Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Our big house focus this week has been on the sewing room. We took advantage of the fact that the two library tables (for Nicky’s quilting) were still under the car port following the Blessing and House Warming. Their absence from the sewing room gave us space to swing the proverbial cat, get most of the furniture out, and hang lots of pictures. This has made the room tidier and more usable (Steve slept in it last night), and gives us a better idea for organising it for the future. But wait, there’s more! Shannon from Harcourts Estate Agency delivered his house appraisal, in the sunshine on Wednesday. He reckons that in the current market our new home could fetch around $150K more than we have spent on building it. I am a little skeptical myself but am very pleased that it appears to be worth more than it has cost. Just to give us some more peace of mind, we have had the locks rekeyed. It didn’t look like we were going to get all eight original keys returned, so we decided to get a l...

It feels like it has been quite a week, one way and another. Nicky started the week with major intestinal issues, caused we suspect by some stray chilli seeds in the soup she had made last week, and had been consumed over the weekend. It also had an impact on me, but nowhere near as devastating. She didn’t really start to feel more “normal” until Thursday. After Bert called in last week and promised to be back this week to fit the grab rail and accessory basket in the shower room, we decided to organise our Blessing and House Warming for Friday (18th). Most of the  invitations went out by email, but some needed to go by hand. Nicky just wasn’t up to delivering on Monday, and I didn’t want to leave her on her own as we had a window cleaner calling in to give us a quote, and the fencing crew had arrived and started work. As a result I did the deliveries on Tuesday morning and got very wet - the theme of the weather for the week. The weather and other jobs stopped the fencing crew fr...

Monday was a Public Holiday due to the Queen having a birthday again this year, and for us it was the day we drove back home from our weekend visit to Auckland. We journeyed via Thames in the Coromandel so that we could catch up with Andrew, who was better than we expected. He introduced us to a Turkish establishment where we have a lovely lunch. As we headed south the weather improved (it stopped raining) and we had an uneventful journey back. It was nice to be home. The after effects of the weekend (much driving and four nights in two unfamiliar beds) were exacerbated by us having our first Covid19 vaccinations this week. This combined with nights of broken sleep and the news of Felicity’s deteriorating health while in hospital in England has lead us to have a week of emotional turmoil and a constant feeling of being under the weather. We discovered on Wednesday that our paper Code of Compliance Certificate for our new home had been posted to our old address in Auckland, and then ...

I’m not 60 anymore! To celebrate my 61st on Wednesday we had breakfast at the Main Street Café in Waverley. I chose this location because when we called in some months ago (on our way to see somebody about something to do with the build) I noticed their speciality was big sausages. I was a little concerned when we arrived not to see these specified on the menu, but on ordering the “big breakfast” found the 8” sausage was their standard offering, and very good it was too. Nicky enjoyed her bacon and egg butties on ciabatta, and we finished off with tea and coffee.  The day was clear and sunny which had made for a pleasant 50 minute drive (three lots of roadworks), so following breakfast we drove down to the beach, of which there were two: Long Beach and Cave Beach. A sign indicated that access to Long Beach was only suitable for tractors, so we went to Cave Beach. However, we were unable to walk to Long Beach due to the high tide. It was good to see the sea and have some fresh air....