Sociable

 It feels like it has been a very people centric week, helped by the fact that the wet and windy weather hasn’t made it a garden centric week. We drove back from our lovely weekend in Wellington on Monday. Most of the way we were in sunshine but about 20 minutes from home we were under the cover of cloud. Stephen was driving down from Auckland on his mission to deliver a kayak to friends in Golden Bay (top of the South Island) and was staying with us on Monday night. He arrived safely in the afternoon, and he and Nicky played Scrabble after dinner.

Tuesday was a quiet day of shopping, laundry and Home Group for Nicky. Steve left for Wellington quite early to catch the ferry. Nicky was at the dentist on Wednesday morning and I popped into town in the afternoon. I started my hunt for glass bottles to recreate the seven used in the logic puzzle in the penultimate chapter of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone. I found a couple of interesting ones in op-shops but they were not quite what I had in mind, so will have to continue my quest, even though I don’t have Sir Cadogan to advise me.

When I returned home from town, John was already getting round his first cup of tea. We met up with him again later at the quiz, where we came 3rd with 89 points.

I went off to see Dr Rose on Thursday morning to discuss vaccinations and general health issues now that I am a Grown Up. She recommended the shingles vaccine which I can have for free while I am 65 (but not a day older), and sent me off for blood tests in the afternoon. She also wants me to have a cardiovascular risk assessment which I am now booked in for next week. Nicky had a quiet day at the Aramoho Library, and Steve arrived to stay the night on his journey back home. He took us out for dinner at the Spice Guru which we all thoroughly enjoyed. The weather turned mild with a northerly breeze at the evening felt almost balmy.

Steve headed for home on Friday morning, and we headed to St. John’s Hill for morning tea and coffee with Libby (Nicky’s book club) and Graham. We managed to avoid the heaviest of the showers while getting in and out of the car. Nicky felt in dire need of some sleep after lunch, so she nipped off to bed while I snoozed in my chair. Phil (from the boat) and Kristina had invited us for dinner, so I put a platter of nibbles together to take with us. Kristina produced roast venison wrapped in bacon with a wide selection of roast veggies, followed by chocolate and raspberry pudding with custard. We did not leave hungry!

The rain continued yesterday so we started a jigsaw. The rain freshened the colours in the paddock behind us in the morning:

By late afternoon the river was looking very full and the light golden:

Mark (next door but one) popped round to return a DVD and tell us about the theft from their garden shed. He was interested to learn that we already knew about it (Kingi next door had told Nicky last weekend) because he said they hadn’t told anybody about it. Kingi had picked up the burglar on his CCTV, stealing from them twice, a few hours apart. All that was stolen from Mark and Elaine was a broken chainsaw. The bolt and lock on the shed door were damaged.

Nicky made pizzas (with her own dough) for tea which was lovely, and then we settled down to watch the Sewing Bee final. This morning was again wet as Nicky left for church. I did some more jigsaw and the ironing and didn’t amble until the weather dried up this afternoon.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.