Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

It has felt like an odd sort of a week, though I am not really sure why, though I never seemed to be quite certain what day of the week it was. I have had quite a bit of work on. Monday I was in Manley, Tuesday Takapuna, and Friday the CBD, where I took this picture while walking up Wellesley Street: The shopping and laundry has been done as usual, and I had my Deep and Meaningful group on Thursday, after earlier in the day doing a photo shoot for one of my fellow conversationalists. The library has been frantic for most of the week due to the school holidays. Nikcy’s week has been marred by a trivial incident which lead to a borrower complaining about her and ending up with a ghastly meeting with her boos over a cup of tea in the café. She had most of Thursday in Penrose on a Reference Training course which was good. The weather has been lovely with cool beginnings and endings, but lots of lovely sunshine in-between. Jancis wanted to take us out for a meal so we went ...

Nicky has had another three-day week with taking Monday and Tuesday as annual leave. She has really enjoyed her six-day break, and has spent most of her time sewing. Monday was our rain-date for going up Rangitoto with Jancis, and this time the weather was perfect - dry and cloudy so that it wasn’t too hot.  We picked Jancis up at 7.45am and parked down in New Lynn before catching the train into town. The short walk from the Britomart to the Ferry Building helped us catch the 9.15 ferry with ease. The half hour journey across the Waitemata was fairly calm, though Nicky jared her foot, pulling a muscle, while coping with the undulating motion of the boat. The wharf at Rangitoto has been completely rebuilt since we were last there, and is now a long, modern, concrete affair. We had decided to go up the summit using the quick route (rated as an hours walk on the map and by the signs), and then come down one of the longer shallower paths to get a different view. Even though the pa...

The highlight of our week has been seeing Claire and Ryan. They booked some GrabaSeat tickets awhile back and flew up on Thursday evening. We collected them from the airport and deposited them at the Quest apartments in Newmarket. We met up with them again on Friday evening at Sal’s Pizza in Parnell, and were joined by Shani, Steve, Ros, Stella and Kate, and shared pizza’s and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and had a very good evening. On Saturday morning they got to train to New Lynn and walked up to Blockhouse Bay so that they could borrow our car to visit Ryan’s family. They deposited our car in the cathedral car park in the evening (more on that later). I picked them up from New Lynn station this morning as Claire wanted to sort through her boxes of stuff in our garage. She appears to have done a good job of weeding as I now have four boxes of goodies to take to the charity shop. We had a nice lunch together (including chocolate cheesecake as Claire missed out on my birthday on...

We started off the week with a public holiday (due to it being Easter Monday), which is always a good way to start a week. The weather greeted us with a lovely sunrise and a warm day, so Nicky came to Karekare with me and we thoroughly enjoyed walking, sunbathing and being knocked over by the surf. Nicky went to Stella’s for Scrabble in the afternoon and I made a bacon and egg flan. Tuesday was very busy at the library for Nicky with four days of returns to deal with and the schools being closed for the day. The rest of the week has been more reasonable. She also had an evening at life group and one at prayer group up at church. I have had a good and busy week with quite a bit of work keeping me occupied most of the week. I have also been out most evenings, with a pension seminar, small business MeetUp group, Deep & Meaningful in Orewa, and rounding off the working week with drinks up at The Block. The weather continues to be warm, and warmer that we expect this time o...

The big news this week has been the preliminary results of the flag referendum: no change. 57% of those who voted wanted to retain the existing flag, and 65% of the electorate voted, which is the highest response for any postal ballot in NZ. I can’t say that I am surprised, but I am disappointed. I think it is indicative of how insecure New Zealand is as a nation in it’s own right in the 21st century, but it could also be that more than 43% of people wanted to change the flag, but not to the alternative on offer. The weather continues in largely summer mode at the moment. We had a very dark and stormy night on Wednesday and some heavy rain on Thursday, but El Nino is keeping it warmer than usual. We are still having plenty of good sunshine, though at times it is either quite windy or quite humid. Nicky has been very busy at work again. On Monday she had a few minutes to enjoy the art exhibition at the International School (which used to be the Hilltop School) before going off ...

It has been a quiet week, especially for me on the work and social fronts. I had a long visit to a school on Thursday, but other than that no paid work. Nicky has been as busy as ever at the library, and has also been occupied in the evenings with prison prayer group, church AGM, and to have her hair done. We also had a trip over to Botany for Nicky’s annual hearing check. The weather has started to become more variable in an autumnal sort of way, but still mild even for March. Highs in the mid-20’s most of the time which look set continue into next week. It got to 29º in the lounge on Wednesday with all the windows open, and before I put the oven on (excellent planning on my part, but I believed the weather forecast). We have had some lovely sunny days, and some rain and wind towards the end of the week, which has lead me to be a bit more aware of its variability for getting the washing dry. The flag referendum continues to be a regular topic of conversation as the postal vot...

Work-wise it has been a pretty routine (for N) and good (for me) week. The library has been busy as ever, but has also had some additional staff from time to time. New Lynn, Avondale and BHB libraries are being refurbished. Avondale was first and now New Lynn has been started, and at times when the staff can’t go into their usual library they are being sent elsewhere. I have had work most days, and a couple of the jobs were quite long which was good. The weather has continued to be good most of the time. Today has been gorgeous and we had dinner on the Rattigan on Wednesday. Nicky removed our sheet and American quilt on Thursday (the quilt is only a thin top cover) and put our summer quilt back on as the temperature dropped to a chilly 13° on Wednesday night. It was down to 21° on Thursday (!) night, but has cooled down again since. The mornings and evenings are getting cooler, but the sun is still hot during the day. We started watching The Night Manager on Monday night (reco...