Lighter evenings

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 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 Rotokawau on Wednesday morning and spent some time weeding in the back garden in the afternoon.


Wednesday to Friday were cloudy dull days, and yesterday was wet, but today has been a lovely sunny spring day with a cool southerly breeze. Our blossom is now almost finished but the garden and surrounding areas are getting greener:



The quiz team was just Mike, Nicky and myself this week, which explains why we came equal 15th out of 17, with 73 points (8 more than I thought we had scored). The community meal at Te Ao Hou Marae was good again on Thursday. I made a shallot, onion and chive tart and Nicky made a lemon flan. Both went down very well.


We finished watching The Hack this week, a drama about the News of The World newspaper phone hacking scandal. Interesting but depressing. The same can be said of The Big Short, a film about the beginnings of the 2008 global financial crisis. We didn’t understand much of the financial jargon, but we do remember the impact. Last night we started watching series 4 of Trigger Point, which while very tense is at a least fictional drama, though currently the basis of the plot seems very real. We started another jigsaw yesterday because of the rain and have done some more today, but the forecast for the next few days is good so progress might be slower as we occupy ourselves outside.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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