Retirement Day 7

 My first week of official retirement has involved quite a bit of cleaning. The shower floor and drain were done on Monday. On Wednesday Nicky held the ladder for me while I cleaned the high windows at the north end of the living room. We also took down all the glassware and washed it, cleaned the shelf they stand on, dusted the fairy lights and re-hung them using map pins in place of mangy blue-tak. We also cleaned the top of the book cases, washed all the pottery and did some artwork re-arrangement.

I am interested to note that even in my fist week of retirement, my sleeping pattern has begun to change (and nor getting up as early) as have my energy levels for doing things around the house. Not having to take into account that I still need to go to work has been more significant than I expected.

Most days I have also had an amble, assisted with laundry, and done some cooking, including my best pumpkin pie yet. The pumpkin had been roasted as opposed to boiled and I think that was the source of the better flavour. However, the pastry wasn’t quite cooked so I will bake the base blind next time. I made lemon curd and a cheesecake, in preparation for Claire’s arrival today. The cheesecake has lemon curd in the filling and orange curd as the topping, a combination I haven’t tried before. Lady Peter was disappointed not to have access to some curd to put on her toast, so I made another batch of orange curd on Friday.

My Waimarie uniform has been washed, ironed and returned, though I my request I have been allow to keep the trousers, shorts and jacket. I bought myself some new socks and handkerchiefs on Friday - a rare treat.

Nicky has also been busy with cleaning and floor mopping, aside from helping me and doing laundry. She was on her own doing the church cleaning on Monday as Dale is convalescing after her surgery. She has also attended Home Group and staffed the Aramoho Library. When possible, she has been planting the ringa-ringa Lillies that we were given and the plants she bought in Mitre 10 recently. The fungi in the garden have also been putting on a display this week:

On Thursday Craig delivered the Oamaru stone water feature that we had seen at the Open Studios weekend in March. At the time it wasn’t quite finished. Nicky has already bought a half-barrel and a pump for the feature, so now we need to do a little plumbing and sort out a power supply for the pump. Jacqui also came over to discuss hats with Nicky and stayed for a cuppa and a catch up, which was good.

The weather has been quite variable so we started a jigsaw on Wednesday. It is a map of the world, and too large to fit on our Porta-Puzzle so we are using the garden table for meals and the puzzle is occupying the gate leg table.

We quizzed on Wednesday, coming 2nd with 89. On Friday evening we watched King Richard, the film about Richard Williams and his tennis playing daughters. It was very good.

Yesterday we did a little shopping in town and called in on Dale and Bob to see how they were doing. We had a very enjoyable evening and meal over at Krystyna and Mark’s, and made some more progress with the jigsaw.

Today before going off to church Nicky continued preparing the Room of Requirement for Claire’s arrival. I did kitchen cleaning and when Nicky returned we had a bite of lunch before setting off for Palmerston North airport. Claire arrived a little early and we drove back to Whanganui in the sunshine. After a pot of tea and a bit of settling in, Nicky started making my birthday carrot cake and producing dinner, while Claire and I continued with the jigsaw and took an amble round the garden. It is very good to have Claire visiting again for a few days.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.