Cracking thunderstorm Gromit

 On Tuesday evening I met Jackson at the cinema to see Project Hail Mary, the latest film adaptation of one of Andy Weir’s books. We both enjoyed the film but there was a particular sequence that I was looking for that had been mentioned in the review which I had read. The film was peppered with moments of humour; verbal, visual and musical. The sequence I was looking for was where four probes, called Beatles, were dispatched from a spaceship. The reviewer commented that the event was accompanied by an appropriate Beatles song. I thought it might be Across the Universe from the album Let It Be. I was right about the album but wrong about the song, which was Two of Us. The theme from Two of Us that was appropriate for the sequence was that of going home. The song has some vivid lyrics but I wasn’t sure that I had got the correct ones running through my head, so I Googled them. The line that really resonated with me was “You and I have memories / Longer than the road that stretches out ahead”. As I approach the end of my first year of retirement I am aware that based on current statistics I am somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters along that road. I feel that for the majority of my life I have planning for the future, for what needs to come next. At times this has felt like a burden, one which I no longer have to carry, because now I can just plan for today. I no longer have to exchange my time and skills for money. The taxpayers of the country, via the government, fund me to drink coffee and watch the world go by. This is good, as is the coffee.

I had parked the car on Ridgeway on Tuesday evening, and it was dark by the time I was heading home. The illumination of Browns and attached buildings on Drews Avenue was very pleasing to see:

Thursday was wet. Light rain began as we started our day and gradually became heavier. I started a jigsaw and Nicky didn’t have any borrowers at the library. The evening seemed to be drier but just before midnight we were brutally woken by an enormous thunderclap which seems to be right above the house. A power surge disrupted our bedroom digital clock and the internet connection, and the thunder and lightning continued for a good 15 to 20 minutes as it slowly moved away. For the rest of the week the weather has been good - warm and sunny.

After church cleaning on Monday Nicky helped with the weaving of palm crosses. Her regular activities of Home Group and library staffing were punctuated with gardening and laundry. Friday’s delivery of edibles to Unity Foods was followed by a supermarket shop to get things for today’s BBQ.

I started working on removing the two trunks of the unwanted crack willow tree that I had cut down last week (or the week before). With just a hand saw this proved to be very difficult. With this job unfinished and the flowering cherry still needing to be tackled, a pruning saw is the next thing to be saved for on the gardening tools shopping list. For a change of activity I gave three of the palm trees a brown skirt removal by cutting off their lower dead leaves. They look much happier for it. I love the Te Koura palm trees that Nicky has planted for us. They seem so exotic to me, and very un-English.

Our evening TV viewing has been primarily season two of After The Flood, which was good. Not so good was coming 4th, again, at the quiz. We seem to be getting very good at just missing out on the money.

Yesterday morning Nicky helped with tidying at William’s Domain apple and pear orchard where some of the fruit for Unity Foods and the City Mission is grown. I cut the grass and we enjoyed another pot of afternoon tea in the back garden. Nicky prepared a chicken Thai soup for dinner from our Mary Berry cookbook.

Nicky has spent much of today preparing potato salad and damson trifle for this evening. We went to Danny and Mel’s home along with Mike and John from the quiz team to celebrate Mel’s 40th birthday. Their two boys did a “show” which was a way of presenting Mel with their birthday gift for her. Danny BBQ’d sausages and the meat contributions and had organised a Classic Movie Questions quiz. After the children went to bed we played Articulate and a Spoonerism game with a side order of dessert. A lovely way to end the week.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.