Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

One way and another it has been a different sort of week. We started in style by having fried eggs and bacon for breakfast on The Rattigan. Decadence personified. This was a suitable pre-amble to our day of cleansing; car washing, window washing (outside and in), mowing. Nicky also made another dessert for Alpha and finished the day off with prison prayer group. We did have a little rain, but not until we had washed everything clean! Nicky’s work week started with a training day at Takapuna library about personal safety in the workplace. The course was run by an ex-policeman and was very good. I took Nicky up to Takapuna in Luna on my way to a job in Whangaparoa. Fortunately we left in plenty of time because the traffic around Exminster Street (we quickly discovered) was virtually stationary, and it was very heavy all the way to the bridge. She came home on the bus. The rest of her working week has been much more routine except for Thursday where she got muddled up with her hours....

It has been a week with an improving feel to it. As it has progressed the weather has improved, and on Tuesday the new series of The Great British Bake Off started (I don’t bother with the Oz imitation). This is with the new Channel 4 crew, Sandi T etc, and we enjoyed it. Monday started with a major low pressure system heading our way, and although we had wind and rain, it wasn’t as bad as our winter low pressure systems can be. Even though we are now officially into autumn, the weather can still be very nice. The sun is now pleasant to sit in as it is warm without being like a Regulo 8 grilling. Nicky has had a good, busy and fairly routine week at the library. She was on Alpha kitchen duty on Wednesday evening. I have had work every day so along with my usual house-husbanding contractual obligations it’s been quite a busy week. I had a lovely swim at Red Beach on Wednesday. The sand and rock were smooth and comfortable to walk across and the sea was warm and like a millpond....

It is now still dark when we rise around 6am for our first pot of tea and to get ready for the working day. We are officially into autumn now but the weather can still be very warm and sunny (lovely). It hasn’t been as humid as it was before we had our holiday. It has been a back to work week for both of us this week, but we didn’t rush into it. We started off with porridge on The Rattigan on Monday before it turned into a hot sunny day. I did lots of work admin and some food shopping, and Nicky did some shopping for ingredients for a dessert she made for Alpha up at church. We had dinner on The Rattigan as it was cool enough by then, and Nicky did some mowing before got stuck into tellyboxing. Work has been busy for both of us. I spent W/T/F on the road doing site visits, and when Nicky got to work on Tuesday she was invited to a staff dinner that had been organised for the evening. She was also due at the church AGM later so I zipped over to Henderson for 6.40pm and managed ...

We have been on holiday (returned yesterday), but you won’t have received any post cards as we didn’t send any. This wasn’t meant as a slight. It was because of an unusual experience. We looked for postcards, in all sorts of places, but found very few, and the ones we did find we didn’t much care for the pictures, so we didn’t buy them. So, please accept our apologies. You will have to make do with this: Rotorua (1 night) We left BHB after Nicky had returned from church, we had packed the car and had some lunch. Our first overnight stop was the PSA holiday home (the PSA is the union of which N is a member) in Rotorua. It was a warm drive so we enjoyed a pot of tea while unpacking, and an amble in the cool evening air down to the lake. We found a quilting shop that was first thing on the list the following morning after cleaning and leaving the PSA home. The shop was very good. We left Rotorua heading for Napier, and on SH5 near Taupo stopped at Lava Glass, as they had a sign...

Bruce and Wendy were still with us on Monday morning, which started dryer and clearer than recently, and developed into a hot sunny day peaking at 29º in the afternoon. We had a big breakfast of stuffed mushrooms, scrambled eggs and avocado on toast. Nicky had her 3-month checkup with the GP and I started loads of washing. We spent the morning just pottering and chatting with B&W before they headed south again just before lunchtime. We went off to Ponsonby (N) and Parnell (R) and followed this with sewing, mowing and working in the office. We had very enjoyable lobs for tea. It was great to have seen Wendy and Bruce again and return some of their hospitality. It was wet overnight and this continued into Tuesday morning, but the afternoon was dryer. I had a job in Devonport in the morning and then collected Nicky from the station at lunchtime as she was taking her half-day-shopping-day. The afternoon was sewing and making a tuna and pasta salad for work (N) and shopping and adm...

Nicky has not been to work this week, except for Saturday. Monday is now part of her weekend, Tuesday was Waitangi Day (so a public holiday), and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday she took days owing to her for missing out on earlier public holidays which had fallen on a Monday. So, with Bruce and Wendy being in the country, after Nicky returned from church last Sunday we packed up a picnic and headed off to Titirangi to buy some light-weight gifts for B&W. By the time we had found what we wanted it was almost 1pm, so we ate the first half of our picnic in the car park in Titirangi. The we headed south to Mount Maunganui, stopping in Ngatea for the second half of lunch and drinks and sticky buns. We arrived the The Mount in time for dinner and had a lovely evening with Bruce, Wendy and Marnie. We started Monday with a good long walk down the beach with Wendy, concluding with a swim. Bruce greeted us with a wonderful cooked breakfast on our return which we ate al fresco. Nicky...

It’s February already - where does the time go? Earlier this week I heard what I think is a good definition of a heatwave: five consecutive days of the temperature being 5º above normal. In England the media seemed to think that a heat wave was a couple of hours of sunny weather on a summers day when it didn’t rain and it was a little warmer than usual. Our “proper” heatwave has come to an end this week, with a big storm system arriving on Thursday and it’s trailing rain and clouds will be with us for another day or two yet. Monday was Auckland Anniversary Day and the last public holiday of January. Nicky had not slept well so I left her in bed while I had my first pot of tea of the day. We had a late breakfast on The Rattigan before it got too hot, and we had tea there too when it was cooling down. In between we had a quiet day of pottering, sewing and ironing. We have been into town before for all the Anniversary events and just felt like having a quiet day at home. The scho...