Family Journal

Wow the weather has changed; overcast with a mild very cold wind laced with rain.

Anyway Rosie drove me over to drop off Bangle for grooming, then we did the shopping, picked up Bangle after grooming, and home.

Excitement re Bangle is that Emma the groomer found a barley-grass seed working its way into poor Bangle’s bottom. I assume that was rather uncomfortable but now it’s all out and disinfected to everyone’s relief. Things like that are hard to spot with her fluffy bum.

I’d not dressed for the change in weather so it was very cold outside the car and cottage. Once inside New World I was so cold that I lingered by the rotisserie chicken cabinet to get a bit warmer.

Rang Millvale House to see if marcus and I could visit this afternoon. No because they’ve had a Covid case and are in lockdown until they get the all clear test results later this week. I’ll call again on Monday.

Marcus and family are off tomorrow to Lake Rotoiti, near Rotorua, back on Monday. Taking the jetboat.

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Combination of the heat, the changes for Karola, and perhaps an incipient cold but I had a very restless night. My Oura ring says I got 3½ hours sleep which made me very groggt in the morning.

At 11:00am Marcus took me over to Colwyn House in Duke Street, Mahora and Chrissie joined us there to talk to the manager and discuss options for Karola in the new year. Colwyn House Lifecare is one of only two establishments which support people with psycho-geriatric needs, aka dementia level 5. The staff seem experienced, competent, and friendly. The individual rooms are very small but there’s probably room for an extra chair and some photos on the walls. Since Anna & Bridget visited the place has been repainted internally, banishing the glaring primary colours which were part of what out them off when they visited last February.

In the afternoon I had my regular quarterly diabetes health check at the Hastings Health Centre – no problems there.

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Quiet day; lunch with Bangle in regional park – in the shade under the trees. Later I joined Marcus& Chrissie, and probably Matilda and Minty, for a delicious quiche & fillet steak dinner on the Karamu verandah to celebrate Marcus bringing a large, very large outside table for meals.

Bangle Hoping For Pie Crust

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Slept till 11:00am – I don’t think the Brownies agree with me, I certainly sleep but am dissy when I wake in the night and feel lethargic, more so than usual, when I do get up.

Bangle and I went once again to the regional park for lunch comprising a potato-topped pie and coffee. Bangle gets to eat the crispy crust to reduce the amount og gluten and sugar I eat.

Articles from The Atlantic, often mirrored in Medium, are generally much better signal/noise for my taste. On basis of too much overlay I cancelled my The Atlantic subscription on Sunday but today I resuscribed and am seriously contemplating cancelling my Medium sunscription. I’ll miss many of the technology articles but they have usually been early warnng of breakthroughs that turn to dust. Y’d be better off watching videos from Just Have A Think and looking at BBC and Economist online.

Marcus has invited me to dinner tomorrow which fits perfectly because I forgot to get enough meals for this week.

Regional Dog Park – Walk Under The Trees

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Marcus called Colwyn House and got us an appointment 11:00am Monday.

Bangle and I had pie and coffee in the regional dog park, on the usual seat under the trees. It was very hot in the sun.

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Rosie drove me over to take Karola out for a snack. Beforehand I had quite a long chat with Jodi about a report made recenty on Karola’s condition. The report made last week while Jodi was on holiday documented the difficulties Karola were having with the staff and how Karola’s physical and mental health had declined markedly over the last few months. The upshot was that the assessor, from the DHB’s department of Older Person’s Mental Health, concluded Karola needs the next level of care, physio-geriatric level 5. Summerset Palms are not equipped to provide that level of care and so we need to find a place elsewhere for Karola. This was not a pleasant finding but they seem implacible. Bridget, Gill,, Jenny & Noel, and Marcus family know and are helping begin the search. So far we’ve only found two places which offer level 5 support in Hawkes Bay, both of them close but very likely fully occupied. <arcus has kindly offered to take me to see these esyablishments tomorrow. Bridget is finding out from Jodi how much time we have and whether Karola being removed from the Old People’s Mental Health register for Hawkes Bay has financial implications.

Marcus took the dogs for their walk around the orchard today, including Bangle.

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Rosie dropped me off at the hospital for my appointment at 10:20am. By 10:45 we’d established that they had no record of my appointment and in fact the specialist due to administer the test wasn’t even in this morning. The same old Chinese woman who sortd out last time when they’d sent me the paperwork for the wrong procedure was there again to rescue the day. I now have an appointment next week at same time.

So I had an appointment for this test based on a specialist appointment with Mr Wang on 7th November, 2023. He referred me to the hospital for a test. You have to go in the public health system because there are no copies of the equipment in private hands in New Zealand. The history from then on is quite chaotic so one hopes the actual tests are more orderly.

I got a letter from the hospital (DHB, District health Board) a couple of weeks later saying as that my conditions were neither life threatening nor severe they would not even put me on the waiting list, the list was too long already.

