Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Much has happened this week. The most important item of news is that Nicky has been offered a new post in the library Fit for the Future reorganisation. She received a phone call on Wednesday afternoon, was offered two posts and accepted one of them. She is feeling very relieved. With Thursday being our wedding anniversary Nicky had booked Thursday and Friday as annual leave. We were planning to do the coast to coast walk on Thursday but the weather was quite wet, so we changed our plans and decided to go for indoor activities. We started off with breakfast at Catroux, a café in Westmere which we had heard good things about. It specialises in using organic ingredients, many of which they produce themselves. Nicky had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and granary toast, and I had poached eggs and bacon with granary toast, and it was all excellent. We had tea and coffee afterwards and a nice chat with a couple of young mum's on the next table. We didn't have a particular...

It has been a bit of a odd week, one way or another, but we have got to the end of it and will progress onto the next one. Nicky had Monday and Tuesday at home because she really wasn’t up to going into work due to lack of sleep, caused by work, so spent most of the time applying for other posts within the library service which had been listed as being unfilled over the weekend. What will come of it we do not know, but she has done everything she can. I have had a few items of work along with my house husband duties. I collected Dawn and Lorraine form the airport on Tuesday (they seem to have had a good trip) and we finished my birthday jigsaw. On Monday evening I went to a graduation show on the invitation of one of the students (who is also a D&M member) as I had been the model for her project. I had done the sitting for free but she had printed out one of the images for me which gave me at the show, which I though was very generous. In a sort of parallel theme to Ni...

We started the week with a public holiday to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. We had a pretty quiet day which was chilly and damp in parts, but Nicky managed to get the mowing done and we had a trip over to Henderson to play Scrabble with Stella, and squeezed in a visit to Kathmandu to get a new waterproof jacket for Nicky. It wasn’t the teal coloured one which she had seen on the website as that wasn’t as good “in the flesh”, but a very nice blue/purple Gortex one. Nicky’s week at work had been very difficult and emotionally fraught. The future is still not clear for us. I have had quite a light week for work though Thursday was very busy. The weather has messed with my washing schedule but has improved as the week has gone on and we have had a lovely weekend. In past years we have had weather like this in early May, but not heading to the middle of June. While watching some of the Election coverage one the BBC website on Friday I saw a UK weather forecast, and it was very similar...

The news regarding Nicky’s job is not good, but at least now we have a good idea of what is going to happen. She was told on Tuesday morning that she, along with all the other people who had applied for 38 and 40 hours per week positions, would be receiving their phones calls with the outcome of their application on Tuesday afternoon. The call didn’t come, which left everyone very anxious and assuming the worst. On Wednesday Nicky was told that the calls hadn’t been made on Tuesday after all. On Thursday she received her phone call and was told that her application had not been successful, and that her options were going to be to apply for any un-filled posts (currently all very senior for which she is not qualified) or redundancy. So, we are assuming that she will be made redundant at the end of the month. As you can imagine, this is not what we had been hoping for. The news of Nicky’s redundancy didn’t put us in the best frame of mind for my birthday on Friday, but we spent the ...

Our main event this week has been Nicky’s interview, which was on Wednesday. I took her down to New Lynn library and though short, she felt that the interview went very well. Most people have now had their interviews which for a little while relieved the levels of anxiety. What is not yet know is the outcome - what job, where, and for how many hours. It could be 2-3 weeks before the job offeres are made, so we are not completely out of the woods yet. The other notable event has been the weather. A southerly blast at the beginning of the week gave us a couple of nights with lows of 3°. Heaters out of storage and winter duvet on, but we are back to the low teens now. The rain has also been messing around with my laundry routine. Work has been relatively quiet for me but has occupied the second half of the week. Shopping and cooking have progressed as usual, and I have enjoyed listening to John Lanchesters’ Capitol. Nicky has had a couple of evenings out at church and alpha, ...

Sheffield Wednesday have again (like last year) failed to get through the playoff’s and win promotion to the Premier league, beaten on penalties. With Sheffield United having won promotion to the Championship we will be having Steel City derby’s again next season. Go The Owls!! Aside from football machinations, we have had a somewhat different week. Nicky has been on annual leave all week. She booked it in order to attend as many events as possible at this year’s Auckland Writers Festival. It turned out the first event on her schedule was on Friday, so she has spent most of the rest of the week sewing, which she has really enjoyed. She has also had her hair done and been to life group. My week started quietly so I managed to finish Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The bulk of my work for the week has been for a new customer with a broken hard disk and no backup to speak of, so much rushing around and data recovery. I only did a couple of loads of...

We have said goodbye to Jancis this week. She returned to the UK on Tuesday and arrived safely sometime after that. The place is quieter without her, and we look forward to her return next year. Just in passing, watching the Jancis Barlow Show this evening on the telly (aka Country Calendar), we realised we had met the lady farmer. The programme was about a couple who grow blueberries and produce hand made ice cream. We had stopped in Waharoa last February on the way to Mt Maunganui and Nicky really enjoyed the blueberry ice cream. It’s a small country. The library has not been too busy again this week, but the general work situation for Nicky is still very stressful as the Fit for the Future process continues. Interviews and appointments have begun, starting at the top and working down. We are still living with the uncertainty of the unknown. Work for me has been a little busier this week, though there was only one long (and ultimately frustrating) job. The rest has been made...