The Wednesday at work

 Hi,

Another day at the office yesterday. Was good to catch up with people face to face.

Bench session yesterday with Quentin

Lewis Road at work

Sad news about a work colleague leaving work came into my inbox during the day. Sent her a message in Messenger and I hope we stay in touch and she gets a new job really fast. Waaaaah.

Rode home and made tea for us (no - I didn't really. Air fried some broccoli). Took another pic of the doors because they look amazing.

The doors again. Just because

Heard that Val Kilmer died. He was quite the icon in my younger years. So there you go. 

We're off to Queensland for a week. And Jason is coming to stay here. Hope he enjoys it and the cats will be so happy.

Have a great week.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with more dancing

 Hi,

I took no pics yesterday. None. No iced latte. No cats. Waaaah - what has my life become? Busy and messy - that is what.

Mike: luckily I have cat content to fill the gap

But it is almost holiday time. And this time it is a real holiday. Not a tramp. Not a trek. None of that. I see a park run maybe. And some walking. Maybe biking. Maybe a jetski hire with snorkelling. But it will be family and relaxing for the most part.

So bring that on!

Yesterday I walked up to Shut up and Dance with jessie from work. Met her friend Morgan on the way. And Clare took us through some Barbie related set of songs. Good fun.

Walked back to work and rode home. In the dark. Mike just finished up his course when I got home at 19:30 and we ate some weird fruitless hot cross buns. Fruitless - yes. But also - full of chocolate. What? It was ok. But missing the delicious spice of the fruitless ones.

Slept ok. Up to ride in and my first PT session with Quentin for a while. He has been on holidays. We did bench. 37.5kg 4 reps x 4 sets.

I am weak.

Will ride home after work and hopefully sort out tea for Mike as he is in training til 7pm each night this week. Get a wash on. That sort of thing. Tidy the house for Jason to come and stay. :-)

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday working from home and we finished the laundry doors

 Hi,

After a weird day working from home, we finally got the laundry doors all finished and hung up in their place. They look fabulous.

Mike has a course this week so he is working to 7pm each night. But after that, we hung up the doors. And they look so good.

The clamps

Home iced latte

Sourdough

While Mike worked I did get a sourdough baked. Yay! Looks ok to me. Proof is in the eating, as they say.

Doors on

Ta dah!

Went to bed. Read for a bit. Up for a ride in for the first time in a while. And I have Shut up and Dance after work. So a late home time for me.

Mike will be just finished work by then anyway.

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with renovations and rugby

 Hi,

What a big weekend of jobs. So many jobs. And really - renovations was the main thing happening. Dave finished the work on Epuni. Yippee. We should have the bill for that now. And he will hopefully come and finish the stairs at our place any day soon.

Spotted a nice van

Went to the gym Thursday lunch time with Juliet. Spotted a nice van on the way there. Did deads with her. 60kg 6 reps x 4 sets.

Found these two on a break from their planning day on my way back. Awww.

Hey there you two!

Caught up with Barb, Jill and Fiona H (she used to work with us) at Astoria after work. Good to hear all her news. She is doing well after a scary fall on her flight back to NZ recently. Fainted in the airplane bathroom! Wow.

Fiona then dropped me at Aubergine for date night. And Mike rode a Flamingo eBike to the restaurant to meet me. Had a lovely date night. We were the only patrons the entire night.

Waiting for Mike at Aubergine

There we are!

Up early Friday to go to a local petrol station to support the rollout of our big programme. But as I was about 10 days after launch, most people were using it or knew about it already. Good fun. Spoke to a chap at the site - Sonu - for a while.

Work iced latte at Johnsonville

Concentrating on my iced latte selfie at a wee cafe in Kilbirnie

Saturday saw me and Mike up for Park Run at Waitangi. And I got my PB in. Thank you Mike. Saw Becky and Simon (Becky is recovering from surgery and Simon from an illness - hope they both recover well soon). Saw Fiona B from work too.

Mike then ran to Kilbirnie PacknSav where I was trying to charge the car up. But it was on scheduled charging. So Mike sorted that and we went to a wee cafe around the corner. Very pleasant. Cheap as!

My harvest

Good day for some rugby - Poua v Manawa

Then headed out at 3pm to pick up Maureen and Elly to watch Poua v Manawa at Upper Hutt NZCIS ground.

Yeah - Poua were not really in it at all. But lovely evening for it. $10 each to get in. And enjoyed watching the rugby.

Selfie

Maureen taking the selfie - hahahah. Elly and I look good! Maureen can't see the screen.

Action

Dropped Maureen and Elly off and then home to find Mike had prepped and done a lot of the car door work.

Door renovation

Sunday saw us finishing the laundry doors and Mike getting the car door even closer to perfection.

Other door renovations

Looking at the work

Treat time

Then watching You Tube and chilling with DeliverEasy (Lucky burger). Off to bed. Up for a big week for Mike.

Hope your Monday is awesomeness.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a busy work day

 Hi,

Big day at work yesterday. Meant I missed blogging - sorry. So I have missed a few things. Let's see...  Tuesday night we went to Shut Up and Dance at 6pm. Anne and Karin were down from Auckland and Jessie from work joined us. We had a Chappell Roan session. So good!

My crew have the moves! I do not. But what a fun evening.

Wed brekkie with Kate

Tuesday night at a pasta place on Cuba - wow!

Wednesday iced latte

Shut up and Dance crew Tuesday night

After the session we went out to eat on Cuba St. Some pasta place. OMG. It was delicious.  1154 Pastaria. So good. Would recommend. I had #9. Vegetarian ricotta.

