Monday Chores and Diet Day 1

Monday 5 January

A more casual day today - awoke to beautiful sunshine and took a stroll round the POP and found some funny creatures including a fire extinguisher reindeer, a garden rake heron and a fork face fella lurking in amongst the plants!

However laundry and swimming pools were calling us so we had to be good and do our chores back in Richmond (once Apple maps had given us slightly wrong directions to get to the pool and laundromat!). By chance the dodgy directions to the laundromat led me to a cheeky carpark out back where there seemed to be just one space available to regular cars for 120mins and also an abandoned shopping trolley so I was able to wheel my dirty laundry over in one fell swoop! Got in a quick food shop while the washes were on (very busy, I had to wait for previous washes to finish before bagging one small and one large machine!) and a trip to Kmart (more dodgy Apple map directions) to buy a thank you present for our POP hosts while everything tumble dried. I helped out an older couple who were not familiar with Liquid Laundromat… she introduced me to her husband as “a lovely young lady” who’d been very helpful! Take the compliments where I can! Finally, with everything dry and folded, I scooped up Louis and we headed back to Mahana to the POP.

Late lunch and a siesta after that, but by now it was a little chillier so we abandoned the plan to swim in the waterhole at Ngātīmoti and set out to find a beach to walk along.

First option was a very muddy estuary at Grossi Point Reserve with the tide right out (but a magnificent flowering gum tree) and second option, Ruby Bay was slightly more scenic and walkable so we wandered there and met several dogs including Molly the excitable and adorable black Labrador puppy.

Back home to Banjo for some supper then admin and bed making with the clean linen (which always earns about 750 fitbit steps shuffling round the bed & back). First day of post Festive season diet achieved; today’s Deborah Diet salads featured chicken & roasted sesame dressing for lunch and haloumi and roasted nuts & seeds with lemony olive oil & balsamic for dinner 🥗 Yay!