Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

The autumn rain made its presence felt for the beginning of the week, but sunshine interleaved with showers from Thursday onwards, following major thunder and lightening on Wednesday evening. Work kept me busy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening. In between times I performed my usual duties and continued getting things ready for our trip to the UK. Nicky has been at work even though she is still not completely well. She is improving little by little but wasn't up to prison prayer group on Monday night. On Tuesday afternoon we had an excursion to Mt Roskill for her mammogram.  Thursday was a public holiday for ANZAC day, and we went over to help Stella with packing up, prior to departing from Duart Avenue on Friday. This all went pretty well, and Stella, Katie and Tim are now with us and preparing themselves for their new roles as our house sitters. Saturday was a day for errands - collecting Claire's IKEA chair from Jancis and Nicky's new eternity rin...

Autumn has started to arrive this week with rain most days, but the temperatures are still in the low 20's and when we get some sun it's still warming. I have had Mac work most days, and did a modelling session at AUT (Auckland University of Technology) in Town on Friday morning. Had a good chat with Claire on Wednesday over a coffee. Nicky has come down with a bad cold this week and shouldn't really be going into work, but they are short staffed and she doesn't have any sick leave left, so we have had a very quiet weekend at home, mainly reading. We did go out to do a bit of sheepskin slipper shopping yesterday morning, and I popped up to the supermarket to buy tissues and soup, but we have been home the rest of the time. The weather has made getting the laundry done a bit more of a challenge, but we managed it between us so have had lots of lovely ironing to do for exercise this weekend! It has been a quiet week. Take care, Rick

No public holidays this week (much sighing stage left), so the sunny weather has been observed through the windows as opposed to being experienced at the beach. Never mind. It is chilly first thing in the morning but the sun is very warming during the day. Nicky has been as busy as ever at the library, and I had Mac work on Wed, Thurs and Friday. I picked up our travel documents this week and was quite surprised how things have changed since we arrived five and a half years ago. No actually physical air tickets any more - they are all electronic ones now. Also, the baggage limits have been reduced - we can only have 20Kg each! Claire came over on Friday to borrow thread, cereals and coffee. Not sure we will see any of them again but I have fond memories. In the evening we watched Birdsong on DVD, the film of the Sebastian Faulks book, a story of love and war set between 1910 and 1918. A the start of the DVD we could see that the film was in two parts, so I suggested to Nicky ...

We started the week, and the month, with a day off, due to it being Easter Monday. Always a good way to start the week. We had sort of thought of going to the beach but the weather wasn't quite as good as it could have been, and Nicky wasn't too well and was needing the toilet every few minutes. The weather was good enough for us to use The Ratigan for much of the day, and Jancis came over for an afternoon Mah Jong tutorial and stayed for tea, so we ended up having a very pleasant day. This has however, been our first Easter in NZ when we haven't made it up a volcano. Must try harder next year! Nicky went to see Dr V. first thing Tuesday morning and didn't go into work. The medicaments he prescribed seem to be working now and Nicky was back at work on Wednesday, and also went to house group even though she wasn't 100%. She had a "How to set up a display" training course on Thursday at the Central Library which was very good. I have had Mac work t...

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 ...