Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Saturday was a significant day: Election Day, the first actual day of spring in terms of the equinoxes, and the beginning of daylight saving. The week has really been dominated by the General Election. The polls has the two main parties, Labour and National (the incumbents) very close, so the final result was a bit of a disappointment for those wanting change. National got the greatest proportion of the vote, but not large enough to form a government outright. Labour and two minor parties (Green and NZ First) got enough together to just form a government, but now much negotiating will take place as NZ First may also get together with National. However, not all the votes have been counted. The result of the 340,000 special votes won’t be known until October 7th, and this could affect the proportions of the party votes enough to change the basis of any negotiation. Even though Saturday was Election Day, we have had Advanced Polling Booths as they are known here open for two weeks pr...

Thursday of this week was our tenth anniversary of arriving in New Zealand. In order to celebrate, Nicky and I went out for dinner and Claire went out for lunch with a friend in Dunedin. In some respects we don’t seem to have been here for very long, but it feels like a long time since we left England. Much has happened. Claire has got a degree, and job, the Ryan and moved to Dunedin. Nicky has worked in more libraries than she did in her 30 years in England (I think), and I have had a job, qualified as a massage therapist, and set up in business as a freelance Mac support technician again. We are in our second rented home, onto our second car, and Claire and I have had to renew our driving licences. I have got my citizenship, a New Zealand passport, and two pairs of spectacles. Nicky has got hearing aids and Claire has acquired a cat. We have voted in three general elections (fourth one next week) and been to some beaches. We have walked up volcanoes, Claire has seen the effects ...

Even though Monday was one of Nicky’s new weekend days, it was very busy for both of us. I had a number of work commitments and Nicky spent all day cooking making Alpha desserts (a small one for us) and a lovely beef casserole for us. The rest of the week has been a pretty normal working week for both of us. Much of mine has been spent on a couple of machines at home because of them needing a full rebuild. Nicky’s work routine has also changed a little with her now doing a late duty every Thursday as opposed to every other Thursday. I took Dawn our landlady to Greenlane Clinic for a short visit on Tuesday, passed my eye test on Friday, and had a good evening out at Deep and Meaningful. The weather has been changeable and often wet and stormy, and the weekend has been much cooler with winds coming off the Antarctic.  Following on from my technology upgrade last week, Nicky’s new iPad arrived this week. Her old one has provided sterling service but its wireless netwo...

I have had the week without my Mac mini, but do not worry Dear Reader as I have backup technology to keep me going. It has spent most of its week travelling down to Dunedin and then back again so that Ryan could install a solid state drive for me. With that and some additional RAM the performance has significantly improved. This has also been good test of my disaster recovery plans which I have modified a little in light of the experience. Work was quiet for me at the beginning of the week then busy at the end. Nicky and I had a late breakfast on Monday, a walk in Archibald Park (they haven’t started installing the boardwalk yet) and started a small (450 piece) jigsaw. Nicky had a church meeting in the evening. Nicky has had another good week at work and did a swapped late duty on Thursday. I had Tuesday evening out at a “Raising the Bar” event, which is a week of talks given in pubs and bars by staff from the University of Auckland. I had chosen “Getting into space: how hard ...

We have had a week dominated by gorgeous weather: clear skies and lovely warm sunshine for most of the week. A few fluffy clouds have wandered across the expanse of blue from time to time, but it all came to an end late yesterday afternoon when the rain arrived. It was dry first thing this morning but the rain soon came back and has been with us most of the day. Nicky has had another good week at work, and took Friday off for her annual Corrections Service induction for her prison work. She was back by lunchtime so in the afternoon we went for a walk over a new footbridge which has been built as part of the Waterview Tunnel project. It wasn’t open when we had our walk in the tunnel and there are still some of the paths and entrances out of bounds, but most of the work is now done. The bridge provides access from the east side of the motorway to the cycle and walkways which pass through the landscaped recreational area which runs the length of the tunnel. It has been very well done...

It’s been a getting on with getting on sort of week. Nicky’s new work routine is becoming more settled (though I’m not convinced we have got a grip on Mondays yet) and she had a good meeting with her new manager. I have had a steady week with work everyday, but the weather has been messing with my laundry routine. We have had a couple of showery days, and some fog on Friday, but I noticed when out for my walk on Thursday morning that the sun is starting to feel warmer as the angle changes, and we can now notice the days starting to get a little longer. I have also see some ducklings which suggested that the local ducks think that spring is on the way. Yesterday was another domestic Saturday for me, with ironing and making fruit bread (based on my spelt bread recipe), which turned out well. We also had a couple of anniversaries: Nicky’s quilting group was three so Mary (her co-organiser) popped in after the session with some birthday cake which she had made (Nicky hadn’t been able ...

It has been the first proper week of our new routine with Nicky’s work: Monday off and Tuesday to Saturday working. So on Monday Nicky had morning tea with Mary to discuss quilting, and cut the grass while we were having some good sunny periods. She feels that she has really fallen on her feet with her new post in Henderson. Her manager, Penny, is very good, and the staff are great to work with, so the atmosphere is much more upbeat and positive. The travel arrangements are also going OK too, though she was late one morning because of a couple of trains being cancelled. She worked her first late night on Thursday and got home without a problem or my assistance as I was out at D&M. I have had another week with quite a bit of work, and even though we have had some very wet periods it hasn’t impacted too much on my laundry routine until the end of the week. Yesterday Nicky was on one of Auckland Libraries stands at the annual Family History Expo in Mt Roskill. I dropped her o...