Week 14 ORR

Down to Auckland again on Friday to pick up Danni and her friend Keri. As it is a holiday weekend - Queens Birthday weekend which is always a public holiday here - the traffic going North was very heavy. I decided to come back up the west coast via Helensville and the west coast road into Warkworth. It took half an hour longer but I did miss all the traffic on the motorway. Just before we got back home Rob called to say that he had broken down on the motorway so wouldn't be calling in on his way home from work.
The house was booked, by a couple, for the weekend and they had already made themselves at home when we got back.
We had tea and then the girls disappeared, giggling, down stairs and amused themselves with music and dancing before finally going to bed.
Saturday was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. In the morning I took the girls into Matakana and we had a wander around the market which was packed with people due to it being a holiday weekend. Lots of tempting albeit expensive things to buy but I wasn't tempted as there were queues at every stall. Then we went to Matakana country park where we watched someone practising her dressage in the arena, I had a look around the market and the girls went for a carriage ride.
After lunch we went into Warkworth to get a couple of dvd's and the onto the riding school. Danni didn't have her lesson after all as Shannon wasn't there. She did though try out another pony, Lenora , that she had been told was a good ride. I was, as usual, riding Girlie and Keri had Sam again. The 3 of us plus our guide set off at a fair trot and then canter, downhill, to catch up with the rest of our group and Danni fell off. I think that it was probably the first time that she had cantered downhill! Thankfully she was OK and we continued our ride with a fair few fast canters up the hills. Back in the paddock Danni did a couple of jumps before we returned to the stables. Both girls spent quite a time untacking and grooming their respective mounts.

We got back home shortly before Rob arrived to spend the evening with us and I made a toad in the hole which goes down very well with everyone! Rob then left for home and the girls retired to their room to watch a dvd.
Rob came to pick up the girls at 8.30 am and I went with them. After dropping the girls off I went on to Rob's work where I picked up one of his second hand cars, which he is going to sell from home, and drove it back here.
I had invited Rob, Julie and Danny (Julie's son) for Sunday roast so I spent the afternoon preparing and cooking roast pork, apple sauce, stuffing, roast potatoes, carrots and broccoli as well as a tiramisu for pudding. The meal seemed to go down well and they left about 8pm.
Monday was a day of rest!
Tuesday we had rain. Rob rang in the morning and asked if we wanted to meet up with him and Julie at Hum, the new restaurant in Matakana. It's Rob's day off and Julie has this week off. We were all disappointed with the restaurant. The food was passable but the service was dreadful. I don't understand why, when they were not busy, we couldn't have all got our meal at the same time. After lunch Rob and Julie went to the cinema and N and I went into Warkworth to get a new battery fixed in Jess'  car.
We are picking up Rob and Donna, our friends from Perth, on Friday and Jill has said that it is OK for them to sleep over at the house whilst they are here apart from Saturday night when there is just one couple booked in. I went over and got their rooms ready on Wednesday. Thursday I went into Warkworth and shopped in readiness for the weekend.