Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

I can not blog this week without mentioning the devastating events in Christchurch. At 12.51pm on Tuesday afternoon an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale occurred. At the time of writing (Sunday evening) there have been 147 fatalities and around a thousand hospitalised with injuries, about 10% of which are very serious. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Christchurch. I have been surprised at the emotional impact the earthquake has had on me. We have had no physical impact here in Auckland, some 500 miles north of the event, and no noticeable consequences other than the introduction of the national state of emergency which has been declared in order to manage the nation's resources in the most effective way. The only change in our daily routine has been the 24 hour news coverage on the TV. We have been able to provide only a very small bit of help. On Friday a request started for old phones to be donated. Most people in Christchurch it would seem have these ...

We have had a slightly more normal week, with Nicky being at work for a day and a half, though we have also had an English visitor and Claire has been on holiday. Nicky had Monday afternoon and all day Thursday at New Lynn again. This went well though she was obviously tired on Thursday evening. Claire went to the airport at Monday lunchtime to collect Rachel Rhodes, who she was at school with. Rachel is spending a year working in NZ as part of her Tourism degree, and flew up from Queenstown on her way to Oz for a family 80th birthday party. On Tuesday Nicky had to visit Auckland General to have a heart monitor fitted. The aim of this is to find out if there is any irregularity in her heart rhythm. Irregularities can cause pooling and clotting of the blood. On the way to the hospital we dropped Claire and Rachel off so they could walk to Parnell across the Domain. We met them at Ubertec and the had a wander down Parnell road and consumed refreshments at the Chocolate Boutique. Ryan cam...

Nicky has had a really good week this week, and gone back to work part-time. She is still not "back to normal", but is having longer and more periods of feeling OK. With her having missed out on her two weeks holiday, we have tried to do few things this week. On Tuesday the three of us went to the Morris and James pottery in Matakana to choose a wedding gift for Naomi and Doug. We selected a deep blue platter with pohutukawa flowers. While we were there, I suggested to Nicky that we choose something for each other for a joint Valentines Day gift. After agreeing it would also be a joint wedding anniversary gift for later this year, we choose a sentinal in red and white: After packing our purchases carefully into the boot of the car, we drove on to Omaha and had a stroll along the beach before returning home. On Wednesday we had a family outing to Ponsonby as Claire wanted to go to Nosh (an up-market supermarket) and it gave us the opportunity to wander up and down Ponsonby Roa...

Well, that's January over and done with then. Monday was Auckland Anniversary day (a public holiday). Nicky was having a pretty good day so we went to see Ruth in the afternoon, and then had a very nice ice cream and stroll along Kohimarama beach. Nicky has again had good and bad days so we have been taking each one as it comes. I have had a little Mac work and Claire has done some extra time at Whitcoulls, but that is now tailing off. On Friday Nicky and I popped to the airport to collect Jancis and Nel who are visiting from the UK. Jancis is running the listening course that Nicky is hoping to go on in a couple of weeks. Today has been one of Nicky's best days for ages, so much so that she wanted to do something to celebrate, so I took her out for lunch. I have started a file of "Brunch reviews" from the weekend newspaper supplements which Ros gives us. We picked Tongue & Groove in Birkenhead on the North Shore. Nicky had Warm Lamb salad and a tropical smoothie....

Even thought it has been another quiet week, it has had it's excitement. Claire has done a couple of extra days at Whitcoulls; I haven't had any new Mac work though I do have some booked for next week; and Nicky had a couple of good days on Wednesday and Thursday. Nicky is actually using her annual leave at the moment so that she still gets paid as she has run out of sick leave entitlement. With her having a good day on Thursday I suggested we go to St Lukes when taking Claire to work for 5, have a bite to eat, and go and see "The Kings Speech" at the cinema. She was amenable to this. We had a good selection of Chinese food in the food court, a pleasant surprise in meeting Helen and Warwick in the cinema foyer, and greatly enjoyed the film. Nicky has had a flurry of letters and phones calls this week to arrange her neurologist consultation. The initial arrangement ended up being on Feb 9th at the North Shore Hospital. We though this was pretty good (on the basis that ...

Welcome to this, the 200th post on this blog. It has been 3 years and 5 months since we left England, and the majority of what we have been up to has been documented here. The missing items are the things which I have forgotten or were so routinely mundane (like popping up to the supermarket to buy milk) that I didn't think they would be of interest. Nicky has had another up and down week. She started to notice a pattern of dizziness and nausea coming on a little while after taking her morning medication. So she had a chat with the Doctor and he said to take everything at night so that hopefully she will sleep through these issues. This change of routine started on Monday, and may be the reason why on Tuesday night before taking her medication she had a bad bought of dizziness and nausea and possibly another small TIA. However, she is now settling into the new medication routine and felt really strong on Thursday for the first time this year. Unfortunately, probably while doing her...

We have had another quiet week, with Nicky having some good days and some bad days. On Monday and Tuesday she wasn't great, but Wednesday and Thursday she was feeling a lot brighter. So, we had a wee trip out on Wednesday and went to the rose gardens in Parnell, and strolled down to Judges Bay. The weather was warm and sunny. On the way back we called into Caro's Wine shop to spend our Christmas vouchers. Even though we had only been out for a couple of hours, Nicky went straight to bed when we got back and slept soundly for some hours. On Thursday Ros came over with clothes to discuss their suitability for Naomi and Doug's wedding with Nicky, and then Scrabble. Nicky and I had a WINZ appointment on Friday morning, and then Nicky spent the remainder of the day resting. She didn't feel at all well on Saturday morning so spent the day in bed, while I did the laundry and ironing and had some time in the sun in the afternoon. She has been better today but has still been nee...