Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 The weather has been just lovely this week, unlike Nicky and I. Most days have been dry and clear with warm sunshine. While the air outside has still been chilly most of the morning, we have really enjoyed the solar gain inside our home. We both tested positive for Covid again on Monday morning. I had a virtual consultation booked with a GP at our medical centre for Monday morning, so discussed our Covid situation with him. It transpires that now we have completed the 7 day isolation, we no longer need to keep testing. In fact, we are encouraged not to test as we could continue to get positive results for weeks because we have had Covid, but are no longer infectious. Taking precautions of physical distancing and wearing masks is a good idea, but in principle we can return to life as normal. Except neither of us feel well enough to do so. We both are still tired and short of energy, have some congestion and coughing from time to time. As a result, we have decided to stay home as much a

 We are both much better today than we were a week ago, but have not yet achieved “normality”. Our main issue is tiredness, so much so that at times we feel our legs are no longer going to support us. Other issues are coughing and congestion. We don’t feel that our Covid experience can be described as “mild symptoms”. Last Saturday, Sunday and Monday turned out to be the three worst days. Nicky feels that she was never quite as bad as me, but her recovery doesn’t seem any quicker. The self-isolating has of course meant that we had a quiet week, and a bit of a change to our routines. Going back to bed at least once a day, usually in the afternoon, has become regular. The extra sleep has been very welcome.   The week has not been without its relative excitements. On Monday, Jacqui, our lovely caravan-dwelling next door neighbour moved out. She has bought a wee house on the other side of town where we hope she will be very happy. She hasn’t sold her section yet, but has had some interest

We have Covid. We think we have done pretty well to have avoided it this long, but it is unpleasant all the same. Nicky tested positive yesterday morning, and me this morning. This has meant that I have missed the last two sailings on the paddle steamer, and the end of season social. We are going to have to re-arrange our trip to Raumati which we had booked for next week, cancel all other engagements, stay home and look after each other. The supermarket will be delivering fruit, Halls Throaties, and a few other items on Tuesday. When letting people know that we have succumbed, we have discovered that two other members of the quiz team have also tested positive. This adds insult to the injury of coming 9th out of 11 teams (John wasn’t there, and he is very good). We have had lots of offers of help from friends and neighbours. I seem to have been suffering more than Nicky, though that might be changing as she hasn’t made it out of her PJ’s yet today. In other news, when it hasn’t been ra

 Much of the weather this week has been mild and damp. The temperatures have been 5-8º higher than normal at this time of year, and the humidity has been higher too. Nicky’s working week began with brass cleaning at church. She has also had her regular commitments of Life Group and staffing the Community Library. On Wednesday she made two visits to the dentist to have the first two of her four crowns fitted. This went well but she felt sore in the evening while we quizzed and came 5th. A Friday morning visit to the medical centre for a review of her Polymyalgia medication was followed by laundry. My week has been one of just three sailings, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. With my time off I have been cleaning (filters, cook top, car, shower glass) and relaxing. The damp and wet weather hasn’t induced me outside. I did attend a workshop on the planned developments for a couple of blocks of Guyton Street in town, which was interesting. We both enjoyed the community kai at the marae on Th