I've still got it!

I stepped on the scales this morning before getting in the shower and was horrified to learn I have gained even more weight. So I decided that the container of icecream I had bought on Tuesday night and eaten some of that evening and yesterday just had to go.

So once ready to head over to the pool to take my first session of Aquamove for the day, I got the offending (but essentially innocent) icecream from the freezer and headed over to the Maintenance guys to get them to put it in their freezer so one of them could take it home at the end of the day. 

Just before I got to the workshop I said hello to Gendy and our friend Peter who were getting ready to drive the Parkwood van this morning (taking non-driving residents to and from the shops at Waikanae). Peter called out that he would see me at 12.45pm. 'Yes?" I said questioningly. 'For lunch,' he said. 'But that's next Thursday,' I said. 'No, it's today,' he asserted. 'Are you sure?' I said.

Yes, he was sure that he and our mutual friend Murray were coming to lunch today. I wasn't sure. In fact I was sure it was next Thursday, but not to worry. 

So I turned around and took the icecream home and put it back in the freezer, told David his schedule was being changed, we were having two guests for lunch, pointed to the delicious dal left over from last night  - a recipe that serves 6 (why don't I modify amounts? For just this eventuality, obviously!), informed him I would make individual apple tartlets when I got back from the Aquamove sessions, and headed off having asked David to set the table in my absence.  

Fast forward to my arriving home and the following things occurred between 12.15 and 1pm:

• I discovered/remembered we had two bunches of asparagus in the fridge so I decided they would be the starter, and prepped them, and preheated a pan of water
  
• I put two mugs of rice in the pyrex bowl and got David to do the 4 mugs of water, the salt and the butter, and put it into the microwave to cook while I prepped the banana, threaded coconut and lime juice side dish
• David spooned 3 chutneys/relishes into little dishes
• I prepped the apple tartlets (a sheet of puff pastry from the freezer, cut it into 4, scored each piece with a sharp knife about a cm from each side, spread each piece with raspberry jam, peeled and sliced the braeburns from the fridge, placed the slices on the jam and sprinkled them with a mix of white sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon that I keep in the jar to use on banana and blueberry muffins) and got them into the oven to cook
• I reheated the dal
• I put some chilli flakes in one wee dish and a mix of chilli flakes, cayenne and salt (received a few weeks ago as part of a Wonky Box as a flavour sachet for avocado which I jarred and kept - near the 2 sugar/cinnamon mix...)

• Peter arrived early and we chatted, Peter poured the drinks and we waited for Murray. Who didn't arrive. So Peter called him. He was still at home because the lunch was scheduled for next week... 😜😛😛
•  So I put the asparagus on to cook.

The three of us sat down to eat at 1.05pm.

See, I've still got it - a 3 course meal in 45 minutes with 3.5 hours' warning 2.75 hours of which was taken up by Aquamove sessions...

And the lovely thing is, Peter and Murray and another friend (Tom) are coming for lunch next Thursday. Peter says they would love the dal, so I will make that again next Wednesday and once more be prepared ... Peter is going to bring the asparagus, and I've found another apple dessert to try!

 

Seeing these women in the pool at Aquamove today made me smile. I really enjoy taking these sessions.

 

Aquamove, and baking for the Fair

Aquamove sessions:

Here at Parkwood we have a lovely swimming pool which isn't used much during the day - a few people come and swim early, but mostly it is empty.

I had thought about how I would like to do some kind of aqua movement classes - nothing too strenuous or noisy, but some exercise to keep my joints moving well and to give me some exercise. So at one of our sector meetings, I asked if anyone was interested in Aquamove classes. Yes, Wendy was. Then I asked again at the new residents' morning tea, and Ann was. As always, it then took me a while to build up the courage to canvas more widely for interest. I am not sure why this happens to me, i.e. being overcome by a feeling of anxiety about whether people will like my idea (therefore like or not like me - doh!)

Anyway, after a couple of weeks or so of inaction, I finally got off my bum and got on to getting it sorted. 

I rang and arranged to meet with one of the Kapiti Coast District Council aqua-fitness leaders, and we discussed what sort of exercises would be useful for us older people. She suggested Aquamove and sent me some exercise sheets - it is gentle, non-bouncy exercises that stretch, assist with strengthening, joint mobility and fitness. We talked about having one of her team come to take the sessions; however at the same time, having listened to the questions I asked, she assured me that I would be able to run them.

My task then was to get an email sent out to all of Parkwood asking for people to register their interest and elect whether Tuesday or Thursday would suit them better.

I thought I'd probably get about 12 replies which meant I'd would be able to form two sessions.

But there were 32 responses! Amazing!

Then came the tasks of:

• organising people into different sessions based on their preference where possible, 
• getting the exercise sheets laminated, 
• making a notice for the swimming pool/gym door publicising that the pool would be occupied from 9.30 to 12.30 Tuesday and Thursday, 
• purchasing polystyrene pool noodles, 
• emailing all participants with information and a list of who was assigned to which group - and 
  
• most importantly, letting them know that if they wanted to swap sessions, it was up to them to find someone to swap with...

So I am now running 4 sessions each week, 2 on Tuesday morning and 2 on Thursday mornings. Not everyone who registered an interest has come along, and that is fine. I did rather spring it on them - from the time I asked for interest to the first sessions it was less than a week, and people here at Parkwood lead busy lives.

I was a bit nervous on at the first Tuesday session, but that dissipated quite quickly. And I realised we could fit a lot more exercises in the half hour than the KCDC person had thought possible. And in the second session that day, Janet R who had attended aquarobics for a number of years, made several suggestions of exercises that we could also do. I love other people's suggestions, so when I came home from the first Tuesday, I wrote Janet's ideas on the back of one of my laminated sheets and they are now a part of the routine.

Of course, as the leader I cannot be in the pool with them (in part from an H&S point of view, and in part because I am short - they wouldn't see me if I was instructing from in the water!), so I am doing the exercises poolside. Some of them are easier on dry land, others are not. It's a good thing I can touch a wall to keep my balance at times...

They are smiling!

On Thursday the sessions went smoothly and were a lot of fun - I feel very relaxed about running them now.

The Parkwood Fair

And a big part of the busyness for David and me and for a lot of Parkwood people was getting ready for the Parkwood Fair that was held on Saturday. I baked and baked and baked.

