Friday, 12 September 2025

And the solar panels are up

Yesterday the solar guys came back - only 3 of them this time. And boy, did they work hard! They'd been here on Monday and Tuesday - rain on Tuesday but they worked through.

Yesterday they had to finish putting in the brackets and the struts for the panels and then fit all the panels. So they didn't finish until about 5.45pm and it was starting to get cold!

They'd had morning tea/lunch at 11-ish (their lunch and chocolate brownie and biscuits I provided this time) and then they worked through. I had ordered fish and chips for David and me to be collected at 5.15pm so I ordered some for them too, then made paper plates into little bowls (make 4 cuts around the plate then staple the edges together - instant-ish bowl) so they could safely transport the f&c in the vehicles and eat on their way home. They all live at least an hour from here in Palmerston North, and I was sure their blood sugar would be getting quite low.


Some tiles have to come off to be trimmed (shaved, they call it) so the brackets will fit without lifting the bottom of the tile and causing leak points.
Tiles back on and brackets fitted. the guys on the roof are AJ and Josh. Harley was doing the shaving and gluing down on the ground - as well as bringing the panels around from the garage to lift them up for AJ and Josh to fit them to the struts (not shown here).

 

Changes and additions to the switchboard plus a new gadget for David's delight. The red light shows that there was no power being generated - the sun was on the way down when I took that photo yesterday evening.



ACP in his PJs checking for the 3rd time this morning. And yes, there was power being generated. And I know I am going to be kept informed constantly...


This morning, before he'd even eaten breakfast, ACP was out checking the display to see if power was being generated. This is going to be my life from now on ... And he's done the same a couple of times since we got home this afternoon. Sigh.

I did tell him I'm happy for him to check, but he needs to close the damn door into the garage - the garage is NOT insulated so the cold air in there likes to migrate into the hall and lounge.

I am expecting multiple updates every day, by the way. If you hear screaming coming from this area of the world, that'll be why...


Monday, 8 September 2025

Thinking about Ed Shiers today

 We are currently having solar panels fitted to the roof of our villa - 15 panels which is slightly more than we had on nb Waka Huia...

Instead of it being just Ed fitting them, here we have a crew of about 7. There's ropes and harnesses being employed because our roof is a series of steep sections that the panels are being fitted on.

 

Matt on the flat section above our bedroom. He's working on removing tiles that have to be adjusted so the struts for the panels can be fitted.

AJ removing tiles from over the garage

 

Matt removing or replacing the tiles - hard to see which from thios angle...

Two of the guys adjusting tiles and applying sealant. Susan's camellias are getting rather dusty...

 

 

Two other workers waiting for their jobs to be ready, I think.

Sewtting up happening at the trailer. The panels are in that big box.

 

AJ trusts his harness. Not sure where it is fixed to on the other side of that garage roof...


We are looking forward to lower power bills and being able to feed power back into the national grid and getting credits for that!

Of course there have been cheese scones made and fed to them at the outside table. Tomorrow it'll be shortbread - I made a batch (NEVER AGAIN!! what a bloody faff...) and then left the house to go and take photos, so it's a bit browner than it's meant to be. Definitely not suitable for selling at the Fair which was the original intent. But I reckon the guys will be happy enough with it.

Tuesday, 2 September 2025

It's been a long time coming

 I often think, as things are occurring, 'I could write a post about this.' And then the moment passes and I don't write about it.

I am doing a fair bit of writing though, just not for the blog. Back in July, I was elected (unopposed) as the Chair of the Residents' Association Committee here at our retirement village. I was a committee member for the last year - the tenure is from July to June, and earlier this year, knowing the then-Chair was stepping down, I decided to accept the nomination to stand for the role this year. 

So the writing I am doing these days is papers for the committee, papers reporting on tasks I am doing either on my own or in conjunction with other committee members. And a number of emails to all the residents informing them of upcoming events, asking who needs some help in transitioning from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and then organising that help - definitely NOT delivering said help. If you know me at all, you know I have a streak of technophobia just below the surface of my skin!

