Day 13, Level 1: Feels like summer, Nikau palms, and the good and bad of shared driveways

A windy day. Did a short walk to the beach, it was pretty nice down there, sheltered from the pesky westerly. There was a gorgeous warmth in the air and a translucent quality to the light of sea and sky - felt like summer! Only a handful of others down there. Well, I guess it is Tuesday morning!

Did a bit of cleaning, a bit of work, a bit of research, a bit of writing. Waited for Indi to return from wherever she goes to. I'm heading back to Auckland city today. 

Indi didn't show up by mid-afternoon so it was a case of making a phone call to "Uncle Peter", our neighbour to ask him nicely if he would mind feeding her. I'll be back up again on Thursday and she's in good hands for a couple of days. 

A smooth drive home - and once there, got to see the results of some digging and retaining work being done on our property alongside the driveway - as a first stage before the entire driveway is resurfaced (the responsibility of all those who use the driveway). It's in a shocking state and has been deteriorating badly - but there's been little point in fixing it until everyone had done all their house renovations and building work. Over the past few years everyone seems to have been doing something major! So now the time has come to rebuild the driveway. First step, some retaining work on our property. We have a massive tree whose roots are proving to be a bit of a dilemma to the project. 

Meanwhile, clearing some of the bushes off the bank meant the trunks of our two lovely Nikau palm trees have been revealed. These very slow growing native palms have a beautiful shape and frond style. A very striking tree. And our two beauties are a really good size now.

Brett and I spent about an hour in the driveway this evening discussing various aspects of the project with the contractor - mainly the tree roots - and catching up with neighbours we haven't seen in a while. 

And then I was off to quiz. We came second. Some rounds were ridiculously hard - TV Themes. It's our worst nightmare at the best of times - but tonight, I hadn't even heard of half the shows. That shows how little TV I watch!

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Long shared driveways ...

They are both good and bad. 

Good because they enable privacy, being set back off the road.

Bad because they are inevitably used by several households - and it's always that inevitable thing whereby a friend drops you home and you have a 3-minute chat in the driveway - and every neighbour seems to be arriving or leaving at that precise moment! And whenever you have work done and need a truck or workmen on site, you have to notify all the neighbours so they don't get their car trapped in. And when others are having work done, you need to juggle your coming and going. 

Good because we neighbours all look out for each other's properties and notice any strange comings or goings, collect the mail etc. 

Bad because rebuilding a driveway is an expensive exercise. 

Good because the cost is shared between many. 

Bad because it can be a juggle - especially when at one stage we had four cars to park - when the boys were both at home and we all had cars. Somehow we did manage to park all four in our garage and separate drive, but it was a juggle and required deft manoeuvring. 

Good because trick or treaters, people selling stuff door to door, Jehovah's Witnesses etc don't come calling very often. Do they even still come calling? I haven't seen any of the above in years!

Good because they are fabulous playgrounds for young kids - all the neighbourhood kids, when the boys were small, used to play in and around the driveway, graze between each other's houses etc. 

Bad because accidents can happen - Brett accidentally ran over the neighbour's kitten, quite a few years ago now, but absolutely awful. 

Oh, I can't wait for our driveway to be all nice and shiny and new! At the moment it's a treacherous disaster. Driving over it is bad enough, but walking up and down it is a nightmare. Lots of school kids use it as a short cut. They do at their own peril!

I'll post some photos tomorrow - I forgot to take one tonight, too busy talking!