Cleaning and tidying and decluttering

 It's that time when we are doing spring cleaning - never done it before but better late than never!

This morning's task was cleaning the soffits around the house - last week Shona had mentioned she thought they needed to be de-spidered. So obediently, we got busy.

Questions of interest:

• how come dust sticks on upside down surfaces?
• why does said dust not come off with the fierce hose, the broom that has warm water and HandyAndy?
• why does the dust require being washed off with a cloth?
• and why am I the one who can see the dust and therefore have to be the one doing that washing with a cloth, making my shoulders and right upper arm very sore?
  
• why am I unable to climb up on to the platform leading with my right leg?  My right thigh just will not lift me! WHY?
  

Anyway, the soffit looks fabulously clean and sparkling - I shamefacedly have to confess we have not ever washed them before on this house, and we have lived here 8 years! There has been a price to pay though in case you didn't understand - my shoulders and right arm are VERY SORE!

And David has cleared his office - who knew it had a floor? Who knew it was quite a big room? Who knew that he could get rid of so many computers and cables and pieces of technology and still be able to function?  

Amazing, eh?

I still can't quite believe it!

He has also been up in the attic clearing things out. We decided that if stuff had been up there for the 8 years we have lived here, then it clearly was not required - in the main, I think many things up there were items from our parents that we could not let go of in the early days after losing them and becoming orphans. It's a bit easier now to let things go. We found two prints that had been David's dad's that Kirsty had asked to have. She still wants them, so back up they will go - until we head over to see her with a large suitcase!

 

And shock horror - I may even divest myself of some of the cup and saucer sets I collected back in the early 2000s. I can afford to let some go as there's about 50 of them, I think. Letting some escape may result in a china cabinet being able to find a new home at some point, perhaps, maybe, depending ...

And I looked at the lovely reproduction drinks cabinet I bought when we were B&Bing in Cherswud - it hasn't held alcohol for years and ever since we moved here it has housed glass stemmed dessert bowls - quite lovely, but totally impractical because no one could eat a dessert as big as they hold. So they are off to the charity shop along with a box of other trinkets (my friend Lesley calls it tat, but she's a bad person), and the drinks cabinet will be sold to another loving owner.

Yesterday, when we left the cafe after breakfast, we saw these fabulous motorbikes and sidecars only two but I have three photos so you can see both sides more easily. So gorgeous I think I'd even be keen to travel in/on them!

And one for the road:

Visitors from away

 On Monday afternoon this week, when I arrived home from the office, Irene and Ian Jameison of nb Free Spirit had arrived here at Cafe Rata.

They had arrived from a week in Sydney where Irene had spent most of the time quarantined in the upstairs suite in her brother and sister in law's home - she had developed the covid symptoms on their second flight out from the UK.

When she was clear of covid, they flew to Auckland and then on to Whanganui to pick up Mary and Alan's little Toyota HiAce poptop camper which they have hired for their 5 month sojourn. It is a lovely wee van, but bloody hell, it's tiny! However they like each other a lot, so it's fine. 

Ian and Irene arrived here while I was at work on Monday, and even though I came home with a significant headache (migraine - feel sorry for me please), it was fabulous to see them. I did spend the first 20 minutes or so lying on the couch and then had to sit up and join in.

Over the next couple of days, in between bits of work, we socialised and Ian and Irene put some time in making the van their own, even temporarily. Mary and Alan's grandchildren had been the main users of the van as a playhouse for the last couple of years.

Irene cleaning the roof, Ian on his knees with David watching - Ian was fitting the bits to the battery so the new folding solar panel would power the battery and keep the fridge going.

Irene was very careful not to get Ian wet as she had the hose dribbling to rinse where she had been washing - she is far far far kinder than I would be ...

Mary, if you are reading this - do not despair or feel guilty that the camper wasn't pristine. Ian washes their motorhome and their boat with monotonous regularity - he's a bit OCD really ...

Yesterday's task was to stick on the NZMCA wings and number front and back. The front is done - successfully - but you wouldn't know that judging by Irene's worried look ... And see her right hand - she is itching to take over 😆

Right hand up a bit ... Keep it smooth, Ian.

