Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

As April draws to a close we are still enjoying some surprisingly good weather, though are not consuming as many cups of tea or meals on The Rattigan. Easter Monday started dull and turned wet so we had the day at home and finished the jigsaw before bedtime (just). Nicky has spent much more time at home this week. She was up early on Thursday to watch the Anzac Day dawn service on the telly, and suffered for it all day. A mid-week game of Scrabble with Ros and another volunteer session at Henderson library provided some respite from the challenge of completing a UK Pensions form for WINZ. We did have a bit of a reminisce when digging out 40 years or so of P45’s and P60’s. I have had a reasonable working week with a couple of longer jobs, and had a trip into town for my discussion group on Thursday evening. We had a joint of roast pork for a change on Tuesday with the weather starting to cool a little, and really enjoyed it. Nicky made some Chelsea Buns yesterday which tune...

Happy Easter one and all!! We started the long weekend with two dozen Bakers Delight hot cross buns in the freezer. There aren’t that many now, and we have really enjoyed making them disappear. Since I last wrote, we have had six and a half days of glorious sunshine and blue skies. We had some cloud this afternoon, but not the forecast rain. It will probably arrive tomorrow. This gave Nicky chance to hoover the grass again. Nicky has been out most of the week, with Mah Jong, the New Zealand and Beyond evangelical conference, meeting up with another retired librarian who is finding not working difficult, the volunteer work at Henderson library, foot washing, Easter vigil, BHB quilters and Scrabble. She has popped in now and then for a change of clothes and a bite to eat! I think she might have squeezed some zeds in too. I have had a modest amount of work, but Wednesday was very quiet so I went out to Karekare for the afternoon which was just lovely. Calm sea and firm sand...

I think the highlight of this week must be the weather. Starting on Monday it gave us four glorious days of autumn sunshine. Thursday took a leave of absence with heavy rain, and Friday couldn’t make its mind up, but the cloudless skies yesterday and very light breeze were just wonderful. It’s really helped with the browning on the knees. The last couple of nights have been much cooler. We started the week with overnight lows in the low teens, but we are now down to single figures. Nicky’s week has been busy. On Monday a trip to a German café with Doris finally came to fruition. This has been planned and aborted for a number of months, but then ended up not delivering on expectations as the chosen café turned out to be closed on Mondays! An alternative (non-German) was found. After lunch she went up to Armanasco House to see what happened at the Mah Jong group. It turned out their style of play is very different from ours. They have pages of “set hands” which they go for, instead ...

Autumn has started to arrive this week, with cooler temperatures, and on Saturday some significant rain - possibly the most we have had since Christmas Day. Daylight saving, Summer Time, call it what you will, has ended this weekend, so it is starting to feel that summer is over. The enjoyable sunshine we had today was accompanied by a cool southerly breeze. Summer is not the only thing to come to en end this week - Jancis, our friend from Loughborough, departed these shores yesterday. Her cousin, who she has been staying with, was off to a vintage car event yesterday morning so Jancis came round to us for lunch before doing her final packing and leaving for the airport. Nicky made a wonderful veg & bacon soup and we had a good natter. As ever we have enjoyed her company and are sad to see her go. Nicky had spent Monday on one of Jancis’s listening courses, and she and a couple of other ladies came back to our place for a cup of tea afterwards. I have had a moderate amount...

I’m not quite sure if we started this week (on Tuesday) suffering from jet lag or Melbourne lag. It is only a 2 hour difference between Auckland and Melbourne, but getting up to speed at the beginning of the week was quite an effort. It could also have been that our busy trip away had taken its toll. Nicky did loads of washing on Tuesday, while I got to grips with the admin (both work and personal) following our return home. Shopping was required so I raided Fruit World and New World, and we finished the day with Jancis coming over for dinner. This enabled us to open a bottle of Rosé that one of my customers had given me, which we thoroughly enjoyed with our “chooks in blankets” (chicken breasts stuffed with chunky sundried tomato dip and wrapped in smoked bacon). Jancis has had a shorter stay in NZ this time and it was our only chance to have her over for dinner, and we had a really good evening. Nicky spent most of Wednesday ironing before going up to church in the evening t...

Hello again Dear Reader, and my apologies for not posting on Sunday evening as usual - we were in Melbourne. We returned home later in the evening than we expected yesterday, and my fingers were not sufficiently well co-ordinated with my brain for blogging (some would say that this is a permanent state of affairs but my retort is that it’s the keyboard that lets the typos sneak through). We wanted to do something to celebrate Nicky’s retirement, and as soon as it was announced that Harry Potter and The Cursed Child was going to be on in Melbourne, that became the chosen activity. While Nicky was away in the UK last August, I booked the tickets. When she returned we arranged flights and accomodation, having decided there was no point in going for just a couple of days, and as flying during the week was quite a bit cheaper, we opted for a 7 night stay. This is what we got up to: Harry Potter - The Play I had booked to for us to see both Parts One and Two of Harry Potter and th...

As avid readers will recall, we recently met the Canadian branch of the family (Bruce and Wendy) at the airport and waved them off in their luxury mini bus to Mt Maunganui (aka The Mount). They kindly invited us to stay with them for a wee while, so we headed off to see them last Sunday. Nicky was due at prison so while she was at church I packed the car and we drove down to Wiri after Nicky had had a little to eat. While she was in prison I drove over to the Botanical Gardens and had a wander and ate my lunch, before collecting her, feeding her with hot cross bunnies, and heading south-east to The Mount. We had an uneventful journey and arrived in time for dinner and a good evening with Bruce, Wendy and Marnie. We started Monday with a leisurely breakfast on the balcony before Marnie departed for Auckland for a few days with friends. Nicky, Wendy and I went for a swim in the sea, and Bruce joined us for some time on the beach before an impromptu lunch. The afternoon was spent in ...