• two chocolate brownie cakes
• two almond and coconut gluten free cakes
• about 38 cheese scones
• a batch of shortbread
• a small batch of cheesy shortbread
• 5 loaves of sourdough bread 

 And I also made a batch of red capsicum and chilli jelly - it's easy and yummy.

The almond and coconut gluten free cakes

 

Cheesy shortbread - a wee bit more golden than I wanted, but they were delicious.

 

The great bake off of 9 Wren St...

 

I was assisting on the Baking and Preserves stall. I think I may have missed my calling - selling ice to Inuits. No one who made eye contact escaped without buying something, and many people made eye contact when I called out to them, and then they purchased...

David was helping on the Fine China stall - he didn't wrap or sell anything, but he took the money and organised any EFTPOS payments. And of course, the women he was assisting just loved him - haven't I done a good job on socialising him over the years? 😀😂😍😇😈

Preliminary results are that we made a goodly amount of money from the sales: china and cakes, preserves, white elephant, electrical, furniture, paintings, games, knitting/crocheting, plants.

By Saturday afternoon, I was really tired so I had a long nap. Sunday I was still quite tired so we had a quiet day apart making dinner early so I wouldn't have to motivate myself later in the day, and we went for a walk. And I did manage to break a string on David's second ukelele - I was tuning it to lend to another ukelele participant and wound the wrong string winder, all the while wondering why the string wasn't coming in tune... 

So on Monday, after I'd prepared the loaves of sourdough in the morning, I drove to Levin - again -  to get the ukelele re-strung - doh!

I've run the Aquamove classes again this morning (Tuesday) - gosh it's fun. But tiring and I've had a snooze in the armchair.

Our Australian citizen:

We had a text from our lovely daughter Kirsty on Saturday telling us she'd voted in her first local body elections in Sydney as an Australian citizen.

The lovely Kirsty. Well, half of her...

Apparently they go hard out with some kind of food stall and sausage sizzle at the polling booths. This is a democracy sausage! Yay!! I think we need to start that here in NZ.

 The lovely David:

This morning David took 3 ukeleles to his class: a soprano one (very small) that is too small for him and he is donating it to the ukelele teacher to be given to a local school, his own one, and the baritone one I had to get restrung yesterday - he is lending it to a classmate who is struggling with a soprano (too small), and his own, plus his music stand and sheet music. He has an A3 stand and has printed his sheet music (words and chords) on A3. You can probably tell by the background that I took this photo while I was still in bed...

 

He thought it was very funny, okay?

 

Definitely!

Out of hospital and into the agapanthus

 Well, I collected the motorhome on the Thursday before last and, although the cost of leak repairs was quite high, we were pleased to pay it - the motorhome has had quite a lot of the original sealant replaced, because UK sealant doesn't last here in NZ's sun.

Since I collected it, we've had it parked next to our place. And we've had Kat staying with us again and she slept in it. She did have a noisy night when we had intense thunderstorms with heaps and heaps of lightning.

We need to have a new place to store the motorhome because Parkwood management has decided that motorhomes and caravans can no longer be stored on site. We have arranged to keep it up behind Richard and Ngaere's place about 10 minutes' walk from here.

I have previously driven it up their long sloping driveway and it was fine - I just put it in T1 (Traction drive in 1st gear) and up we went, with no hassles.

Last week, because the guys were going to be mowing the lawns here, I needed to move the motorhome from beside the house. So I decided to take it to Richard and Ngaere's. As I was leaving Parkwood, it occurred to me that I could just leave it at the Plateau parking area until the run of really stink wet weather is over. But on I went, with Kat in the passenger seat. She was on adjusting in the wing mirrors so I could get the cab safely through Richard and Ngaere's gateway and then re-adjusting them so I could see the sides of the habitation area as I drove all the way through - I've tried it with the mirrors folded flat and it is bloody scary not being able to see the sides...

So through the gate successfully, and then I engaged the Traction gear and up we went.

Bugger!! Almost at the top, the ground was soft and the motorhome skidded a bit. So I stopped, reversed a wee way and tried again. Nope, not happening.

So there was nothing for it but to reverse down the drive and out the gateway.

Well, that was the plan, but it didn't go according to plan, now did it?

Somehow, I managed to go off piste and ended up over to the left of the driveway and in the agapanthus! And agapanthus leaves are full of notoriously gooey sap when broken open. And when the wheels run over them, they exude the gooey slippery stuff. And wheels don't like it and decide not to go forward or back.

So I declared defeat, went and told Richard and we considered what to do. The options tried:

• putting mats under the front wheels (it's front wheel drive) to see if I could gently drive forward - no. But one mat just got scrunched and pulled back under the wheel...
• Richard and Kat pushing me backwards - no, no movement and the Ducato has the very clever functionality that, in a skid situation, the wheels won't turn - to stop me digging myself in deeper.

At that point, Richard said he would have a go at cutting away the agapanthus leaves when the weather cleared up and I would come back on Friday, after 3 days of fine weather. Hopefully the driveway would have dried out and I'd be able to reverse away from the agapanthus leaves.

But over night, I started thinking about the likelihood of being able to drive out, even with the agapanthus cleared. So I rang Kapiti Coast Towing and asked the advice of Royce, the owner. He suggested that he would come and have a look at it with me the following day. His counsel once on site was that there were two ways to release the motorhome from its bondage: EITHER put a strop around the large tree beside the driveway and around the wheel, and then winch the motorhome off OR get a small tractor up the bank and then tow the motorhome up to the level where it was due to be living.

A day later I told Richard what I was thinking and he said he was just going out to hack away the agapanthus leaves. When I went to look at his progress, it was really clear why the motorhome had come to a halt and wouldn't be pushed back - in cutting away the leaves Richard exposed a 400mm (1'4") high and about 600mm wide (you do the maths this time) agapanthus root system ... AAARRRGGGHHH!!! 

 

There was NO way I was ever going to be able to drive over that!

So I phoned Royce. We agreed on the option of the tractor towing the motorhome up the hill.

Not too long after that, he arrived with his truck, accompanied by his worker Michael in another truck with the tractor on the back.

 

See that little rounded off rectangular section? Behind that is a fitting that an eyelet screws into.

 

That eyelet thing - it lives in a toolbox under the passenger seat - Royce knew where to find it. I would have remembered eventually ...

