Chocolate Duck

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 We started this week with an early morning chat with Felicity. We were very pleased to learn that she expects to move to Knellwood (round the corner and down the road a bit from Hilder Gardens) in the next few weeks. While Nicky was cleaning at church I did the trenching and cut the berm. We both went to the doctors for a consultation, primarily about her injured wrist. Referral to the physio who treated me was organised. When paying for the consultation we discovered that our application for Community Services cards had been successful, and that they were already in the Aramoho Medical Centre’s system. This brought the cost down from $48 to $20 - a very useful saving.


Our actual Community Services cards arrived in the post on Tuesday. In addition to reduced doctors and prescription fees, we also get half price public transport. I’ll be able to get into town for $1! Unfortunately the benefits don’t extend to the petrol station or the cinema, but we did get a free cinema ticket due to Nicky’s loyalty card on Tuesday morning. We thoroughly enjoyed, and were quite moved by, The Great Escaper. Based on a true story it tells of a Royal Navy veterans’ trip to France for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. The issues of age and loss were handled very well. The film is made more poignant knowing that it is Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson’s last films. He is finally retiring and Glenda Jackson died last year shortly after filming.


Our Tuesday evening was a happy affair as Phil and Kristina came over for dinner. I baked a pork, bacon and apple pie, and followed with a lemon curd cheesecake. They gave us some lovely chocolates with a very cute duck:



A trip into town on Wednesday morning to run various errands concluded with tea and coffee at Diane and John’s home out in Fordell to collect the parish hospital visiting bag. By the time we left there didn’t seem much point in going home for lunch and then driving back to the hospital for Nicky to visit patients. Instead we stayed in town and had lunch at Chasing Pies. We have been wanting to try their pies for a good couple of years and they didn’t disappoint. I did some MacOnSite work and we concluded the day by joining the quiz team and coming third with 96 points. Neither of us had any clue about any of the 10 questions in the music round. We had to leave them to the rest of the team.


Since then I have been back at work doing a sailing every day. The largely sunny weather has been accompanied by some cool winds, and there has been some rain. Nicky staffed the Community Library on Thursday and then on Friday was a volunteer hostess at a NZ Homes and Gardens house tour. The event was to raise funds for breast cancer and eight homes and one garden in Whanganui were open to the public on Friday and Saturday. They sold over 1,000 tickets, so it was relentless. It was a tiring and chilly day at 11 degrees for her.


Nicky was busy doing household laundry on Saturday morning and started doing some biscuit baking for church. We enjoyed our afternoon cuppa in the back garden. The naked lady lilies in the fernery are looking great:




Nicky had a Sausage Sizzle lunch and an early afternoon service at church today, followed by an AGM which lasted the rest of the afternoon. Hot cross buns and cheese for tea will be followed by some telly. We started watching The Staircase this week and recored two more episodes last night.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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