And here it is, all done. I looked at ours afterwards and decided we need a new set of wings on the front - it has suffered in the heat.

We introduced them to Quiddler, a word/card game, and dammit, Irene won both games. While David was washing bird poop off the two back porches and cleaning the outdoor furniture of bird poop, I, I & M played cards - dinner was cooking at this time, so we weren't entirely idle.

David has decided to sell his dad's old desk and chair. They are iconic pieces of NZ furniture built by Chapman Taylor. The desk is huge and heavy. 

Did I mention huge? It won't go through the doorways with its top on. So that has to be unscrewed. And it still won't go through doorways so 2 doors had to be removed. It was wonderful that Ian was here because he was very very useful. Irene describes him as her man who can - pretty apt!

The desk is now in the garage waiting to be advertised and waiting to be dispatched to a new home. And the two doors removed by necessity were speedily replaced. David vacuumed his now almost bare office that for the first time since we moved in back in 2014 actually looks like it could be a bedroom!

Unrecognisable! And almost no reproducing cords in sight!

This morning the Jameisons were heading off on adventures. Fortunately for her, Irene did not put socks on under her sandals - what is it with that British custom? Naff or what? I'd had to school her about it when I got home on Monday. So all day yesterday she looked right and fitted in nicely - sandals, no socks. I did tell her that she would be instantly recognisable as English if she reverted and she'd lose any credibility...

Filling the water tank - a bit of a different story from the motorhome and a hugely different story from filling the tank on the boat ...

Both Ian and David have had prostatectomies. David noticed that the 3 letters of the number plate spelled out the acronym for something that neither of them need again - digital rectal examinations ...

Here she is, (see - no socks) all ready to depart on their adventures: 5 months of wandering around wherever the fancy takes them. And judging by some of our conversations, they are keen to do more silly stuff, like swing bridges and fly by wire and walking around the outside of the Skytower attached to the railing by a flimsy carabiner and wire.

We sent them away with 

• a loaf of sourdough, 
• a couple of small bags of pasta and one of rice, 
• a rice salad for tonight's dinner (that Irene made from last night's leftover rice) 
• a wodge of chorizo
  
• several small bags of fresh herbs (parsley, mint, thyme, and lime leaves) and 
• spices from the pantry
• a couple of lists of places we thought they would enjoy seeing or activities we thought they'd enjoy, and
• strict instructions that if they are aiming for Tongaporutu they need to get in touch so we have time to join them there.
  

Safe travels, you nutbars. M&D xx

In the garden today

These people were not in the garden, but they came for breakfast on Saturday to help consume the asparagus mountain...

Our garden is looking wonderful at the moment. I have to give credit where it's due - it is all down to Shona who is the most amazing gardener.

And spring has certainly arrived - the roses are budding, the rhodos are blooming and the cabbage tree is flowering too.

The roses have a lovely perfume, the rhodo is lovely and I have no idea what the other bract of flowers is ...

Cinerarias - self sown and thoroughly reliable

A climbing rose, a camellia, the rhodo and the cabbage tree. Comparing the motorhome and the cabbage tree it is clear just how damn tall it is!

The snowball tree with stocks and a beautifully perfumed mauve rose behind it and a white carpet rose beside.

That bud will turn mauve shortly.

Who knows what this is?

The yellow climbing rose

The lemon tree looks very healthy. It has grown a lot since Rob planted it a few years ago.

We planted this rhodo to replace a beautiful creamy-apricot coloured one we had to cut down to be able to fit the motorhome beside the garage. It smells lovely too. I am still looking for an apricot coloured one though ...

The stocks have gone crazy ...

And away we went...

There is a hiatus in my work at the moment - the Detailed Business Case is out for a 10 day review by stakeholders, so we took the opportunity to head  away for at least 12 days. Judy had planned a Zero Degrees Weekend in Turangi and we were excited to see everyone again. 

We started our holiday by going to see Denny and Cheryl in Whanganui. At first it was going to be an overnight stay, but ended up being 4 nights. Such a huge amount of laughter with too much yummy food (thank you, Cheryl) and lots of chat.