Was walking back after saying goodbye to Jessie and went past my bus stop. And there was a #4 coming in 1 minute. So I said goodbye to Anne and Karin and leapt on the bus.

Got home to find Mike had just finished the last coat on the front of the doors.

Slept a bit poorly. Up for bus and brekkie with Kate and Xhodi and Mike at The Lab. Khemry was supposed to be there but slept in.

Got home to check the painter's touch up work

Bit of work done to prep

Good touch ups here

So ripe

Sourdough

Busy day with quarterly planning. Went ok. And after a good chat to Celia at work afterwards I went home. Took pics of the prep work the painters are doing.

Slept and up for data brekkie. Good catch up with Roanne and Michelle there (with Mike).

I have a very busy Friday tomorrow. Work site visit in the morning. Then yoga with Hope and my eyebrows appointment. I will need a nana nap after that.

Smith the Grocer iced latte

Handsome!

Let's get through the day today first though. It stretches ahead of me. I am sitting next to Martyn today as he is up for his planning day. Good to catch up with him.

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday working from home and getting another coat on the doors

 Hi,

Worked from home. I did get a run in at lunch time and avoided any rain. Yay! The cats were happy I was home.

Lucky I spotted that tail

I also harvested the last few tomatoes that have ripened on the plant. Maybe a few more and it is done. I popped them in an old cherry tomato pottle and they look so cute.

Tomato haul

In her crate next to me

Mike got home and we got another coat on the laundry doors. We need to do another coat. Then 2 on the backs. Hopefully they will be hanging in place this weekend.

Got Shut Up and Dance this evening after work with a bunch of us from work. Should be good for some fun.

Then home to do another coat of polyurethane.  Mike hopefully will get one done on his own after his hygienist visit.

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The weekend with a wee tramp into the Orongorongo valley

 Hi,

Busy few days. And a huge apology to Sally for missing our dinner out last night to celebrate her birthday. We feel very stink that we missed such a great evening out with her and whānau.

Smudge enjoying the table on the deck

Cat walk

Scaife timber in the back of Upper Hutt

Friday saw me get a phone call from the timer place to say someone would be at the workshop today if I wanted to go get the timber for the top step. So I rushed to shower and throw my tramping gear into the car and headed off to Upper Hutt. Turns out it was over the hill in the Mangaroa valley.  I got there just before 12 and chatted to Reece.  He identified the existing steps as Oregon and said he could find a piece and machine it to the right size.

Around 12:15 he came back to me. Said he could take cash or eftpos. But I had no wallet (I was off tramping and never gave it a thought in my packing). Asked if I could bank transfer  but not an option. So I said I would have to go into Upper Hutt.  But once I negotiated peak traffic at lunch time in Upper Hutt and found a car park, I realised I still had no way to actually get money.

A frantic message to Andrew saw him and Sally ferret out enough cash between them. So I drove there, knowing it was a lot closer than back home. But it was still a full hour by the time i got back to Scaife with the cash. Sigh. Luckily there were people there and I handed over the cash and got the timber for the top step. Yay.

Headed to Catchpool via the Wainui Rd bakery for sustenance. Ate it at the car park and headed off at 2.30pm. Bit later than I thought. I had the track to myself, really. Met a few people coming out. Made good time. 30 mins to Midway. 1 hour to the tree. 1 hour 10 to the bridge.

Off tramping

The tree

At the bridge

Waerenga Hutt

Got to the hut and unlocked it. Seemed pretty tidy and clean. Read my book for a bit. Made some soup as I was still full from the bakery goods. And tucked into bed nice and early.

Saturday brekkie

Up to have brekkie. Overnight oats for the first time on a tramp. Not bad! Tidied up a bit (a few signs of mice around). Headed to the river to wait for Mike, Wally, Jason and Ange.

Gorgeous day

Looking up the river

Sour worm

Nice view - river looks ok too

Here they come

They got there at 12.30pm and I headed up to Turere Lodge with Ange as a wee side trip. Added an extra few ks to her walk.

Turere side excursion with Ange

Wally and Jason go to find Celia and her group

At 3pm or so Wally and Jason headed up the track to find Celia, James, Becks, Eva and Charlie. Mike was sleeping off his migraine from 3.30pm on Friday! Third one in 10 days.

They have arrived!

Time to prep for tea

The evening was jam packed. James had a huge steak that needed a fire to cook it on. So that was a priority. Wee Bob loved his stay there - and he was such a good boy. Not a peep from him overnight. Wow.

James flew his new drone when everyone had left the valley. He got some great shots from it of the valley. 

Card game in the hut

Hunting with Jason and Callan

Jason and I headed out with Callan to hunt. We went down to Paua Hut and up Green stream next to it. Plenty of sign - pigs, goats and deer. But nothing for us today.

Green stream looks so pretty

Off to bed nice and early for me. Up at 7am. Brekkie again was good - the overnight oats work for me. Bacon was a hit for the others.

Sunday morning in the hut

Bit of a tidy up was needed before we could leave. But we were away by 10.30 or so. 

Gorgeous tree near Raukawa Lodge

Walking out

Shoe change

Macs Hut

Nice touch

Halfway back

Punga glade

Back to the car park nice and early. I took Wally and Jason home while Mike took Ange home. When I got home, Mike was almost asleep. As was Moxley. Mike's post migraine lethargy was still evident.

Moxley sleeping on a sleeping Mike

Pic from Becks as we left the hut

Tidied up a bit. Got a wash on. Unpacked. And missed Sally's birthday dinner, as I said. Waaaahhh. 

Enjoy your day!

Love,

Angela