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!