Into the New Year

By -
As I sit down to write my first post of 2020, and a few thoughts about how 2019 went for us, the light has an eerie glow to it with the dust coming over from Oz. It has been a largely overcast day, clouds mixed with smoke, and a number of times this week we have seen a bright orange sun towards the end of the day, along with this strange light. There was a map on the news last night of where all the fires are burning, and the whole of Australia’s east coast appears to be alight. It must be terrifying for them.


After dropping Claire at the airport last Saturday, we headed south on the motorway to join most of the rest of the family at the ski lodge in Ohakune. We stopped to eat our feta-filled savoury brioche rolls in Taumarunui and arrived at the lodge around 8.30pm. The next four days were notable for their low level of activity.

Sunday started quite chilly, and after a gentle breakfast and walk through the Carrot Park to ease ourselves into Ohakune Time, the afternoon was filled with Scrabble and dinner preparations. Each evening a branch of the family is nominated (in advance) with producing dinner for the occupants of (and visitors to) the lodge. We were catering for 25 so I had taken a 3kg Christmas Pie with me (this cut into 36 pieces) and which we accompanied with two large dishes of baked stuffed mushrooms, three salads and dressing. Fruit salad and left over rhubarb crumble was provided for dessert.

Monday was much Scrabbling, and tutoring the younger ones in the finer arts of Scrabbling and Mah Jongg. Nicky and I had a bush walk in the afternoon to work off a couple of calories, and it turned rather warm. Dhal and butter chicken were provided for dinner.

Tuesday started with gorgeous blue skies, and quickly turned into a lovely sunny hot day. Nicky and I took Felicity down to Wanganui to see our section (now “fenced”) and we had a lovely lunch at The Funky Duck café. N & F both had smoked salmon salad (which apparently needed some lemon) and I had BLT with a small bucket of fries. It was a bit of L, a bit of T, and plenty of B, so I was very pleased. With tea and coffee to follow I bought an individual orange and almond cake because F&N said they didn’t want anything more, but then they proceeded to help me demolish it. For awhile on the journey home it was 27ºC, so we were very pleased to be using our usual SH4 route as it is the most direct. It had been closed last September due to a rain induced land slip, but a whole new temporary section of road has been built around the slip. Dinner was lamb curry and spag bol. The curry was good and not too dangerous, but didn’t help us stay up to see the New Year in. I think most residents of the lodge slept through the changing of the year.

Wednesday was another lovely summers day, so Nicky, Steve and I went and did a bush walk on a private path before it got too warm. We were rewarded with fantastic views of the mountain. My over-exposed photographs (so much for automatic cameras!!) don’t do it justice:


As a result of this exertion, the afternoon was packed with reading and game playing. Dinner was eating up as much as possible of everything that was left over from the previous four night’s. Excellent. Curry, dhal and Christmas Pie all at once! Post dinner, a group photograph (which I think may become obligatory) was organised, of a fashion:




We were all due to depart on Thursday and so had to find everything that had been lost by the residents, pack, and clean. We left around 10am. The last 2 portions of Christmas Pie and salad did us for our lunch in Te Kuiti, followed by tea, coffee and use of a café toilet. We arrived home safely mid afternoon after taking a new route round Hamilton from Otorohanga, put washing on and did a quick supermarket shop for milk and other bits. It was nice to have a quiet evening.

Friday was more laundry and shopping. Nicky went out for morning tea with Valda, Jan and Helen to celebrate Valda’s birthday. In the evening we went over to Paul and Jenny’s for fish and chips and a family farewell gathering for David, Zoé, Amelia, Cass and Edie. On Saturday we went to the airport to make sure they left the country, and Stella, Steve and Ros came over for Scrabble.

Nicky was at church this morning with a later service due to lots of regulars being away, and I went to Karekare but didn’t swim due to large number of jellyfish on the sand. I assumed there would be even more in the water.

Being a New Year, and a new Sunday routine in TV land, we have a whole new range of good looking series starting tonight to try and keep awake with. We will give it our best shot.


Take care, Rick

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Challenging week

By -
Image
 It has been a challenging week. At the beginning of the week Nicky was still getting worse, so she arranged an appointment with the GP on Tuesday afternoon. The GP confirmed that Nicky had bronchitis and sinusitis, but that her chest sounded clear. With the infection being viral, there was no medication that could be prescribed, but some additional painkillers were in order to manage the symptoms and assist with the pain caused by congestion, coughing and vomiting. As the week progressed Nicky started to improve slowly. The periods of incessant coughing and coughing induced vomiting started to subside yesterday. She was able get a little more sleep and keep a little more food down. The washing machine has been very busy with regular changes of PJ’s, dressing gowns and bedding. Some of the laundry has been dried outside but the winter weather has deteriorated over the last couple of days. While Nicky has been unwell she has cancelled all her commitments. I have been running errands...
Read more

Tea and Tissues

By -
Image
 We have had a quiet week at home, doing jigsaws and listening to Harry Potter. Nicky seemed to be getting better at the beginning of the week but it was short lived. As the week has drawn to a close she has actually started getting brighter and felt like doing some things round the house. Nicky got dressed for the first time this week on Friday to go to the hospital for a blood test, and we did a little shopping on the way home. Yesterday she made a couple of lemon cakes and delivered one to Eleanor for her birthday. Nicky found the few minutes walk there and back exhausting. Meanwhile, I gradually got worse through the week until Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday I ploughed through a whole box of 240 tissues, and most of a packet of throat lozenges. Paracetamol helped with the general aches and temperature fluctuations. This weekend is the first time I have done my morning exercises in over a week, and I even managed a short amble this morning in the lovely (almost spiring-like) ...
Read more

Easter

By -
Image
 Steve continued his convalescing with us at the beginning of the week, and continued to improve each day. He decided to start the journey home on Tuesday by driving to Te Kuiti. As Monday was going to be his last evening with us he provided another take-away dinner from the Spice Guru, which we enjoyed as much as the previous one. Steve and I were a little early collecting it, so while we were waiting I was having a look at the buildings at the bottom end of Victoria Avenue and spotted this: I think Whanganui rivals Napier for the quality of its Art Deco architecture. Before Steve left on Tuesday morning, he and Nicky went to the Splash Centre to have a wallow in the thermal pool. This had been recommended by Nicky’s physio when she had seen her on Monday. Nicky had a short swim too and they both enjoyed their time. We were very pleased that Steve felt sufficiently recovered to start his journey home, as it was not good seeing him in as much pain, as when he first arrived. It was ...
Read more