Day 19, Level 2 (Queens Birthday Monday): Wind, waves, walk and rain - and bluebottles!

OMG what a wild and woolly night - the wind and rain never let up. Furniture got hurled across the deck. I've not experienced a storm like that in a while. Nice to be warm and cosy inside - but was woken often with all the racket. 

Things had subsided a bit by morning but venturing outside was not something anyone wanted to do. We all rose at leisurely pace and enjoyed bacon and eggs and all the trimmings. Our guests packed up and headed off - getting mandarins and oysters en route. The traffic was a cinch. Perhaps a lot of people headed back yesterday due to bad weather. 

Brett and I went for a beach walk - it wasn't quite as rugged and blustery as we were expecting, although it was moody and the waves surged.  Definitely a walk that blew away the cobwebs. The shelf that had formed on the beach early in the year had disappeared. Over two nights, the sand had changed and flattened right out. Amazing what nature can do.

Rain threatened but held off. And then blue sky arrived.

Omaha: The same view - different days.
Above: today.
Below: a month ago.

 

There were dozens of nasty looking bluebottle jellyfish dotted along the shoreline as the high tide sluiced its way in. Their transparent blue tones, with a hint of purple, are alluring but their dead bloated bodies are not. Those menacing long (sometimes VERY long) tendrils are not what you want to encounter in the water, ever.

We ambled home along the walkway, noting the various houses old, new, renovated, original along the way. It was positively warm. Struck up a conversation with a couple out walking - turns out they're part of the original Rathe family, stalwarts of the area, still going strong. 

Wind and tide were pointing to potentially good surfing at Goat Island so Brett headed off to give it a go. The waves were good and big, but it was busy and he said he didn't get many waves. I hope he didn't drop down on anyone. Reading between the lines, he may have ... and that is a big no-no in the surfing world.  

While he was surfing I was working.

Once home he mowed the lawns, I washed the sheets.

So domesticated!

And then it was time for a beer - and a yummy burger for dinner before Brett headed back home to Auckland and I got back on my computer to do more work. 

The wind got up again after a lull late afternoon, but it's not cold. No heating required tonight. 

During renovations, we installed radiators up here - the best heating ever. In London, that's the normal form of heating, no matter how old the place, and it works efficiently and perfectly. When I lived there, I was never cold no matter how cold it was. Everywhere I lived in London had efficient central heating. 

Here in NZ people install heat pumps and all sorts of relatively expensive, inefficient, noisy/complex, ugly, cumbersome heat systems that don't deliver what good old-fashioned radiators do. It's rubbish and for the life of me I can't understand why people buy into it. Good marketing I guess, and not understanding the other options that aren't promoted or understood here. 

So it took some convincing but I eventually got my radiator heating suggestion over the line. And boy is it efficient at providing ambient, instant, controllable warmth. Tick. Perfect. 100%. Best choice. 

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:

Well what a fabulous long weekend. We enjoyed having friends and family up here and life felt normal again. The weather was of two halves - both fabulous and hideous. The food, wine and company was top notch start to finish. Indi loved having people around her. We walked, talked, ate, drank and were merry. We debated Covid, the world, truth, reality, ,everything. We lounged around, napped, pottered, nattered. Enjoyed doing everything and nothing. We did puzzles, shared recipes, life stories and lockdown tales. It was fabulous. Just as life should be!

And tonight - believe it or not, it'll be another early one (ish)!