Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 The sailing season for the Paddle Steamer Waimarie is drawing to a close, so I have had two days off this week. Next week I get four!   On my first day off (Monday), I spent the morning doing MacOnSite work setting up a new laptop with a customer. Nicky had her usual Monday morning cleaning the church vestry. We both felt in need for an afternoon snooze before preparing dinner for Mike (a fellow deckhand on the boat) and Frances (who lives up the road in Papaiti). Both of them live alone, so a meal that involved gravy and custard was required. I produced roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and Nicky made an apple and blueberry crumble. It all went down very well and we had a good evening together. On my second day off (Thursday) I did the strimming (lovely sunny day), cleaned the oven, had my lunch on the north patio (got very warm) and made smoked tuna pie for dinner. Nicky only had one borrower at the Aramoho Library who left in anger and disgust, because the computer system was down a

 I think there is no doubt that Tuesday was the highlight of our week. The day dawned with a stunning sunrise: While Nicky was at the hairdressers, I did a supermarket shop. Then we headed down to Waitarere to visit the Hanlon Adventurers, where they were holidaying in a converted church. We took lunch with us (breads, cheeses, salami, crisps, humus and grapes) which was happily honed into by everybody. After a bit of a repose, some games of Mah Jong and pool, some went to the fairy garden and some went to the beach. Clemmie had to figure out what the water was doing before she went in: Milly and Tim produced a delectable rich tomato sauce with meatballs and pasta for dinner, and as ever we throughly enjoyed their company. We departed early evening as I needed to get to bed in readiness for being Piratical on the boat on Wednesday. We were sailing a Pirates and Princess cruise with it being the school holidays. The boat was suitably rigged and we had a couple of am. dram. volunteers as

 We have been enjoying lovely mild autumn weather, so shorts have been worn for most of the week. Most of the week’s cool starts have developed into warm sunny days, and the trees are changing colour: Our main item of news is that Nicky has been diagnosed with polymyalgia. She thought it might be arthritis, but that isn’t the case. Polymyalgia is treatable and she started her medication on Friday. While it is still early days, there has been some improvement already. The pain and fatigue have lessened and she feels more able to do things. The other newsworthy item is that we have helped the quiz team that we have joined come first again. That’s twice in three weeks! I have had two days off from working on the paddle steamer, though the days we have been sailing the boat has been full. Along with my household duties of strimming, trenching and cleaning, I have done some MacOnSite work. I also had an enjoyable walk to and from the Community Library on Thursday. Nicky had forgotten her lu

We have been enjoying some lovely autumnal weather this week. Cool starts, largely clear skies, developing into sunny days. The end of   Daylight Saving has returned the lighter mornings but evening creeps up on us earlier. The third Covid booster is now available to us, so we had ours on Tuesday afternoon. Sore arms, aching limbs and tiredness pervaded our Wednesday, but we were both feeling much more recovered on Thursday. Nicky also had her ‘flu shot. I saw a hand physio for treatment of my inflamed tendons in my right hand on Wednesday. After discussing where and when it hurts, she massaged my forearm (which I now have to do every day). The physio gave me some exercises to do, and made a very nifty soft cast for me to wear at night: This was bliss on the first night, as for the first time in months I was pain free. It hasn’t been quite as effective on subsequent nights, but my wrist is more comfortable with it than without it. Nicky has had an up and down week with her arthritis. S

  As March has moved into April we have had a spell of wintery weather to punctuate our rather routine week. Sailing on the boat on Wednesday was very chilly, and wet at times. Since then the temperatures have started to rise a little though we have still been having some rain. Today the sun has been warm since mid-morning and given us a sunny afternoon. On Wednesday evening we went to a quiz night at a local hostelry to join Mike, my fellow deck hand, and his quiz team. Last week they came last, but this week they won! That wasn’t due solely to our contributions, but Nicky was a great help with the Art and Literature round and we scored 10 out of 10. We enjoyed the evening and meeting the other team members, and some of their children. With Easter approaching Nicky had been asked to produce palm crosses for church. This proved to be challenging so on Saturday a couple of fellow parishioners came round to help. Between them they produced over a 100 and three pairs of very tired hands.