Wobbling at the weekend

 Our week began with the final of the football World Cup. It was an early start (7am here) and like many finals, a little dull. Nicky went back to bed at half time, as she had also had a poor night. Spain won, and deservedly so as they were the better side on the day. Argentina didn’t even have a shot at goal. It appeared from quite early on in the match that Argentina were aiming for a penalty shoot-out. Writing this now, on the following Sunday, it all seems a very long time ago.

To celebrate the culmination of the World Cup, which we have enjoyed, we took advantage of the sunshine and did the laundry. Ambling, cleaning and reading were also on our list of celebratory activities. In the evening Frances and Lyn (from across the road) joined us for dinner. I roasted a leg of pork and some spuds, and served it with what has turned out to be an almost never-ending brassica delight and some of Nicky’s damson jus. This goes very well with meat. We had one of Nicky’s Key Lime pies for dessert along with an apple, pear and lemon curd tart which I rustled up. This was washed down with a Peter Yealand Pinot Gris that someone had given us and was very nice.

It was a very cold start on Tuesday morning with dropping to 1º overnight. Nicky was feeling decidedly under the weather with a headache-less migraine which had been niggling for a few days and now really asserted itself. While driving into town to do the supermarket shopping I had a phone call from Mike which I let go to voicemail. When I called him back I discovered he was in hospital and in need of some foundation garments. After purchasing our groceries and comestibles I popped into The Warehouse and then onto the hospital. Mike was in good spirits but the medics still had some concerns about him. I stayed and chatted for a while and he was discharged later in the week, to convalesce with Marton friends.

On Wednesday morning I went up to Virginia Lake for my amble, the first time since before the World Cup. I took a slightly different route which gave me a different view of the lake:

Nicky wasn’t right on Wednesday morning but was feeling a bit brighter. This didn’t last so she had a quiet day and didn’t join us at the quiz. This was unfortunate, as I think she would have gained us 3 or 4 points which would have significantly improved our 9th place with 87. Nicky felt well enough to staff the Aramoho Library on Thursday, and I took Luna into town for her annual service and warrant of fitness (like the MoT). This is always a slightly tense day with Luna now being 21 and possibly in need of major repairs. Unlike last year, much to our relief she passed her warrant without any problems and I was able to collect Luna after lunch and then also Nicky from the library. We did The Listener crossword with a pot of tea and after dinner started watching the new series of Bergerac. We enjoy the Jersey scenery, as it reminds us so much of Guernsey.

Apart from finishing the jigsaw that we had started a week or so earlier, Friday was a quiet and routine day. Saturday however started early at 4.51am with a long 5.9 earthquake that woke us both. For those of you in the UK, here is a screenshot of the event from the GeoNet smartphone app:

We can use the app to report how strongly we felt the quake, as other folks do, and the results are the orange/red areas on the map. The item of information that I don’t understand is “Quality: Best”. Does this mean the seismologists think it was a good quality quake, as opposed a rubbish one?

The weather was quite wet yesterday (Saturday), so I didn’t go for my amble until mid morning when I thought we were going to have a dry patch. Wrong. I caught the bus into town and got off at the hospital with the intention of walking into town along the river path and via two bridges. Before I got to the first bridge the rain had started again and while not heavy, it was very wetting. I decided just to continue into town on the river side path, and was very pleased to reach Recaffinate and have some warmth and a good cup of coffee. When I went back outside, it had stopped raining, but it returned heavily in the afternoon. This time it was Nicky who was out in the rain, walking down the road to feed Denise’s moggy. I decided to be chivalrous and go and transport her in the car. This of course caused the rain to stop. While she dried out at home I made a pumpkin cheesecake which can best be described as average. We played Mah Jong before dinner and watched telly afterwards.

Today has been a quiet day of church this morning for Nicky, and reading and ambling for me. Nicky reported that it was 8º when she returned from Christ Church, so there is little compulsion to weed. I continue to enjoy all the humour in the Tim Sullivan series of whodunits, with the detective George Cross, who is on the spectrum. Nicky has been continuing to listen on audiobook, to the thriller series by Tim Weaver of an investigator looking for the lost. Little humour, but intriguing storylines. She has also discovered Sharon Bolton on audiobook this week. She is reading her third Abraham Verghese book, The Tennis Partner with some relish.

We had four games of Mexican Train with afternoon tea. Perhaps another episode of Bergerac after dinner, and we are looking forward to watching a new series of What Not to Eat. We feel we are pretty good on nutrition, but we often discover an intriguing fact or two. We’ve been enjoying Sandi Toksvig’s series on the southern coast of France. Sandi is always good value.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.