The Wednesday with axe throwing

 Hi,

Busy day on Wednesday. I am burning my social candle fast this week. Hahah.

Work iced latte

We met Khemry for lunch at the Grand food hall. Mike and I had a Chilean empanada. Very nice. Khemry gave us a big update on her adventures because we have not seen her for ages. So good to see her.

Lunch with Khemry

After work, more social things kicked off. I met Debbie and Shoshana as the afternoon's rains continued to smash down. The roads were not handling this amount of water. Lots of surface water. Debbie had a Mevo and asked me to drive to Sweet Axe for our evening fun.

So I jumped into a brand new BYD and negotiated peak traffic in the dark and heavy rain. We parked outside The Warehouse on Tory and walked down the block to Sweet Axe saving a lot of time in traffic.

Axe throwing fun with these two

Great technique Shoshana

Debbie gives it her all

And we celebrate

Debbie was keen to take an axe to me!

But I like that Shoshana had my back

Woot!

We had so much fun - we were paired up with June and Gareth, two random punters that were put into our throwing lane.

I reckon we made a good team. We beat June and Gareth with the Sweet Axpert (his pun!) Joe as their third player. We were tied after 5 mins of throwing. And Debbie and June did an axe off with two special axes. Debbie stuck hers in the board and we won!

I came second overall - made it to the final but June beat me easily in the final. 

We came out to pouring rain. Debbie said she had secured the same car. So we walked back to Tory St, and found it was not there. Debbie had taken off her glasses due to the rain so she couldn't really read the app. A look at the app showed it was a different car, a Tesla, and over the road from Sweet Axe. We were drenched by the time we got to the car. And I have never driven a Tesla. It took a while to figure out how to turn it on (it just did it!) and find the gear shift.

I manoeuvred out of the park, fluking reverse and drive, I reckon. Indicators were a little weird too. I am not convinced the previous drivers of this car could find reverse either because it was just thrown into the car park like it was an afterthought. 

Anyway. Eventually we got to work to collect Mike. And found out we couldn't open the boot or the door. Poor Mike. I got the giggles at this point. But we got him in and got home. Had a cuppa. And then we decided to get Burgers in. 

When it was time to head away, we asked Debbie if she wanted us to drive them back. And they said yes. It was dark and wet and unfamiliar to them. I was better at driving it this time - finally figured out the gear shifter. Hahah.

Dropped them off and Mike followed and took me home. Off to bed. Up for a bus ride in and gym. Deads. 87.5kg. 4 x 4. Woot!

Then a coffee catch up with Andrew. Heard all about his news. And then off to work. 

More social things after work today. And Friday is awesome. Stonehenge Wairapapa and Lunch is planned.

And the weekend is to recharge. Hahah

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with lots on

 Hi,

Did I forget to blog yesterday? Tuesday seems to have disappeared in a blur. But I did catch up with Debbie and Shoshana through the day. They are up visiting from down south.

Iced latte at work with Shoshana

Run with Debbie and Shoshana

We went for a run after work. Lovely slow jog with Debbie and Shoshana.

Happy we are done!

Moxley helping make the bed

My sole chilli this season seems to have yellowed up

Salad for tea - my fave

Bagel for lunch

Then off to Bin44 with Callan and Stacey and Juliet for Heaphy planning discussions. Sally and Andrew joined as did Debbie and Shoshana. And we had dinner there too.

Ubered home with Mike. Off to bed. Up for a bus in and cardio with Quentin. Busy day today.

Home made iced latte

Cardio session was hard

Work iced latte

Have a great Wed.

Love,

Angela

The weekend away for ANZAC day in Blenheim

 Hi,

Mike will need his own blog post to do his long weekend justice. He went into Cow Creek hut in the Tararuas with Janine. And Blue Range hut too. 

But I had my own adventures. And we are super grateful to Jason (and Chelsea) for looking after the cats (and the house) in our absence. Especially when on Sunday evening our neighbour reported on the street WhatsApp chat that they had attempted break ins over the weekend. Jason was definitely needed! To defend both home and cats!

My Sounds Air boarding pass

Anyway... I got an Uber to the airport on Wednesday after work. Well, Mike got it for me when I realised by Uber app had my old credit card in it and I was not sure if I had time to fix that and order my Uber. So Mike sorted it - and I sorted my end of it too.

Got to the airport with a good 20 mins up my sleeve. Woot! Checked in and boarded easily. Bumpy out of Wellington but we flew into a gorgeous night in Marlborough. Sunset in the west. Clear skies. No wind. 

