A Kiwi Funeral

Due to a cloudy start there was no frost this morning which was nice.

Jon left for work and I did the washing and then took Tot out. We managed to get all the way round the block before the bin man came!!

I cleaned and laid the fire ready to light in case Jon came home before I did.

I got ready and left to meet Janice outside the church. I was not looking forward to my first and I hope only, Kiwi funeral.

There were lots of people, over 150 I should think. It was in the catholic church which is huge and although old by Kiwi standards not really that old by European standards and looked like a theatre but very nice.

Peter's coffin was already in the church which is different to what we have. The first song was a recording of Ave Maria and sung by a young man, Chas, who Peter had helped over the years to progress with his singing. Unfortunately, he could not be there to sing in person as he was singing with the NZ orchestra in Wellington.

The service was very nice and lots of people spoke about Peter all saying what a lovely man he was with a wicked sense of humour which must have been very comforting for Christine.

Then they had a Scottish piper come in and pipe his coffin out to the car. Outside people were collecting little flowers and putting them on the coffin and also speaking to the family who were all near the car. I didn't do that as I was a bit upset and thought I would wait till I felt better before speaking to Christine. He was then taken back to the chapel of rest and tomorrow the family will go down to Wanganui (down near Wellington) for a private burial.

We all then went into the hall and there was a lovely tea set out and everybody chatted. Christine was very brave and managed to speak to everybody. I saw her when I was leaving and she thanked me for my email. So sad.

I then went off to collect a parcel from the post office before going to the supermarket to do my shopping.

When I got home Jon was in. He said he thinks he has done too much this week and after a long meeting this morning he said he felt really tired and so came home at 2.00

We had a cup of tea and watched the news before I made our dinner.

I was surprised to see a letter had been returned that I had sent to my nephew on 20 March. It had a little T shirt in it for his daughter and it was returned as they said 'not known at their address'. Not sure what happened there. He has now moved and I changed his address in my book so need to find out his old address and see what I did wrong!! Not sure where the parcel has been sitting for the last three and a half months????

WEATHER
Cloudy start followed by sus 15 degrees.