Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

It has been a week at home for me this week, as I haven’t had any work come in. The weather has been pretty good most of the week which has helped with the laundry and to a lesser degree the shopping. I have finished scanning all there slides which I brought back from the UK and have started putting them into a photo book. I had a swim at Herne Bay first thing Thursday morning which was lovely. It’s the first time I have been back there since lacerating my feet earlier in the year. The library has been continuing with Diwali celebrations this week, and Nicky has been looking good again in a range of saris. She took some Indian food in on Monday for morning tea. The library has been as busy as ever, and Nicky has been very busy with the preparations for Harry Potter day on the 31st. On Friday she came home mid afternoon after pulling a muscle in her back. It made her feel quite nauseous and unwell. It wasn’t helped by the fact she has had some broken nights with being woken up with s...

The weather has started to improve some of the time this week, and not only have I managed a visit to the beach (Karekare) but also been able to do my first sunbathing of the season. Mac work has been thin on the ground again, with just a couple of jobs, but I have been able to put this years’ photo-book together and get on with scanning some more slides. I just had one evening out, my meetup group on Thursday. Apple occupied most of Friday for me following their new product announcements, and I have just been able to squeeze in a bit of shopping, cooking, washing and ironing. The return to school has been noticed in the library, though Nicky has still had some very busy days. To mark Diwali the staff have been in Indian dress all week, so each day has seen Nicky in a different sari or similar outfit. She had two evenings out with prison prayer group and house group. The weather was forecast to be wet over the weekend, but the rain didn’t arrive until Saturday afternoon and today...

This week has been more “normal” - more work and less socialising, though we haven’t completely abstained. I have done some Mac work each day except for Friday, and we have had a dry week (though with some questionable clouds) so I have been able to get the washing done. The library has been extremely busy and regularly frantic (the school holidays finish today) so Nicky was pleased when the working week came to an end. On Thursday evening Nicky went up to BHB Primary School with Clem and Shaun (Sean?) to see Shani in a drama group musical. On Friday I met Nicky at The Block after work as she was having drinks there with work colleagues for farewell one of them, and I was meeting up with Paul and Co. for our regularly-ish get together. We had decided that as we were both going to be there having a bite to eat would also be a good idea. Friday had been a lovely sunny day (I had been to KareKare in the afternoon for a walk and a swim), and it was great to meet Nicky and just relax ...

Spring was starting to take hold at the beginning of the week, but late on Thursday winter returned, and the Desert Road was closed again by snow. I still find it interesting that the Desert Road doesn’t seem to be closed due to drifting sand, just snow. We have been at the centre of Auckland’s social circuit this week, or at least it feels that way. Our faces have not yet made it to the pages of the glossy magazines, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time now. After dinner on Tuesday I got a bus into town for the second-only meeting of the Auckland Life Model Collective. This is a group being set up by a model who encountered something similar in Sydney. It will provide artists and tutors with a “one stop shop” access to a range of experienced models. Getting together enabled us to get to know each other a little (life models rarely get to meet other life models) and contribute out thoughts on how the group should operate. Wednesday night was house group social, and we met i...

It is often said that the weather in Auckland can deliver four seasons in one day. Crowded House even wrote a song with that title. It hasn’t been quite that variable this week, but we have almost had four seasons in one week. We started with cold wintery wind with torrential showers, and have finished with some unexpected but welcome long spells of warm sunshine. Nicky came home mid-afternoon on Monday as she was owed some time off in lieu, which was good, and after dinner went to her prison prayer group meeting. She had her hair cut and dried after work on Tuesday. On Thursday we went to court in Henderson to appear at a hearing for our insurance company. They are still trying to get the money for the repair to Lilly from last year when a young lad reversed into her. It was quite an interesting experience, with neither the lad or a representative from his insurance company turning up. So, it was juste Nicky and I, the representative from our insurers and the referee. The refe...

Elections have featured heavily this week. We watched with interest the news reports in the last few days before the independence vote in Scotland, and feel though it was probably the best result overall, we are sorry for the 45%. Here, the incumbent government was returned for a third term with a slightly increased majority. For the first time since NZ switched from first past the post to MMP, one party (the right-of-centre National Party) got a large enough proportion of the vote to govern on their own. They say they will still “co-operate” with a couple of the minor parties, but it looks like we have interesting times ahead. Work-wise I have had another quiet week, just doing a couple of jobs, both locally so I was able to walk to them. It has been very much a sunshine and showers week with the usual repercussions for getting the laundry dry. Looks like we are in for more of the same this week. On Monday evening Jan came over for dinner again. This time I roasted a leg of lamb, d...

Well Dear Reader, today we have two significant events on the same day: this is post number 400, which I write and will post on the 7th anniversary exactly of our arrival in NZ. Isn’t that stunning! Seven years, 400 posts, and if you have read them all then you are very well informed. On order to celebrate our seven year anniversary, Nicky and I did a tiki your up to Whangaparaoa today. We started out at Red Beach with a wander along the sand, though there wasn’t much with the tide being very high. The weather was fine but windy so we had our picnic English-style while watching a family and their dog playing in the waves, and enjoying the changing hues in the sea. Next stop was Duncansby Road to see that the new owners has done some major trimming to the bush (shrubbery). Then onto Te Haruhi Bay, which is at the end of the peninsula in Shakespear Regional Park. It was much windier there, with some rain too, but it was great to see wind surfers and kite-boarders out on the choppy sea...