Little Red Colt has a big adventure.

Although the weather had cleared on Tuesday 26th Feb 2019, it was still cool and windy when we left Gisborne, and Wellington did not promise much better. Heather had stressed that Pat did not want a late night, so we dropped our bags at the Airport Motel and splashed out on an Uber which proved highly satisfactory, and we arrived at the Thai Restaurant before them. the meal was very enjoyable, and then we got the No 2 bus back - sooo cold waiting for it, but it stops just by the Motel.

Hard to get a picture with them all looking good.

On Wednesday morning  we caught the No 2 bus back to Heather's and picked up Little Red Colt. It's in for a shock tomorrow - driving so far! That'll blow the cobwebs away - quite literally! The odometer reads 3639km - all completed within  just on 10 years!!
We called at the Reserve Bank to cash in my old NZ coins. When I said I had One pound, 13shillings and 4 1/2 pence he laughed and said he could not exchange that immediately - they will lodge it in my bank account within 10 working days.
Off to Te Papa where we spent an hour at Te Papa looking st the Terracotta Army of the Qin dynasty of 221 - 206BC. The workmanship and scale of production is just phenomenal.

A Soldier with lavish armour

Showing the back of the armour done in terrecotta

The horses would have been yoked together with a wooden beam which has rotted out

The officials - not soldiers

This has been reconstructed to form a whole chariot and team of horses

The weight of this armour was 18kg - definitely only for ceremonial display - made of small squares of limestone.

A spirit to lead you to heaven.....

.....and if you get hungry on the way you can have some nice pork!

Notice the leather reins have rotted out

This maiden is noteable because there is some coloured pigmentation on this terracotta form

This army of men had articulated wooden arms and silk clothing, but are now exposed!

The short Qin Dynasty was followed by the Han Dynasty.

 We turned up quite early to the ferry terminal - and Little Red was in illustrious company as she was surrounded by Vintage MG cars - a few veterans too I think.

After a poor lunch at the terminal we were off to go below on the boat.

We had to be careful of the old cars - each side needed to be unlocked and the doors swing backward to open - with no support.

All we can see ahead is the big trucks....

 but soon we make our way out into the setting sun, and we pull the sun visors down with a cascade of cobwebs

An example - in the door hinges

Outside motel at Camping ground in Picton.

Tapas Meal

 We walked around the Marina to the restaurant to a Tapas Restaurant - served 3/5 wrong tapas to start with but we enjoyed it all the same.
On the  Thursday the 28th we set off. Little Red took to the open road with great gusto, and Duncan was pleased with how easy it was to drive. We stopped at Havelock for breakfast and Duncan chose salmon sausages and mushrooms.

Little Red takes on "Big Chill" - an articulated truck, makes 120km/hr with ease.

 Heather has not been able to get the key yet, which is a bit frustrating, but we met her at the Suter Art Gallery. Then she and Duncan empty the potplants out of the back seat so all of us can go out to lunch at Fossil Ridge Winery. They grow their own Macadamia nuts there - but not very  expertly, and many on Beaumont, which we just use for rootstock.

Is the roof alright?

 We do a little wine tasting at Richmond Plains Winery to fill in the time. After many texts and phone calls the key is finally deposited in the back shed and we go back in to look around.

This herb garden will need to be chopped back!!

 The garden is small but a bit overgrown, but with a heap of potential. Lots of good areas for outside seating or table and chairs

 The inside looked a bit bare without furniture (arriving the next day) so I didn't take any photos. And there are probably a few inside projects that Heather will want to tackle in the coming years, but its a good solid start!

"Welcome to my new house"!!!!

Duncan drives us to the Airport and we hand back the keys to Little Red - and Heather texts later to say that she has successfully navigated her way back to her motel. Mission Accomplished.
We fly back to Wellington and go to Oiko's for dinner. It has fabulous Greek food and the gentle strum of the mandolin and guitar makes it an interesting place to dine. I am watching one posh young Wellington couple enjoying the food - suddenly the woman lifts the serving plate and licks it clean!!
Next morning we fly home after this whirlwind tour - but looking forward to revisiting when all the furniture is in.

More Marie Kondo-ing!

While I was teaching economics I built up quite a collection of coins and notes, but now I am decluttering I decided to take them along to the visiting man who buys old coins, jewelry, watches etc. Unfortunately there are no new young coin collectors out there willing to start with inferior goods, so even my 1883 penny with the young Victoria on it was passed over. (It is very worn)All he wanted was coins with silver in them. I think he got about 1.5g of silver, so I got about $40. This has been lodged in my Grandkids Uni fund, along with last year's tax refund. Paper notes it seems are pretty worthless. He wasn't even prepared to look at my stamp album.
I am taking all the NZ coins to the Reserve Bank when we are in Wellington, but I suspect I will only get a few dollars
Next box was a collection of cards for our engagement, wedding, birth of children and 21st. Nearly all of the senders are dead now.