 

Royce was calling Michael letting him know we were ready.

 

Michael arrives with the tractor on the back of the truck

Did you know that tractors have multiple very, very low gears that are put into play when climbing slippery banks? I didn't, but I do now! If you want, I can show you video of the whole process...

 

Michael driving very close to Richard and Ngaere's motorhome having also missed the lemon tree in the left foreground...

Once Michael got up the bank - using the very very low gears, he reversed down the driveway. They attached the ends of the chain to the eyelet on the motorhome and the chassis of the tractor, then slowly, slowly up the hill.

The towing went very smoothly and they made it look easy. Michael drove the tractor and Royce steered the motorhome. Once the motorhome was in place, and Royce and Michael had loaded the tractor back on the truck, I washed the agapanthus goo and leaf bits off the motorhome, pulled the blinds up and locked it. And headed home in the car - I needed a lie down.

It was well worth the $250 that Royce charged - I thought that was incredibly reasonable: 2 trucks, a tractor and 2 men and well over a couple of hours of Royce's time over two days and an hour of Michael's, not including travelling time. A bargain!

P.S. I had a couple of viseos and more photos to add in. But Google Blogger is playing silly bloggers/buggers: it says I need to accept all cookies before I can load photos. And then accepting the cookies does nothing. SO I have just drag and dropped the photos. The ones on the post are the only ones I could load on. And videos - no chance!

The motorhome is in hospital

If you read of our South Island adventures you may remember my writing about leaks in the lockers on the internal walls adjacent to the awning brackets. We thought the problem may have been solved by Luke down in Cromwell, but when I got up on the ladder and looked, it was clear that with the awning on, there was no way to access the brackets and make them water-tight.

We decided we would get Freeway in Plimmerton to sort it out thoroughly - Luke only had an hour and we couldn't leave the motorhome overnight as we had a few time-dependent arrangements on our way back up to our ferry booking.

And since coming back from the South Island, we had a few days away in Kuratau with the Zero Degrees Club, where it rained and the leaks manifested themselves markedly, dammit. 

And while we were getting ready to head up to Kuratau, I noticed that the mechanism that holds the monitor for the rear view camera on to the windscreen had let go, and all that was holding it on was the tape I'd left on from the last glueing - and that was supposedly the strongest glue around. Nope! 

That made three glues that failed: Araldite, Superglue and the windscreen glue. Rather than having David hold it for me all the way to and from Kuratau, he was dispatched to the toolbox to find the electrical tape and I wound the tape around the driver's side sunvisor and the monitor. It worked and was what would be described in NZ as a number 8 wire solution - not elegant but functional.

So there were a few items on the list for Freeway:

• construct a dashboard mounting for the monitor and
• re-route the monitor's wiring so it is as invisible as possible on its way to the new mounting
• remove the awning and its mounting brackets
  
• sort out the leaks and seal all brackets with new sealant
• test for water-tightness and remedy any other leaks found
• and leak test them too
  
• warn me of the possible price so I could have a lie down in private...
• and go AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
   

The leaking was more substantial than we had thought (the sealing strip that goes from the bottom of the portside wall [passenger's side] up and along near the top and then down that wall near the rear was taken off and they found water; they also found water between the skin of the roof and the skin that goes from the side of the roof over to the aforementioned sealing strip; and I asked them to check the same locations on the starboard/driver's side - it's fine; they have replaced the sealant and the fixings for the solar panels). 

Note that it is not surprising that the sealant has broken down after 7 years - NZ's sun is vicious and the UV here plays havoc with northern hemisphere sealants.

So the mh has been in hospital for about 3 weeks now - not always being worked on but it looks like I will be able to collect it on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. I think we can just afford it, but no new toys for David for a while, and I may have to slow down on my kindle book purchases...
 

There is a difference between cayenne and paprika ...

The other night I decided to try a recipe I had seen on facebook. It was spiced roasted potato and cauliflower with chickpeas on a layer of hummus. It sounded yummy as well as being protein rich.

So I set about getting it prepped and had to guess at the spice quantities because the recipe didn't give them - it was a video with commentary but no written instructions. So I was quite generous with the paprika and the cumin, and when it said to add more after the original tossing of the ingredients together to coat them evenly, I did so, also generously.

Into the oven it went and then I put the ingredients away. WTF?! What I thought was paprika was actually the cayenne pepper, dammit! All of my spices are in square jars with red lids, and the cayenne lives on the top of the rack on the far left. It's the one I use most because it's in my cheese scones.

I had automatically reached for it and not even checked its label...

Sure enough, the roast veges and chickpeas were too hot for me - I knew they were going to be because I had to turn the rangehood on to remove the chilli choking phenomenon that occurred when the heat of the oven released the pungency of the cayenne... 

I did give it my best shot at eating them - smothered in plain yoghurt! Even so, I had to give at least a third of what I'd served myself to David.

The next night, he had the leftovers (I still have not mastered cooking veg meals with a quantity suitable for two) and I had roasted a kumara, a small carrot and a small parsnip with a little bit of paprika (yes it was) and thyme from the garden. I made a guacamole to go with my plate of veg with just a small amount of hummus. I didn't need yoghurt ...

Another cooking blunder that I made a couple of weeks ago was when I made pastry in the food processor. I was so enraptured with how quickly it whizzes into breadcrumb-like texture that I kept whizzing. Doh! The pastry tasted fine but it was a bit tough. And we had guests that I wanted to impress, dammit.

To be honest, I am not sure if it was over-whizzing or if egg wash and cooking the pasties at 190 deg C were the problem. I'd usually cook pastry a bit hotter and faster than that. Either way, I'll be whizzing for a far shorter time in future!

My sister came to visit!

 From Friday to Sunday we had my sister Dee come to stay, and it was just fabulous to have her here.

We didn't do much to entertain her but she did get to sample life here in Parkwood:

• on Friday afternoon, shortly after she arrived she came with us to a talk by a Bank of NZ man about the latest scams and how to avoid them - it was very well attended and extremely interesting. 
• Apparently the latest scam doing the rounds is being phoned by someone impersonating a police officer who instructs you that your bank is involved in fraudulent activities and that you need to withdraw money from your credit card account immediately. You mustn't tell anyone and you certainly mustn't tell the bank staff why you are doing so. You are to lie and say you need the money for renovations of somesuch, because the bank staff you interact with are very likely in on the fraud. The banks are aware of this scam and are making sure that their staff interview customers to find out why they are withdrawing so much cash. Obviously some customers get tetchy and are anxious that they are being stopped by fraudulent bank staff, but the staff have to persevere because otherwise people will be scammed out of a lot of money.
  