Tony and Nicola picked me up from the airport and whisked me through to the quiz night. Iona and Col were there - with their friend Robyn. And we promptly crashed and burned in quite a tricky quiz night. Solid middle of the table performance.

Off home and straight to bed because it was dawn service the next morning. Sweet!

Had a good sleep. Up at 5.15am to throw clothes on and jump in the car with Iona and Col. Col had already been up for ages, walking Twigg! We headed to Picton for their service and it was so good. Few hundred people. Lovely memorial service. Mayor spoke well. St John was a bit busy. During the British officer's speech, the mayor had to butt in and ask for them to come to the podium. Immediately. And that happened twice.

The chap that was to read to Ode to Remembrance in Māori sheepishly admitted he did not have the words (I surmised they were still sitting on the table at his house). So the wahine that previously sang a lovely hymn jumped back in and sang again.

After the normal service, we walked down to the pou on the foreshore and had a Māori battalion service. Very good to participate in that.

Picton service

At dawn

The pou

After the service we headed back to Blenheim and saw wee Todd and Sue. Sue was staying overnight in her campervan in the driveway before catching the ferry over to Wellington. Todd is a wee cutie! So friendly and curious.

Todd! You wee cutie!

I helped (okay - I ate!) Iona harvest all the remaining grapes on their vine. These grapes are the most delicious! I must have had a kilo of them! But they had so much!

Harvested the grapes

Walnuts galore

We wandered down to the Wairau river and collected walnuts from huge trees down there. Got 3 big bags full.

Walnut in situ

We also got the bikes ready for our training day on Friday. Degreased and lubed the bike. And got the gear sorted.

Training ride

Friday saw Nicola arrive just after 9am and we headed off. I used her daughter Charlotte's very nice Merida bike. Iona on her old mountain bike. Nicola on her very nice, but older, bike. The day was sunny and very nice down lower. Our walk up into the Wither Hills was far windier!

More of the walnut harvest

We rode down south on the Whale trail to the southern end of Blenheim and then into the hills. Then it went a bit up and down. I ended up having to push up a lot of the steeper farm tracks. But now I have #goals!

After about 12km of riding, we parked and locked our bikes and walked up to the trig (well, close enough to it). Had lunch tucked out of the wind. Then back down to the bikes and rode over to Taylor River and back to Iona and Col's place.

Walking

Windy

Iconic views

I had such a great day! And it was still only about 2pm! Hahahah. 

Up Saturday to do park run. It was 1 degree and frosty. Brr. Iona knew I needed motivation so she walked to town with me and left me to it. I am so glad she did that. Loved the run. 35 mins. That was ok as I checked and it was a month since my last one. I need to run more. Especially after the training session yesterday and my lack of cardio fitness to get the bike up hills. 

Park run

Rose garden

Love me some roses

Walked back to the house. Then off to the gym for some fun there. Bench for me, mainly. Then off to Nelson on our roadie for Iona's Aunt Jean's choral event. We had a great drive over. With a stop at Pelorus for the best iced latte I have had in a long time!

Nelson choir venue

East St was delicious

Iona had reserved dinner for us at East St (which is on Church St) - all vegetarian food. Mmmm. Iona's quesadilla looked (and tasted) so good. Mine was good too - but all a bit much on one plate. Bean balls. Salads. Mash. Hummus. Beans. Mushrooms.

Anyway - we did some shopping in Nelson in the afternoon. I got boots from Torpedo7. Lowa Batia. For $383 (down from $550). Iona got some Salomon shoes for trail running. We went to a book shop. Then we read books in the gardens. Looked at the cathedral grounds and then headed to the Nelson School of Music venue. Met Allan and got in and then enjoyed Mendelssohn, Faure and some locally composed piece for the next few hours. It was beautiful. Lovely huge room with great acoustics. A conductor with panache. And such beautiful voices.

We left Nelson just after 9pm and got back home and fell into bed. Read until after midnight. And slept in to 8.40am!

Home made iced latte

Beach rubbish walk

I visit the tree again

Someone's wee house!

Then we went for our beach walk to pick up rubbish. We walked 5km and picked up 3 huge rubbish bags of junk. Plastic bottles abound.

We saw a dead shark. An entire deer leg - with hoof. A wee house someone was surely sleeping in over summer. Two men with 3 wee toddlers that caught 5 huge snapper. 30 cans of Double Brown. And out out a huge, smouldering fire someone had left.

More iconic Marlborough views

Airport

Back to chill at home. Then off to the airport for my flight back to Wellington. It is always a pleasure to spend time with Iona and Col. They look after me so well. It was like a holiday. An active holiday. Thank you. xx

New boots

Mike met me at the airport after one of the smoothest flights across I have experienced. I told him about my weekend and he told me about his huge tramp. We looked at each other's photos. And then put on washing and went to bed!