David and I did a lovely bike ride on Monday - it didn't start out as lovely though. Because while Whanganui has a great cycle path down through to the river and then along the northern side of it to Upukongaro, ACP wasn't very diligent or accurate in explaining the instructions he'd been given by Cheryl about how to get down to the river ... I'm blaming ACP because he's not sitting next to me reading over my shoulder. However it is a proven fact that he remembers the first couple of instructions and then tunes out.

So we made a couple of errors, the most severe of which was that we missed the beginning of St Hill St which has a 3 metre wide cycle and pedestrian path, and we ended up having to cycle on a non-cycle way footpath along Wicksteed St - I did stop to talk to 2 policemen and ask them how we had messed up, in case they wanted to send us on to the roadway (too dangerous for pensioners, I think).

We were connected to each other (ACP and me) by phone. However David was using his hearing aids as his listening device connected to his phone and the wind noise was horrendous in my ears. I find noise a real stressor so I had to give up our being able to chat - what with riding on the road down Guyton St, waiting for David to get across intersections even though I had assured him the way was clear of traffic he still felt the need to use his defective eyesight to check (AAARRRGGGHHH!!!), the ghastly noise in my ears was too much!

We made it down to the riverside about a kilometre along from where we should have got to it. But once we were on the cyclepath things were much more settled and happy.

We rode up towards and through Aramoho, and stopped to look at the house our friends Mary and Alan used to live in, and also at the first house we owned way back in 1975. 

 

4A Caffray Ave, Aramoho. We paid $12,000 for it in 1975, sold it for $18,000 in 1980. A small 2 bedroomed place with a sleepout behind the garage and a quarter acre section - great for backyard cricket.

Then back past the Pylon Dairy (we used to find all the bottles we could get a refund on to buy a loaf of Sunday bread for 32 cents - the weekday bread was AWFUL) and past the former butcher shop on the end of our street - I once won a $70 meat raffle and it lasted for about 10 weeks I think!

Then on up Somme Parade we went (the road on the other side of the river is called Anzac Parade - you can see the connection) and I mentioned to David that I didn't ever remember going up that far. Then we came to the school I used to teach at part time back in the late 70s ... Doh! My memory had certainly faded about the surroundings!

On we went, partly on the very quiet road and then on a lovely cycleway again, and finally we came to the lovely new bridge across the river to the little village of Upukongaro. There is a wonderful cafe there where we met Denny and Cheryl for lunch. 

Cheryl very kindly explained again (but with me listening this time) the way we should have come. So we decided to try that - what a fabulous ride up St Hill St from the river. Just brilliant! And we found we had messed up early on the way down too. On the way back, we followed a guy who clearly knew what was what - and found the right and much simpler route ...

When we got back we needed a nap - we'd cycled about 26 kms all up. But best laid plans and all that. ACP realised he had lost one of his hearing aids - he'd put them both very carefully in his pocket when we'd stopped talking over the phone on the ride. But when we got back into the motorhome, there was only one... Bugger! So after checking the pocket several times with no change in result, he phoned the insurance company. The customer services person was lovely, very helpful and sympathetic. David felt better about it especially as there was no excess given we are so old ... So outside he goes and what does he find on the concrete outside the motorhome - yep, a hearing aid. Even with his defective eyesight, he saw it. What is that about? If I'd asked him to find something that small, he would have declared it impossible. But find it, he did. How he didn't stand on it, I am not sure ...

That evening, I told David I thought it would be good if he could charge my bike battery as it was down to 3 bars. He looked thoughtful and I thought he was going to tell me he'd worked out there was no need. But no - he was pondering and had just realised he hadn't packed the battery chargers... Oh bugger, just like the Toyota ads ( watch this ) We did check to see if Denny or Cheryl's chargers were compatible, but no.

We were going to need more than half a charge if we were to do any biking in Turangi, so we got up the next morning and drove home to collect them. It was only just over 2 hours there and two hours back with lunch at home in between, and we passed the time listening to podcasts (James O'Brien Full Disclosure and Rachel Maddow Ultra). We were easily back in time for David to join Denny for a beer before dinner!

