Monday 3rd August

Don’t the months fly past too quickly. I just noticed I had July again in the date line.

It was sweltering at work today. The little truck is only a few hours away from being finished, everyone put in a good day with it today. The floor and sides are finished, the back tray folds down, all we need now is to get the lights and number plate on, and a bit of tidy up and hopefully we will have it certified tomorrow or Wednesday. It needs 3 new tyres, so there goes another bit of money.

I went down to the market stall by the entrance at lunch time, bought a few cans of coke and strawberry cream for everyone, got back, cracked a really cold can of coke and almost collapsed with the shock of it hitting my system. I hadn’t realised how hot I’d been till then. For a minute I felt like I was going to black out, that would have made everyones day, watching me fall over from heat exhaustion. At least I’m getting some colour on my skin finally, and if the truck is going the weekend I’ll finally get away to the beach again.

There are a few minor faults with the truck, the tray is slightly shorter on one side than the other by 1cm, the centre board on the floor had to be split lengthways with the skillsaw and no guide so it’s got a few small gaps along it, but considering all we had to build it with it’s not looking too bad.

I’ve got The Band playing at the moment, The Band cd, and Music From Big Pink, it still sounds as good as it did 40 years ago. Either that or I’m just an old fart stuck in my ways too much. We were all living in Bankside Street in Auckland then in the old 18th century cottage, it’s still there, buried among the skyscrapers.

It looks like we are definitely moving out of the Botanic Gardens, Forestry is still insisting we can’t work together, Council are not being helpful either. Keithie has found a place in Ranandi on an industrial estate we can have tenure on, it’s not ideal, right beside the main highway, no shade, but it’s free, and ours.

I’ll go and have another look tomorrow, there is a seperate block of land above on the hillside we can have as well, but it will mean having to transport plants up and down by truck every day. But it’s finally getting the Nursery established and that’s what I’ve been waiting six months for.