Absence explained

 It's months since I posted; and to be frank, I had pretty much decided to close the blog down. There were a couple of reasons for that:

• unbeknownst to me, I was suffering a bit with long covid - tiredness after any exercise and a general sense of ennui. Not surprising having had covid 3 times (once on arrival in the UK in April 2023, and twice last year). I had put the symptoms down to ageing, especially since we had moved into the retirement village and I thought it was likely to be the effect of leaving the wider community behind and being ensconced ever so comfortably here in Parkwood;
  
• I often felt that I was writing/talking into the abyss - I'd had very few comments on the posts in the last while, and as I was no longer writing about our narrowboating adventures, I thought it was likely people had given up reading. After all, bletherings about life in a retirement village or cleaning the ponds or baking sourdough are hardly captivating reading - in spite of my occasionally quirky takes on some of the activities...

So I decided to let it go. I did think about starting up a new blog which would not be subject to the false advertising of having nb Waka Huia in the title. But I could not find a way to start a new blog! Every time I tried, it just brought this one up.

I was all set to call it quits until a friend in the USA emailed to say she missed my regular updates of our lives here. So Judy, you have spurred me back into action.

Also our friend Sarah, who is writing a book about dealing with the various systems when living with a partner with dementia, encouraged me to keep going.

So here I am: explaining myself!

I am going to keep writing and posting, and if you are a reader, please leave comments for me. I really do appreciate reading them and responding to them as well.

Just so you know what will be coming up in future posts that cover the last 5 months, here is a list:

• 50 years of marriage celebrated;
• a 7 week action-packed, hilarity-filled visit from our friend Julia, and the travels we undertook together
• that will be a number of posts, I think;
• a visit from fellow boating bloggers, Lisa and David of nb What a Lark;
  
• David and the Parkwood ukelele group;
  
• an upcoming trip to Sydney with other Parkwood people;
• probably a bit about the ongoing fun with the Aquamove groups;
• and very possibly I will stray into the occasional political rant ...
  

Stay tuned and get your commenting underway!