Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Friday this week was our 27th wedding anniversary. We had decided to celebrate by visiting Gibbs Farm on the Kaipara coast. The farm is only open for public visits for one day a month, so Nicky booked Thursday and Friday as annual leave as Thursday the 21st was the June open day. We arrived around 10.30 after a pleasant drive up Highway 16 and were met at the gate, given a map, and told that they let the lions out at 2pm so we had better be away by then. Gibbs Farm is around 4 hectares of undulating countryside owned by Alan Gibbs, a NZ entrepreneur. He commissions artists to produce big works for his "farm". There are also animals (giraffe, alpaca, ostrich, hairy cows and sheep) on the "farm", but it was the sculptures which attracted Nicky and I. We had seen a feature on TV back in March of the latest work to be installed which reminded me of Anthony Gormley's "Angel of the North" (for those not familiar with this have a look at http://en.wikip...

Winter has made its' presence felt this week with our coldest temperatures of the year so far. It has been down to 3° a couple of nights due to the clear skies, but those same skies have of course given us some lovely sunny days. Getting out of the chilly southerly wind into a sun trap has been wonderful. We have had some rain too, just for variety. Nicky has had another full week at work, and I have done a couple of Mac jobs. One of these was just down the road from Claire so I popped in for a quick visit (twice actually). The quilting group which Nicky got involved with when she worked in Ranui were holding an exhibition this weekend. She took a couple of quillos over on Friday morning before going to work (she was starting late with doing a late night duty), and then went back again on Saturday to help "man" (or woman) the event. The weather has been good all weekend so much laundry has been washed an ironed. Today Nicky was in prison this morning and the...

We have had a very quiet, and disappointing week. Monday was a public holiday courtesy of the Queen's Birthday, and for the 52nd year in a row there was nothing for me in the honours list. More waiting. In the small hours of Sunday morning Nicky started with a migraine, the first for 14 months. As a result, she has been off work all week apart from Friday. We finished my birthday jigsaw and enjoyed Monday's afternoon sun. I did some Mac work on Tuesday, and Claire came over on Wednesday and took me to the Stardome to have a look at the transit of Venus (but it was too cloudy) and then joined us for lunch. On Wednesday evening we watched delayed coverage of the Jubilee concert which we quite enjoyed, and today Nicky has been given a recording of four hours of the Jubilee river pageant. Nicky and I have spent much of the week enjoying listening to an audio book of "Betrayal" by Clare Francis. It was a who-dunit written from the point of view of one of the susp...

Winter began this week, on Friday, and to celebrate the Met Service gave us two glorious sunny days. We had some rain at the beginning of the week but, most of the time it has been OK. Nicky has been battling with a cold, and took Wednesday off work because all the coughing was keeping her awake and causing her to vomit. A day of rest really helped. I did some Mac work on Monday but the rest of the week has been largely domestic. On Thursday I went on a guided tour of the Wynyard Quarter, part of the waterfront which is undergoing redevelopment as a public area. It was very interesting to hear about some of the details behind what we see as the general public, the engineering, the art and the design decisions. It was entertaining and informative. I treated myself to some sushi on the way back to the bus stop on Queens Street, along with some window shopping. Saturday, as many of you will know, was my birthday. The weather was fantastic; as sunny as Friday but the chilly s...

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...