My latest missives (short for a change) have been about letting people know about a presentation by our local Community Constable. He is coming to talk with us about scams, the ones that are rearing their heads currently, and how to avoid them.

I've written a couple of pieces for the village's monthly newsletter. Bloody hell, I'd love to take that role on if it becomes vacant. I think that I must have been missing blogging because my writing in a number of these things is conversational - just as this is. Other documents are more formal - much more like documents I wrote in my work life.

David and I are both well, still prescription-free. David has given up the weekly ukelele lessons but is now coming to Aquamove at least once a week, sometimes twice, and he goes to a discussion group once a fortnight. He is still doing the Weaving Memories work for people who ask. He seems to always be busy at the computers, but is always happy to grate cheese for scones when I ask. And when it's time to set up the lounge for our monthly sector meetings (I am Sector Leader ...) he totally rearranges the furniture and then restores it to its original positions afterwards. I just do the baking - cheese scones, coconut and almond cake, and one other thing. Last week, it was tamarillo muffins - never made them before, and they were delicious. Tamarillos are a native of South America, previously known here as tree tomatoes. They are one of my two favourite fruits (feijoas, before you ask). I buy them by the 8kg box direct from the growers and eat 5 of them with yoghurt and muesli for breakfast every day they are in season.

I'm still running Aquamove - 2 sessions each week throughout the winter, and I am now getting into the pool with everyone else. It is so much fun and I am sure my strength and balance are improving. And doing the exercises in the water is much much easier than out beside the pool.

We haven't been away in the motorhome for a while - too busy at the moment. But we will head away in a few weeks, I think.

One piece of excellent news is that Julia is coming back to Aotearoa NZ in February - all it took was one conversation and she decided to come again. So I booked the flights while she was on the phone! Easy peasy, indeed. And she has even said she will drive over Arthur's Pass again, having declared earlier this year that she WOULD NEVER DO IT AGAIN...

One sad piece of news is that my Aunty Molly has died - aged 97. She was an amazing woman who had a pretty tough life but was always such a positive and happy person. She was the last person who knew my mum when she was a child, so it is the last lost link with the history of our parents. I truly do feel like an orphan now! I know - it's a bit pathetic. After all, I'm nearly 75, so feeling orphaned doesn't look like it's a real thing at my age. But it's sad.

One of her 5 sons, Gordon, texted me while he was with her in hospital, and I replied pretty much straight away, asking him to tell her we loved her. So even though I couldn't get to see her, I knew she was conscious and had heard from me. 

We have some lovely memories of Molly - when I first met her with my mum back in 1988, when we stayed with her in Leatherhead with our kids in 1990, when she joined David and me on a narrowboat trip in 1994 (the same trip on which we met Mick and Julia), having Molly come out to NZ for mum's 70th birthday as a surprise for her, our trip around the South Island - I remember the 20 questions game we played while I was driving one day. Mum's question was about Charles and Camilla and it was what did Charles wish he was... And Mum had read it in the New Idea women's magazine - not something I would have thought they would publish. 

David and I had a trip with Molly to France one year - we drove around and stopped wherever we felt we wanted to. Molly loved the Etap Hotels - not our favourite but she loved the ensuite bathrooms. On our last night, before we got the ferry back to England the next morning, we each identified our favourite moment. And we all identified the same thing: sitting at an outdoor cafe in the market square across from the cathedral in Rouen. 

Molly loved food, and not far from her place in Leatherhead was a pub with a Thai restaurant attached. She loved going there; at first she was fit enough to walk there and back, but eventually that wasn't do-able. So we would drive. Then it got so I dropped her and David at the door and then I'd go the extra 25 yards to the carpark. But she still loved her food.

 And why not? She had almost lost her sight through macular degeneration and was therefore rather immobilised, could no longer read or watch TV - food was a pleasure. There were always treats in her fridge and cupboards...

She was a gem and we loved her.