Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

We started the week in a spin - at the Sky Tower rotating restaurant (Orbit). We had both booked Monday off to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. The weather was quite cloudy as we sat up in bed drinking our first mugs of tea of the day and opening our presents - pearls for Nicky and a waistcoat with mother-of-pearl buttons for me (which Nicky made; it’s brilliant). People had told us that the food at the Orbit restaurant wasn’t always fantastic, but that the views compensated. It rotates a full 360° every hour (I think) so you get to see the whole view of Auckland while eating. We actually enjoyed the food very much. Nicky had the pumpkin soup entrée and the cheese board dessert. I had the venison pie main course with baby carrots and smoked mashed spuds followed by tiramisu. The only disappointment was that Nicky would have liked some nice bread with her soup as she still felt a little hungry at the end of her meal. By the time we had taken our seat in the restaurant the clou...

Well, dear reader, it has been a very mixed week. On the up side, I have had a good amount of work, Nicky had a very successful BHB Quilters session, we have had a very enjoyable afternoon tea, and the upgrade of Nikcy’s iPad to iOS8 has not been as traumatic as I thought it might have been. On the down side Nicky has had a couple of days off work with a really bad cold, and Christine, one of the core members of the prison outreach group has died. She went into a hospice early this week and died on Friday. She will be missed. Most of my work has been in the CBD so I have been going into town on the bus. On Monday I encountered these polar bears in Aotea Square: I also did some major document editing for a customer in Blenheim via email. We have almost had enough sunny weather to get the washing dried outside, but not quite enough so I had to do a load today. The wind on Tuesday was icy (from the south) and the nighttime low of 6° gave us a very chilly Wednesday morning.  ...

Work has started to pick up again a little for me this week, so it has felt a bit more normal fitting the laundry and shopping around it. Nicky has has another steady week at the library, and on Wednesday went over to Henderson with a colleague for a PSA meeting. The pay deal which the union has negotiated is not ideal, but not bad under the present circumstances. The weather has been dryer and we have had some sunny periods which have been great. Temperatures are dropping all the time so we are pleased to have the winter quilt on the bed and the heaters available. Nicky had a good prison group meeting on Monday, but Te Reo was cancelled on Tuesday, just after I had finishing icing (well, Philly-cheesing actually) the almond and marmalade cake that we had defrosted. It was enjoyed by the library staff on Wednesday and there was enough left over for Nicky and I to have a couple of pieces. Euthanasia is very much in the news here at the moment and it was the topic for my MeetUp gro...

Food has been a major theme this week. We had quite a few lobs from last Saturdays Consulting Detective evening, the main ones being the chocolate cheesecake and fruit pie which Nicky made, and the party cheese ball which Kelly brought. It took us until Friday afternoon to clear everything. Nicky has taken the week off as annual leave which has worked well. We started the week with a public holiday for the Queen’s Birthday, though I spent the morning getting a Mac working which was flying back to Wellington in the afternoon. This gave Nicky the chance to do some sewing, laundry and ironing and we had a walk in the afternoon. We started watching Garrows Law on DVD in the evening, a dramatisation of the work of William Garrow in the Old Bailey who brought about the adversarial changes in the law courts. Tuesday was my birthday and we were greeted with dull skies. I opened my excellent range of cards in bed with a couple of mugs of tea. Presents were opened later with porridge, and ...

This week has been an "at home" week. I haven't had any on-site work until today, neither of us have been out any evening, and Nicky stayed at home on Wednesday with a bug. She started to feel unwell while at work on Tuesday with sore glands and throat. The library wasn't too busy at the beginning of the week due to the wind and the rain, but it was busy again when a high pressure system brought clear skies at the end of the week. I have had a couple of shopping trips, one to Sylvia Park to the Sony shop to get Nicky a new BlueTooth headset for using with her iPad. The other was to Airport Oaks to buy some new trousers from the Icebreaker Outlet store with my birthday money. I know it was pre-birthday but it was a nice day and I fancied a trip out. I also managed a trip to Whatipu on Friday morning and had a lovely walk along the beach in-spite of the cool wind. After a lovely breakfast of bangers and toms on toast yesterday, Nicky went off to Spotlight and I di...

Another autumnal week has been populated with sunshine and showers, and finished with some major wind and rain in the last 48 hours. The weather hasn’t made the library significantly quieter so Nicky has had another busy week, which has included her annual personal development interview (pleased that’s out of the way!). She was out two evenings with prison prayer group and house group. I was busy with Mac work for the first three days of the week, and then out on Thursday to a Chamber of Commerce exhibition and then my MeetUp group. Friday was a domestic day for me. Nicky took Thursday off as annual leave and we both attended John Mynett’s funeral at the Church of the Saviour. As expected it was very well attended, with family coming from Luxembourg and friends from Macclesfield. It was also relayed live to Luxembourg. Nicky was one of the many helpers with the wake and I think appreciated having a quiet afternoon at home afterwards. Yesterday, in spite of the rain, we had ...

Autumn has made its presence felt this week, with some lower temperatures, some rain, and even a bit of fog on Monday morning. This had cleared by the time I got to Karekare and I had an enjoyable walk as the sun came out, as it has also done frequently during the week. We have had one of our quieter weeks with social commitments, though I was out on Monday evening modelling, and Nicky had her hair appointment on Tuesday evening. The library has been very busy again and I have some Mac work, both on-site and via telephone but still had plenty of time to do laundry, ironing shopping and cooking. The weekend had been quite busy - I took advantage of a lovely day yesterday to empty the laundry basket and do a little shopping. Nicky had a very good BHB quilting session with 13 ladies this time - it gets better each month. As soon as she came back she re-packed the car and headed over to Henderson for Scrabble with Steve and Stella. Afterwards she delivered food supplies to Anne, whos...