The motorhome is back in its tree-clad home

 It's been a bit of a busy day today. First off I had Aquamove which doesn't feel tiring at the time but hits a bit later. It's not surprising that it tires me because there is a lot of running on the spot, jumping, washing machines, standing on one leg and rotating the other, arm stretching, star jumps, ... But somehow in the water the exercise is really easy to do.

Then I had to email the committee members with 7 papers for our Monday meeting. That entailed finding all the documents in my filing system, doing a final edit of a couple of them, attaching them so they showed up on people's email in the right order. Not a trivial task but not arduous, to be fair.

After that I had arranged to meet with Joan, our wonderful 94 year old neighbour to discuss the process for clearing her villa after she moves into the Lodge on Monday. That wasn't difficult or energy-sapping at all but emotionally tough as we will miss Joan. However she is keen to stay as an honorary member of Sector 10, and she is keen to keep coming to Happy Hour on Fridays, so we will see her regularly. She had better keep coming to Quiz nights because she is a fount of knowledge in our team!

Then it was time to move the motorhome out from behind our place - the first obstacle was that there was a car parked across the road I was backing out on to. Discretion was the better part of valour and I think the visitor saw me reversing and decided to hop it pronto! Good choice!

We can only keep the motorhome here temporarily and bad weather counts as a good reason to have it parked here. 

We've had lots of rain in the last week or so, and I was not taking it back to its position up at Richard and Ngaire's place because the driveway is a bit too skiddy for a front wheel drive when it's damp ...

Over the last couple of days it's been quite breezy so we decided today was the day. It requires a bit of organsation though as we have to remove the gates at the bottom of their drive first so the motorhome will go through safely without gouging bits out of the sides.

Unless it is very dry, I am always anxious taking it up the slope - rightly so today, as I did a bit of a skid close to the top... But success - it is up and in place, solar blanket is fitted to keep the engine battery topped up, all blinds closed, the steering wheel lock is on, all lockers locked (good thing we checked because they hadn't been locked from our clearing the mh out on arriving back on Sunday...)

David and I helped Richard and Ngaire re-construct their washing line - Richard had dismantled it, taken to wires off, fixed some bits of the framing, repainted sections of it and needed a hand getting it back together. All four of us took an arm each and lifted it up on to the pole, then Richard U-bolted it back on the small platform on top of the pole. As we left, he was adjusting the height of one arm - he is tall and he'd be in danger of taking an eye out as he approaches it. I, on the other hand, could happily walk beneath it. I'm a perfect height, me - the clothes line is far too high for me to use comfortably though.

Home to make a veg dal for dinner - it is bubbling away now, and I have also started a big pot of frozen veg scraps and water to make stock. David has cooked the rice. Now I'm waiting for the cauli, broccoli and peas to cook that I've just added to the dal.

  

Dal is almost ready - good, because I am hungry and tired!

Update: the dal is delicious! And there is plenty left over so I won't have to cook for a week... I think I will make curry puffs in the weekend! Oops, David has just been in for a second helping... I need to revise the estimate of its longevity!

The motorhome roof is clean and thinking about Phil

 A reasonably busy day today, in a way.

This morning I got up to take the motorhome up to Levin to have the roof washed - if I'd thought about it, I could probably have organised it better by doing it after I got the CoF on Wednesday seeing as the two places were about 2kms apart. But hindsight is a wonderful thing - I hadn't checked the state of the roof before I went CoFing. Next time I will think...

When I came back I had breakfast and then a bit of a fraught meeting that should have been 1/2 an hour but took over 1.5 hours and wrung me out a bit.

Then checking out signage at the gym here, then home for a brief time and off to serve behind the bar at Happy Hour. That is a task I really enjoy, so I am happy to take on additional turns when others cannot do it. 

Accordingly I am on the bar next week and a fortnight later. I'll be catching up with the number of times Julia is on bar duty in Kibworth soon!

David has been getting the motorhome ready today as we are going away overnight tomorrow. We have a funeral to attend in Hunterville in the afternoon. Our friend Phil died Thursday last week and we need to go to say goodbye.

Way back before 2000  I used to stay at Phil and Oriel's place when I was working in Marton. They ran a lovely B&B which cost me (my work) $81 for dinner, bed and breakfast. On my first ever night there, Oriel served me G&Ts (note the plural) before dinner, then a 3 course meal with wine. Wonderful but aaarrrggghhh!!!

