Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 We have turned a seasonal corner this week with the winter solstice. The shortest day brought us just eight and a half hours of daylight, and our 38th wedding anniversary. When Clem and Pat came and stayed with us last year they gave us the money for a High Tea at Bushy Park. This is an Edwardian homestead now operating as a bed and breakfast and function venue, and is about a 30 minute drive from us. It’s grounds are operated by Forest & Bird and it is a predator-free area with paths and walks. We didn’t manage to have a High Tea there for Nicky’s birthday, due to confusion with the booking, so we tried again (this time successfully) for our anniversary. Our booking was for Wednesday, as Nicky staffs the Aramoho Community Library on Thursdays, our actual anniversary day. After a quick early morning trip to the dentists for a post-crown fitting checkup, we assembled a picnic lunch and drove to Bushy Park. We had a couple of hours to enjoy some of the walks and views before hav...

When this week began I thought our “busy” period was over. Covid had clobbered us, just as my season on the paddle steamer came to end, Helen from Auckland stayed a couple of nights, Claire came up from Dunedin and stayed a few nights, then we had a few nights in Raumati. Winter was beginning and we were heading for some P&Q. How busy could it be… Nicky slipped back into her usual routine commitments; vestry cleaning, home group, and staffing the Aramoho Community library. After vestry on Monday she did lots of errands in town, returning mid afternoon and having snooze in the Room of Requirement. Wednesday was two visits to the dentist to have crowns three and four fitted. The morning appointment went fine, but the afternoon one was a much more difficult and three hours longer experience than expected. She required much more anaesthetic and still has some swelling in her jaw and gums today. She will be back to the dentist again this week for a post-treatment assessment.   Nicky...

 We began the week with a Public Holiday to mark the King’s Official birthday in NZ. Being retired/semi-retired et al, this didn’t actually make much difference to us. Nicky still went off to do the vestry cleaning at church, and I did some MacOnSite work remotely with a customer in Auckland. The weather was chilly, but drier than expected so laundry was also done. The afternoon was consumed with snoozing (we both still feel the need post-Covid), planting and ironing. We managed a bit of telly after dinner. Our new home was officially finished (as far as we are concerned) almost two years ago on 18th June. We had planned to treat ourselves to a few days away in Raumati in order to celebrate. Nicky has maintained her PSA Membership as a retired member, and their closest holiday homes are in Raumati on the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington. We stayed there 5 years ago and were very taken with the place.   In our drive home (5 years ago, via New Plymouth) we stopped for lunch at V...

 We have had the best week of the year, even though we are not quite halfway through the year. Claire has been to visit. We hadn’t seen her since Christmas 2019 when she joined the family for Christmas when Felicity came over from the UK. Covid and work had made finding a suitable date challenging. We collected her from Palmerston North airport early on Wednesday afternoon. We got there shortly after her plane landed. We had called into a shoe shop in Marton which had been recommended to Nicky for repairs, only to find out that they no longer did repairs. Palmy airport turned out out to be a small bijou affair, and I was rather surprised when we left, about 15 minutes after arriving, to be charged only $3 for the parking. After giving Claire a tour of our home and dinner of brassica delight followed by lemon curd cheesecake, we set about doing a lovely Wentworth jigsaw that she had brought with her. This had been a birthday gift from my sister that Claire hadn’t got round to doing ...

 The weather has been just lovely this week, unlike Nicky and I. Most days have been dry and clear with warm sunshine. While the air outside has still been chilly most of the morning, we have really enjoyed the solar gain inside our home. We both tested positive for Covid again on Monday morning. I had a virtual consultation booked with a GP at our medical centre for Monday morning, so discussed our Covid situation with him. It transpires that now we have completed the 7 day isolation, we no longer need to keep testing. In fact, we are encouraged not to test as we could continue to get positive results for weeks because we have had Covid, but are no longer infectious. Taking precautions of physical distancing and wearing masks is a good idea, but in principle we can return to life as normal. Except neither of us feel well enough to do so. We both are still tired and short of energy, have some congestion and coughing from time to time. As a result, we have decided to stay home as mu...

 We are both much better today than we were a week ago, but have not yet achieved “normality”. Our main issue is tiredness, so much so that at times we feel our legs are no longer going to support us. Other issues are coughing and congestion. We don’t feel that our Covid experience can be described as “mild symptoms”. Last Saturday, Sunday and Monday turned out to be the three worst days. Nicky feels that she was never quite as bad as me, but her recovery doesn’t seem any quicker. The self-isolating has of course meant that we had a quiet week, and a bit of a change to our routines. Going back to bed at least once a day, usually in the afternoon, has become regular. The extra sleep has been very welcome.   The week has not been without its relative excitements. On Monday, Jacqui, our lovely caravan-dwelling next door neighbour moved out. She has bought a wee house on the other side of town where we hope she will be very happy. She hasn’t sold her section yet, but has had some ...

We have Covid. We think we have done pretty well to have avoided it this long, but it is unpleasant all the same. Nicky tested positive yesterday morning, and me this morning. This has meant that I have missed the last two sailings on the paddle steamer, and the end of season social. We are going to have to re-arrange our trip to Raumati which we had booked for next week, cancel all other engagements, stay home and look after each other. The supermarket will be delivering fruit, Halls Throaties, and a few other items on Tuesday. When letting people know that we have succumbed, we have discovered that two other members of the quiz team have also tested positive. This adds insult to the injury of coming 9th out of 11 teams (John wasn’t there, and he is very good). We have had lots of offers of help from friends and neighbours. I seem to have been suffering more than Nicky, though that might be changing as she hasn’t made it out of her PJ’s yet today. In other news, when it hasn’t been ra...