August 2007

Wow it is almost a month since I wrote the last Blog.
Bob’s two cats were very grateful to have me in the house. They definitely enjoy company each in their own way. Tabitha is a loose woman, and as soon as Bob was away she was on my lap and sleeping in the bed. Samboy took 5 of the 10 days before he would deign to sit on the arm of the chair while I watched TV. Bob expressed disappointment that I had only tried three of his 45 dozen wines. With so much to choose from I needed to consider carefully before opening. The ones I did quaff were excellent. During this time I did a couple of small plumbing jobs for Dave.
Then I moved on to look after another of my pussy friends, Lucy, and Keith and Kathie’s shop. In two days I had one customer, and he arrived five minutes before closing time on the second day!
I then spent Sunday and Monday at Phil, Erin and Zoes. After taking Lorna to Mercy Hospital for some tests (she has a congenital slightly leaky heart valve which the specialist says is of no concern) I drove back down to Whangamata.
Since then I have been resident at our property. I have completed an outside table for the deck, and painted the trailer. Lorna's model yacht is now painted and ready to go. It is now time to start preparing to go to Nelson.
On the 19th I spent time with the children and adults who are setting up a youth sailing group here in Whangamata. Unfortunately they are trying to introduce children to sailing in a diverse bunch of run down boats which include a P, a starling, a Viking, a seabird, and an un-named sailing dinghy which is actually quite good. The weather was gusty and a couple of the children got into minor difficulties. The water is very shallow where they are sailing, and it is right beside a water ski lane. In some ways I wish I could spend more time with them, and perhaps help with an optimist or two.
I have become a regular at the RSA and have joined in the Snooker Club activities on Thursday evenings, which is a whole lot of fun.
This last weekend Lorna drove down and on Saturday we went to Gavan’s 70th birthday party in Tauranga. It was really great to meet up with all the rellies on that side of the family. All of Grace and Gavan’s children were there with all of the grand children. My how they’ve grown!
At the end of this week I will be going up to Auckland to attend a Yachting New Zealand Regatta Coaches Course. This should be very instructive, then it will be back down here for a few days before driving to Nelson for the summer season.