Crikey, this work thing is relentless. We’re now working at least 8 hours a day, and generally 6 days a week. We’re making up for lost time some would say. Maybe this is binge working – there’s probably a programme we could do? [Am I old-fashioned insisting on ‘programme’ having 2 m’s and an ‘e’ on the end? Someone has to hold the line somewhere on the Americanisation of our language – and that’s Americanisation with an ‘s’ and not a ‘z’ I hasten to note…]
So after our Sunday off we were up at 6.40am on Monday 25th January to get ready for another day of work. It was cloudy and cold to start with but it cleared by lunchtime to be another lovely day. Wyn was in bed by 8pm and I caught up on my emails for the first time for a while.
Tuesday was sunny from the outset – a lovely clear morning and 10 degrees at 6am. In the evening we were glued to the tele to watch Coro Street – the start of another dramatic week.
Yesterday (Wednesday) was another lovely day once it warmed up. I finished early at 3pm and took Suzi into Alexandra to get a new fuse wired into the wiring from the solar controller to the battery. It was a straightforward job. It’s a heavy duty marine fuse – it looks like the sort of thing they’d use on the national grid. It has a maxi fuse which is very maxi compared to the standard vehicle fuses. This one is a 40amp one compared to the last one at 25amps. As soon as the fuse was in the solar controller came back to life and began charging the batteries as if nothing had happened. The controller is still under-specified but at least it’s back in business in the meantime. While I was in Alex I dumped our grey water waste and on the way back ventured to the bore for more fresh water. This time the paddock was dry and I had no problem. I was back to the orchard by 5pm. It’s a bit of a job getting everything sorted out again and we were desperate for a cup of tea and a sit down. At 7pm we headed into Alex in the car to grab a couple things at the supermarket including tea, and then on to the Warehouse for some presents for Wyn’s granddaughter. We were all done by 8pm and it was back home to Suzi for tea and watching the recorded Coro Street.
Today we were up early again – Wyn preparing for a night and day away for her granddaughter’s birthday near Wanaka. It was a cloudy/sunny day – warm enough – as most days are. After work we zoomed back to Suzi and Wyn packed up the car and headed off to Wanaka. After tea and Coro St (recorded as well Wyn) I dug out my iPod to upload some more music to it. I even managed to make a couple of playlists. It wasn’t very difficult once I got the hang of it. It’s fun rediscovering forgotten music – Coldplay is keeping me company at the moment. I tried to contact my son Michael to wish him happy birthday but didn’t have any luck. I saw on the news that Telecom’s XT network is still out of action in Dunedin and he’s on that. What an appalling breakdown. Luckily I already used Facebook this morning for birthday wishes plus sent a card off yesterday. Happy birthday Michael – not that you’ll be reading this today. So that’s 4 mediums for the birthday message so far – I’ll see if I can find a few more. Posting the card was lovely. I wanted it to get to Dunedin today posting it in Alex yesterday afternoon. I’d put a Fastpost sticker on it but with good old NZ Post it turned out that Fastpost would be much slower and definitely not get there today. For that I’d need to post it Standard post. The nice man in NZ Post helped to remove the Fastpost sticker. It’s a lovely little anomaly that suggests the old Post Office is alive and well in some corners of NZ.