23/12/2025 Nails and Netflix

Up at the crack of cow shit for my swim, which I'm actually starting to enjoy. Hopefully ill be able to keep it up in Fiji, not in the pool but in the ocean, and I can't wait to be in those crystal clear waters swimming with the fishes. Not Godfather swimming with the fishes, just Mrs Leaonard swimming with the fishes. It will be enough to scare them out of the water….

My nail appointment was 0930 so I made my way down and arrived 10 minutes early. As Si always said, on time is late! I was so early, the shop wasn't even open so I had a coffee while I waited for them to arrive which was only a few minutes after me. They were so lovely, and I was sitting at a desk in minutes and out two hours later. During that time, every nail tech in the salon worked on my hands and feet. I felt like a goddamn queen. My finger nails were done first and the lovely girl who did them reminded me of the  girl who made my wedding dress, Daisy. We chatted through all ten fingernails, with her telling me about her upcoming Christmas camping break to Cape Reinga ( Te Rerenga Wairua) in the Northland with her family. It is so beautiful up there, 100km north from the nearest small town. In Maori the name translates to the leaping off  place of the spirits, Reinga is the Maori word for underworld. Both refer to the Maori belief where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld.  Cape Reinga is also the place where the Tasman Sea in the West and the Pacific ocean in the East collide .  Si and I visited the lighthouse where you can see the two currents clearly off the coast, it is something quite special to witness. The whole place has a really magical feel to it, I hope they all enjoy it as much as we did. 

Once my finger nails were done and my hands and arms massaged to within an inch of their life, I was transferred to one of the wonderful massaging chairs with a built-in sink for the feet. As I was massaged and pummeled for an hour, my toes were transformed into what look like little cubes of cadburys dairy milk purple, in honour of Si, purple being his favorite colour. Once they were done my feet and legs were massaged into oblivion and I practically staggered out from there.  Only to the cash point, because they had dropped the card machine on the floor a few days ago and it had finally stopped working. One of the girls came with me which she was pleased about, saying she needed the exercise after recently moving out of the city. This meant she drives to work now instead of walking everywhere and it's not sitting well with her at all, bless her. The cash extracted from the cash point and my bill paid, I was off for a coffee, before I fell over.

As I walked up the street I noticed a sign that amused me greatly, it was for a massage place, it read, “Knackered  come in and take a break” if I hadn't been massaged to within an inch of my life whilst having my nails done I would have headed in.

Instead, I went to Franks in the square which was really empty and had a coffee and blueberry danish. The danish was blueberry, the coffee was coffee. Not a combined thing. As I sat there watching the world go by, a little bird joined me on the table, hopping on the table looking for scraps. I picked off some crumbs from my danish and held them out in my hand to see if it would take it. I was pretty chuffed when it actually hopped onto my hand and took the crumb from it.  I was gutted to not get a photo, however, Another quickly appeared and he also took a crumb and this time i was able to catch them both on camera.

I finished up my coffee and found an easier route back to the Apartment for which I was rather grateful. It's Morgs last day at work today and he was going to pick me up on his way home, and although i want to spend as much time with him as i possibly can, i’m more than a little aware that he has his own life to live here and I'm terrified of becoming a burden to him. That is not what I want at all. His life is for living not babysitting his broken mamma. 

He rang again later this afternoon to check I had eaten today, and to discuss arrangements for tomorrow morning and checking out of the apartment. Foodwise, I already had eggs, cheese and mushrooms and considered making an omelet but it promised to be pretty boring so I selected some things from the four square supermarket store to make it a little more interesting and waited for it to be delivered… via uber eats. That thing is a complete revelation to me .  Whilst I ordered stuff for a tasty 

omelet, I also ended up ordering things for a bedroom picnic, all of Si’s favorite snacky foods, because frankly I cannot be arsed  to cook. As a result I am now left with the world's biggest onion, it will keep til we get back from Fiji though.

My afternoon spent watching Yellowstone on netflix, and eating a bedroom picnic looking at photos of Si

Much Love

Mrs Leonard

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