Chocolate Duck

By -

 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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quiet winter?

By -
Image
When this week began I thought our “busy” period was over. Covid had clobbered us, just as my season on the paddle steamer came to end, Helen from Auckland stayed a couple of nights, Claire came up from Dunedin and stayed a few nights, then we had a few nights in Raumati. Winter was beginning and we were heading for some P&Q. How busy could it be… Nicky slipped back into her usual routine commitments; vestry cleaning, home group, and staffing the Aramoho Community library. After vestry on Monday she did lots of errands in town, returning mid afternoon and having snooze in the Room of Requirement. Wednesday was two visits to the dentist to have crowns three and four fitted. The morning appointment went fine, but the afternoon one was a much more difficult and three hours longer experience than expected. She required much more anaesthetic and still has some swelling in her jaw and gums today. She will be back to the dentist again this week for a post-treatment assessment.   Nicky inv
Read more

Another Family Visit

By -
Image
 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 the
Read more

One More Sleep

By -
Image
 Our weather has been warm and sunny this week, but the weekend was hot and humid which wasn’t so pleasant. As ever in the run up (or down!) to Christmas, we are busy with some time dependent tasks, while some regular commitments take a break for the holidays. Nicky’s week didn’t start too well. She did a little weeding (in her PJ’s) while directing me to where she wanted me to do the trenching. While going to deposit the weeds in the green bin, Nicky walked into our open bedroom window, when distracted by a tractor engine starting up. She had abrasions, and bruising on her face and damage to her glasses. She was later due in town for church cleaning and a hairdressing appointment, so while she was there, called into the opticians who were able to repair her glasses for free. The weather induced the washing machine to be used and the car to be cleaned. I also did some MacOnSite work and Nicky did the ironing after dinner whilst we watched telly. Tuesday was a visit to the doctor for Ni
Read more