Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

  Not many people know this, but Whanganui is UNESCO’s only New Zealand City of Design. This is being celebrated with the Design Festival, so on Wednesday evening after the quiz Nicky and I, accompanied by Mike, went to see the City of Design Festival Lights. The photos below don’t do them justice as they were constantly changing. The spirals on the grass were quite intriguing, and yes, that is a carillon, that the eagle-eyed among you have spotted. The lights from the roof of the Sarjeant Gallery played on the buildings in the cultural quarter and into the night sky. It was really quite impressive and we were pleased we had been to see them. The weather has been good to very nice, so laundry has been easily dried, and the garden has had quite a bit of attention. Nicky has done all her usual activities and when we quizzed we came 4th with 93 points. We have enjoyed re-watching the first series of Ludwig in preparation of the second series starting this evening. We had a lovely driv...

 The week began with a day reminiscent of summer. I cut the grass while mulling over what to produce for dinner with tuna as the protein. A range of salads seem appropriate by mid afternoon to celebrate the lovely weather. By Thursday it was raining, and very wet. This started to ease off on Friday when a strong southerly wind chilled us and continued into Saturday, though with some abatement. Today started dull, but the afternoon has been sunny. Nicky made lemon and orange muffins for her Home Group on Tuesday to celebrate some birthdays. While out shopping I called into Mitre 10 to buy a drill bit and a replacement outdoor tap. In the afternoon I fitted the tap and used the new drill bit to attach the Council provided nets to the recycling bins. So the nets stop the contents being blown out by the wind. Wednesday was very humid which I really noticed while working in the garden. I tidied the palette by the shed so that we could store the bags of compost on it instead of keeping t...

  It was Mike’s birthday on Monday and he invited us to join him for dinner. We went to The Glasshouse, a recently re-opened restaurant at one of the motels on Victoria Avenue, Whanganui”s CBD main drag. From what we had read, the proprietors are not aiming for fine dinning, but for better than the average than is available in Whanganui. I think they have hit that mark pretty well, but ultimately we were disappointed. We ordered buretta and charred cherry tomato pitas, and miso pork belly bites to share as entrées. The pork belly was quite salty and served with raw shredded garlic which was not well received. Mike enjoyed his main course of Angus steak, and my market fish in a Thai green curry sauce was good. Nicky’s pork chops in honey and mustard sauce was dry and the mustard overpowering. We finished with creme brûlée which was the best dish of the meal. I wasn’t thrilled with the furniture as the central table support didn’t leave me enough room for my legs, a the cutlery was a...

 Having lighter evenings this week has been good after changing the clocks last weekend. We have noticed it particularly with a couple of our evening regular events; quizzing and the community meal. Nicky had an appointment with the doctor on Monday to discuss the increasing pain in her shoulders. He confirmed her suspicions of the return of polymyalgia and prescribed suitable medication, which is already helping. After her hairdressing appointment on Tuesday morning, she popped into the Indian spice shop to buy some more psyllium husk and also bought me two of their excellent Samoas for my lunch. She was given a third one for free. I thoroughly enjoyed them, but they are too spicy for Nicky’s liking. Shane the Sparky, and his daughter (it’s school holidays) came and fixed the outdoor power socket on Tuesday morning. In the process, he also converted it from a single to a double socket which is helpful. I got the grass cut and did the shopping in the afternoon. I ambled round Lake ...