Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

With both of having been at work full time, it has been a very work-orientated week. Nicky has been as busy as usual at the library, with the additional task of getting the staff organised for their Christmas breakfast. This is easier said than done with a staff of over 40, most of whom are part time. Meanwhile, I have been running the Advance Polling Facility up at the church. The proximity of the venue has made it a very easy commute, and we were much busier this week, On Thursday we were open until 8pm (we have usually been closing the doors at 4pm). To mark the occasion for myself, Briar and Kelly (my two Issuing Officers), I made some pies (tariaki salmon with kumera, courgette and spring onion) on Wednesday evening, which Nicky then reheated and brought up to us on Thursday evening. Kelly made a pavlova and the smells in the Polling Place seemed to entice even more people to come and cast their vote, while we enjoyed the food. The on Friday we had a very hectic close down of ...

It has been a "nose to the grindstone" sort of week, with Nicky at the library, me at the Polling Station and Claire starting extra hours at Whitcoulls. The number of people using the Advance Voting facility has not been vast, until Saturday, when we were busy frequently for the first time this week, and saw more voters than the rest of the week put together. I have two Issuing Officers working with me and our biggest challenge has been keeping warm. Even though the weather has been mostly sunny, we have had strong southerly winds all week, blowing a gale through the Polling Station as we have to keep the doors open. Still, we are enabling the democratic process and that is why we are there. I have also done some Mac work on a couple of evenings so it has been a full week for me. Now that Claire has finished at University she has taken up permanent residence at Ryan's, but she called in to vote on Thursday after visiting the optician's. She and Ryan also called in...

Finally, it is Sunday night and I am sitting down to write the blog while Nicky is finishing the ironing and after we have just watched Fair Game - a film about the CIA agent who was publicly named during the Iraq war and the evidence that the US knew all along that there were no WMD's. Nicky has had another full week at work, though it has not had any major dramatic events. Claire has sat her last exam; her last formal event of her three years of study for her degree. I don't know when she will get the results, but the three years seem to have flown. Some days I feel I am still just getting used to the routine of Claire not doing the bulk of our shopping, cooking and laundry, which is what she did before starting her degree. Now her Whitcoulls hours start to build up as Christmas approaches. On Tuesday morning Nicky, Claire and Paul (Nicky's brother) met Rachel Cocker at the airport. She had flown in from Buenos Aires after spending the last 10 months or so travelling thro...

Even though it feels like it has been a busy week, I don't have notes of our having done much. I spent quite a bit of the beginning of the week finishing off my last newsletter for the camera club. Claire has been revising and doing two exams, so she hasn't been at Whitcoulls (one of the exams was on Saturday). She has spent most of the week at Ryan's; coming over on Monday so show me his new car, and then for dinner on Thursday, partially because I was cooking roast chicken and Yorkshire puds. We have been quite occupied with road works for most of the week. All the paths on our street are being replaced, and this has meant there have been periods when we couldn't get the car up the drive, so we have been parking at our landlords house on Donovan Street, which backs onto us. As Murphy's law would have it, this was when we had the worst of the weather this week and were not able to benefit from the shelter which our integral garage provides. General Election cam...

Well, we didn't make it to the All Blacks parade up Queen Street last Monday, but around 250,000 others did! Instead we spent the bulk of Labour Day on the beach at Muriwai. It is one of two remaining west coast black beaches which we had not yet visited. It is very long and flat with firm sand and dunes which are eroding. It is the most commercial, or upmarket, depending on your view point, of the west coast beaches that we have been to. The car parking is very organised and landscaped, the toilet and changing facilities are quite modern, and there is a a good café and take away. We strolled for awhile and then just lazed in the sun after eating our picnic lunch. As you can see from this photo, by early afternoon is was getting really busy: The rest of the week as been quite eventful. Claire has been both revising and working on an assignment which replaces the exam for one of her modules. This had to be in on Thursday. Nicky had had a very busy week at work. Tuesday she was o...

Sorry about the delay in posting folks, but we were out very late last night at our local, just for the one night only, Rugby World Cup Fanzone - the big screen in the church. We took drinks and goodies and joined 20 or 30 other folks to cheer the All Blacks to victory. In the end the joy was underlined with relief. It has been a difficult year or so for NZ as a nation, what with the death of the 29 miners at Pike River, the Christchurch earthquakes with their death and destruction, and now the Rena running to ground and shedding oil and containers, victory by the All Blacks was seen as a positive turning point… so long as it happened. Now is has. On the downside it means the chances of National (the Torys) not winning the General Election in November are probably very slim. I had a real treat on Friday. A lady by the name of Ros, who lives in Wellington, bought two tickets for the Bronze Final, which turned out to be Wales - Australia. Via our Vicar (Sarah), who is a friend of hers, s...

We have had a quiet and routine seven days, though we were very pleased to start the week with the All Blacks still in the RWC. Work and Uni have been as busy as ever for Nicky and Claire, and I have done a couple of Mac jobs too - continuing the education of silver-haired ladies in the use of modern technology. On Monday evening I attended the camera club AGM and what will probably be my last meeting as I don't plan to renew my membership. I have found the club quite interesting and quite enjoyed doing the newsletter, but I don't really see photography as a competitive sport so have decided that the club isn't for me. I have joined a group that organises meeting via a website which might be much more my thing. Nicky had another good evening at house group on Wednesday - Helen and Warwick were back and hosting again. We have had quite a bit of rain this week, but the weather has improved over the weekend. Yesterday Nicky and I went to Parnell to have a look at some ne...