Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Monday 22nd December- Shopping in Kerikeri

It was a beautiful summer’s day and quite warm as we drove on the un-crowded roads to Kerikeri for some last minute Christmas shopping. Noel was also trying to sort out his damaged camera memory card. He has been unable to transfer some pictures onto the PC and he has been looking for a cable to allow him to transfer direct from the camera but with no success in obtaining the correct size cable. We will just keep on trying.

Robin joined us for the trip and we went to the Spa pool shop where they tested the water from the Spa which Brian and Sheila have. Sheila had left us with the instructions but as we have never had a spa we decided to get some expert advice. We have been given instructions on what to add in the way of chemicals to make it fully safe to use.

Lunch was in a nice little café with good food and then on to New World Supermarket to stock up for the next few days. Why do we always panic and think that we have to stock the larder at Christmas, we never bother at any other time of year and we know we will not starve. Then on to the locally world famous chocolate factory called ‘Makana’ where Jennifer pondered over what to purchase like a child in a sweet shop.

A sort of teriyaki chicken and rice tonight which slid down well with a nice glass of red wine which needed to be tested just in case it was off..

The air took on a bluish haze around 1030 pm when Noel took swords against the famous Lloyds Bank with regard to them cutting us off from our internet account again because we were overseas. Twenty minutes on the phone, speak to three people and finally resolved. I think Lloyds could be losing a customer after almost 46 years. (I am now looking at a Nigerian Bank being run by slave labour from a small mud hut just outside of Lagos). They have a good reputation, in fact similar to that of Lloyds we understand.)

After that aggravation we sat up in bed for a bit and read our books in order to calm down.