Busy end to the month

One way and another, this week has been a bit of a challenge, though some of the challenge has been positive.

We started with Labour Day and the first public holiday of the season - it’s good to have them back again though I don’t think public holidays are the same for some of the retirees in my life. Nicky had had a poor night - we had watched the Wales - South Africa rugby match and not got to bed until after midnight. By the time I woke at 6.30am she was well into the ironing. We had a reasonably bright start with the weather, which was encouraging for our preparations for the very select family lunch we were hosting. Joining us were Paul, Jenny, Stella, Ros, and Letty whom I collected and returned to her home in Devonport. Being small in number was actually very nice as we all got to talk to everybody at some point. Something which doesn’t happen with the “normal” family gatherings. The food, salads especially, were extensive and enjoyable as ever. While I took Letty home, Nicky, Stella and Ros made merry with the Scrabble tiles.

Nicky had been having increasing problems with her hearing aids, so on Tuesday morning while I went off to work in Pukekohe, she got three buses over to Te Atatu. It turned out one of the devices need a new receiver (same $98 receiver that the other one had needed recently), and one of hers ears needed de-waxing - date arranged for a couple of weeks time. She spent the afternoon struggling to stay awake.

The lack of sleep issue was compounded with the gate alarm at the kindy next door going off around 8pm for 12 hours. The Police came and had a look and I think came to the same conclusion as me - it had developed a fault. Nicky had a couple of chats with the staff on Wednesday, but it didn’t actually help. I think her changing of the bed and doing the washing was more therapeutic!. I went into town to do a job, which on request looked straight forward, but in reality was going to take a very long time. I ended up finishing it around 7pm on Thursday. In the mean time on Thursday, I did two other jobs in town, one of which really taxed my brain cell.

Nicky had also been in town on Thursday, enjoying a free concert (Ros went too) and doing a bit of shoe acquisition reconnaissance. She is very taken with my new blue boots, NZ made by a company who will make bespoke shoes, so she went to have a chat with a local stockist. The manufacturer is in Dunedin so I think we will be paying them a visit the next time we are there so that she can have a shoe last made.

The blue boots of envy

After three busy days with work, I was very pleased to have a quieter Friday with just a couple of straight forward visits. On the up side, this week has meant that October has been a good month work-wise, the best  month of the year so far. We finished the day with fish and chips from up the road, and I went for a beer at The Block.

Saturday was busy for Nicky with a Church spelling bee (sorry, Working Bee) in the morning, then Scrabble at Stella’s in the afternoon. I did laundry in the morning, ironing in the afternoon, and made fruit bread and white chocolate mascarpone blondies. The last were to use up some leftover mascarpone, and used ground almonds in place of flour. They have turned out to be yummy.

The weather was sunny but with quite a cool breeze which helped dry the washing. We didn’t stay up to watch the rugby World Cup Final. I was too tired and went to bed. Nicky had already gone to bed but got up as the match started, but came back to bed at half time as she discovered she wasn’t watching the game, just listening now and then with her eyes closed. The way England weren’t progressing wasn’t sufficient inducement to make the effort to stay up and awake.

Today has been a lovely sunny day, and the wind has been lighter and a little warmer. While Nicky was at church I went out to Karekare for the first time in quite awhile (the Heritage Festival always disrupts my Sunday morning trips to the beach), and enjoyed the sun, and my coffee and blondie after a bit of a dip in the still cold sea.

When I got home Nicky was playing Scrabble (yes, again!) with Doris, her German hairdresser who wanted to play in both languages. We had a leisurely lunch on The Rattigan as it was warm enough without being too hot. This afternoon we have done some de-cluttering in the garage as we have an inorganic collection coming up this week. I am going to try and post this early to keep Mrs. Trellis happy as we have a new season of Kiwi Bake-Off series starting this evening, followed by a new interior design programme that we quite enjoyed last week, and then a new Dutch-Kiwi thriller starts, so if I leave it until after then, my typing will be even worse, Mrs. Trellis won’t be happy, and I will be residing with Gromit.

Take care, Rick