Early on Wednesday morning, I went with Cheryl to the local swimming pool and did about 900 lengths of the pool walking - well, probably only about 30. We were in the water for an hour, so two minutes a length sounds about right. I have to say that later that day my thighs felt decidedly tired ...

David and I were meeting Tom, an old friend from my Telecom days, at a cafe down on Taupo Quay. We biked down and this time we knew the way ... The cafe is called The Burrow - it's more of a deli than a cafe, I think. It has fabulous food and kitchen items and Tom says its coffee is the best. It was good but given I'm not an aficionado, I leave that judgement call to him.

We had been going to bike to see Tom's house in Castlecliff later that day, but realised it involved either an extremely long ride beside the river and a short road piece, or a shorter but-all-on-the road ride. Nah to both. We unhooked from the power, lifted the stabilisers and drove the motorhome instead. 

Tom has done (or as he said, paid others to do) a stunning job of renovating his house and garden. It's beaut!

In between our two meetings with Tom, we had a call from Judy - upshot was the Turangi weekend was called off - one person definitely has covid, and three more may well be in the process of getting it. So a change of plan. David and I would head home the next day.

But not before we had been to cook breakfast at Mary and Alan's house - only for Mary as Alan was in hospital. In expectation of a house-load of asparagus eaters at Turangi, I had purchased a huge amount of asparagus just north of Levin on our way back up to Whanganui after collecting the chargers. Denny doesn't like it, Cheryl eats a small amount of it, but I knew Mary loves it.

So the next morning we packed up and left D&C's place with big hugs and lots of thank yous for lovely fun, fabulous food, much laughter and wonderful hospitality, and we headed up to see Mary.

Scrambled eggs, asparagus drizzled with lemon juice, toasted sourdough - yum. Mary brought out her homemade lime marmalade - more toast required ...

A reasonably rapid drive home and it was straight back to work for me - my leave period had been significantly shorter than planned. But there was a task to do so I did it, but gosh, it takes me a while to get back up to speed!

We still have LOTS of asparagus, even though I gave some to Mary. Hence we have Bruce, Gary, David R and a friend, Leith, and Peter coming for breakfast tomorrow. That'll get rid of a substantial portion of it!

And I only took one photo for the whole time we were away! What's that about?

Food for thought

For various reasons (including lots of rain making it unattractive to go walking or biking, too much work taking up too many hours and too much energy, and too many tempting things to eat) both David and I have regained some of the weight we had lost. In part, David's weight gain has been brought on by the Androgen Deprivation Therapy and not using his rowing machine for several months; however if he'd eaten less, the weight would not have appeared around his middle. 

Bah humbug and lots of naughty words from both of us!

I blame chocolate and ice-cream for being difficult to resist, and I blame the woman in this house who makes delicious sourdough bread. And I blame her because she stopped thinking about the very healthy food and started letting too much of the slightly unhealthy stuff in to the diet. There are two key things there: change from very healthy to healthy, and too much ... Probably too many cheese scones kept being made as well!

Anyway, things have changed - no more relying on two slices of sourdough toast for breakfast and as part of dinner. We have reverted to far more vegetable servings at lunch and dinner, with fruit, yoghurt and homemade muesli for brekkie.

Dinner on Saturday was homemade falafels on sourdough with aoli, lemon yoghurt, avocado and lettuce salad. David has amended his falafel recipe to have cumin and coriander seed, but no cayenne - the downside for him is that I now like them ...

Sunday's dinner: once I have dished out the amount of the salads that I want, David really likes to eat the remaining 70% out of the bowls... This is called a stacked dinner 😆

Here's what it looks like on a plate, properly served: asparagus with lemon juice and butter (I didn't eat all of that butter, honest!), lettuce salad with multiple veg in it and a honey, grated ginger and lemon juice dressing, and a roast carrot with paprika and canellini bean salad with cress from the garden ( and a dressing of lots of parsley and mint, lemon juice, garlic and a bit of olive oil).