  
• on Friday evening Dee came to drinks and quiz night - a lot of fun. I tried to be well behaved and quiet, but failed spectacularly in that endeavour... It appears that I cannot stop myself yelling Yes!!! when we get an answer right.
  
  
• on Saturday as a committee member, I was on Notices at the weekly morning tea, so while I did that, Dee and David went for an extensive walk around Parkwood, stopped and spoke with several people, and generally enjoyed the sunshine and lovely grounds.
  
  
• I had promised Dee cheese tart for Saturday dinner, so I made a large one - she loves cheese tart and so do we...
  
  
• Dee was keen to catch up with Bruce and Gary so I got us invited for afternoon tea. I got a chocolate brownie cake out of the freezer (actually the half I had abstemiously frozen to save David and I pigging out on it after the other half had been consumed when we had friends around for dinner).
• Gary though had made delicious cheese scones (the MoF recipe that I use) and pikelets and other friends had turned up with plain scones, so we ate heaps.
   
• We agreed when we came home that we didn't need dinner because of the piggy nature of afternoon tea consumption. But an hour or so later we agreed that a small piece of cheese tart would be in order.
• so I cut each of us a small piece and heated it and delivered it it: Dee and I were in the lounge and David was taking advantage of Dee not being in the office/bedroom to do a bit of work. Dee and I were happy with the portions I provided but ACP felt very short-changed. So out he came and asked if he could have more. Trusting that he was too full to want much, I said yes.
• Later I went to cover and refrigerate the cheese tart only to find his SMALL extra piece was the same size as the piece that had fed all three of us originally! Dee and I agreed he would have to have less for brunch the next day...
  
  
•  On Sunday morning we had brunch - not the usual breakfast fare, but cheese tart and coleslaw. We kindly let David have an equal share, by the way. I made a batch of cheese scones for Dee to take back to Kurt and Charlotte.
  
  
• Dee headed away just before noon - it was a short but very lovely stay with us. 

Some non-Parkwood stuff:

• Mel slept on her bed - Dee and Murray were big fans of Mel, so of course Mel needed to be supporting Dee while she was here.
  
  

  

  💙💚💛💜

  
  
  
• David and Dee have a longstanding close sibling-in-law relationship - it's 50 years since Dee came to live with us for a bit. And they are very close. However, she also gives him a very hard time, just as I do. So if he thinks he'll have it easier while she is here - WRONG!!! Although she does offer him more sympathy than I do.
  
• Dee slept on our new armchair sofa beds in the office. David turned off all of the computers/screens/printer and relocated the huge digital clock that can be seen from outer space, so that she wasn't sleeping on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

We both had a nana nap after she had gone - the young tire us out ...

We have lost John

 When I wrote about  our Zero Degrees team get together in the third weekend of June I mentioned that it was likely that if we didn't get together again soon, we would lose someone before another catch up.

Well, it has happened - John, who I noted in that post was pretty poorly and incapacitated then with pulmonary fibrosis, leukemia and oedema, died on July 22 - a month after we had all got together. He was the 4th one of us to get Covid after the weekend, in spite of Adair's efforts to keep him isolated from it. And with his co-morbidities, it was the final straw.

So David and I and Jim and Judy went up to be there to support Adair and the three lovely daughters (Lynaire, Levonne and Danielle) whom we have known since they were toddlers. John hadn't wanted a funeral, so we had a wake instead.

In John terms, it was very quiet - if he'd been there in person the rock music would have been belting out, there'd be dancing and lots of alcohol consumed.  

However a number of people had come from work and a lot of us were old - it seems the days of raucous parties are over, more is the pity!

But we did sit around and talk about him and our times together. 

John was a stalwart for me when I headed to London to work three months before David finished up his job at Learning Media. John and I spent most Saturdays together, at first constructing Argos flatpack furniture for my apartment: a bookcase, a table and chairs, a bedside cabinet and a TV stand, then followed by a late lunch and wine at La Perla in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. Lunch was always vegetarian fajitas, the wine was always a chilean sauv blanc - usually one bottle between us but occasionally two. That was always a mistake, especially the late afternoon when I came out of the Leicester Square tube station by the wrong exit, and headed down Oxford St and on to Regent St instead of the other way which would have got me closer to the route on foot back to Pimlico ... When I realised my error, I decided a black cab was the best solution! Home I went giggling about being drunk and loose and alone in London... 

Note: the reason John was available on Saturdays was because Adair worked nights caring for elderly rich people, and on Saturdays she needed to sleep. J&A lived in a house in Golders Green that was full of bedsits rented out to a myriad of people, with one kitchen and two bathrooms. So John had to be out during the day. A win win win obviously!

It is even more important that we increase our get-togethers - the number of them with a quorum could be severely curtailed, so any opportunity needs to be seized upon!

Big hugs, John.

 

Various bits and bobs

The social scene

 In the interests of finding a suitable time for David and I, Jim and Judy to go and visit John and Adair, given John is very poorly, I've been identifying days that we need to be at home here in Waikanae. Bloody hell, the social calendar is quite full! What with drinks on Fridays, Quiz night and Bingo each once a month on Fridays (contemporaneous with drinks where I am occasionally on serving food, bar duty or just socialising), Monthly dinners, Sector 10 meetings and monthly Residents' Association committee meetings, plus podiatrist and osteopath appointments, it looks like we have no spare time at all!

That's not true by any stretch, as can be seen by the days of empty spaces in the calendar. So rest easy, because I am! David, on the other hand, continues to be pretty fully occupied with his Weaving Memories work. And he does such a good job on it.

Yesterday morning we had Bruce, Gary, David R, John and Leith here for breakfast. We generally go out for breakfast together but the choice of places has palled on me a bit. So as we finished up last Saturday at a place which was pretty disappointing for us as vegetarians, I resolved to have everyone come here yesterday. David brought in our additional tabletop to increase the size of the table so we could easily fit 7 of us plus multiple serving dishes.

If I do say so myself, the brekkie was very good:

• scrambled eggs, bacon, chilli beans, potato roasties (not rostis), cooked tomato/capsicum/onion/garlic spicy mix, guacamole, sauces, tortillas and sourdough toast.