Hahah. Great fun all round!

Have a brilliant week ahead.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with a movie and dinner

 Hi,

It was Michael's birthday (nephew) yesterday! Woot!

There is a pawcity (hahahahah!) of cat content for my readers today. So sorry. And there is also a paucity of iced coffee pics so goodness knows what is going on there. But just so you can still see me drinking through a straw - there is a pic of me drinking a lychee and lime soda. Yum!

I left Mike at work for his architect meeting and headed to Mr Go's for my 5pm reservation. Maureen joined me just after 5pm and we had (too) many dishes. Ended up leaving food behind. Hahah. Mr Go's has changed location since Mike and I last went there. Now on Eva St - near the Hannah Shoes complex. I like those wee lanes.

Waiting for Maureen at Mr Go's

Lychee soda - very nice

After the delicious and plentiful food we wandered up to Lighthouse Cuba to watch Love lies bleeding. And I have to say, it had so many elements that I disliked, content-wise. Domestic abuse. Drugs. Abhorrent violence. I am trying to think of anything redeeming. Umm. They captured the 1989 era really well. There you go. It was gritty. I now think Mike and Toby wouldn't mind it. Like Kill Bill - but somehow more realistic and therefore less enjoyable. Apart from the drugs causing weird visions. That was out there.

I might have been better off jumping into the French film showing in the next cinema. Hahah. 

Movie

Back to work and rode home. Just beat Mike home by 2 mins. He fed the cats and we were off to bed. Up for him to drive me to the gym and drop my weekend bag off at work.

37.5kg bench was ok

My weekend bag under my desk

Mike is WFH and I am WF...W. Uber to the airport after work for my 1730 flight to Blenheim. Mike is now leaving tomorrow for a different tramp to avoid the impending bad weather. Hopefully Jase and Chelsea enjoy staying with the cats for a bit.

Have a great long weekend, if that is what you are doing.

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The Monday at work

 Hi,

Wellington turned on the weather yesterday in many ways. Lunch time saw me and Mike strolling along the waterfront, contemplating all the good things in life. We went to try and get some sponsors for prizes for Mike's ski film fun in a month or so. No luck.

Brownie from Quentin - delicious

Lewis Road from Mike - so delicious

But it was worth the walk as the day was so lovely. 

Stunning lunch walk

I approach Thor's hammer

I finally got to see Thor's hammer and knew I could easily lift that. Like the hidden Valkyrie I know lies deep within. Or some rubbish like that - only in my imagination. Mike obeyed my mad ideas to take pictures of me doing my thing that I could only see in my own mind's eye. But I had fun.

I've got this, Mike

And, here I am, casually lifting Thor's hammer like a minor goddess

As we sat on the waterfront eating our sushi, a lot of people we knew walked by. Also enjoying the sun. Saw Aaron from our last work and chatted to him briefly. Then Dave and Maureen walked by. Maureen got distracted by other people that knew her - and Mike and I were immediately abandoned. But it did mean we got to chat to Dave. So, you know. Winners and losers. Hahah.

Halfway through the afternoon, the weather packed in and rain came down. Typical.

After work, I walked to Thorndon gym and met Juliet for Spin. First time in ages. 30 min class. The instructor gave us a wee wave - so she did remember us. Best try and make that more regular.

Blurry spin pic with Juliet

I rode home in the dark - and avoided most of the rain. Yay! Fed the cats. And made Grant's Surprise. Haven't made that for years and years.

Leeks simmering in butter

Added tomato paste and cream

And dished up with pasta

As I tucked into mine, Mike pinged me. He had done a good 5k on the waterfront and had a few beers and wanted a lift home. Well, it was raining. So he ducked into the supermarket for provisions for Jase and Chelsea and I covered our food up and went to get him.

At the end of Mike's run. Quite the contrast from lunchtime!

Home to finish tea. It was very good. I will make that again soon.

Off to bed. Good sleep. Up to ride in and this morning the weather is lovely again. I did 85kg deadlifts with Quentin working out alongside me. He did 190kg. It was fun to see him full on working out.

Me and Quentin, side by side. Him 190kg. Me 85kg.

Iced latte time

Back at work. Big day. And then a movie with Maureen after work. Then ride home. Finish tidying the house. Mike has pivoted to a tramp over ANZAC day weekend that avoids some exposed areas due to the impending poor weather. Good plan!

Take care! Have a great day.

Love,
Angela