Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 A slow moving high pressure system has given us a week of clear skies, delivering frosty mornings and glorious sunny afternoons: I even had lunch outside on Friday. It has been crunchy underfoot each day when I have set out for my morning amble. On Tuesday this was from town as I had delivered Luna to the garage for her annual pamper day and warrant of fitness. She enjoyed the pamper. but failed the warrant test so will be in the garage again next week for repair. I wanted to walk the river path from the Dublin Street bridge to Aramoho to see if it was finished, which it was, and a lovely experience it was too. On the walk home I called into the Aramoho Shopping Centre Post Shop and bought a coffee, which I enjoyed drinking while having a bit of a rest. The river was looking very tranquil under the railway bridge: With the weather being settled for the week Nicky has been able to plant all the Renga Renga lilies which we have been given. This involved much weed clearing so we had ...

 We have been away to Raumati on the Kapiti Coast this week, and had a lovely time. Our 4 night stay at the PSA Holiday Home complex was from Monday to Friday. We had been able to book Unit 1, which is the closest to the sea. We packed clothes, food, bedding and towels into the car on Monday and headed south. A stop at Cafe De Molen by the windmill in Foxton for post-picnic lunch tea and coffee was required: The two hours ten minutes door-to-door trip (including the Foxton stop) found us arriving in Raumati a little after 2pm. We parked our car in the allocated parking space where it stayed until we departed on Friday morning. After unpacking and turning on the heating in the unit, a pot of tea was followed by a walk along the beach. We enjoyed the late afternoon sun lighting the hills: As the sun dropped in the sky over Kapiti Island it produced an interesting effect: After dinner we started on the jigsaw which we had taken with us and watched Dr. Hannah Fry explaining the modern ...

 Whanganui is a neat place to live. I ventured into town on Thursday morning as I needed a JP to witness a document for me. It was a straight forward process, so I had 40 minutes to wait for the next bus home. I wandered up from the Court House (where the JP’s hang out) to Article café for a cup of coffee, which was accompanied by an almond croissant. To work off the calories I decided to take a stroll along the boardwalk by the river. My route took me past the Mud Ducks café, and seated in the outdoor area was Phil, the manager of the Riverboat Centre in my first season on the boat. We had a chat and then I was on my way. I popped into The Burrow (deli and café) to see what goodies they had and met Laurie and Louise (friends of Nicky’s from church) having a cuppa, so another chat ensued. The departure time of my bus was approaching so I made my farewells and walked to the bus stop. An elderly lady with a walking stick got on the same bus. When she wanted to get off, she asked the ...

 It has been interesting watching the river the last few days. The heavy rain on Thursday made the river run high and fast on Friday. It was still looking high over the weekend though a little more sedate. When we were in town on Friday (Nicky to another good Fashion Talk at the Whanganui Museum and me doing a bit of shopping) I popped down to see if the boardwalk by the river was under water. It wasn’t, so the river wasn’t as high as a couple of years ago when we had heavy rain in the summer. My week has been impacted by having the first of two shingles vaccinations on Tuesday. The nurse did say there could be side effects. By the evening I was feeling very achey and had an elevated temperature. I took paracetamol on Wednesday and Thursday, but managed without it on Friday as I was feeling improved, but very tired and lethargic. I cancelled having neighbours coming over for dinner in the evening. Saturday was much better, but still some residual tiredness. I should be having my ne...