The kitchen and dining table did look like a tip after the guys left, but while David ferried stuff from the table to the kitchen, I rinsed dishes and pans and loaded the dishwasher and washed the stuff that wouldn't fit. Didn't take long at all for us to have the place shipshape - complete with the tabletop being taken off and put back in the garage, and the tablecloth and sertviettes being processed through the washing machine. We make a good efficient team!

Dinner tonight

There were some leftovers: chilli beans and roasties, plus a goodly amount of the tomato spicy mixture. David finished the beans and roasties for dinner last night and I have prepared a sort of lasagne (SOL, made with fusilli - no lasagne in the pantry...) for tonight's dinner. I had deliberately cooked extra of the tomato mixture expressly for this  purpose. The other ingredient of the SOL is my mushroom sauce. And David is currently making one of our favourite salads to go with it: beetroot and carrot.

Potential new resident

A friend of ours has been phoned by Parkwood to come and look at villas, so on Friday I joined her on the sightseeing. Two things:

• I realised just how small our villa is in comparison to others here - and that I wouldn't change to a larger one even if it was offered: we are fabulously sited for sun, privacy and external spaciousness, we have wonderful neighbours, and our place is small but perfectly formed and suits us very well
• our friend saw a villa that she really liked, and she has an option on it - we looked at 3 that are available but one stood out as being just right for her - a bit like Goldilocks ...

The Great Escapers

 Have you seen the movie The Great Escapers with Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson? If not, find out where you can see it and get on to it. It's wonderful. One day last week, Janet and I saw it at the Shoreline Cinema. Two amazing actors and an excellent supporting cast, and a true story of an 89 year old WWII veteran who travelled alone to France for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings that he had been part of as an Able Seaman on one of the barges back in 1944.

NYT puzzles

Other things that have been occupying my mind, at least for 15 - 30 minutes or so each day are 3 New York Times puzzles: Wordle, Connections and the Mini Crossword; the latter two were recommended to me by Olek, our lovely 19 year old grandson.

Wordle is more or less challenging each day, depending on the results of my starting word, so sometimes I get it in 3 or 4 (most often), occasionally I get it in 2, sometimes 5, less frequently 6 and even less frequently I get an x/6. I console myself with the thought that it really is just a guessing game and chance plays a big part. Well, that's what I tell myself and others...

Connections can be simple/obvious, but other times and more often than not, it can be diabolical in its fatuous, obscure, tenuous, and/or American links among the sets of four words. I often give up, just choose random sets of 4 words so that it tells me I have run out of allowable mistakes and tells me the answers which gobsmack me with their idiocy.

A fail - I only got two sets of four connected words...

Success!! All four with no mistakes - this doesn't happen for me very often. But yay when it does!!

The Mini Crossword is achievable although sometimes I have to google stuff to find answers that are USA specific. I don't consider it cheating - I consider it adding to my body of knowledge.

New words...

For instance, this morning while reading a JD Kirk Scottish detective novel (no, not highbrow at all) I came across the word philtrum - go ahead, look it up. 

The beauty of reading on a Kindle is that you can press on the word and the dictionary function comes in to play and tells you the meaning. I found this particularly useful when reading Christopher Hitchens! 

The other fab thing is that the Vocabulary Builder function records all the words you've looked up and you can got back and check them out - and see the flashcard behind each word. How bloody cool is that?

Kiwi Drip Stand

Adair has constructed this for the distilled water required for John's AirVo machine - to keep moisture mixed in with the oxygen. Ingenious, eh? I'm surprised that the hospital didn't discharge him with this piece of equipment, but Adair found a solution!

Important information
 

My lovely nephew (son of my little big sister Dee) yellow carded me for that fb post. But read on ... His wife is a gem!

This is not something I want coming towards me at speed. You?

I have grown this abutalon from a cutting that was nurtured by Denny Meyer, from a tree now removed from the section beside theirs in Whanganui. It makes me happy!

The husband, aka ACP and TB, is in the clear

 Readers of the previous post, in the spirit of being adherents to the misinformed view that David has a hard life and should be known as Poor David, will be pleased to know that punitive measures have ceased. The howls have died down.

This morning at about 2.51 (approximately or thereabouts...) an email from IRD came in. When I saw it at 5am I forwarded it to the TB (I'm not ignoring those emails again!), and thoughtfully waited until 6.30am before informing said TB. He immediately got up and logged in, as the email required. 

And yay, he is so very lucky: the GST balance is $0.00, including penalties.

And why is he lucky, you ask? Well, punitive measures have ceased and, as he is now the only income earner, he would have had to pay the penalty if it hadn't been wiped. So yes, he is lucky.

In other news: 

Yesterday morning before I was properly awake, David yelped that he had cramp in his foot. Off he hobbled to the bathroom to get his foot on the cold floor, which apart from my wrenching his foot back to break the cramp's hold, is the only way we know how to fix it. And then later, before we got up and while I was typing something in my phone, he yelped even more loudly and said it was back. He got out of bed and said he couldn't walk. Well, I was busy composing, so clearly I wasn't available to help. So I suggested he crawl. And then I couldn't help, because I was laughing so much.

Because I already had my phone out, I was able to take a photo:

I sent this to Olek, as any good grandmother would...

Tamarillos are back in season! Pond accoutrements and my GST bill...

 Tamarillos:

If you aren't an NZer you may not understand my excitement or even what I am excited about.

Tamarillos are one of my two favourite fruits and they are strictly seasonal. And fortunately each one is available at a slightly different time of year.

Feijoas are Favourite A and Tamarillos are Favourite 1, and they are both wonderful. I don't think I could grow tamarillos here in Parkwood, but I'm happy to give it a go. And we now have 3 small feijoa trees planted along the west wall of the house. All we have to do is keep the damn pukekos away.

But I digress, as usual.

Earlier this week I was in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket and saw tamarillos, looking luscious and delicious and a beautiful deep ruby/crimson colour. The price was $24.99 a kilo, so I bought 10 of them and to hell with the expense... which I didn't look at, by the way. That is a strategy I adopted a long time ago, and I know it's a strategy of privilege and good income. I first took it up when we were having a bathroom fitted in the moonporch (sunporch that got no sun) of Cherswud, our Johnsonville home. It had windows on the two outside walls and needed an imposing windowsill to cover the 10" deep stone walls. I had the choice between a piece of 1" dressed rimu or 2" dressed rimu. I chose the 2" and said to the builder not to tell me how much it cost.

