Happenings

There's been a lot going on lately!

Two and half weeks ago, our street celebrated Neighbours Day:

Ruby hanging out with Jan and Matylda and their baby, Camellia

Usha offered to do henna painting - and I learned a bit about the role henna painting played in her family life as she was growing up

Meeting Jane and learning a bit more about China

Sarah with some people I didn't meet

Atillio and Niloufer

My friend Kathy between my friends Sarah-Jane and Brian

Martin and I

we had a good turnout

A few days later I made it the zoo with my friend Bridget (a friend from high school) and her son Harvey.

And my friend Matylda introduced me to a remarkable bush walk (that really felt like being thoroughly in the bush) behind Blockhouse Bay beach.

This is the start, should anyone be interested - click on the photo to see a map of where it is.  Apparently you can keep walking for about 40 minutes, although we only did the first 10 or so due to time constraints.

In less positive news, Martin came off his bike about two weeks ago and has dislocated his AC joint.  It's more of a nuisance than a disaster (although it would have been very hard if it had happened 6 months ago when I needed Martin to carry me to the toilet in the evenings), but it's still made life a bit more difficult recently.  Grateful thanks to the various people who've helped with grocery shopping (and fruit picking!) whilst he's been out of action.

He wore the sling full time for the first while but is now mostly not needing it.

Ludicrous quantity of 'get well' treats from his work (sadly lots of not-slave-free chocolate...)

We'd borrowed a speaker from church for music for Neighbours Day.  With Martin unable to ride his bike due to the arm injury, I ended up taking it back to church in a wheelbarrow :-)  We got some amused looks from the police (who are still guarding our local mosque) as we walked past :-)

And yesterday I walked up Mt. Eden - my first time scrambling over one of Auckland's volcanic cones since 2003!  Maungawhau isn't one I know well, but it still felt delightfully familiar to walk along a narrow track beside a steep crater as the scoria crunched under my feet.  It was a big walk by my standards (we started from Edwin St. near the Mt. Eden shops) and I needed a few rests along the way, but it was a glorious day for it and I was so pleased to have done it.  We could see for miles - if you blow the picture up you can even see Little Barrier in the background :-)  And I was delighted to find I could go down the steps from the top quickly and easily - my poor balance has made going down stairs troublesome but I've been doing exercises for the last 10 days or so to help with that and it looks like they're making a difference :-)

With Matylda and Camellia at the top