Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

It’s like buses: we don’t get a public holiday for the whole of November, then they come along all together at the same time in December.  Our weather has perked up this week, Thursday being absolutely gorgeous. It has been dry with various flavours of sunshine and warmth. It is the best we have had at this time in November since 2008. I remember it because that was the first time we had a holiday in NZ. We all took some time off work, had some day trips and a couple of nights in Katikati, and the weather was good. Each year since I have compared the weather at the same time of year and it has not been as good, until now. We had a good day on Monday. After a good breakfast we went to Titirangi to take some art in to be framed: the print which Nicky had bought me the day before, a sketch I was given over a year ago from a group I sat for in Ponsonby, and a photograph of me that was given as a thank you by a student doing her Masters who I know through Deep & Meaningful....

We have had some nice weather this week. Mainly sunny and getting warmer, but still a cool southerly breeze from time to time. We didn’t get any rain until late yesterday and it dried up mid-morning today. So, I have finally been able to get the laundry routine back on schedule. Nicky has had some busy and stressful days at work what with one thing and another, so was very pleased that she had yesterday off for her BHB Quilters. This was of course followed by Scrabbling with Stella and Steve. I have had a reasonable week with a moderate amount of work. I had to do some on Monday while Nicky was home doing cleaning and mowing, and I took my lunch with me which I ended up having it on Red Beach, which was good. First beach lunch of the season. I bought myself new footwear (replaced my non-existent sandals and new trainers for walkies) and had a good discussion on Thursday evening. Friday had no work in the diary and the weather was sunny so I had my walk and swim out at Karekare...

Nicky has has another busy week at work, but mine has been quieter, quite disjointed, and included a drive collapsing on me while I was doing some general maintenance on it. The customer was initially not too happy but I had him up and running again in 24 hours, and he realised the benefit of a good backup strategy. On Monday I had to return a Mac to Ponsonby so we took advantage of the opportunity and had morning tea together in a new German café which has opened on Ponsonby Road. We bought a very nice loaf of pumpkin bread while we were there. We did a bit of shopping and browsing too, and then in the afternoon while I did a job in Stanmore Bay Nicky had a treat and did the ironing (lucky lass!). In the evening she and Tanya visited an elderly gent who misses them both since they left BHB library. Nicky had a late work-start on Tuesday as she went up to BHB library for a 15 year service do for a college, so spent her time beforehand doing baking. I zipped her down to the sta...

Well it has been for me this week - a water blast that is! I have spent most of the week water blasting the drive. Dawn and I had been talking about it on and off for the past few weeks, and as I had virtually no Mac work this week and the weather wasn’t looking too bad, I borrowed Dawn’s trusty Karcher and got on with it. It took one to two hours per section of concrete, of which there are 17. It looks better though. Nicky has had another good week at the library, has been to Maranatha and had her hair done. I have had evenings out at Deep & Meaningful and drinks up at The Block, and did a modelling job on Saturday morning. I have been working on a Mac over the weekend, and shopping, cooking, laundry and ironing have also been done.  Nicky has enjoyed reading another Linda la Plante, and I have now also read the first of Philip Pullman’s Book of Dust trilogy, La Belle Sauvage. We have both enjoyed it. Nicky has Scrabbled at Stella’s with Steve today, and made us o...

We started the week with a public holiday for Labour Day. We had an exciting day as just before the family had started arriving for lunch last Sunday, we had a phone call from the NZ Bus Mt Roskill depot to say that they had Nicky’s handbag. We didn’t get any details as to the status of the contents, but when we arrived at the office on Monday (Nicky clutching a bar of Whittaker’s chocolate as a thank-you) we were delighted to find almost everything there - bank card, driving licence, cash, diary, hairbrush, etc. The only missing items were Nicky’s sunglass case and a nice pair of leather gloves. It was a surprise and very welcome relief and it almost compensated for the dull and damp weather.  Re-armed with handbag we went off to The Warehouse to do some research and then watched the Paddington film over lunch. Even though we have seen it before we enjoyed it yet again. It brightened up enough in the afternoon for us to have a walk down to Lynfield Cove, an unfamiliar area to...

Unless you have been living in a cupboard this week, you are probably aware that we now have a Labour government, in coalition with NZ First, and with a confidence and supply agreement with the Greens. I don’t want to put the kibosh on this, but since Thursday announcement of Jacinda being in charge, the All Blacks were beaten by the Aussies, and it looks like we are due for some thunderstorms tomorrow. Hopefully, things can only get better! (there’s a slogan in there somewhere). On the domestic front, Nicky went to the optician on Monday and needs new glasses not so much because she needs a new prescription, but because the coating on her current four year old pair has degraded and it affecting her vision. In the afternoon we had fun (not really) organising a new driving licence and bank card for her following the loss of her handbag. We thought her passport was in the handbag but I found it later in the week. The rest of our week has been much more normal, with Nicky being b...

We still don’t have a government but I don’t think that is why Nicky’s handbag was stolen this week. The theft occurred on Friday morning while she was waiting for the train at New Lynn station. This disrupted her working day both because of the shock and the reporting of the incident as her work security pass, bank cards etc, were all in the bag. Fortunately her HOP card was in her hand, so she was still able to get to work and back home again. She only had a small amount of cash in her bag, it’s the inconvenience of having lost all the items and the replacing of bank cards etc, that’s the on-going issue. The beginning of our week was much better as the weather turned out to be much more pleasant than we expected for our Heritage Festival event in Epsom. We thought this was to be three exhibitions located in three businesses on Manukau Road, but this wasn’t the case. We did see some photographs at our second stop, and there we met the proprietor of the first stop which explained ...