Back to usual poor scores in the quiz tonight – a fat zero in the first round then 21 in the second. Couldn’t remember any Ocean Colour Scene singles for the 3 in 10 either. Eejit!

Just want it known that I have just scored a combined score of 60 on yesterday’s Pop Master quiz – and got the 3 in 10! Broken my previous record by about 20.

Scored it while trying to wind down after a fairly crap work day so feels like I can call it even.

Relieved the hear the news that New Zealand’s borders are slowing opening up again, and that MIQ is being phased out for most in favour of self-isolation. It means I can start to hope for a trip to see The Oldies and wider family some time later in the year. Fingers crossed we don’t get any more nasty variants popping up and we can slowly get back to some kind of normality.

Cute footage of a Kiwi native bird flying off with a GoPro camera.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/04/kleptomaniac-new-zealand-parrot-steals-gopro-films-airborne-escape

Have made through all 185 days of Dry January! Celebrating with a liver punishing bottle of Pinot Noir. Cheers!

Finished our New Year DIY project to get the messy laundry tidied up. Got tradies in for the tricky stuff, just doing the painting and tiling mi’sen. Quite happy with the result, just waiting on a floor covering to hide the terracotta tiles.

The Duchess had another brush with fame** this week when she was interviewed for an article on Nu Zild’s premier/only news website, discussing the pros and cons of increased property prices in our little corner of Upper Hutt.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/housing-affordability/127518159/the-upper-hutt-suburb-that-went-from-ugly-duckling-to-the-biggest-housing-price-jump-in-wellington

The journo did take references to “we” to mean that we’re married, otherwise it’s a fair piece. And don’t be getting carried away by the values given – most of that still belongs to the bank!

** Previous brushes with fame include appearing on a British TV dating show (not Blind Date), danced in the background of a music video on MTV and was the focus of an article in The Sun (not Page 3, Dad)

Needing to water the garden every other evening to make up for the lack of rain.

Not easy when Penny decides she wants a drink from the hose – for about half an hour.

Almost halfway through January and not missing the booze too much, even after a frustrating work day.

Helps that the alcohol-free beers are much nicer these days …