Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

I was reminded of this lovely phrase, which for me for some reason has nautical overtones, when watching Endeavour on Saturday night. It was used by a librarian to two of his staff when Morse wanted the Bodeian closed quickly. I like these sort of phrases which are short, quirky, and carry a weight of meaning. On a side note, we are enjoying Endeavour, as you might imagine, and are pleased that the production, plot and story telling qualities that made Morse and Lewis so watchable are being continued in Endeavour. Anyway dear reader, onto our week, the last full week of April. It has been a three day week for us, with Monday (Easter Monday) and Friday (ANZAC day) being public holidays. Claire also had Tuesday off - lawyer’s day apparently, though when I was talking to one of my customers on Wednesday who is a lawyer I discovered they used to take a whole week off! Easter Monday started cloudy but had brightened up by the time Nicky was cooking us a cracking breakfast of scrambled...

Work-wise the four working days of this week have been uneventful. Things progress for Nicky getting used to BHB library, and I have had some Mac work on three of the days. Nicky has had a couple of evenings out at prayer groups on Monday and Wednesday, and I have had a couple more tutorial sessions with Jancis. The weather however, has been eventful this week, with the forecasts suggesting that getting the washing dry would be problematic, but it turned out OK until Thursday. A tropical storm system arrived overnight, with much greater consequences than the last one, though we didn’t suffer any flooding or damage. While driving to work on Thursday morning I drove through a large puddle and about a mile later Lilly died. The tow truck arrived very promptly and the garage couldn’t find anything wrong later in the afternoon, so I guess some water just got somewhere it shouldn’t. I got to my two jobs on the buses, and in the sun, ironically. Easter Friday was the first day of our lo...

Our most exciting event this week has been my niece, Rachel, visiting us. She lives and works in Wanaka and we hadn’t seen her since she last visited us in December 2012. It was only a short visit, but very enjoyable none the less. I collected Rachel from the airport at lunchtime on Friday, but she had not been fed on the flight so we walked up to the sushi bar where she bought us lunch. She is playing ice hockey again (she was in a team at University) but doesn’t have any kit, so we went to a shop in Avondale which she has used over the internet. She was able to get almost fully kitted out with all the protective gear and a stick with the help of an excellent sales assistant, who both knew the product and the stock, and was able to ship Rachel’s purchases to her so that Jetstar didn’t charge enormous fees for them on the return flight. We were there about an hour so by the time we were home again and had consumed a restorative pot of tea, it was time for me to start cooking diner (...

Into April now, Easter and hot cross bunnies fast approaching, and I am still marvelling at the high pressure systems that are bringing us such lovely weather (on the whole). Somebody, other than the Solomon Islands and Chile must be suffering. It hasn’t been wall-to-wall sunshine - we had some fog on Tuesday morning and it rained during Thursday night. Nicky has now finished her fourth week at BHB Library and is getting more into the routine. She was very pleased to make a Harry Potter connection unexpectedly with a couple of the staff this week, so she took all her American copies of the HP book’s in to show them. On Monday night she had prison prayer group, and house group on Wednesday night, when Jancis joined her. I have seen quite a bit of Jancis this week in order to help her get her accounts ready for a meeting she has coming up. I have also done my end of year accounts (my most profitable year so far, but I’m only operating at about 30% of what I need to do to support us...

As March comes to end, I am still marvelling at the weather, which is still relatively settled and dominated by high pressure. As a consequence, the washing of clothes and the making of ironing has continued in a well organised fashion, though I have to admin to not having got round to the ironing this weekend. A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a reporter on the NZ Herald, wanting to talk about Ladies Bay, one of the Auckland beaches used by naturists. It has gained a bad reputation over the years for people masquerading as naturists and using the beach for improper activities. Last Sunday the item appeared in the Herald, and the Free Beaches group (of which I am a member) was contacted by Radio Hauraki. As a result, I found myself setting off for the CBD at 7am Tuesday morning for a live interview on their breakfast show. I was quite nervous, not having done a live interview before, and not knowing what their approach would be. Fortunately it turned out OK, as the interv...

I have had another refreshingly busy week, and Nicky has started to feel that she is getting to grips with some of the things at BHB library. We have had a week of lovely weather, cool starts, hot afternoons, and warm evenings, with some beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and passed the autumn equinox. I had a filling replaced at the dentists on Monday, and Nicky had such a busy day at work that she felt too tired to go to Prison Prayer group in the evening. I had my lunch by the beach on Tamiki Drive while between jobs on Tuesday. On Wednesday we both went down to the new branch of Mexicali which is by the library in New Lynn. The current and recently ex-staff had decided to get together to see how things were going. It was a great venue to meet because we were easily able to move round the tables to talk to different people, and the food was prepared in front of us at the counter, so there were no heated discussions about who pays for what, or lengthy waits for everything to come tog...

I now have three regular callers whose opening gambit when I answer the phone is “it’s only me”. They are all female, so I have categorised them thus: Southerly it’s only me is number one daughter, Claire. A phone call while she commutes on Shanks’s Pony, usually at the end of the day. Northerly it’s only me in number one sister, Gill. These calls were more frequent while they were here in NZ. Management it’s only me is number one wife. These are usually calls requesting delivery of pertinent items to place of work, e.g.: hearing aids (see can’t see without ‘em). Such is the rich tapestry of my life dear reader. Nicky has started at Blockhouse Bay library this week. As you can imagine there is lots to learn, and new faces to associate with names. This is the first time Nicky has worked in one of the libraries that used to be in Auckland Central, and even though the libraries were all “amalgamated” with the formation of the supercity, the library systems and procedures are still a wo...