Unexpected delights

 It has been quite a week, some of which you will all be aware of because of watching the news, but in order to do it justice, I need to go day by day.

Monday. Started out like many others, bright and chilly so the washing machine was pressed into service. While consuming first cups of tea of the day, an email arrived from Bert the Builder - with a schedule!! Yippee! Progress at last! We didn’t really have time to take it all in and work out what to do because Nicky was off to Seniors Church, and I had a fairly urgent call from a customer which I needed to attend to, along with doing some food shopping. My afternoon was already booked with another job. While I was out, Nicky was busy with washing and ironing. In the evening, she was out at a Maranatha meeting so I did some planning of possible trips down to Wanganui to see our new home rise out of the ground. I generated a range of options looking at travel and accommodation costs, time away from work for me, and commitments that would need to be changed due to our absence. When Nicky returned later in the evening we went through the options and provisionally decided to drive down to Wanganui on Wednesday and return to Auckland on Friday. That way we would see the final preparation for the floor, the ha-ha being dug, and Nicky would be back in time for BHB Quilters on Saturday. We would be able to see more the following week.

Tuesday. It was a wet grey start, but we were feeling decisive and started to make arrangements to go to Wanganui. Accommodation was booked. Nicky baked and went to Mainly Music. I started working on the customers machine that I had brought home Monday afternoon in the hope that I could get it done before we departed on Wednesday. Nicky told me that Mary was having a problem with her iPad, and would I please ring her. This resulted in me going over, making no progress. In the afternoon Mary came over to us with her iPad so that I could work on it and my customers’ machine at the same time, while Nicky made a cake for Saturday, as it would be the 6th anniversary of the BHB Quilters Group. Fixing Mary’s iPad was more challenging than I had expected, but I got there in the end, and completed the work on my customers’ machine. I then set about cooking two lots of dinners, one to eat and one to give us something else to take to Wanganui. It had been a busy and slightly stressful day. Sometime after 9pm Claire texted to alert me to the press conference that was going to be televised at 9.30pm. Covid was back (resurgence they are calling it), and from 12 noon on Wednesday, Auckland was going into level 3 lockdown until midnight on Friday. Our trip south was off, as level 3 means we have to stay home and can’t leave Auckland (monitored by Police road blocks).

Wednesday. It rained overnight but started bright and dry. First phone call was to the accommodation I had booked. They were just about to ring me, and instead of cancelling the booking and loosing the money, offered to hang onto the money for when we go down next, which I explained would hopefully be quite soon. So, that was all good. Back into lockdown mode, pottering at home and watching daytime TV, primarily news and briefings from the Beehive. We had a nice stroll up into and round The Bay in the afternoon. All very quiet again, quite nice in some respects. All the food business can stay open so long as they do contactless delivery and payment systems, which they are all now well practiced at and they were all up and running, which was good to see. We didn’t have this last time until we went to level 2. Then we picked up exciting post from the our post box - our very first rates bill from Wanganui Council. Now I know a rates bill shouldn’t be exciting, but we haven’t had one for almost 13 years and it’s the first real recognition of us becoming home owners again, and making it feel real. All we have at the moment is some grass, mud and a retaining wall. The rates bill made it feel a bit more tangible. We played Mah Jong before dinner and then settled down to an evening in front of the telly, feeling in need of some R&R.

Thursday. Clear crisp dry start. Put the towels on a hot wash. Appalled by reports of panic buying at the supermarkets on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Reports from friends of fights in queues. Went shopping at our usual New World supermarket as we were low on milk. No queue to get in, hardly anyone in the shop, many (like me) wearing face masks as we have been asked to do. No queue to get to a checkout. Staff very happy because the shop is so quiet. Whole trip only took 40 minutes, and lots of things that I wanted on special. Brill. Tea and coffee in The Barlow Recliners in the sunshine on The Rattigan to celebrate. Printed out my QR code poster so that visitors can scan it with the Covid Tracker app. This is a requirement for all businesses and even though I don’t have many customers coming here, I didn’t want some official complaint that I hadn’t done it. It’s up by the front door. Looks quite nice. Should stop the riffraff who don’t have smartphones. The weather has joined in with lockdown too - it was lovely in March and April. Leisurely making of lasagne before digesting it in-front of the telly.

Friday. Dull start but headed out for a walk round the locality. Nicky made soup and muffins for lunch, which I pigged-out on because they were even more lovely that usual - very good balance of flavours and chilly. Froze the soup and muffins that we didn’t eat. Had a few hands of Rummy-O while getting back into the rhythm of lockdown, and great anticipation of Jacinda’s planed press conference at 5.30pm. Sensibly the people in TV land started The Chase half an hour early to keep the oldies happy. We are staying at level 3 until midnight on Wednesday 26th. This will be reviewed again on the 21st. The rest of the country is staying at level 2. Jacket spuds and tuna with mayo and cheese for dinner. Wonderful comfort food. Started re-watching Sanditon on DVD as Ros doesn’t charge fines for late returns - phew!

Saturday. Chilly clear blue sky start. Lovely and typical lockdown weather. Poached eggs for breakfast, then into a new 1000 piece jigsaw courtesy of Stella. Emailed Bert about our revised non-travel plans, and asked for photos as we are going to miss the bulk of the exciting stuff. He replied 10 minutes later with photos of the Gabions and haha. Brill. Nice quiet day.

Sunday. Even chillier blue sky start. I don’t know what temperature the wind was when it left Antartica, but it doesn’t feel like it’s warmed up much on its arrival in Auckland. Out for a walk after breakfast and finishing the jigsaw, and Nicky Zooming with church. Quiet pottering in the afternoon. Nicky working on her own face masks. Soup and muffins from the freezer for tea (why are there so few left?!?) before telly and the concluding episode of Liar.

I think next week might be quieter.

Take care, Rick