So in the morning - full breakfast of course - I told Oriel that I could not cope. The most that was required was wine before and during a two course meal. And it was dessert not a starter. Oriel makes the most delicious pavlova roll. 

We had many lovely meals and great conversations where I did my best to educate Phil on the evils of National governments - fat chance that I would succeed because he was a farmer and conservative, through and through. 

Regardless of his politics he was an extremely kind man and a lot of fun. At one point, I had South African clients of the firm I worked for coming out to visit the firm. Mostly they used to be put up at fancy hotels, and wined and dined when overseas, but Marton doesn't have such facilities. Instead, I took them to stay the weekend at Phil and Oriel's farm. Lovely food, down to earth hospitality, and a lot of fun.

 A highlight was Phil attaching a flatbed trailer to the big tractor, placing form seats in the trailer and driving us around the farm. Such laughter. Not a H&S consideration in sight - apart from the fact that Phil didn't venture off the farm tracks...

I (work) had hired a van for the weekend and I drove them to the Feilding A&P Show. So instead of sterile could-be-anywhere hotels, they had an authentic NZ experience, thanks to Phil and Oriel. Who, by the way, moved out of their bedroom into their old caravan so all the guests could fit in the house!

David and I would occasionally go and stay with Phil and Oriel and take other overseas visitors for the experience of an NZ farm. They refused to let us pay because they said that as a paying guest while working in Marton, I had greatly increased their B&B earnings. Very kind and generous people.

And one of the first film conversion jobs that David ever did was of Phil and Oriel's wedding - they were so beautiful and so young!

The last time we saw Phil was a few months ago. He and Oriel retired off the farm several years ago now (even though for a long time Phil still went and helped their son Justin) and they were living in Feilding. Phil finally had to move into a rest home through ill health and severe lack of mobility, and David and I went to visit. I noticed that while he was still mentally up to the minute, his voice had diminished. So I suggested he move his arms up and down as much as he could manage, so he used his chest muscles and stretched his lungs. And voila - his voice became louder.

So at my very next Aquamove session I introduced a lot of arm exercises and told the team why. And then at my session on Tuesday, I told them that Phil had died. 

I reckon he will always be in my thoughts when we are waving our arms about and doing the I must I must increase my bust movements, and the moving through the water using arms only when lying on the noodles or riding the noodle like a horse...  Also lung capacity and voice strength were on my mind when I introduced blowing water through the pool noodle, so Phil has been an inspiration to the people at my Aquamove sessions even though they didn't know him.

 

And the solars are working!

Wednesday:

Even though it is just spring and we have had several grey or rainy days, the solars are doing their job - heating the hot water most of the time. We have only had to set water heating to boost using the national grid a couple of times when we have both had showers and done several loads of washing.

 Sunny day today, so it's all happening on the roof - yay!

 Yesterday we went down to get the motorhome from behind Richard and Ngaire's place, so I could wash it and be ready for heading up to Levin to get the Certificate of Fitness inspection done. The sides of the motorhome were reasonably clean but the back and front were messy! Today when I got back from getting the CoF, we checked the roof - OMG! the amount of leaf litter, pine needles and dirt was overwhelming. David cleared what he could reach from the ladder, then I hosed as much off as I could. Then I decided we needed professional help! So I tracked down the guy who cleaned it for us previously and I will take it up on Friday.

Thursday:

We are going to find a suitably sized tarp to cover the roof with while it's up at R&N's place so we can keep the roof at least partly clean! The trick is going to be how to get the tarp up on the roof. I was thinking about it overnight and decided we should put it on and tie it down here and then I can drive very slowly to R&N's place. It's not far and I need to drive at 15kph through our retirement village, and there are speed bumps on the way down the road, so high speed isn't do-able anyway.

It is now Thursday and I am about to have an afternoon nap - I took an Aquamove class this morning and we did lots of jumping and running on the spot and I am tired!! 

This is my new favourite activity - blowing water through the pool noodle - I swear we only do it because it is good for lung capacity ...

I now have a new great nephew - my nephew Jamie and his wife Kirsty (not our Kirsty) have had a wee baby boy. I have seen a photo and he is very lovely. Our Kirsty is going to visit where they live and they are hoping to all catch up. Yay!

Right, now I really am going to have a snooze.