Well here we are again in lockdown. Quite annoying I have to say, but I can't complain because there are plenty of people who can't work at all while I am perfectly capable of working from home. And for Sarah it's not that much different except there are 3 extra people to annoy her during the day instead of just the people that she works with. So anyway, wind it back a bit, what's been happening since my last update?
One of the LED lights in the kitchen blew. That's annoying I thought, those things are supposed to last for years, that's why we got them put in when we redid the kitchen. So I pulled it out and checked it, hang on, it's not getting any voltage at all. No wonder it isn't working. Turns out there's a little LED driver box, which basically converts 240V AC to ~24v DC at a steady current. So I checked that, sure enough it's getting power but giving none out. So I spent ~2 weeks faffing around trying to find a replacement for it that was in New Zealand and not some dodgy drop shipping shit. Eventually found one, rewired it all up and turned it on. Did it explode in flames and smoke? Thank Fek no it did not, it worked perfectly so I put it back up in the roof job done. Hooray. Home electrical things are about the only useful skill I have really, like how I repaired the Dyson a few weeks ago. Building anything useful? Can't do it? Wires? 100% I'm your man.
Two weekends ago I put down a couple of homebrews, one a proper Williams Warn kit and the second just a single can of malt for a Belgian Style beer from bin-in. Was $23 for the can and it's made 10L, I tried it before and it's really not that bad. Needs a little more time to mature but yea, pretty happy with it. The proper kit I haven't tried yet, I'll give that a few more weeks to mature before it gets guzzled away. Depends on how long lockdown lasts I guess, if everything's still shut in a few weeks it might be getting chopped away a bit quicker!
It was my Birthday last Sunday. Thanks everyone for presents etc. I got some tracky dacks, some slippers, 2 more beer kits to brew, and a cool virtual running race thing which I can do some of with the kids. I also got a Strava Membership from Mum, and some nice clothes from Peter and Mary, and Holly and Adrian. Went out to Brave for some food, man that place is just pumping these days, it's insane. There's 5 times as many people there as there used to be in their first smaller taproom. I'm amazed at just how well they've grown that business from a little stall at the Farmer's Market to being in all the magazines and having a great little place to eat.
So Lockdown has been fun. Sarah rang me on Tuesday at 3pm to tell me there was a case. By 6pm we were being told of the 3 days lockdown. Though just as it was being annouced, the power went out at Jervoistown to fix an arcing powerline. So we were in the dark for 4 hours, had to eat by candlelight (and my 6+ torches) and cook the prawns on the little gas stove I bought many moons ago. It always comes in handy for that sort of stuff! Eventually about 10pm the power came back. Work was super crazy on Wednesday, just trying to juggle all the Internet traffic around the place from everyone working from home. We managed to do it though, had to call in a few favours, get a few people to drive to various sites to plug things in etc. Busy busy but we got there in the end. Today was more of the same, plus a bit of lab work to build a new product. Never a dull moment at NOW.
Beth needs glasses. She already has glasses, but she needs ones like mine now. For shortsightedness. You can get ones these days that apparently can slow down the progression of short sightedness. So we'll look at getting those for her. I mean she seems fine, she's still reading everything she can find to read. But yea, she's got her Father's genes in that regard.
Theo too is reading everything he can manage to read. He's not at Beth's level, but he's starting to enjoy reading little chapter books (Bugalugs Bum Thief) and is happy with himself that he can. And he can read his Pokemon books now, which is also a good thing. Means they have something then can both do during lockdown that isn't just stare at their iPads. Though of course we let them watch those too. It's a lot easier this lockdown than last though, mostly because Theo's got that little bit more independance and can read. And he can ride his bike now and he's happy to do that. Beth will happily just read a book for 2 hours as well, stopping only to get a snack etc. They're both better at managing that sort of thing, food and not having to hassle us every minute. I mean they still want/need our help and of course we help them, it's just not the mission that it was a year and a bit ago. So that's good.
Can't think of a lot else going on? Beth's still loving cheerleading, she's always practising at home, bending over backwards, doing legs in the air exercises, jumping hopping and all sorts. She bounces out of cheerleading and tells me how much she loves it etc. Glad she's found something she enjoys. Theo's been trying Golf with Grandad. I hope he doesn't LOVE it because I dunno I can drag myself around Golf courses to watch people play. I'd rather hit myself with the clubs. Gosh I hope re-reading this in a few years time doesn't come back to bite me.
Sarah's had her first vaccination, I'm booked for mine in a couple of weeks time. Hope that NZ gets ontop of the Delta Strain outbreak but it's not looking/sounding good. The "locations of interest" is so long/large now it might as well just say "Auckland". At least there's no cases in Napier or outside of Auckland. At least, not yet. That we know of.
I've done the last couple of Parkruns to get some training in. Looks like it won't be on this weekend though, alas!
Anyway, kids are finally in bed. They've had fun tonight typing messages on the computer to make it say silly things.
Tim
Add new comment