Hmmm. long time no blog. We seem to have been busy, busy … busy. So much to do, so many people to catch up with. Tuesday last week I visited my old work mates … my mates at my old work? You know what I mean …. It’s strange going back – seeing how it’s all moved on. It’s good to see that they can survive without me – but how dare they 🙂 I started my rounds of doctor and dentist etc and had a lovely afternoon with my daughter. Wednesday we continued with the pile of stuff we left under the house – it was slow progress. And we started to look at options for managing the rental side of Wyn’s house – the tenants mightn’t be a long-term as we’d hoped. Michael and his girlfriend came for tea – nice to catch up.
Thursday Wyn started her rounds of doctor/dentist etc and Andrew and Laura came for tea and a few games of pool. This was our last night at Leith Valley, we’d decided to move back out to Wingatui for the (long) weekend. On Friday we parked Suzi outside the storage place and carried on with sorting out our stuff. We both went off to have lunch with friend. By the evening we wished we’d asked about parking for the night in the storage place – there would have been room and it would have saved us a trip. But in the end we headed out to Wingatui and set up for the night.
It was a nice quiet weekend at Wingatui and the weather was mostly fine and warm. There was a steam train running between Dunedin and Middlemarch which could be heard from time to time doing the steam-train whistle thing. We had a sort through most things in Suzi – figuring out what we can do without. If we’re to bring more stuff on board we’ll need to get rid of stuff that is not being used. We were finally heading off to town to the storage locker on Saturday – except the car wouldn’t start. The battery was flat after leaving the doors open with all the tooing and froing. Woops! We managed to push start it but it sounded sicker than a sick thing – it just wouldn’t run properly. It sounded like it was on about 1 1/2 cylinders! We got the AA out who jump started it and explained that the battery was too flat for the engine to run properly. Somehow the jump start bypassed that stage and at least it was running OK. Phew! The trip into town helped recharge it but he advised getting it properly recharged – that’s probably been a problem for some time.
Sunday was more of the same, except the morning was so nice we had to enjoy it so we got on our bikes for a cruise around the Taieri Plains. We had a nice easy ride – only about 16km and an hour. We carefully worked out the wind direction and managed to get a tail wind home. Later in the afternoon I picked up Laura and she came for the night. We watched Slumdog Millionaire – a very good movie if you ask me. It bought back memories of India – not that I was there for long or saw the slums.
Monday was a colder and wetter day. We eventually headed back into Dunedin and dropped Laura home and resumed sorting in the storage locker. We went for our (cut) lunch at the Bracken Lookout, listening to Pete Seeger songs on the radio. I forgot about the frail state of the battery and when we went to leave found it was flat again! Doh! The AA were very good about it and I promised to get the battery charged properly once the garage opened on Tuesday.
Tuesday (yesterday) was a better day – warmer and eventually sunny. Good for the house batteries as well – it’s always good to see the amps piling on in. We headed off to the hospital – Wyn caught up with her work mates. It was spooky walking into the foyer and later the staff caf – such familiar places and so many familiar faces. We had a coffee in the new Wall Street mall – it looks like a nice space/place and then I submitted to a physio to try to get my shoulder sorted out. Later back at Wingatui I made a start photographing some stuff to try on Trademe and Wyn go on with sorting out her tax stuff. The day had been nice and warm in the middle – short-sleeve shirt weather 🙂 It clouded over later but was still a lovely evening.
