Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

It has been a busy week for me, and consequently a busy end to the month and to the financial year. This has been sufficient in fact to buck the trend for my little business in that this year turnover and profits have picked up and been better than last year. The graph has started to head in the right direction. A couple of weeks ago the downward trend looked set to continue, but the work I have had as March has come to an end has made a significant positive difference. Long may it continue, I hope. The weather at the beginning of the week continued to be mainly sunny, so after doing job in Karekare on Monday morning I took my picnic lunch to the beach and had a wander for an hour or so. I couldn't drive all that way and then not have a walk on the beach! In the evening we had a BBQ for Becky, Stella and co, probably our last of the season, and one which I discovered later in the week we shouldn't have had. I knew there had been a ban due to the fire risk because of the d...

You may have noticed dear reader, that I try to open the blog each week with a bit of a summary, from one perspective or another. I think the best I can manage for this week is warm and busy. The dry fine weather has broken, with some rain at the beginning of the week and some cooler temperatures. The mozzies have celebrated this by doing the rhumba on me at every opportunity, so I am now counting my bites by the dozen so that I don't run out of fingers (for counting on). The clear skies returned around Thursday, and it has been a lovely weekend. The days now start quite cool and the sun is noticeably lower, but at least we aren't having snow drifts like in the UK at the moment (the snow made the news here last night). I have had a busy week with Mac work, with jobs on both Monday and Tuesday, and a full and quite stressful day on Friday. On Wednesday I did my census handover. This marks the official end of the work but we may have a de-briefing at some point in the c...

Change and serendipity have been the themes for this week. Summer may finally be loosing its grip. Monday to Thursday were glorious sunny and almost cloud free days. Cloud started to increase on Friday and Saturday, when there was even a little rain, and today we have had about 20mm of not too heavy rain. This is just what the farmers need as the whole of the North island has been declared a drought area, the first time in 50 years I think. Parts of the South island are suffering too. I have started to do some more planning for our trip to the UK, notably organising our US Visa waivers now that we have got our new passports, and figuring out what to do and more specifically, how to get around, in Vancouver. I had an unexpected treat on Tuesday. After doing some maintenance on a Mac in Whangaparaoa, I took my picnic lunch to Long Bay reserve and walked along the cliff path to Pohutukawa Bay. This is a naturist beach which I have only been to once before. I was much more taken ...

Even though autumn has now officially started, it has been a largely sunny, warm and sometimes hot week. This weekend has been particularly good, with two days of blue skies and very little cloud. At around 4pm this afternoon as I was sunning myself on The Ratigan, it was 28°C in the lounge (with all the windows and the ranch sliders open) and 41°C in the roof. I guess it was somewhere in-between where I was. Nicky has been pretty busy at work as usual. The new medical centre and car park next to the library is now almost complete. MacRay Way, which runs between them, was officially opened yesterday, and I think the car park too. The medical centre should open in April, and the retail units look like they are ready to be filled with tenants. Jancis and Sandra came over for dinner on Tuesday, and it was not quite good enough to BBQ so I grilled the steak. Jancis went to house group with Nicky on Wednesday, and Nicky took Sandra to see the lights of Auckland from the top of Mt ...

The highlight our week dear reader, has to be yesterday (Saturday). We went to Waiheke Island with Bruce and Wendy, Meghan (their daughter) and Marnie (Wendy's mum). I hadn't been to Waiheke before, and Nicky hasn't been since she was knee-high to Moa. Bruce had booked a mini-van so that the six of us could travel round the island in comfort, and because it worked out cheaper to hire the vehicle on the island than to take a car across on the ferry. We offered to provide a picnic lunch for the six of us, so on Friday I bought dips, and made bacon and egg pies and apple and cinnamon brownies (they are brownie shaped). On Saturday morning we cut up carrots, cucumber and capsicum to go with the bagel crisps and dips. We breakfasted and drove into town a parked in the Civic to take advantage of the $8 all-day weekend rate. We met up with B, W, M & M at the Ferry Building and caught to 9.00 sailing over to Waiheke. The warm sunshine was tempered by the wind as we sat ...

It has been a week of constants. Nicky has been constantly busy with work at the library. I have been constantly busy delivering census forms as well as some Mac work. The weather has been constantly wonderful. It has been dry and sunny all week, with only occasional clouds which haven't lasted long. As I start to write this at almost 5 in the afternoon, the HRV control panel tells me that it is 27°C in the hall (which feels cooler than the lounge) and 40°C in the roof. The grass is a nice shade of brown, and we are now starting to get a decent quantity of homemade tomatoes. Bruce and Wendy were with us on Monday. I had hoped to be able to spend most of the day with them but this turned out not to be, as three of my Mac customers were in need of urgent assistance. Nicky was also expecting to have her annual appraisal at work (this didn't end up happening) so hadn't booked the day off. So Bruce and Wendy amused themselves with an amble round Blockhouse Bay. I was able ...

It feels like it has been a busy week, though I think that is largely due to the last few days.  I spent most of Friday driving all over town doing four short Mac jobs. On Saturday I started delivering census forms, which I continued today while Nicky got the house and food ready for Bruce and Wendy's arrival (Peter Cocker's cousin and his wife). Anyway, the week has been one of good sunny weather, with just a bit of rain on a couple of mornings. On Tuesday I spent the day in training for the delivery of census forms. I am one of 7,000 collectors in NZ who will deliver the forms ready for census day on March 5th, and then collect those which have not been completed on the Internet. In the evening Jancis came over for pancakes so we introduced her to pancake stacks (three pancakes with bacon, banana and maple syrup in them, topped with lemon yoghurt). We ate on the Terrance, which when I explained the name to Jancis she said "as in Terrance Ratigan", which inspir...