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Exploring around Rotorua
Monday 6 November 2023
Our first foray from Rotorua took us to Hobbiton. Peter Jackson partnered with the local farmer where Hobbiton was filmed, to create a village for devoted lord of the Rings fans like us. Those scenes where Gandalf first arrived on his wagon, Gandalf and Bilbo blew smoke rings, Bag End and the famous green door - they are all there. We had a great time.
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23 May
Good to play tennis again. Albeit singles.
Once it was announced that tennis was legal again, albeit with restrictions, the club chairman Richard Newson and I went to club and made the necessary changes. Including removing the seats (no spectators), removing the net winding handles and the height stick and the used ball bucket. We also mended a few bits so basically the club is in better shape than it's ever been.
Tennis is now legal if its singles and each player only touches and serves with his own set of balls.
Last Wednesday I played John Marks and lost on a tie break. This morning we played again and i won on a tie break. Howard thrashed me 6-1. We shared a distant beer in the club car park. Good to play again.
My garden shredder was a good investment. I have spread the shreddings from my last few days efforts over some of the beds. It felt to good to know the material was being recycled and not burnt. Better for the planet, the neighbours and indeed our own garden.
Last years garden hate was the sycamores that had infested all the hedges and beds. This years hate is ivy. I've not kept it under control so hacking it back now is such a major exercise. There is so much of it and the stems so thick that a chain saw is often necessary as well as loppers. I fear it will outlive me.
Today we should have been landing in Norway. Alison is a little sad about it but we're still working on being positive.
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I probably should deal with the weeds around the tennis courts but I can't bring myself to hurt the beautiful poppies.
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22 May recap continued
Such a nice walk along the coast at Birchington on Tuesday. People making the most of being allowed out after so many weeks.
Beaches more full than I've ever seen them. All the public toilets are shut though so it's best not to think how all those people cope with their basic needs.
I'm still enjoying using the apps BirdNET and PlantNET on our walks. It's good to know what wild flowers I'm seeing and what birds I'm hearing. Swifts and Dunnocks added to the bird list
On the north Kent coast we get a great variety of wild flowers.
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Walking along the coast at Birchington. I'm sure the sea is cleaner.
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22 May 2020
Well it's been a long time since my last entry. We have the first signs of reducing the lockdown. We are allowed to play low social contact sports such as golf and singles tennis, and we're allowed to meet one other person from another household - albeit at a distance of 2 metres.
With the three of us at home, Alison, Callie and me, lockdown has been frankly quite pleasant. The weather has been good so we've done garden work and some walking and generally tried to catch up on chores around the house.
Alison is a positive, looking forward to things person and has found the lack of any change to look forward to difficult. But her positivity is still shining through.
It's hard to believe the diligence Callie is putting into growing vegetables. Every day tending to the plants in the allotted section of the garden and the Aldi greenhouse we bought early in the lockdown. A real bargain at £60.
The LTA have set up a system called Sparkes where people can book courts at their local club. The problem is that someone has stolen the kemsing account so we cant use it. So I have set up a manual system with a simple pdf at a onedrive link. People email me and I book it for them. It's not too much hassle, but it's not a permanent solution because I cant administer it from a phone and I do intend to go on holiday when this is over.
Callie has to go to school about once every 10 days. More as childminder than to teach. This week it was Thursday. She still gets marking to do from the kids remote homework, but the load seems fairly light. She too is enjoying lockdown and not mourning the loss of going to school every day. The good weather has made such a difference
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14 April 2020
Last Saturday I went over to Bob's and played a very socially responsible game of tennis. Bob has a wonderful house in 5 acres of woodland that also has a tennis court. Albeit slightly mossy. But since the weather has been extraordinarily dry the last weeks, it was fine to play on. I wore gloves to avoid physical contact with the ball and we kept our distance.
Even so when I returned home I received a lecture from Callie about social responsibility.
The last few days I've been working on repairing and painting a rotten kitchen window frame. We've never maintained the window in the 25 years we've lived here. Maybe had it painted once.
It was the external corner that had rotted so I had to support and fill the wood first before painting. I'm going the whole hog and filled the wood, then primer, 2 coats of undercoat and 2 coats of gloss. I did one gloss coat yesterday and will finish today.
As ever, once you look, you find more to do. I've seen at least 2 other window frames that need attention. I'm not sure whether to attack those as well or not.
I also sprayed the drive with moss killer today. Until I looked closely, I didn't think the moss was too bad but in some areas it is really quite thick. I used my knapsack sprayer and wore gloves to minimise contact with the chemical. What I hadn't noticed was that a pipe connection was coming unscrewed. By the end my back, and right leg were saturated in the stuff. I even decided to wash my boots in the bath because they were sodden with moss killer. So much for avoiding skin contact.
I've ordered some more moss killer for myself, Bob and also for the tennis club. I'll take advantage of the lack of players to spray the club tennis courts in the next few weeks.
Monday evening we convened the Virtual Bell again. This time there were 6 of us. Funny that time goes very quickly in these virtual pub sessions. Zoom enforced its 40 minute rule this time so we had to break and reconvene at one point. Even so, it's good to meet with the crowd again, even if only once a week and by video.
Easyjet have finally moved towards refunding our March and April cancelled flights. So far they have made it impossible to claim a refund, only being able to reschedule online. Now they have finally given us an email address so we have claimed for the lost flights to France in March for our skiing holiday, and also to Portugal in April for our Easter break with Callie. We've no idea when we will actually be paid.
Easyjet haven't formally cancelled May flights yet so I cant reclaim the flights that I'd booked for the tennis men to the Madrid open. It feels like a game of chicken with Easyjet. Spains borders are closed and the Open is cancelled, but if easyjet decide to fly, then we cant claim a refund. Luckily the money for the tennis tickets has now been refunded and the accommodation as well. So it's just the flights that we are exposed for.
We also had a holiday in Norway booked for the end of May. The hotel have refused a refund. Norwegian Air have cancelled the outbound flight but not the return. Again, Norwegian are very reluctant to give a cash refund but we are trying. Travel insurance claims are Alison's speciality.
Norway was a complicated holiday with Inghams handling a lot of the holiday but we'd booked the flights and one hotel. Looks like we'll lose about £250 in deposit to Inghams and have to claim for the additional hotel and maybe one flight. That is the peril of having so many holidays booked in advance.
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In Otford is a building that used to be a Workhouse. When the harvest failed, workers would need support. Much like a 2020 pandemic
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Otford station car park on a Monday afternoon. Usually it would be packed but not during lockdown.
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