Monday – a 6am alarm call for Si
but I was awake too. He left about 7am to go and collect Nick from the airport
and drive them into work. As I was awake
anyway I got up and went to the gym where I reminded myself that my knees are
too knackered to do step classes any more – ouch! But at least I tried! (How old do I sound
with my dodgy knees?!)
Back at the house, I spent
nearly three hours doing a deep clean for our visitor before lunch and carrying
on with admin and planning what I am going to do with my days.
The workers got home soon after
4pm. I made us enchiladas and they talked shop for the evening to get Simon up
to date on the new business. It's going to be a very busy training week I feel.
Tuesday – It was back to the gym
for a pump class and a core class called CX works. I’m getting right back into this fitness
malarkey.
Then I got busy looking at
voluntary positions. I had to make some
decisions about which line of work I’d most like to be involved with. But also, having got used to the horror of
Auckland traffic, it has put me off driving too far north if I’m honest. Doing it once or twice a week is fine but
having to do the drive two or three times a week would get tedious rather
quickly I reckon! I offered my services
for a project helping the endangered kokako bird (I hadn’t heard of it before
either!) in the Hunua Ranges which are out east from Pukekohe. This will involve miles of hiking (or
tramping as they call it here) out in the elements which will be an excellent
way to learn more about NZ wildlife and increase my fitness. I also put myself forward for work at a bird
rehabilitation centre which would be great but is a bit of a distance from
home. I’ll wait and see what happens
with them before I volunteer for too many other things. I don’t want to spread myself too thinly!
The workers got back and soon it
was time to head out for a curry night organised by Nick at the Curry Leaf in
Pukekohe, apparently the best curry house in the town. We had a table for nine booked. Steve and Trish joined us and we met two more
new couples – Geoff and Julia, who both used to work at Continuous with Nick
but have since moved on, and David and Katherine, who I only met briefly
because I was at the opposite end of the table and failed to mingle
adequately! It was a lovely evening. The
curry was nice if a little spicy for a medium (or am I just a chili lightweight?).
The
night ended a little abruptly due to some extreme weather. Around 9pm the sign hanging outside the curry
house was blown to the floor by some ferocious gusting winds funneling down
the street. Then people started getting
calls from home, from children who had been plunged into darkness due to power
cuts! I was driving and had to take it
easy on the short journey home. The
roads were covered in foliage, there were branches broken off trees to our left
and right and road signs down. There had
been a couple of tornadoes reported on the South Island earlier today and it
seemed that the remnants of these had made it to us in the North.
Arriving back at the cottage, it
was no surprise to find that we were completely without power, as most of the
Auckland region appeared to be. The
consequences for us were that we had no running water because our taps are
powered by an electric pump, forcing the water through from an external water tank. But fortunately, our toilet was partly
functioning due to a gravity feed, so that was a relief! Using bottled water to
clean our teeth and our phones as torches, there was little else to do but call
it a night in the hope that the power would be back by the morning.
Wednesday – I heard the workers
get up and it was clear that they were still struggling around in the dark.
This meant that they couldn’t shower or even make a cup of tea or coffee as our
stove is completely electrical.
I had planned to do a little
shopping in town that morning before a gym assessment at 130pm. When I realised that I couldn’t even make
myself a cup of tea I planned to head into town early to grab a coffee to give
me the pep I needed. But Steve and Trish
caught me first and offered me a cup of tea and some porridge as they have a
gas stove – a bonus for them, but on the other hand they don’t have a flushing
toilet like us! The word from the power
companies was that we could expect to be without power for 24 to 48 hours, as
there were so many homes without power and we were way down the priority list. It
was only the few homes down our lane that were out so we’d just have to be
patient.
I went and did some shopping which
included purchasing essentials like some slippers for my chilly feet (we’ve no
heating either) and an air-freshener for my new car that has the stale smell of
cigarettes around it that I hadn’t notice on our initial test-drive…. Hmmmmm.
Then I headed to the gym for my
initial assessment and the confirmation of exactly how much weight I’ve piled
on whilst travelling! They had one of those weighing scales that tells you the
details you really don’t want to know, like how little muscle mass you have
compared to your fat percentage. Ah well, it gives me something to work towards
and measure my progress against. Most importantly, I got to use the gym’s
showers to freshen up afterwards.
Back at the house I rang the
workers to see what potential shower facilities they had available to
them. It looks like they will be heading
to a colleague’s house after work to take a shower. Trish and Stacey were out that night and we
considered going out again for dinner.
However, I had planned to make carbonara pasta and had a whole pack of
bacon and some mushrooms that were getting nicely warmed up by now, as the heat
had infiltrated the fridge. I offered to join
Steve and Caitlin and make a larger batch for five of us, as long as the
Hurrells didn’t mind me using their hob in order to do it.
It was a race against time to
get dinner made and eat it in candlelight before full darkness fell. But I was glad we got to use some of our food
up rather than letting it go to waste. I haven’t dared to open the freezer yet,
hoping to keep the cold contained. But whether
the food survives depends on how long
this goes on for I guess.
Simon, Nick and I went back to
the cottage and luckily we had enough power in the wireless speaker to be able
to play a version of ‘name that tune’ by playing each other the introductions
of songs from our phones. It would have
been funny to see us. I was wearing two
coats and apart from the glow from our phone screens we were all sat in
complete darkness. That kept us going
until about 9pm before it was time to give up and get under a duvet to keep
warm!
