On the move again

I seem to have picked up another virus somehow, so the first two days back in Reading with Steph and Ray I spent rather a lot of time sleeping.  However, I'm feeling much better now (just in time to move on tomorrow to Philip and Rosemary's) ... I am so blessed to have family here who take me as I am and just let me do my own thing.   I certainly haven't been much of a house guest!

I'm also going to be able to catch up with Karen and Hugh Kemp and their family - they are only about a half hour drive away from Cirencester.  They are the folk who were so good to me after the earthquake - providing me (and half the neighbourhood) with well water, a chemical loo and all manner of goodies.  Some may recall that I went up to Palmerston North to help them sell their house, before they came over here in the new year.

So I've charged Tom's batteries (I say that in the purest sense) and we'll be on our way.  Just prior to leaving Wales I realised my front tyre was a bit flat - so cousin Ceri took the car down to the Tyre Centre to get it looked at.  Evidently the chrome(?) around the wheel (trim?) had corroded and as a result I had a slow puncture - well, I didn't, but the Mondeo did.   Whereas at home they'd just stick in an inner tube, that's not the way its done over here ... instead they removed the tyre and then glued it back in place.  Perhaps I haven't quite given the full correct facts, but it was along those lines, anyway.  I drove very carefully on the way from Wales to Reading, but now with Ray's assurances that this is the normal way they fix such problems, I feel a bit more confident again.  I don't think I'll be taking any risks though!

It's been lovely to skype with Marriene on Saturday and have a mobile phone call with Karen G today.  It makes home feel not quite so far away.  And here, at least, I've been able to see some of the World Cup games - and hold my normal text 'discussions' with Susan and John ... oh if only the All Blacks had us there, we could sort it all out in no time.  I don't fancy my chances in Cirencester - but you never know.

The nights are really beginning to draw in now - and we've had heavy rainfall and strong winds on and off for the past few days - with more to come I understand.  Any day now I shall pack up my summer clothes and send them back to NZ to await my return in December.

Go the All Blacks - and Wales!