To my surprise I got a TXT advising me of my appointment for this test on 23rd November, 2023. Things were a little fraught here so although Anna took me in I decided to skip the test for the time being. Also the appointment said that the test was for surgery as if I’d already had the test. The old Chinese lady was very nice about it and said she’d contact me in a few months time to see if I’d changed my mind.

Mid January I got a TXT from the DHB saying I had an appointment 27th January, 2024. Two days later I got another TXT sayin my appointment was postponed and they’d advise me of the new date.

Yesterday, 10th December 2024, I got a letter in the post with the correct instructions and saying my appointment was today at 10:30am. We wait for next week’s appointment to see how that goes.

Bangle trotted off with Chrissie and her pack late evening.

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Rosie, Bangle, and I did the shopping before going to Tainui reserve for short walk and lunch – coffe and a potato-topped pie.

Chrisie took Bangle with the other dogs and their black cat for a walk round the orchard late evening in the cool.

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Today, it being a cloudy but warm day, Bangle and I went along the Clive estuary and had lunch on the seat just before the notice boards a short distance from the bend round into the wetlands. I intended to go further but Bangle had a mind of her own today and scuttled / rummaged well ahead of me. After her share of the mince pie she set off back towards the car.

High Tide – Clive Estuary

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Regional Dog Park again; pretty warm so being under the trees seemed best.

Matilda drove up from Christchurch last night so Marcus has a full house for now.

The two chicks are small fully feathered now though wether pullets or young cockerels is not yet clear.

One of the chook run rat traps was knocked over so I righted it and checked the counter. The GoodNature automatic rat trap counter showed 4 but there have been no signs of corpses so I siuppose, as shown in the GoodNature videos, other rats have come and dragged them away. Today there was a corpse so five rats in as many months – but I haven’t checked the other trap also next to the chook house.

Rat Caught By Goodnature Automatic Rat Trap Last Night

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A bit cooler but still quite warm. Another walk in the dog park with a pie and coffee; Bangle enjoying the edges of the pie pastry.

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Marcus cut up and removed the branch that fell off the big oak yesterday and he mowed the lawns including the cottage lawn. I took Bngle to the dog park where I had punch. Later Bangle wet with Chrissie round the orchard when it was a bit cooler.

The chook that lost most of its tail feathers has been sitting on fake eggs for a few days so it seems she has decided to be broody. I’ve put an egg under her yesterday and today and taken away the fake eggs; we’ll see how it goes. The two chicks by two chooks hatched a few weeks ago now have adult plumage and are running around with the rest of the chooks, free range. One is mostly white, the other mostly black but I have no idea whether hens or roosters.

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Read a few emails but it soon got too hot and so Rosie and I tootled off to pick up Karola at Summerset Palms then off to Miss Browns for afternoon tea, well for half an omelette each and a coffee.

Snagged an ice-cream on a stick before we trundled back. Chrissie invited me for tea, fish pie.

Large Piece Off The Big oak Tree Crashed to The Ground In Strong Gale-Force Winds This Evening

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Another lunch on a stone bench along the main leafy bridgeway into the regional park. Bangle likes it. We then went up to the wooden bridge across where the dogs mainly swim and back down the side of th stream, in the shade.

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Rosie, Bangle, and I went off to Hastings for the week’s shopping and a short walk in Tainui Reserve. Really quite warm at 31℃. Rest of the day quite quiet; Dyson fan keeps me cool inside catching up on my reading. Pavla postponed until tomorrow.

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Short walk with Bangle in regional park. I had coffee and pie on a bench in the shade while Bangle enjoyed snuffling around in the leaves. Quite warm but going to be warmer tomorrow. To my delight this summer there’s plenty of fruit growing on Karola’s micro-orchard outside the cottage bedroom window, green growing fruit on: Cox’s Orange pippin eating apple, Ballarat cooking apple, WBC pear (aka Bartlett pear), Winter Nellis pear, Santa Rosa plum, and, smaller and younger Hawera plum, (replacement for Black Doris that was frost damaged).

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Another lazy day with walk with Bangle.

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After lunch took Bangle to Clive estuary path and had a coffee and pie on the seat just before the turn into the wetlands. Just a short walk so when, upon my return, Chrissie offered to take Bangle with her dogs for another walk I agreed and Bangle was delighted.

Gulls At Mouth Of Clive Estuary

Triptych Embroidery Needs mending – 17 Nov 24

SpoonBill – Clive Wetlands – 17 Nov 24

Five Spoonbills – Clive Estuary – 17 Nov 24

Clive – Goats – 17 Nov 24

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I was reminded that I had haircuts planned for Karola and me today sopicked up Karola and went over to Kim’s at Ahuriri but Karola was not in the mood. I agreed with Kim that I’d ask jodi at Summerset Palms to arrange dfor Karola to hae hair cuts there when Karola is in the mood.