So for the last two days I have had tamarillos, yoghurt and muesli for brekkie - delicious! And today I bought online two boxes of tamarillos at slightly less than I paid per kg in the supermarket. Yay!!!

Accoutrements for the ponds:

And we are getting a pump and fountain in the ponds outside our place and Janet's. The two ponds are a lovely feature however ours has always had clear water that is full of algae and Janet's water is cloudy but the algae, if present, doesn't clump. A pump and fountain will keep the water circulating and clear and limit algae growth. So we can get fish in our pond, just as Janet has in hers. We do have really lovely waterlilies in their season and we had a frog earlier this year. Maybe with clearer water we will have more frogs - that will be cool.

My GST bill:

Almost since I started contracting way way back in the 90s, ACP has completed my tax returns, both withholding payments and GST (VAT to you UK people). He took it on when I had a grief-stricken tantrum over my GST return and stabbed the paper form with the pen, having made a couple of rookie mistakes. The problem was that the form was on the Winnie-ther-Pooh mousemat, and I stabbed Piglet...multiple times, as I have just been reminded. 👿👿👿😓😓😓

And he has always done a sterling job, apart from once when he was late filing his own return and used my tax return to pay his overdue fee!

But he has now badly blotted his copybook and I may have to punish him severely. When I get emails from IRD I confidently ignore them because my TB (Tax B*tch - his name for himself, not mine!) has it all in hand. In fact it's something he is religious about, nay - almost obsessive about - akin to his obsession with USA politics and podcasts on that subject, but that's another story.

I have recently had a couple of emails from IRD which, as I said, I confidently ignored. But yesterday the TB informed me that I owed IRD $2000 in late fees and interest because I hadn't filed a GST return for the six months ending March 31 this year. Considering I haven't earned anything since December 22 and my last payment came through in January 23, the GST return for Oct 23 - Mar24 would have been a NIL return.

But had my TB filed it? Had he heck. And of course, it's no longer possible to phone IRD up, speak to a person and explain. So after much gnashing of teeth and no success at getting through the phone system using voice recognition, we sent IRD an email on their contact form. I had to apologise for overlooking the return. And it somehow didn't seem appropriate to say in the email that my TB was undergoing punitive measures for his oversight.

Naturally the NIL return was filed last night, so now we await a decision on clemency or no clemency. Punitive measures could be increased if clemency is not forthcoming. Listen for the howls...

A cold, Brisbane, Association, a weekend away and Covid

 A man cold:

When we got back from our South Island trip it was only a few weeks before David was heading to Brisbane to stay with his sister Ginny and her husband Graham. However in the meantime, he came down with a really bad cold. I knew it was really bad because it was a man cold, and they are known to be the very worst. We had some Day and Night Nurse medication that we had brought back from the UK, however Mr I-can't-see-very-well-but-I-am-rigorous-about-checking-almost invisible-expiry-dates told me they were past their use by date. As the only other choice was panadol, I offered him that and said he could make his own decision. Sensibly, in my view, he opted for the Day and Night Nurse...

But of course, he needed to be clear of the cold and congested sinuses before flying - being 25,000 feet in the air with blocked sinuses is very painful, as I can attest from personal experience; therefore we had to get him healthy. So he avoided Friday drinks and the quiz, Saturday breakfast with the guys, and our sector meeting.

And because he was coughing a lot he slept in the spare bedroom/office on one of our newly purchased and very lovely sofa-bed chairs. I could still hear him coughing but it wasn't right in my ear or such a sharp noise that lifted my head off.

Brisbane:

David had 5 nights away with Ginny and Graham and had a lovely time - the weather was much warmer in Brisbane than here, and it was great for them to catch up.

Ginny and David at lunch - Graham took on the role of paparazzi.

He also spent an afternoon with our friend Viv who only lives a short distance from G&G. Viv is a friend we met when we were first together, way back nearly 51 years ago, in Okoia, a little village outside Whanganui. She and John come and spend a great deal of the summer over here in Foxton at their static caravan - too hot in Brisbane in the summer, I think.

While David was away, I had my first taste of being on my own in this house. And for the first time when I've been on my own, I actually cooked for myself. In all the other times David has been away over the years since the kids left home, I have just had a sandwich or a boiled egg or something that I wouldn't consider to be a proper meal. Not sure what was different this time. It may be that we are surrounded by people living on their own who cook proper meals all the time...

Association:

While we were away in the South Island, our neighbour Janet rang me to say she and Wendy wanted to nominate me for the Parkwood Residents' Association. And because there was one fewer nominees than positions, there didn't have to be an election. So I didn't have the stress of the possibility of not being chosen. All those memories of being the last one chosen for a team...😢 I am now on the committee and looking forward to seeing what it entails.

A weekend away:

Back in early May, Judy had suggested a Zero Degrees Club weekend, so we made it happen. And because it was mid-winter, we had a mid winter Xmas dinner contributed to by us all. (On the narrowboat, we instituted having a mid-summer kiwi Xmas party, so it seemed sensible to do the mid-winter thing now we are no longer having endless summers. Thank heavens for that, I say!) We also had Secret Santa: maximum spend $8.

Jim with his rainbow bow tie

Pauline received a lovely pottery jug. That's Barry and his walker at the far end of the sofa.

Sparkly butterfly hairclips for Judy

A lovely necklace for Jenny and Judy's hairclips looking cool.

A tie for Chris. Quite stylish. Barry is out of shot, but the bell he got is down beside him - Pauline, as a 24/7 carer,  did not look thrilled at that present.😔😟

 

David got a banana slicer - apt as he has a banana with his breakfast each day. However his demonstration took far longer than using a knife. But the novelty value was worth it. 😘😏😛

I was given an elf hat - apparently because I had been an ideal Elf for Santa by doing lots of organising and cooking and making sure everyone knew what they needed to bring/do for the weekend... Such a stretch for me to be doing that kind of stuff, don't you think? I will wear the elf hat a lot, I think. Suits my shy personality, eh?

Somehow, I didn't get photos of John and Adair's presents. I know Adair got a cookbook that she used that night - some spicy shrimp recipe that she said was yummy. And I cannot remember what John got.

