Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 Our week began with a wet and windy Monday. The following four days started chilly but brought us blue skies, sunshine, and warm afternoons. I really enjoyed the morning light creeping over the fence into the front garden: The clear skies gave us a frost: Nicky has been busy with her church and Alpha Course duties this week. Along with morning vestry cleaning and evening Alpha kitchen duty on Monday, she was on washing up duty on Friday evening and Saturday morning (7am!) and evening for the Alpha Spiritual weekend.   Whilst I shopped, Nicky invited newly widowed Sue Tarry over for Scrabble and lunch on Tuesday. It turned out that cheese on toast was very warmly received. While Nicky was at her afternoon home group I started making lasagne for dinner. I have gone back to making my own pasta since doing so when when Paul and Jenny came down. It’s so much nicer. As a consequence, I have moved my pasta machine to a more convenient storage location. The weather was good enough fo...

 We began the week with a lurgy. Nicky was sufficiently unwell to be sent home early from vestry cleaning by Dale. The impact on me was much less. The clear start to Monday turned dull and drizzly, so we decided it was time for our very own Harry Potter film festival. By the end of the day we had watched the first two films and were feeling better than we had expected. The enforced resting and much drinking of lemon and honey probably contributed. Tuesday was a double anniversary day; Felicity’s birthday and four years since we had first seen the section where we now live. To celebrate Nicky did some laundry and I raided the supermarkets. After some MacOnSite work in the early afternoon we watched the third Harry Potter film. The evening was taken up with watching Spain beat Sweden in the Women’s Football World Cup semi-final. With both of us feeling brighter on Wednesday morning and with some clear weather we had some time outside. Nicky weeding the pioneers and me sweeping the ou...

 Our week has been routine, but quite busy, and punctuated with the Women’s Football World Cup. We have especially enjoyed England’s progress to the semi-finals. Nicky was busy at church on Monday, cleaning in the morning and kitchen duty for Alpha in the evening. Her home group went to the cinema on Tuesday to see The Miracle Club and enjoyed it. She made a cheesecake on Wednesday morning ready for the Community Meal at Te Ao Hou Marae on Thursday, and undertook hospital visiting for Whanganui Anglicans in the afternoon. Nicky’s staffing of the Aramoho Library on Thursday was shorter than usual, as she accompanied me to the Gonville Medical Centre. Friday was major laundry and ironing again, but the washing did have some time outside on the rotary drier. Saturday was a Diocesan Regional Training Day for her in Palmerston North. She joined a number of other parishioners in the parish minibus for the journey, but the presentations were rather like a Curate’s Egg. The highlight of my...

 Our week began with the disappointment of the football Ferns being knocked out of the the Women’s World Cup. However, 30 other teams will also fail to win the cup so at least we are in the majority! We took advantage of the “cheap” ticket prices at the cinema on Tuesday to see Oppenheimer. While long at three hours (with no intermission) it was very good, and we learned a great deal. Wednesday was cold and wet and we had some hail. Quite an unusual event down here. I was able to slip between the raindrops while doing the supermarket shopping. I also nipped over to see a friend of a friend to provide some computer support. We headed off to the evening quiz into weather that was getting wetter and windier, but our team came 2nd this week which was good. While Nicky staffed the Aramoho Library on Thursday I made pork pies. I had bought a leg of pork to contribute to the fillings and roasted the reminder for dinner. Nicky didn’t suppress her Collard-Scruby genes and went straight for ...