Brilliant Week

 We have had the best week of the year, even though we are not quite halfway through the year. Claire has been to visit. We hadn’t seen her since Christmas 2019 when she joined the family for Christmas when Felicity came over from the UK. Covid and work had made finding a suitable date challenging.

We collected her from Palmerston North airport early on Wednesday afternoon. We got there shortly after her plane landed. We had called into a shoe shop in Marton which had been recommended to Nicky for repairs, only to find out that they no longer did repairs. Palmy airport turned out out to be a small bijou affair, and I was rather surprised when we left, about 15 minutes after arriving, to be charged only $3 for the parking.

After giving Claire a tour of our home and dinner of brassica delight followed by lemon curd cheesecake, we set about doing a lovely Wentworth jigsaw that she had brought with her. This had been a birthday gift from my sister that Claire hadn’t got round to doing and she thought we would enjoy it, which we did. Claire also brought us some gorgeous Spiced Green Tomato Chutney that Ryan had made. There isn’t much left now.

We started the day slowly on Thursday, the first day of winter, partially because it was damp and therefore not encouraging an outing. I cleaned the cook top and filters, and the rain eased to showers. We decided to do a tour of some of the sections in Whanganui that we didn’t buy, as this also gave Claire a bit of a tour of the town. We did a bit of shopping in Mitre 10 as cyclamen were on offer before heading home for lunch. The afternoon was fine so we went to the glassworks to watch a piece being made, then walked up to the libraries and through the park. Dinner was pancakes with spinach, feta, toasted walnuts and caramelised onion dressing.

Friday was particularly exciting with it being my birthday. Nicky had been up in the night to get the table ready. She wonderfully recreated Eyore’s birthday ballon event with a burst ballon, my tea mug, and the appropriate page in the book. She managed to inflate a few balloons (but most burst) as a backdrop. It was just brilliant. 

We had breakfast out at The Villa, a café we had not been to before. I throughly enjoyed my Big Breakfast. Nicky had one of the best omelettes she has ever ordered - it had grated carrot in it, and Claire savoured her feta, red onion and avocado on toast. The café is opposite New World so we did some necessary supermarket shopping before returning home. I was in need of some rest so Nicky and Claire went to the museum without me. They attended a talk about an 1860’s evening dress which was very good, and had a wander round some of the museum.

We spent the afternoon cooking and chatting. Claire had requested Yorkshire puddings and onion gravy, which we followed with Boston beans on walnut bread toast, cheesecake and my fruit birthday cake. Frances (Mrs. Egg) joined us and enjoyed meeting Claire. It was a lovely evening and a great way to end the day.

Yesterday was forecast to be dry and windy so Nicky did some laundry before we headed into town. Before Claire had arrived Nicky had bough her a Whanganui tea towel to take home with her. This had pictures of various famous Whanganui landmarks on it, and Claire came up with the idea of visiting them and having her photo taken in front of them. Nicky and I though this was a great idea so we went into town to get started on the project. Parking near the wharf and walking up river netted five locations. We also took in the market and Claire found some lovely earrings. Driving up to Durie Hill got two more and great views across town, but we couldn’t see any of the mountains because of the cloud cover. After lunch of pumpkin soup at home we drove up the road to Upokongaro to walk over the foot bridge and for Claire to sample the gin at the Papaiti Gin boutique gin distillery. The gin slipped down very easily.

We had planned to go out for dinner, but Mint was full, as was Maria Lane Eatery next door, so we went round to Franks and had an excellent meal. Nicky ordered a steak from the starter menu with a side salad, Claire had a mushroom pizza, and I had a chicken burger. Fortuitously, I had been wanting to try Franks and wasn’t disappointed. When we got home Claire and I had a few minutes outside star gazing - right underneath the Southern Cross.

With the sky being clear all night it was a bit of a chilly start this morning as we drove over to Palmy for Claire’s flight home. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare to spare for tea, coffee and a sultana scone (for me), before waving goodbye to Claire’s plane when it departed. We must have been parked at the airport for about an hour and a half, so I was wondering just how much the parking fee was going to be. A monumental $3.50 stunned me. I think I like Palmy airport.

A few minutes later Nicky and I arrived at Kat and Israel’s for a mid-winter lunch celebration, and to meet their 3 month old daughter Ari for the first time. She is a real cutie. We had a good chat and a lovely walk around the lagoon near where they live.

In other less exciting news, we have both tested negative for Covid twice this week, but are still not back to full health. It feels like it is going to take awhile. Nicky lost one of her hearing aids while working around the flax in the front garden on Tuesday. However with help from the hearing aid management app on her iPad, I managed to find it under the flax on Wednesday morning. Even better, despite the overnight rain, it still worked!

It has been just brilliant seeing Claire, showing her when we now live, and introducing her to our new home. A wonderful week.

Take care, Rick & Nicky.