Weather and wobbles

 The week began with us bracing for the cyclone Gabrielle, and finished with hot sunny days. Such a contrast.

The air on Monday felt different, a distinct sense of the calm before the storm. Sailing for me was cancelled, so I attacked the back garden with the line trimmer, and cleaned the floor of the shower. Nicky went to church to clean brass and do vestry management. Steady rain started in the morning and gradually got heavier throughout the day. We started a jigsaw and watched the concluding episodes of Happy Valley series 3 and Line of Duty series 6. Both were excellent.

The rain on Tuesday morning was still quite heavy, and it was light later than usual. In the afternoon the rain eased and the wind strengthened. I did some supermarket shopping and had a doctor’s appointment. I was prescribed some thicker drops for lubricating my eye and am being referred to the Eye Clinic. Some painkillers were also prescribed for my hand and I was given a form for an ultrasound to investigate the situation. So, a little progress. I invented a new dish for dinner, Chook Au Gratin, which turned our well enough to repeat. More of the jigsaw was done.

Wednesday dawned with a cool calm start after a wet and windy night. Sailing was cancelled again but we were asked to go in to do some tidying as the worst of the cyclone had passed us. It didn’t have a significant impact on Whanganui, with just a little localised flooding in a few areas of town. For us, it was no worse than the usual Whanganui winter weather, even though it’s still summer. By the afternoon it was warm and sunny. Rob, our friendly plumber, came round to start changing our gas installation. He is going to move the cylinders further away from the potential ignition points. This will put them on a more slopping section of concrete, so his first action has been to build a platform for them:

Nicky did some hospital visiting, her first time on the team, and will probably continue once a month. I trimmed the berm and prepared dinner. While having a quiet game after dinner a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck, 76kms deep and about 120kms from us. It lasted about 45 seconds, but nothing fell off our shelves or broke.

The tail end of the cyclone returned on Thursday with rain and some wind, and it was a cool sailing on the boat. Nicky staffed the community library and I collected her because of the weather. We had soup for tea and watched The Great British Sewing Bee before I had an early night.

Friday started cool but clear, and it was quite windy on the boat. Nicky collected Fiona and they went over to Felicity’s for morning tea. Nicky couldn’t get a word in edgeways. No surprise there then. In the afternoon I cleaned a couple of the ranch sliders, but didn’t have enough energy to tackle the North Face of the Living Room. It will have to wait for another day.

Saturday started cool and misty, but soon turned into another warm and sunny day. Nicky set-to doing the backlog of laundry, while I had two sailings with a break of an hour in-between them. Come the evening, we were both tired and ready to put our feet up, but it was Jacqui’s (next door) 60th birthday party. Her family had arranged surprise party and invited us. We toddled off and had a couple of chats with people, but didn’t know anybody there and came away early to get to bed.

Today has again been warm and sunny. I have had two sailings, our usual morning one and an evening charter. After church Nicky came home and started making apple cakes - one for us and one for Frances as it is her birthday. She called round for a late afternoon tea and was thrilled with it. 

While doing my second sailing, Bruce and Wendy (Nicky’s Canadian rellies) arrived. We haven’t seen them for four years. When we last saw them we were just starting to figure out what to do about a home for our retirement years, and they were very helpful with whom to talk and discuss ideas. It was therefore quite special for us that they should could and see the home we have built. Nicky gave them a tour of our home and provided them with dinner. I was able to catch up when I returned home. They are staying at the holiday park up the road for a few nights so we will be able to show them a little of Whanganui while enjoying their company before they drive back to Mt Maunganui.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.