 Mid-winter Xmas lunch:

The stove at the place we were staying was a bit dodgy - its thermostat is probably faulty, because even on 140 deg it burnt stuff ... However, well-cooked (at 170 deg!!) lamb is fine for those who eat meat - I bought it but asked that someone else cook it as the smell of cooking blood turns my stomach. Jenny did the honours.

Main Menu:

• roast pumpkin and parsnips
• boiled potatoes
• carrots and peas
• nut roast
• roast lamb
• mushroom sauce

Followed by:

• pavlova with cream and strawberries
• sticky toffee pudding with dark caramel sauce
• custard

At our Zero Degrees weekends, we usually have a meeting the first agenda item of which has often been a health report. However as we are ageing and our health is getting poorer, I thought it would be better to make the health report more of a fun activity than a sure fire way of bringing the mood down. So I had printed out for everyone an outline of a person. The instructions given were to draw/colour in/write where it hurt and why.

There was quite a lot of hilarity. One thing I didn't ask for was a list of medications - I'm not sure there would have been enough room on some people's pages. 😅 But don't get me wrong - I am a sensitive soul really ...😇

We agreed we need to have another get together in November - if we leave it much later, it's likely that those currently circling the drain will have disappeared down it. Harsh 😈😈 but (possibly and sadly) true!

Barry and Pauline, Jenny and Chris left on Sunday after lunch. Chris was not happy that the lovely bacon and egg pie that Jenny had made got its top burnt when being reheated at 140 deg C for lunch - wtaf?? While the rest of us had soup first, Chris eschewed soup, so his heart was set on B&E pie. Judy shaved the dark brown top layer off the puff pastry so while the pie didn't look as fab as it had prior to its accidental incineration, it still tasted great.

The last ones left were Jim and Judy, David and me - we were staying an extra night. And because the ground had got rather wet with overnight rain on Saturday and the driveway was a bit muddy and slippery with a couple of quite deep dips** in it, I decided to move the motorhome out on to the street for the last night. David found some things to fill/obviate the dips, and once J&C, P&B had departed, Jim and David guided me (Jim in front of me keeping an eye on my proximity to the fenc, David behind keeping an eye on the other side and the powerpole - important to avoid that...) as I reversed up the sloping, slippery and rather narrow driveway out on to the road. Success and relief! (** deep dips are not good for motorhomes with quite long overhangs behind the rear wheels)

In the morning, the four of us did a clean up of the house and headed away about 10.30ish. We all called in on John and Adair for a cup of tea, shortbread (mine) and cake (Adair's) at Pukawa before heading home.

On the way I wasn't feeling too flash and took some neurofen. When that didn't shift my headache I got suspicious...

Covid, dammit:

Once we arrived home, I left David to the unpacking and while he changed the sheets on our bed, I did a covid test and had a shower. Bugger - the test showed two red lines quite quickly, well before the 15 minutes. So it was into bed for me, masks on for both of us, and David once more set up to sleep in the office. 

I got the antivirals delivered by the local pharmacy that evening and let the care team here at Parkwood know. I also let the Zero Degrees team know, and the next morning both Adair and Pauline had also tested positive. None of us can work out where we picked it up from, but I guess it's not surprising given we are in the midst of the 6th wave here in NZ and it's winter.

I've been in bed pretty much ever since. I tested negative yesterday morning but am still taking it easy. Adair has tested negative too, but Pauline is still a bit under the weather. I just spoke to her on the phone - she is sitting out at the beach with Barry and they are having lunch in the fresh air. In the interests of fresh air, I have had one window in the bedroom wide open since I got into bed on Monday - the bedroom is cold but I love that! and the air is not turgid and germ-filled!

David has returned two negative tests and has been looking after me really well which has been great and very much appreciated. Pauline and Adair have not been so lucky - they are both full-time carers for their husbands.

A beautifully arranged fruit lunch with a couple of crackers and cheese for protein. Thank you, darling David.

News from the UK:

Olek and I were in a WhatsApp conversation about Wordle, Connections,  and my having covid. He sent me this photo just to remind me how short I am... As the tall grandson he's showing me how he sees me. He apparently is looking at me from the perspective of the camera and I am him as he sees me from a great height. He's not far off given he is at least 30cm taller than me...

Waka Huia is in London - David and I never took the boat into the city. Charlie and Lucy booked a mooring near St Pancras. Such a cool thing to be able to do.

Doesn't that look idyllic? I wonder if our friend David Robinson saw Waka Huia when he did a walk along the canal towpath in London before he left?

And some funny stuff:

😂😂😀😀

I sent this one to Jim and Judy who have Tom, a lovely big black labrador. They reckon he would concur.

To Kaikoura and Waikanae - the last 310 kms

 First things first, the unremembered dog's name from the last post is Archie - sorry, Archie. We should have remembered that, as our lovely friends Robert and Glenn have a very lovely Archie too.

We were both interested to note that as we approached the end of the trip, we started to wish it was going to be longer, while also being happy to head for home. I guess what it signals is that we are definitely not ready to let the mh go just yet. In contrast to when we decided to sell nb Waka Huia where we were definitely ready to let it go, while still holding intact the lovely memories of our travels and the friends we made and the places we saw and explored and enjoyed.

I think the key factor for us both is that we didn't stay every night in the mh this time - we had a night in a motel in Alexandra and 2 nights in the Fiordland Lodge and 2 nights on the Fiordland Navigator. It's a learning we will put into place on our future longer trips - not such fancy and expensive accommodation as the Fiordland Lodge, mind you! But staying the occasional night in a motel allows us space to spread out, and to move around a living area without having to do the kitchen ballet, as I call it. And motel bathrooms are decidedly bigger...

We had loved staying parked up on the driveway at Megan and Forbes' place, in spite of D&F's bad and unsporting behaviour at 5 Crowns.

• We headed for Kaikoura and it was on the way there that we had a phone call from our friend Robin to say that her partner Brian had died the previous day. Brian was a lovely friend, and he was the man whose villa we moved into temporarily here at Parkwood before our villa was ready. For the rest of that journey, we spoke about Brian and remembered him, his wry sense of humour, his kindness and his amazingly agile mind.
  
