Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 While it has been a more routine week, there have been a couple of developments. We had always planned for the second bedroom, now known as The Room of Requirement, to be Nicky’s sewing room. Our hope had been that we could also use it as a guest bedroom. Unfortunately its limited size makes achieving these functions a challenge. In addition, since the early days of our living here we discovered what a lovely room it was to sit in. Many years ago when Nicky worked at the Sutton Bonnington campus of Nottingham University, the library had a re-fit. In the process the lovely big 6’x4’ oak tables were being thrown out. Nicky asked if she could have a couple as they would be just great for her to use for quilting and sewing. One weekend we hired a van and collected a couple. We didn’t start using them until we moved into Matata Street in Blockhouse Bay and set one up as our dinning table. After three years of trying to use them in the way we intended in The Room of Requirement and fail...

 The week didn’t start well with England’s defeat in the EURO24 final. Spain were the better team, but football is probably still wandering in the wilderness. Enough said. Almost 18 years ago, when we still lived in England, we bought a dozen tumblers from IKEA. Decorated with two different styles of patterns of dots, they were a good size and shape and had a well weighted base. They were for use at Claire’s 18th birthday celebration and so we viewed them as Claire’s tumblers. By the time we left England I suspect a couple had already succumbed to the force of gravity and landing on the unforgiving terracotta tiled floor of the kitchen (a floor which claimed more crockery and glassware than any other we have lived with). Over the years in Aotearoa their number have slowly diminished. Claire didn’t take them to Dunedin with her, trusting the remaining ones to our loving care. This week, the twelfth one has broken, the result of a saucepan lid toppling over on the draining board. The...

 I don’t think the penalty was justified, but who am I to question the decisions of a football referee. England won and with their semi-final victory still tingling in their feet, they will face Spain tomorrow morning NZ time. We will see if football finally comes home, but even if it does, I don’t expect it will hang around for very long. In other feats of athletic activity, I have ambled everyday this week (don’t snigger). This is the first time for many years that I have had a walk every day. I have been helped by the high pressure system that has been sitting over us for the past 10 days or so. We have been waking to chilly, sometimes foggy, mornings before being bathed in winter sunshine by mid morning. While still chilly outside, the solar gain from our big north-facing windows make it T-shirt weather inside until late afternoon.   Much of the back garden is shaded by the house at this time of year, so weeding and strimming has been primarily an afternoon activity. Nicky...

 It has been quite a week for the English abroad, watching history unfold from a distance. From mid-morning until late afternoon on Friday we watched the BBC’s Election coverage of Labour returning to government after 14 years on the opposition benches. This is a much more palatable time of the day for watching the results come in, and we pottered round the house doing some of the jigsaw and some ironing as the day progressed. It was also very pleasing to see the BBC doing their thing. Much better reporting and presenting than we get here. The other significant event, of course, was the English football team getting through to the semi-finals of EURO 24. I’m still not sure how they managed it, but they did. I was up at 3.50am this morning in order to watch the match live, and then the Netherlands-Turkey game to find out who our opponents would be. After all that I was too jaded for second breakfast so when Nicky went to church I went back to bed for a snooze. It’s tough being a fan...