Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

It has been the coldest week of the year so far here in Auckland-by-the-sea, so our changing of our quilt to our winter one on Monday was justified. It has been a week of sunshine and showers, but the clear skies have allowed the warming sun through quite often, especially over the weekend. I have had quite a busy week with three days at Electorate HQ, receiving, checking, sorting and packing supplies. Wednesday was particularly long. I have also has some Mac work at the end of the week which has been good. Getting around without a car hasn’t been difficult, it just takes longer and requirers a bit of planning, and Cherry (my Returning Officer) has been very good at giving me lifts when she can. I also popped into town on Thursday evening for another Meetup.com meeting which was quite good. My neck has improved throughout the week and is now almost back to normal. Nicky has also had a busy and trying week at the library. She went on a very interesting course on Wednesday about co...

Looking back over my notes for the week makes me realise what an eventful one it has been, because I have completely forgotten it started off with the World Cup Final. Monday was due to be my proper (delayed due to others having ‘flu) first day of elections work, but I was told I didn’t have to go in until after the match had finished. I spent the bulk of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Electorate HQ. We did a system test on Wednesday which was interesting and went well. I haven’t done any Mac work, but I have done two modelling jobs and a bit more work at HQ on Saturday. On Tuesday evening I went to a lecture given by Dr Kerry Spackman, a cognitive neuroscientist I think, which was interesting. Following on from this I joined a Meetup.com group called Deep and Meaningful, who meet most Thursdays at cafés in town, for deep and meaningful conversation. I attended my first evening on Thursday, following on from a modelling job in town. It was a small group of people from a wide ra...

Weather has been the dominating factor this week again, with a major storm system arriving on Wednesday. We were not as affected here as the last storm, but up north there has been much more damage, primarily due to extensive flooding. Work for Nicky at the library has gradually improved through the week, and there have been very busy periods at times due to the school holidays. The rain and wind has been encouraging people to stay at home at other times, and it was pretty winterly when Nicky went to house group on Wednesday evening. I have had a reasonable week with Mac work, particularly at the beginning. I did 5 calls on Monday, though they were nearly all quite short. Tuesday was good for drying laundry due to the wind, but the rest of the week has been small loads drying inside. I finished the week off with a beer at The Block on Friday evening. Yesterday started very damp but things improved by mid-day. We had a very late breakfast and then Stella and Steve came over for...

You might have felt a bit short changed last week Dear Reader, and understandably so. The observant ones among you will have noticed that I posted earlier than usual, and finished without covering Sunday very much. This is because (a) I don't like to discuss future plans on the blog as it is in the public domain, and although I know I have a very select readership, you don't know who might be looking over your shoulder, and (b) we were off to Wellington. My job with the Electoral Commission required me to attend a four day training course in Wellington, and as my expenses and hotel accommodation were being paid for, Nicky came with me (managed to get her a cheap flight due to her doing most of the peddling). I had not been to Wellington before (so was looking forward to seeing something of the place), and had not done a domestic flight in NZ before. A taxi took us to the airport for our 16.30 departure, where we met up with the other people from our electorate and some ne...

One way and another, it has been a busy, but relatively routine, week. Nicky has had a busy week at the library, and has been out three evenings too: prison prayer group, house group, and prayer evening up at church. By Friday she was very pleased to come home, put her feet up knowing she didn’t have to go out again, and relax. I have had a busy week with work, having at least one Mac job each day. On Tuesday evening I did a taste testing session of apple, peas and peanuts, which also added a few dollars to the coffers. I have also been helping Dawn sort out her virus checker after her PC being upgraded. The weather has been getting in the way of the laundry, as it has been “changeable”. Yesterday, the washing machine decided it didn’t want to spin anymore, so Dawn kindly let me put a load of wet washing through her machine to spin. We have also been following the World Cup as the group stage has come to and end and the first set of eliminations has been completed. On Tu...

Ten days into the World Cup and isn’t it exciting!!!! We are getting some of the games “free-to-air” at 7am so we can watch them with breakfast, and then there is a highlights programme late afternoon (which I am now recording for Nicky). It’s a shame England are out, but some of the other games have been great to watch. The rest of our week has been much lest exciting. Nicky has had a bit of a better week at work, and on Wednesday went into town for “digital device training”. The libraries are expanding the services they offer to tablet and e-reader users and have a range of software that borrowers can use. It is also helpful if the staff have a bit of an idea as to how they work too. Much of my week has been taken up with negotiating the drying of the washing in the not very helpful weather (we have had some rain), and reading two of my three very think manuals in preparation for my election work. I have had a bit of Mac work, and also helped Dawn resolve a hardware problem wit...

The week started wet, and then got wetter on Tuesday, and then got very, wet, windy and destructive on Tuesday night. Very few Aucklanders got a decent night’s sleep due to the storm, and we woke to a power cut on Wednesday morning. Power was restored about 7.15 (just after I had put together an alternative non-porridge breakfast) and I got washing done and dried as the sun came out later. We didn’t have any major damage (just a bit or rearranging in the garden) but I caught the bus into town to work and saw this on Princess Street: The weather has been good for the rest of the week, the weekend especially, but that’s due to change tomorrow. Nicky’s hasn’t had a very good week at work, but hopefully the meeting she had with her boss on Friday will have sorted out some misunderstandings and things will improve. She was at prison prayer group on Monday night but was to tired for her other prayer group on Wednesday evening. She took some quilts over to Ranui on Thursday evening r...