• Hearing about Brian was a bit unsettling and we decided that we would stay one night at the lovely Top10 camp rather than the two we originally planned. I think we wanted to get closer to home as soon as we could. Weird, as we weren't changing our ferry booking.
  

Now, can you fault that as a view from a camp site? The Seaward Kaikouras.

It is just magnificent.

The view from our habitation door at breakfast.

 

•  Shopping at the New World Kaikoura is definitely enhanced by the fabulous views of the mountains!
  
• We added an extra night to our last stay of the trip at Marine Holiday Park in Waikawa Bay.
• We arrived the night before Ann and Salvi did
• In the morning, I made cheese scones in the holiday park kitchen
• I used a large pot borrowed from the holiday park owners and made a veg and lentil curry that I cooked in the camp kitchen on a full sized stovetop - sensible, as I could have done it in the mh, but there wouldn't have been room for anything else!
  
• I wanted everything to be cooked before A&S arrived so we could just socialise
  
• And, as always, it was wonderful to see them
• Salvi had made us a beautiful lazy susan, so it was imperative that we had naan breads, poppadoms and a number of chutneys and sauces to go with the curry- a replication of the feast we had (and that Gavin and Deb missed out on) at Dean and Phaedra's - but this time with a lazy susan to hold the sharing staff.

The lazy susan in action. A very successful and beautiful piece of construction, thank you, Salvi darling.

• We played Crosshand Poker - the first time was a learning game for A&S and the second was serious stuff... I'm not sure why we haven't played this with Ann and Salvi before. (It's a game my mum loved and was immensely skilled at, and my sister Dee is skilled at it too, dammit. We played it a lot with Kirsty and Olek on our holiday with them last year having borrowed Dee's - formerly Mum's - set. When we got home I bought a set online - secondhand, as for some inexplicable reason, it's not longer in production!)
  
• We used the lazy susan for the x-hand poker board so we could rotate it - it sort of helped, but if we weren't watching carefully, the place we had selected for our next killer move was lost in the shifting!
  
• And we played 5 Crowns, and none of the losing on purpose stuff either!
• and the guys wanted to use the lazy susan again for card games - it's a bit confusing, and it opens up the possibility of rotating it very hard so the deck scatters ... We know, cos we tried!

  

  The view from the verandah of Ann and Salvi's cabin with our motorhome just across the way and the hills beyond. Nowhere near as spectacular as Kaikoura, but those are only hills in the background.
  

  

  The afternoon was lovely, so we sat outside. ACP had a noisy sleep.
  

   

• Day two we walked down to The Jolly Roger pub, David and I had a (non-alcoholic) drink, A&S didn't. Clearly we didn't walk for the alcohol, just for the exercise. Salvi went down into the marina area and checked out the yachts and boats - he is a sailor from a way back, and he took to steering the narrowboat with consummate ease when they came to stay with us in 2019. Although, while perched on the stern and leaning out, he did lose his phone from his back pocket into one of the Knowle flight of locks... Naturally, we never fail to remind him.
  
• then we walked home along the bush path which was much nicer than coming down the road - which is also actually quite pleasant. But the bush walk was really lovely.
• We had planned to have breakfast in a cafe on the day we were all leaving, but when I thought about finding parking for the motorhome in Picton town centre with roads closed and roadworks happening and rain falling, I suggested we have breakfast in A&S's cabin
• scrambled eggs, hash browns, falafels, sourdough toast.
• and I made a tomato mixture with red pepper and onion
•  altogether, very nice and much cheaper, and it helped towards emptying our fridge and freezer - not much, but it was a start...

 

David was just being silly by standing on the step...




Our lovely friend, Ann, who is clearly so tall I need to stand on our step for a photo together!

 

It was sad to see them go, but it had been great fun, as always!

 

• When A&S had gone, we drove down to Burnsco and bought some new ramps - ours are as old as the motorhome and well used. So we thought it wise to have a new set in reserve in case the old ones collapsed under load when we really needed them.
• Once we had navigated around the roadworks on the way to the terminal and interpreted the signs, we happily lined up early-ish to get on the 1.30 ferry, and once loading started, it was funny to watch people who had clearly got into their caravans or the habitation part of their motorhomes for lunch or a cuppa, having to scurry when the vehicles in front of them had already moved off to be loaded.
• As we had upgraded to the Premium Lounge, we knew we would be fed and watered and sitting peacefully once onboard, and after our substantial breakfast, we didn't need to eat prior to boarding - or even onboard, to be fair...
  
• we had not booked the Premium Lounge on the way down; instead we booked the Queen Charlotte Lounge. Its only benefit is that it has no through traffic, but it's nothing to write home about.
• we decided that we could upgrade to the Premium Lounge for the trip home and not notice the additional cost because it was so long since we'd paid the original fare that the extra wouldn't seem too much... Well, that's what we told ourselves - and it worked.
• Excellent food: lunch, then afternoon tea, then fresh scones, then cheese and crackers - it just kept on coming!



Biscuits in the jars, lunch items in the bain maries. Very easy to overeat...

• If we were into alcohol, we could have had as much of anything we chose.

• The ferry left early because there wasn't a full passenger load, and we arrived in Wellington early too - yay!!
• We drove home with the rush hour traffic, in the rain and the dark, and we went along the old coast road rather than Transmission Gully - given the dark and the rain, I wanted to be travelling at a sedate pace - I am clearly getting old!
  
• It was great to get home - I parked frontwards on the lawn beside our place and inside we went - David did only the bare minimum of unpacking, i.e. the stuff we needed for the night and first thing in the morning: food for dinner and breakfast, pillows, kindle, earplugs, milk.
• Our friend Kat was there - she had arrived earlier in the afternoon from one of her house/pet sitting jobs in Whanganui and after a couple of hours chatting with Janet, Janet had let her in to our place - the maintenance team had made sure to turn on the water at the outside toby, Janet had turned on the heating. Such kind people here.
  
• I made toast and heated some of the leftover tomato mixture from breakfast for Kat and David - nothing for me as I had eaten plenty (i.e. much more than enough) on the ferry.
• then I was off to bed - good heavens, being in our own bed was blissful!

Kat with 2 short old people.

David channelling Olek who likes to pull faces. Kat and I, sensible as ever!

Over six weeks away and over 2000 kms driven. The next trip is to Turangi in June for a Zero Degrees weekend and mid-winter xmas together. A tiddler of a trip - only 530kms return.