Thursday – STILL NO POWER!
I’d arranged to give Trish a
lift to the gym for body pump this morning as I have the use of the posh Golf
(oooh). I even persuaded her to stay on
afterwards for the CX works core class (I may have made myself unpopular
there?!). After which we both used the showers
and grabbed a coffee to take back home.
It’s got to the point to start
worrying about the food in the freezer.
Trish and Steve managed to save the majority of their food from a large
chest freezer in their garage, by taking it up to a neighbour. I ventured a peek into our freezer. I clearly
hadn’t set the unit cold enough because everything was completely defrosted.
Still cold, but not at all frozen anymore!
It was time to get cooking and get real – Simon had invited some of his
new colleagues over for dinner tonight.
I am happy to host, but I’d rather it was when we have running water so
that people can wash their hands, instead of using alcohol gel to do so, and it’s
not very easy entertaining people in the dark!
I took all of our thawed goods down to the Hurrells’ and began cooking
up a spag bol to use up a batch of mince.
Simon has decided that he’d still like to socialise tonight as it is
Nick’s last night here after all. So, Trish and Steve are going to barbecue up
our thawed food for their dinner tonight and save my Bolognese for us for
tomorrow.
The boys did the same as last
night and showered elsewhere, before returning to pick me up and head into
Pukekohe for dinner at Lone Star.
Friday 13th – STILL
NO POWER!
To give myself a bit of variety,
I opted to go for a swim today and use their showers. I then went on the search
for a laundrette now that the laundry pile is starting to stack up. But Angie,
one of Si’s new colleagues, made the very generous offer of letting me go round
to her place to use her electricity and internet today! I was planning on going to the town library
to do some blogging and use their electricity, but I reckon going to someone’s
house would be much cosier!
As I was leaving the lane, I
bumped into some electric engineers. I went straight over to make sure that
they were coming to save us. I must’ve sounded desperate! So, maybe we’d be getting our power back
soon?
I continued to Angie’s, where I
got busy charging phones, doing laundry and getting onto the internet. I found
that I’d received my police certificate through from the UK confirming that I
am a ‘no trace’ as expected, but a good milestone for the Visa application
(for me at least!).
 |
| Another bonus of going to Angie's - I got cuddles with Margot the cat |
At 430pm the moment I had been
hoping for arrived…. I received a text from Trish saying that the power was
back on! Amazing! I gathered all my belongings together as
rapidly as possible, secured Angie’s home and headed back to the cottage. Simon turned up just as I was opening the
front door… and turned a light on.
Whoever invented electricity was a genius! A quick check around the place confirmed that
everything was back to working order. Electricity, how we have missed you!
We had been reunited with our
thawed meat products from the freezer, so it was time to do some cooking and
watch back to back episodes of Peaky Blinders to celebrate modern technology!
Simon had survived a full week of training for his new job but now had the frustration of a potential long wait for his work visa before he can get working for real and, most importantly, get PAID!
Simon had survived a full week of training for his new job but now had the frustration of a potential long wait for his work visa before he can get working for real and, most importantly, get PAID!
Saturday – More thunder storms
and torrential rain confirmed that it would be a good weekend to relax indoors
and catch up with using some electricity, ie watching television. I made it out as far as the supermarket to start re-stocking
the fridge and freezer.
Sunday – After a hectic week for
Simon, he got the relaxing weekend he deserved. I made it to the gym in the
morning but followed it up with some more blogging and episodes of peaky blinders!
Monday 16th – It was
time to invest in some thermals for my volunteering this week. I’ve been sent several emails about health
and safety and lists of items that I need to carry with me in the bush. It
sounds dangerous! The terrain is described as ‘very challenging’. What have I got myself into?! The thing is,
I’m guessing that the other volunteers are going to be older than me. I refuse
to be shown up by some old crusties, so I’ll just have to push myself!
I received an email from the bird
rehabilitation centre – they do want me! So, I filled in the application and sent
it off. I took myself for a drive out to Port Waikato just to get a breath of
fresh air and check out another beach, despite the weather being somewhat gloomy:
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| The expanse of the Waikato River as it approaches the Tasman Sea |
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| Above and below - the black sands of Sunset Beach, Port Waikato |
Tuesday 17th – After
hitting the gym I went into town via a recommended car garage to speak to them
about a possible issue with my car. It seems to be lacking in power, especially
when the engine is cold. It’s making that ‘pinking’ noise when I drive uphill
and it certainly wasn’t doing that on the test drive. Instead of driving a long
way back to the dealership we bought it from, I decided to investigate locally
and will have to get it sorted when I know what the problem is. The guy at the
garage was helpful and booked me in for Thursday afternoon. He suggested that
the problem may be something as simple as having the wrong quality fuel in the
tank. Fingers crossed it’s only that!
From there I went to the hospice shop where Trish works and bagged
myself a couple of bargains – a pair of waterproof trousers, an extra pair of walking
trousers and some gym shorts for mere pennies…. I mean cents!
With time on my hands and the best
of intentions at heart, I dropped in to give blood at a donation session, but I was
denied! I was shocked to learn that if you lived in the UK between 1980 and
1996 your blood is not wanted in NZ due to the risk of carrying mad cow
disease!! I can’t even give this stuff away! What are they trying to say?? Imagine
the number of people who live here who can’t donate due to this ruling? That’s
blood donation out of the question then…
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