Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

The weather has been sunny for most of the week, but the heaters have been really appreciated first thing in the morning for taking the chill off the lower overnight temperatures. Nicky has been as busy as ever at the library, and I have had a good week work-wise too. When I get paid for it the bank balance will gain a welcome improvement for a little while. On Monday I made some pork pies, using the Hairy Bikers recipe, on the whole. Their recipe was to make four 2-person pies. For the pastry this required 50g of butter and 150g of lard. I replaced the lard with rice bran oil, curious to see how it would turn out. I also omitted the jelly as I don't like it and it is the worst part of the pie to make. The end results were very interesting. I was very pleased with the pastry as it had the crunchiness that you expect with a pork pie, without having to use a pneumatic drill to get through it. The filling was OK, not as good as Dickinson & Morris (Of Melton Mowbray), as ...

We have had a wetter week this week, but when the sun has come out it has warmed the house nicely. The temperatures are dropping and last night was clear so we can feel a bit of a nip in the air today. Consequently, I have broken out our two main column heaters from the garage this afternoon. They have timers on them so I have set them to come on a little before we get up as the beginning of the day is the coolest.  Nicky has had another busy week, both at work and with two prayer group evenings this week. I have been doing my usual household task, running errands and doing a bit of Mac work. I saw a new customer this week who lives close to Claire, and due to the inclement weather and good timing I ended up picking her up from Whitcoulls on Wednesday and running her home. Yesterday we had a very late start to the day (Saturday is the only day Nicky has the chance of a lie-in) but really enjoyed our brunch. We popped down to the library in the afternoon to listen to an Ar...

The weather has become more autumnal this week, with some sunny days and some rainy days, but it has been a fun week all the same. While checking our bank account on Tuesday morning I noticed there was more money than I was expecting - always nice. On investigation I discovered we had won some money with the Bonus Bonds, our first win. (Bonus Bonds are like Premium Bonds) Yippe!! It took me all to day to decide how to spend the $20, and it went on food in the end, but it's the principle which is important. Now we have won once, the $1 million prize can't be far away. Can it? The other major event, which unlike my Bonus Bonds win did make the national news, was the capture of a fly, a Queensland Fruit fly to be specific. This is an Australian pest which if it took hold here could destroy the whole of the NZ fruit growing industry apparently. The news reported that the fly was caught in Mt Roskill, ie: just down the road from us, but the following day the location had c...

They have done it - and it is all the sweeter with their main rivals being United. For those of you who haven't been paying attention, Sheffield Wednesday have finished the season second in League One, beating Sheffield United to the the automatic promotion place by 3 points. As the season drew to a close United were in second place and Wednesday in third for a number of weeks. Then they switched places and with just a few games to go I have been checking the results with bated breath each week to see if Wednesday could maintain their second place behind Charlton, and avoid the promotion play-off's. With the last games of the season yesterday they did just that, so will be playing Championship football next season. That's still Division Two in old money, but better than Division Three. Back here, the weather has been lovely this week. Warm sunny days tempered with a gentle southerly breeze, though by mid-morning on Saturday the wind eased and it was a still and very w...

It has been a pretty quiet week - Nicky has been home every evening! Work has been busy for Nicky, and I have had my spirits bolstered by some Mac work, mainly on Friday. The weather has also been lovely most of the week, with lots of sunshine. We had some rain on Thursday evening, showers at the beginning and the end of the day on Friday, and then a few more Saturday morning. This didn't stop us getting all the washing dry yesterday, and Nicky ironed it during the evening while watching the telly box. Claire popped over on Monday morning to copy the Graduation photos which I had taken. She stayed quite awhile (drinking my coffee) and we spent so much time talking about food that she got quite hungry and decided to cook vegetable fried rice for us for lunch, which I greatly enjoyed, even though she hadn't brought any of the ingredients with her! Wednesday was ANZAC day and for the fist time (we think), Nicky got the whole day off. Nicky drove to the Museum for the daw...

The highlight of this week for us was, without doubt, Claire's Graduation. This was on Thursday at the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna.  Claire and Ryan went to Takapuna before Nicky and I so that she could pick up her gown and get ready for the procession through town. We had an early lunch before driving up and having fun finding parking. We didn't spot Claire in the procession until the very end, but we had no problem seeing her on stage to be "capped" and receive her degree. As you can imagine, both proud parents shed a tear. A bit over 23 years ago we didn't know if we we even get her out of hospital. There was was a babe in the Special Care Unit where Claire spent her first three months who had her first birthday while Claire was there. To see her walk across the stage and receive the public recognition of all her hard work, and not only for the last three years, was quite emotional. After the ceremony we all drove back to Mt Eden and have a lovely Indian m...

Just incase you can't remember, last Monday was Easter Monday and therefore a public holiday. It was a lovely sunny day so we decided to go to Shakespear Regional Park on the Whangaparaoa peninsula, and while we were there, return some serving tongs to Clem and Pat which had got left behind at our house after our last family do. I wanted to go to Pink Beach, but when we got to the park I missed getting into the car park I was planning to park in because I was just following the guy in front. We stopped in the middle of the park to look at the view, and decided to leave the car there. We started walking towards Pink Beach via a lookout point which gave us some spectacular views. However, Nicky needed to loo so we changed direction and headed downhill to the main beach at Te Haruhi Bay. This is a really nice beach and we ended up staying quite awhile and eating our picnic lunch. Rested and refreshed we started walking round the park to Pink Beach. Once we got there is realised ...