A lovely weekend :-)

Martin and I took the weekend 'off' this weekend to just hang out with each other with no 'have tos'.  It was lovely, although I'm pretty knackered this morning!

We had lots of yummy food to nibble on through the weekend.  Martin bought French cheeses, salami, macarons, canelés and tarts from Pyrénées, the French deli in Mt. Albert, and I made a Zopf.  I'm still so happy that we bought a beater with a dough hook some years ago - it's lovely to be able to make bread without my weakness getting in the way :-)

Zopf - a Swiss bread traditionally eaten for Sunday breakfast.  The name is the German word for a plait.

Holiday in Wellington

Straight after Christmas, Martin and I headed down for two weeks holiday in Wellington :-)

We were really pleased to discover that the airline allows disabled people to bring two mobility aids with them (not one as we previously thought), so I was able to bring my walker as well as my wheelchair.  We also worked out we could just fit my 'travel' bed lever and my brand new 'travel' shower stool into the standard baggage allowance, so they came along in a custom-built cardboard box Anna and Martin put together.  It all added up to a stupendous amount of stuff, but it was very nice not to have the hassle and expense of hiring everything down there :-)

Me with my mum at the airport - everything you see (except the airport's trolley) traveled on the plane with us!

We went to the beach!

Martin and I are in Whangarei, staying with his parents for two weeks.  The highlight for me has definitely been getting to go to the beach!  We've been twice - on Wednesday of last week then again yesterday.  It took a lot of preparatory resting to manage it, plus a lot of help whilst there, but it was so much fun!

Martin and Dad assembling the beach wheelchair

Picnic day 1 - the shelter was my Christmas present from Martin

Entering the water

At our beautiful picnic spot, day 2

Day 2 picnic

A very happy Heather

Mum 'swimming' with us - she seemed keen to minimise contact with the water!

We had a lovely time.  The water was warm and the weather was perfect :-)

There are a few more pics up on flickr.