[tag=□] | □
[tag=IN] | □
Lots of ginger seemed to help ; however , Nikki slept in the cockpit one night because she found life easier outside . Outside we have a new deck , and fresh paint-many changes . Everyone knows not to travel around India without one , but this couple had broken the golden rule : they forgot - - got caught short , you might say . If you get within 20 yards of them , they rumble into reverse and back off . We even went sailing , from the Manhattan Yacht Club , on a 25-foot fibreglass sloop . We frequented the local coffee bars regularly and discovered that the best Martini joint in town was well within staggering distance , much to Ian 's delight . We've anchored in bays on a dozen different islands , with many more left to explore within long-weekending distance . She takes lessons once a month from a very good recorder teacher in Auckland , and plans to sit Grade Eight music exams next year - - very advanced stuff . Pipped at the post ; c'est la vie . Last but not least , one day in November we set the alarm for 4AM and sat outside for an hour to watch the meteor shower , an exciting display of shooting stars - - did you see it ? Within three days she had chosen her courses , found a house very near the university with about six other students ( it varies ) , and was working part-time to support herself . Ian 's nephew Peter and five other medical students from Belfast came to stay with us for a few days on their way back from work experience in Sydney ; our pool table still has n't quite cooled down from all those hot shots . Actually we were cat-sitting , and as Calgary has appallingly strict pet control rules the two poor animals were only allowed outside on a leash . We were n't divorced within the month as our daughters had feared - - they think they pull us together when in fact they create all the stress ! Household guests get naming rights , and as Gene Golovchinsky from California was visiting us at the time they are called Jean and Gene . We decide it 's all because Alex 's hat got caught around Prada 's keel . We spent a magical half-hour with dolphins all around Beulah , one of which did ten spinning jumps just in front of the boat , until they simultaneously shot off at top speed , leaping high out of the water , evidently terrified by some nameless monster of the deep . During the year Nikki wrote essays on topics ranging from flood myths around the world to an ethnographic study of people working in cinemas . It was scored for recorder quartet ( the Loeki group ) , Maori instruments , and a recorder orchestra formed from everyone who attended the workshop - - including young children , part of the youth programme . The first , in March , took in New York ; a conference at Princeton University in New Jersey ; seminars at NEC Research and Drexel University in Philadelphia ( where who should turn up but Robert Aish , a friend from Essex days thirty years ago ) ; a " distinguished visiting lecture " at Texas A & M University ; a visit to ex-colleague Lloyd Smith ( the man who originally hired Ian at Waikato ) at New Mexico Highlands University ; Grand Falls , Colorado ; and the annual Data Compression Conference at Snowbird , a ski resort outside Salt Lake City .