude to what we would like to try and do...