Change in the routine

We've had a wonderful couple of weeks away. We flew to Blenheim to be enthusiastically received by our first great-grandson Cohen David, rode the "Coastal Pacific" train to Christchurch, rental-drove on down to Dunedin to spent time with best friends Shirley and Joan and then trickled back up the South Island for another week in Blenheim.
Great days, gentle for the most part, with some long-standing friendships refreshed and some lovely country scenery revisited. The last day was a little exciting as we were on staff standby tickets for Auckland on the day the Methodist Conference was concluding in Blenheim. We had to wait around for a couple of hours for a long detour right down to Christchurch then Auckland - but we still got home in time for an hour or two with the village Barbershop Chorus rehearsal and cuppa.
The South Island and family and friends there will always have a special place in our hearts.  Then within a couple of days the Blenheim family were in Auckland and we got to share the custody of the G-GS with his Nana Christine for 30 hours. What a little smiler! He was passed from hand to hand and car to car with only the best of goodwill for everyone in sight. He crawled all over the place and drank in the sights of every new environment with relish. He figured how to release the three drawers I'd clipped together with a stick more quickly than your average kea. And kea outsmarted chimpanzees in a television documentary once. Just imagine: a G-GS who at eight months is smarter than a kea or a chimp...
Saturday was also our 56th wedding anniversary. What better way to celebrate it than a time of thinking with much pleasure about friends and family and life and living?
On Sunday I made a nostalgic visit back to St John's College where the Methodists had their usual monthly service. It included a farewell to Val Nicholls, a special friend who's been on the staff for the last few years. She invited me to play the piano for the service, a much appreciated gesture.

Now it's back to a couple of weeks of testing and checking as I come up to my quarterly review... And I have started serious work on my submission about Voluntary Euthanasia....