The roasted carrot and bean salad was delicious and I will make it again. I reckon it would be yummy with kumara, parsnip or pumpkin or a mix of all of them. Could also be good with potato.

Tonight we had falafels with mushroom salad, and David had some left over cassoulet (no chorizo in it) as well.

David is going to the mid-week market at the little Waikanae mall tomorrow morning to buy more vegetables. Then his task will be to make a coleslaw. My task will be to decide what to have with it. Perhaps a kumara and chickpea curry with cauliflower rice?

Definitely no ice-cream or chocolate though! 

By the way, we now have tickets for going to the UK and for coming home. So plans are coming along nicely ...

nb Waka Huia is out of the sick bay

Thank heavens for our friend Julia, Debdale Wharf Marina staff and John's Boat Canopies. They have all helped to get Waka Huia well again after her two years out and about between Debdale and London without us...

It's been quite a convalescence for our poor old boat. She has needed wooden panels (and trim) replaced where leaking window frames had been neglected and the panels suffered water damage. 

 

One of several ...

Window frames have been repaired, a missing light fitting has been replaced, the whiteware has been cleaned out and all the doors have been left propped open, the curtains, squab covers and Duvulay topper pad covers have been removed for washing, and some pillows and cushions that were in a parlous state along with other tat have been dispatched to the tip. And the outside of the boat is getting a thorough wash.

If we had CSI-inclined friends, we could probably get this dirt forensically examined and plot where nb Waka Huia has been over the last 2.5 years ...

 

The Debdale people are winterising her so she will be in working condition when we return in April - boaters reading this will know that unless the boat is winterised effectively, we would likely come back to burst water pipes, a non-functioning water pump, condensation and diesel bug in the diesel tank, and toilet tank contents that would take a jackhammer to dislodge ...

As it is when we get back, we know we will need to do a thorough clean of the inside of the boat - cigarette smoke lingers and sticks and stinks...

We have arranged with John of John's Boat Canopies to come to us as soon as we arrive to measure up for a new pram cover as the old one is now a shadow of its former self with missing eyelets and broken zips and much mildew and it reeks of cigarette smoke.

 

And for our bed I am ordering a new mattress that I will ask to be there when we arrive.

We aren't sure what equipment will need replacing, but we can sort that when we arrive. We are going to stay with Julia for a couple of nights so we can break ourselves in gently and shop for the necessities easily.

We are really looking forward to being back on board, and simultaneously we are anxious about what we are going to find.

Trust me, we have learned our lesson well - having to pay a few thousand pounds in convalescent care is a good teacher, and being informed that there will be no contribution from the one who caused the injuries cements the lesson firmly...

A birthday visit and painting

 Saturday was our daughter Kirsty's birthday. Hardly seems possible that she is 45 - not saying she isn't grown up. She absolutely is, but it seems like only a few years ago that she was a very little kid.

At Caffray Ave, Whanganui when she was probably about 1

In Masterton at QE II Park

First day of school, so that's 40 years ago in 1982. Outside at Cherswud, in Johnsonville.

Year 2 at Paparangi Primary School

 She has resumed a pattern of coming back to Wellington from Sydney for her birthday (now that travelling is possible again). She has an extremely wide circle of friends here in Wellington, so David and I (and most of them I think) are allotted a place in the timetable of her visit. She showed David her spreadsheet for the week ...

We had Friday, and considered ourselves extremely fortunate to have such an extensive time.

Kirsty had requested that we go bike riding in the Hutt. However, as I am still up to my a*se in alligators work-wise, I suggested that she and David go for a bike ride here in Waikanae and I'd make lunch while they were out.

That plan was amended to lunch first - cheese tart, roasties with rosemary, lettuce salad and coleslaw. The leftover cheese tart was quickly placed in a plastic container for Kirsty to take back to Lisa and Max's place. Somehow though, we all agreed that it would be lucky to survive the train trip in to Wellington ...

