The shortest day is rapidly approaching and winter hasn’t
settled down yet. Last week we had a couple of days that felt like spring and
then they were followed by a cold snap for a few days. One morning I had to scrape ice off the car
windscreen before going to work. We have now had several days of rain, with
more on the way, but the forecast for next week is continuous sunshine. That
will mean the temperatures drop at night. I have just watched the weather
forecast on TV and they have issued a warning for parts of the south island
(not our part) as they think they could have the most snow in 20 years in some places, with
gale force winds at the same time. When we get southerly winds they come from
the Antarctic so the temperatures always drop. This is another difference to
the northern hemisphere, where southerlies were always warm.
I have a 3 hour per
week teaching job at Garin College for a couple of terms. It means I go in and
out of school 3 times a week, for a yr 10 social studies class. The class are
very nice and we have been studying the theme of ‘The 70’s’. The down side of this
is lack of hours means lack of pay, however there are several bonuses. The big
bonus is that I can cycle to and from work if the weather is OK. It is a nice
feeling when I leave while school continues for the rest of the day. This is
especially good every other Wednesday, when I teach for the first period
starting at 8.35 and finish at 9.25. I also have the satisfaction of deleting a
lot of internal emails as nearly all of them have nothing to do with me! I have
had to write reports this week and I have a parent meeting to go to before the
end of term.
Lisa and I are working our way around the garden, cutting
back whatever we see. Lisa has got a new tool….a chainsaw!! It was almost the
smallest in the shop. A pair of kevlar chaps were also bought to avoid limb severance. We work as a team, ie, I point to what needs to be cut down and Lisa cuts it. She cut down a small tree and then declared that we
should have bought a bigger chainsaw. We also got a chipper, which makes short
work of all the cuttings and turns them into nice chopped up pieces that we can
use for ground cover. I am also getting all the hire bikes serviced and ready
for another year. The last 3 Sundays have been washouts, but hopefully I should
be back at the wharf this Sunday. We still get a few bookings although some
were then cancelled when it rained. The
cycle trail is developing and by spring or summer we should have another 30 km
open from Mapua. This will give people many more options when they hire from us
at the wharf.
The news items here still throw up a few good stories. One
that caught my ear was a report of a 57 year old jockey, who rode all the
winners at one race meeting near Christchurch. That was exceptional enough and
it became an even better story when it was revealed that he is known as ‘Handbrake
Harry’!!
