Just one point

 Monday was Labour Day, so we began the week with a public holiday. This is very important to those of us who are retired or semi-retired, as it means we have to use our memories to remind us that we can’t do what we would usually do, because it is probably closed or it’s going to cost us more.

For Nicky however, such obstacles are mere trifles and the church was going to get cleaned, public holiday or not. The day started cool and clear and developed into a lovely sunny spring day, so laundry was done by the under-laundry-person as being temporarily skipper-less, the paddle steamer wasn’t sailing. When Nicky returned from church and had brunched we drove into town and had a very pleasant walk by the river:

Reading, gardening and trenching completed the afternoon, and the telly was again put to use after dinner.

On Tuesday morning I did a number of errands in town along with the supermarket shopping, and I called into work to have a chat with Jen (our Manager). I had emailed her over the weekend suggesting that on Saturday, as we are not sailing again, we open the boat up for people to come and have a look and a wander round while it is tied up. She thought this was an interesting idea. The boat can be easily seen by anyone visiting the Saturday market, and we get a lot of custom because of that. I thought free tours of the boat would help people know that we are still operating even though we were not sailing. We discussed how we would organise the morning and hatched our plan.

While I was in town, Sue came round for the morning. Nicky made walnut and maple syrup muffins which were lovely. On my return home I found them playing Scrabble, after they had had a walk up the road. Sue stayed for lunch and in the afternoon Nicky went off to home group. This turned out to be much more eventful than usual, even though Nicky was only person to arrive. Lee, who runs the group, had a phone call shortly after Nicky’s arrival about an open front door at All Saints Church in East Whanganui. They both went off to investigate, but found nothing untoward. It would have been the third break in this month, but it was thought to just be carelessness on the last church user. Not much bible study was done after that.

The overnight rain discouraged us from working in the garden on Wednesday morning, so we started a jigsaw. By the afternoon the wind had dried the grass enough for me to do some strimming. We quizzed in the evening, but did badly, coming 8th out of 9 with only 97 points, 13 behind the winners. A full team was required and we were short of three on our team.

The poppies have enjoyed the rain and sun and are a really joy to drive home to as they now spill out round the the front fence:

Thursday was windy but fine so the senior-laundry-person put washing on before going to staff the Community Library while the under-gardener completed the strimming and fence cleaning (not that you can tell). We did our weekly crossword completion later in the afternoon with a pot of tea, followed by dinner and telly.

Overnight we had heavy rain and strong winds. The morning was cool and showery so ironing and jigsaw were the prime occupations. Nicky enjoyed the lunchtime fashion talk at the Whanganui Museum again. This time it was a 1930’s black faille silk evening gown, with floral appliqué, which was the outfit of the month. Last month was the NZ poet’s Eileen Duggan cream cotton and lace afternoon tea gown. Nicky enjoyed the history and reminiscences. Her friend Claudia-Ann unexpectedly popped in for a chat, upon her return.

Our main telly viewing this week has been a 5 part drama called Malpractice. It is from the same stable as Line of Duty. It was set in a Leeds hospital and was very good. We completed it on Friday night.

The sky was clear on Friday night and the temperature dropped to 3ºC. On the upside, this has delivered us a lovely sunny spring weekend.

It would have been a gorgeous day to sail on Saturday, but without a skipper we can’t. Jen opened up the galley, and I was joined by Mike and Da-one (our 13 year old volunteer). We rigged and cleaned the boat and wrote an encouraging message on our portable blackboard. Over the next three hours we had about 50 people come and have look and tour of the boat. Some had hot drinks and food in the galley, and some just enjoyed sitting in the sunshine and enjoying the view. We only had a couple of periods of a few minutes where it was just the crew on the boat. The gentle stream of visitors made it a very relaxed event, and I think about half of them purchased or planned to purchase tickets for a sailing. Overall I feel was successful.

Just as I was about to leave home to go down to the wharf, Nicky and I discovered that we couldn’t find the car keys. I knew I had used them in the afternoon on Friday after Nicky had returned from the Whanganui Museum. I am usually very good about putting them back in the bowl where we keep them. I grabbed the spare keys so that I could get to work. In-between laundry loads, Nicky spent the next 2 hours searching the house and garden I think!. It was all to no avail. When I got back, I continued looking everywhere that I could think of, until Nicky started going through the drawers in the kitchen again, but it wasn’t until she lifted my apron out of a drawer that the car keys fell out of the apron pocket. I had forgotten that I had popped the jigsaws into the car, while I was making pastry for pies to take to work on Saturday morning, and just slipped the keys into the apron pocket for some reason. We were both very relieved to find them.

This morning we watched the Rugby World Cup final. It was a close match, but defeat by one point is still defeat. Interestingly, church today wasn’t starting until late morning, and was scheduled to include a parish lunch and EGM. Nicky was voted back onto Vestry at the meeting, and had a sausage and other goodies at the sizzle. While she was out, I finished the jigsaw (apart from four pieces while I left for Nicky to do). Nicky made us omelettes for tea, followed by dried fruit pasty and custard. We’ll be back to using the telly this evening. It’s tough at the rock-face.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.