Kirsty has only recently learned to ride a bike. I am not sure why she was never interested as a kid, but she wasn't. However in November, she and some friends are going to Rarotonga and hiring bikes for tripping around is part of the plan. So learning to ride was required. Kirsty has bought a bike and regularly goes out riding along the riverbank which is reasonably  accessible from where she lives. On Friday though, she had my e-bike. I had suggested she might like me to raise the seat as she is a fair bit taller than me. But she was fine with it in its position. It did mean that she could reach the ground where I definitely cannot!

I sent the two intrepid cyclists on a mission to Harrison's Garden centre - to buy a bird feeder plus seeds and bird cakes. Kirsty facetimed me from Harrison's and showed me the three feeder options, asked my opinion, got it (either of those two but not that one). So of course they came back with the 'not that one', didn't they?

Once the bird feeder was filled and attached, we had dessert - in a rush, as Kirsty had a train to catch back in to Wellington. And as there had been a fatality at Mackay's Crossing south of Raumati, we drove her to Paekakariki to get the train at 5.04. Of course, the left over chocolate brownie was packed into another plastic container for the lovely daughter to take away. She is so good at saving us from ourselves!

As it turns out, the 'not that one' bird feeder was a good choice and the birds love it! Bird cakes (peanut flavoured) in one side and seeds in the other. It hangs beneath the bottle of sugared water that the waxeyes drink from all day. And it is a delight! When I am at my desk and stressing about a deadline or a particular word that has disappeared from my built-in thesaurus as I am writing documents, looking out at the birds feeding is such a pleasure.

Sparrows and waxeyes feasting

The tui thinking about it

The tui drinking sugar water

The waxeye hanging on to the tube and drinking, and his friend waiting its turn

 

I think I need to request a rate increase though - those birds are like teenagers: they just never stop eating! And the pack of 6 cakes costs $13. They can get through 2 cakes in less than a morning and a cup of seeds in the same timeframe!

There has been a change of scenery in the garage over the last couple of weeks. David had, some time ago, requested that we get the rough, tough carpet for the garage. I was happy to sign off that business case. The business case that I was not so happy to sign off was the one that concerned repainting the garage ceiling and walls. However I signed it off, with a sense of dread, because one condition was that himself (aka ACP) would do all of the painting - as the Tui ads say: Yeah, right!

We chose paint - white for the ceiling and light grey for the walls. I said I would paint the scotia and two inches (5cm for us Kiwis) either side of it in the ceiling white. Then I would paint 5cm (2" to the imperialist running dogs) in the grey below the scotia so that ACP didn't have to get close to the WHITE scotia with the roller full of GREY wallpaint.

DAVID CANNOT COLOUR BETWEEN THE LINES!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

 So I had to go around after he had finished and sand the grey paint off the white scotia and then repaint the scotia. I could have left it splodgy. But actually, it turns out that I couldn't.

We are getting it done.

Is this David working on the painting? Nope, it's ACP's beloved wife ... Sanding then painting the top 2" or 5cm of the grey below the scotia.

The shelves are still waiting to be painted - I would not have bothered myself, but ACP wanted to have them grey ...

I was reading and he wanted attention - I was ignoring him. And I didn't want him coming in the lounge in his painting clothes as he couldn't guarantee he had not wiped painty hands on his shirt or trackpants in the last few minutes ...

 

 

Where did this powerpoint cover come from? Shelves looking good!

A self satisfied pose...

It does look pretty smart.

After a time of wonder, the job was finished - I did do more than the scotia and the clean up of it. I did around all the window and door frames, above, below and between the shelves, and below the bench.

I also did two coats on the entranceway from the hall to the garage (it used to be a hall cupboard, but we made it into internal access for the garage back shortly after we moved in). When Joe and I redecorated the hall, that entranceway was painted in the hall colours - better than replicating the pink of the garage walls and ceiling ... But once the garage was grey and white, the pale lemon (Otorohanga in the Guthrie Bowron palette) didn't look so good.

 I am pleased that David stuck with it - he does find painting a bit of a struggle as, to be fair, he has no capacity for focal length given one eye is a bit no good. So knowing where to stop with the roller is a trifle hit and miss as he swipes upwards - in some areas more hit than miss ...

 

The carpet is going down on Monday. More then!