Kia Ora

Monday 23rd March 2009

With Mel working late today Monday was always going to be tough to fill.Fortunately I had quite a bit to take care of to stop the cabin fever setting in!!!

Normally Mel would be home around 5pm but because she worked late it was nearly 9.30pm when she got in and she didn't look as tired as I expected.Mel has settled so well into the job and is loving the challenging role,it's like the job was meant to be.Because Mel is working now we try to make the most of our weekends so I set about finding something to do,which didn't prove too difficult.

Tuesday was a fantastic autumnal day with no clouds in the sky and I had a walk to feed the ducks and pukekos,which is usually pretty difficult to do with all the pigeons around but I foiled them all by throwing all the bread into the water which worked a treat. I prepared a vegetable biryani for dinner but wasn't too optimistic,as it looked better than I expected it to taste.
We had managed to get 2 free tickets for the movies to see "He's just not that into you" so we went to watch that in the evening.I can tell you that neither Mel or I were just not into the movie and it dragged along, it eventually ended and we couldn't leave quickly enough.
It turned out my fears about the biryani were justified and although Mel bravely tackled it,I was unable to eat it and had to rustle up a snack for dinner.

The great autumn weather continued through to Wednesday so it was a great evening for a walk on Milford beach,the tide was heading in and at one point we made a run for it to miss the waves rolling in,I took off and barely made it while Mel got caught mid wave and got soaked through which we both found really funny.

I woke up Thursday not feeling well and thought I must have picked up a bug from Mel's work as she had started with a cold earlier in the week,I had no energy and was feeling tired so was quite happy to sit around for the day and try to rest and ride out the bug.

By Friday morning I had gotten worse and went to see the doctor as I had nausea and dizziness,but was also running a temperature,the worst thing was that I felt hungry all the time and couldn't seem to get full !!! It felt very similar to when I was ill when we were travelling through India and the only thing that helped that was rest so I went back home and tried to sleep it off.

It's amazing what a good sleep can do and Saturday I was feeling much better which pleased me because I had planned earlier in the week to visit Matakana Farmers Market and we were both looking forward to it.
Matakana is about an hours drive North of Auckland and to get there we took the new stretch of motorway toll road,which makes the journey quicker but you miss out on the coastal views through Orewa. The farmers market is well known and we struggled to find somewhere to park but eventually squeezed in on the roadside.The place was really busy with a real buzz to it,there were stalls selling hand made chocolates and organic veg,vietnamese food,whitebait fritters and pastries, with a whiff of freshly ground coffeee floating around the place.

We had a mid morning coffee and shared a slice of rocky road cake before driving further north to Leigh. The great thing about living here is knowing when people visit you can show them around and take them to really nice places.Leigh Sawmill had been recommended to us by a colleague of Mel's and we decided to check it out.

It is an old sawmill that has been converted into a restaurant and micro brewery,so we stopped for lunch and were really impressed with the food,and the wood fired pizzas looked really good too.I picked up a couple of bottled of their beer to take home and try later on.

Just a short ride up the road we got to Goat Island Marine Reserve,which we hadn't planned on visiting but were glad we had stumbled upon it.The place is a protected reserve and you can go snorkelling and diving here.The water is crystal clear and just standing on the rocks we could see different fish swimming around.We were both a bit upset that we had no snorkelling gear with us or our swimming stuff but will definately be back to have a go at some point.

We went to our local in the evening to watch the Warriors get shown a lesson in playing rugby league by the Broncos.

A big kiwi past time on Sundays is going to buy your fruit and veg from what I suppose is like our farm shops at home.They have every type of fruit and veg you could imagine and way cheaper than the supermarket.We picked up all that we needed before heading to the supermarket for everything else. we took advantage of the sunny afternoon and went to the beach for a realxing afternoon,even though the tide was out.Mel read some of her new book and I had a power nap.It was nice to get to the beach as we had't managed to get there for a few weeks.

On the way back to the house my flip flops gave up on me and snapped which Mel found hilarious.I had been expecting them to snap for a while as I had noticed that they were damaged although they have seen some real action in the 2 years I have had them,it's just a shame they didn't hold out to the winter.

Lots of Love

M & M
xx