Now onto the toys. I have three suitcases, and hope to reduce it to one. We rarely have children to visit now. This may take some time as there are special memories. Often the things which are worn or broken are the things the kids loved the most.

Marie Kondo rides again!

As most of you know I am busy decluttering and the next target was my wedding dress which has stayed in a box at the top of the wardrobe. After due deliberation I got it out - even though it had been drycleaned after use it was badly stained. Duncan kindly asked "Does it still fit?" (Hasn't he noticed the expanding frame???)

The veil still fitted

The lace was very pretty

I struggled to find my wedding photos!

The stains did not come out

So it has been consigned to the extra rubbish bag that I am putting week by week.

OK These two are staying. Anna and Dobbyn

Festive times

Well its obviously some time since I did a blog! We have to go back to the preChristmas luncheons and dinners. I declined a few but my walking mates didn't mind me coming along trailing a tube and a bottle of bloody serum.

With Robyn Arthur

Dawn Gretton and Olwyn Black

With the Figjam girls - Gaynor, Alice, Camille and Deb

Fortunately Mr Stiven had taken out the drain for this.

So on the 19th of December we headed off for Ohiwa., I got to try my new bathing suit, but had to take it easy in the surf as getting up with such poor tummy muscles was a problem.

 We had a couple of nice days before the weather turned foul. The water supply and the sewerage also caused problems for the main block - the Eastons were not impressed! We had to have our Christmas brunch in the Haszards tourist flat. I had knitted them all beanies:

Hand knitted Beanies and a secondhand book all round.

 I managed a few walks along the road and did wonder why this little grouping of rocks occured.

Low tide at the estuary

Rat and Stoat traps dot the path

Lots of flax and Tui

 One tui gave quite a plaintive PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP, almost as though it is mimicing a kingfisher, but probably the better explanation was that this is a territorial call of the tui and once the camping ground filled up this tui was very upset. Often he was upset in the early hours of the morning. He went on and on.

This years jigsaw was Love Letters

No fish this year.

Trying to take photos that I might use in the Fifties Forwards Mag. A Coastal Copper butterfly.

 By New Years Eve the Haszards were gone, Lyn went home so we had Jude and Merv over for the night. Didn't quite make it until midnight, but we came close. It was reasonably well controlled at the camping ground.

Merv minds the meringues.

 We managed to put together a really nice meal between the two groups, but the star was the enormous meringues that Jude had made.

What a whoppa

Heather and I farewell 2018

Jude and I watching the fireworks.

Trying out the camp pool - lots of kids!

 We took a day trip to Te Kaha, and watched them retrieving the cray pots while we waited for our lunch at the hotel

Te Kaha

Another beautiful day

 Chez Louis made pizza in a pizza oven and visited on Mondays and Wednesdays. It was quite disarming to hear them talking french while making pizza!

Pizza night at Heather's unit.

Walking back from Bryan's beach. More and more Variable oyster catchers arrived while we were at Ohiwa

Heather and I managed to make it to the end of the road and back - I'm still very slow.

Blessed on my birthday

Lyn enjoys her flat white at the French L'epicier while we wait for the crepes.

Birthday dinner of nibbles and champagne.

Back home on the 7th, and a great amount of gardening to catch up on.

Sayonara Seroma

On Saturday 1st December I had my drainage bottle disconnected. Once I recover from this surgery, say another month, I hope to feel normal again. Here are some pictures to help to understand my problem. These first two are not of me, but the situation is very similar. You can see the big lopsided seroma pushing down on my spine when I try to sleep, giving me sciatica in my hips and knees. I'm sure you can imagine the extra pressure it has added to my bladder. When I am walking it pushes up on my left lung. The fluidity of it "off centre" has seriously distorted my balance.

My surgeon says, yes it did look a bit like this when he went in.

I had the surgery privately  as I wanted it before Christmas, and the amounts of fluid being aspirated were increasing - up to 520mls. My surgeon, Peter Stiven does not stand on ceremony. So I text him my measurements of outflow of serum each morning until he says  that it is small enough. This happened on Saturday, so I texted Peter and he came in in his gardening clothes and snipped the stitches which were holding the tube in. I felt like a prisoner with an ankle bracelet who is finally freed!
The serum cam back as "sterile" so that was a positive start.

By the time I was finished this was nearly full.

The red stringy things are like egg white - protein deposits in the serum. They occasionally blocked up the valve.

I had a worrying few days when I thought he had put me back together without a tummy button, but as the swelling went down it gradually appeared - I dont know why I worried about this!!!

The stitches have now dissolved and I have a new shooting star to add to my constellation of scars.

Now we are on seroma watch. The original seroma was evident a week after my hernia operation. So far so good..