Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

August has closed with quite a routine week, but for me it has been a good month overall for work. The week has been a mixture of Mac work, shopping, cooking, laundry and ironing, helped by a week with some good sunny spells until the weekend arrived. Nicky’s working week as been as busy as ever and quite good. She was out on Monday at prison prayer group and up to church on Thursday evening too. Our most exciting news of the week is the booking of flights to Dunedin for a weeks holiday later in the year. I’ve booked a hire car too and started looking at accommodation over the weekend. The weekend has been wet, especially yesterday, so pottering round at home and Stella and Steve coming over for Scrabble was ideal. Stella has been very pleased to receive her first pay packet this week. Today Nicky was doing her annual shift at the Storylines event in the Aotea Centre in town, so I dropped her there just after 8 this morning. She had another good day there, as with previous ...

Well, it has been a rollickingly exciting week here in NZ for John Key, the Prime Minister. Our week, in contrast, has been a more sedate affair. For the first three days we had some major showers, but than a high pressure system took pity on us and it has been clear and sunny since Thursday morning. This has meant some cold nights of course, but the very chilly wind dropped today so it is was almost spring-like. In addition to doing Mac work at the beginning and end of the week, I have got the “new car” issues sorted out. The CD player now works and we can get both of the radio stations that we want. This has required a band expander on the radio because the car is a Japanese import (like Lilly was) and they only use a small range of frequencies there. It is not a perfect solution, but works for now, and in the fullness of time I might look into having it replaced with an NZ radio with hopefully and iPod connection. I took Luna to a main Suzuki dealer on Tuesday to get a new rem...

…our new wheels. She is a 9 year old Suzuki Swift that the car yard down the round found for us. Being a Japanese import she wasn’t registered in NZ. I asked if we had any influence over the number plate (other than having a private plate) and was told no, they are computer generated. So, imagine my surprise when I was informed what it was. For those for whom the significance is not obvious, here is the explanation: about 10 years ago Nicky announced that if ever we had a sweet wee blue car then she would like to call it Luna, after Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter books, who is in Ravenclaw house, whose colour is blue. Hence her name. But, if the penny hasn’t yet dropped, Luna Lovegood only appears in the books which cover years 5, 6 and 7. So, we have Harry Potter Years 5, 6 and 7. Stunning, eh? Anyway, she is a great little car, feels very solid drive, and has got nice wee features such as variable-speed intermitted windscreen wipers. The car yard called on Monday to say t...

As we get to “review the week” time again I sit down quite jaded. It has been my busiest week ever with MacOnSite work, though that is partially because of working through the weekend. Nicky has had a better week at the library now that she and the other staff are talking about the issues that face them all. The weather has forced me to dry the laundry inside most of the week, so it was a small load each day until Friday, when I was finally able to get some outside, and then another two loads yesterday. In between the showers we have had some lovely sunshine, but many of the showers have been torrential so it just wasn’t worth putting anything out. Nicky and I moved the sofa round in front of the tellybox on Wednesday evening and watched a great film called “Like Something God Made” starring Alan Rickman, about the development of heart surgery, primarily for blue babies. It was very well done and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I was out on Thursday night at another discussion group meeti...

The weather started out quite cold this week, but was unseasonably warm by the end. This hasn’t put the rain off, and we have had a couple of foggy mornings, but not done too badly with getting washing dry outside. Nicky has had a couple of good days at work in the library, one of them her best yet, and has been as busy as ever. I have had a very busy work week with three days at Electorate HQ, and a day and a half cramed with Mac work. Having the loan of Steve’s car this week (I took it back on Friday evening) has been a great help. Lilly, our little green VW Polo was officially written off on Wednesday. The quote for the repair bill came in at $6500, significantly more than the value of the car. On the upside, we have been paid more than I was expecting, and our excess too. The insurance money alone is probably enough to buy another 17 year old car which has done about 200,000 kms, but I would like to get something a little younger if we can. We went down to a car yard yesterda...

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...