Birthdays

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 As usual with the approach to Christmas, our days are just getting busier. Also as usual in mid December, there are very important birthdays. Nicky had two Christmas celebrations to attend on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. I trimmed the berm and garden.


On Wednesday we both had a chat with Claire to wish her happy birthday. We also had the pleasure of Clem, Pat and Phil calling in late morning. Phil is over from the UK so the three of them were doing a road trip. After a couple of nights in New Plymouth they were on their way to Hawkes Bay. It was lovely to see them and catch up with Phil. 


After they left Nicky zipped off to the last Book Club meeting of the year with a plate, for a shared Christmas lunch. Meanwhile I made her birthday cake and did some MacOnSite calls. Her next stop was hospital visiting, then home for dinner before going off to the quiz. Somewhere along the line she picked up or ate something which her digestive system didn’t like. As a result we didn’t linger at the quiz so don’t know where we finished, but a text on Thursday informed us that we had scored 86 points.


Nicky’s birthday on Thursday was a little more routine. Her digestion was still feeling sore and she was staffing the Aramoho Library. I was sailing, and returned home quite damp, before collecting Nicky from the library. I cooked some Porterhouse steak for dinner and we had some birthday cake with a cuppa for dessert.



Our main birthday celebration was on Friday evening. Mark (up the road) runs murder mystery evenings and gave us a mates rate for a couple of tickets. The venue was Bushy Park, very suitable for late 19th century despicable doings. Neville Gorrie delivered a party of guests in his old double-decker London Bus.



The weather was gorgeous and the evening enjoyable. Each course of the meal was punctuated with murderous acting and evidence was accrued. We didn’t correctly deduce which of the actors was the murderer, but it didn’t matter. The high spirits of the other guests added to the enjoyment, along with Nicky knowing all the actors (fellow parishioners) and getting to know locals and visitors sitting at our table.


Mark (up the road) and Krystyna had invited us and a number of others for pre-Christmas drinks and nibbles on Saturday evening. Here we met members of other quiz teams, and locals who were new to us. The food, unsurprisingly, was fantastic (especially the home made chicken liver pate and mince pies) and the vodka shots slipped down tastily. We were the first to arrive and leave because I was really tired. Work for and on the boat has been very busy. Bob the Bosun and I moved 4200kg of coal from storage to the wharf on Tuesday, and we sailed Thursday, Friday,  Saturday and Sunday. The two late nights on Wednesday and Thursday and the increasing hot weather added to my fatigue.


Today has been another warm and sunny day, like much of the week. This has enabled Nicky to spent much time in the garden weeding and the CBD is looking much better for it. We drove to St. Paul’s at Putiki this morning as there wasn’t a service at Christ Church. I walked from Putiki to work which was very pleasant and provided some alternate views of town:



Nicky enjoyed Holy Communion in Te Reo before returning home to ironing and weeding. My two sailings went well. The morning one was the Santa Cruise which was very busy, and the afternoon one a very quiet charter. We have had a late dinner while watching telly.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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