Marcus mowed the lawns again. He’s arranged for the Grillo to get a new motor shortly as it is losing power and gulping oil.

Bangle went with Chrissie and the dogs round the orchard in the evening.

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Rosie not too well today so Marcus kindly took me over to see Karola and take her out for afternoon snack and coffee. We retrieved my MYLK meals for the week. It was at least 31℃, hot.

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Marcus took me for an afternoon spin in the LandRover to see the farms up the Taihape road. Adele Chalmers’ farm, next to Cynthia Chalmers, Chrissie’s mum’s, was sold soon after he died. I’m unclear as to who owns what but I think there’s either one or two farms soon to be sold. One of them is still verdant green and has only a handful of cattle still grazing. The surrounding farms are all parched and also either stock free or with very low stocking. The verdant farm has been subdivided to provide two lifestyle blocks which look west to the mountains over the Ngaruroro river in the distance.

Bangle went for walk with Chrissie and the rest of the dogs in the evening.

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Shopping with Rosie, walk with Bangle along edge of Tainui reserve in Havelock North.

Black Poplar & Cottonwood Pollen – Also In Paper On Saturday As So Striking

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Very quiet Monday. Beautiful long walk with Bangle, but avoiding the stop bank, obviously.

District Council Cleanly Removed Fallen Branch (see 21 November)

Council Reducing The Stop Bank Fire Risk – 18 Nov 24

Regional Park Massive Pollen Drop From Black Poplar (Mostly) – 18 Nov 24

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Wierd day for me, dozing most of the day and feeling decidedly un-energetic. One of my new chooks was chased by a dog visiting the Ormonds and the dig took out most of her tail feathers although she seem’s unworried by it an hour after the tail-plucking. The dog’s owner of course said the dog was well trained and wouldn’t chase or hurt a fly.

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Bangle in a good mood today, no sign of a limp. Went the long walk in the dog park.

On the way I got a coffe from BP as usual but instead of the familiar apple turnover I tried a potato-topped mince pie. The apple turnovers are getting to be more pastry and less apple so I’ll check out the nutritional comparison to see whether the mince pie is significant;y worse for me than the apple turnover.

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Pleasant walk with Bangle at Regional Dog Park and on the way home I looked with approval the tree work done by the Hastings Council just outside the cattle stop.

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Rosie took me to get MYLK meals for rest of the week plus we walked with Bangle along the edge of Tainui Reserve at the top of Joll Road.

Quite a big branch was broken by strong winds overnight and I’ve asked council to fix as, (observed by Marcus), the tree is outside our road boundary fence.

Dinner for eight at Allessandro’s: Jeyy & Noel, Peter & Charlotte, Marcus, Chrissie, Rosie, and me, Good food, not too loud, warm as we were inside.

Quite Large Plane Tree Branch Broke Last Night

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Bit quiet except for discussing sheep troughs and water reticulation with Marcus. Mid afternoon walk with Bangle in the dog park.

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Some too-ing and froing with Allessandro’s Pizza Restaurant in Havelock North. Marcus needs to go to EWellington on Wednesday so we moved the meal to Thursday and, a late change, we need to start at 5:00pm because they’ve overbooked a couple of tables at 7:00pm. Marcus has decided not to bring Minty either – she can stay with her cousins in Hastings. So the final number is 8 at 5:00pm, Allessandro’s.

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Aaron the electrician came to fix the generator and complete the installation of the electricuity supply from the control box on the outside garage wall.He sent ahead two apprentices to complete the wiring job. General consensus is that ants are a problem both in the genertor controls themselves and in the separate controller on the wall that switches the generator on and off when the grid goes down and comes back up again. Campbell Watt in Christchurch is sending up a replacement part for the up/down control box. Marcus is gung ho to defeat the ants using RipCord – the chemical that Mr Hills, across the road, was cavalier in spraying the wood surrounding the gutters and wqs disabled for the rest of his life, decades.

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Well the birthday present to myself, it has arrived and is up and running with some basic apps. Quite snappy, my Apple Mac mini ProI’m quite pleased with the three Samsung monitors too.

Quick run to do shopping and take Bangle for a walk along the edge of Tainui Reserve in Havelock North. Rebuilding my system on my brand new Mac Mini M4 is proving to take lots of time and fiddling.

I did need to buy a couple of little hubs to allow me to attach external discs etc when the cables mostly have USB-A connectors. The Mac Mini has five USB-C sockets and no USB-A ones. It’s been five years since I started hearing about USB-C standards and only now that the tide is turning against USB-A connectors.

Interesting fact: Here in Hastings little hubs which attach up to four devices are half the price of one Lightening to  USB-C cable.

Three 27-Inch Samsung Monitors

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