The Right Trousers

Last Friday we went to view a house in Papamoa. It had been described as having a structural issue and came complete with a report on the damage. Papamoa Beach Road is a rather long road, but we weren't quite prepared for the distance we'd have to travel to reach it. We had a look round. He place was rather scruffy and obviously in need of a face lift. The structural issue appeared to be a case of water ingress. The structure of the house is basically a timber frame with some sort of plasterboard on the outside of the property, covered with a moisture proof coating. Alas some cracks had developed which had been left unattended, thus the damage. I don't think there was an actual brick in the whole place. The walls were no more than six inches thick (wot, no cavity?) and it seemed rather unsubstantial and flimsy. It's rather odd pounding on the outside of the wall and having it seem like a stud wall you might find inside. The price of $475,000 was allegedly a cracking deal, especially as the plot could be subdivided, but the area looked a bit rough and it really is miles from anywhere, yet you've still got neighbours and you're on a main road. The decision to take this no further was not a lengthy or difficult one.

Later on that afternoon, a button fell off my shorts, which necessitated me sewing it back on since there was no chance of them staying aloft. They seem to have become rather loose lately, and once I'd finished the needlework, I wondered if my dinner jacket and trousers would fit any better. The last time I wore those trousers, they were unbearably tight. This was partly a result of me being a fat git, and partly the result of inept alteration following my last modestly successful attempt at loosing a few pounds. The dry cleaners we took them to managed to take two inches out, but did it with the adjustment bit on the tightest setting. Anyway, it turns out the aforementioned trews are now a little baggy and comfortably on the loose side of snug. This made up for the rather disappointing BMI of 28, as measured on Wayne's WII Fit. I'm not convinced it's accurate.

Di went out to her inaugural netball team meeting....at the Rain Bar. Hardly an appropriate venue for a sporting activity, unless you count Sky Sports as a sporting activity. She dragged Vicky along with her for backup and reappeared several hours later having talked a few of her potential team mates out of joining the league on day one. Probably a wise move. Allegedly Di is now chief coach.

Saturday we went to the beach. No seaweed but the surf was pants. Bizarrely Rhiannon came too and actually went in the water and attempted to catch some waves too. I wasn't sure whether to pinch myself or her to discover if indeed she had been cloned or otherwise bodysnatched. Upon reflection, her shouts of FAIL! every time I didn't quite manage to catch a wave should have given the game away but I was too busy hurling the same insult back at her which she seemed to enjoy. Is the troglodyte evolving, perhaps? No sign of sharks today, but at one point as I was wading back out of the sea I saw this rather odd pattern of black shapes about 6 feet from the shoreline. I thought it was some sort of optical effect where the sun catches the undulations in the compacted sand, but having stopped and stared for a few seconds, it was in fact a school of fish, each one about 10 inches long, swimming in no more than a foot of water. It did make me wonder if the bronzies had scared them that close to the shore.

Sunday. Beach again. This time sans Rhiannon, who disappeared down the mount but managed to appear outside the house just as we were returning from the beach. I hadn't bothered with the body board since I'd suspected the surf would be poor. Instead Phoebe and I dug a big hole and Phoebe insisted I move the big log (about 15 inches diameter and 8 feet long) about 30 yards along the beach so that it formed a bridge over the hole. Quite why she could not reuse the hole under the log which she had dug yesterday is a mystery. You need to be six to understand it I suppose.