The Tuesday at work where it feels like I have been there for an eternity this week

 Hi,

Busy day at work on Melbourne Cup day. I was too busy to even give it a moment's thought. But the highlight of the day was walking home with Barb up through the bush on Te Ahumairangi hill. It was raining softly as we left work and continue to dribble out of the sky. Under the bush canopy it was still fairly dry.

Old quarry site

Thomas tunnel

This time we went in on Grant Road. It was steep up for a while before we turned left and went to the old quarry.

Phone flash fills in the wee tunnel - or is it a cave?

There was even a hole in the rock called Thomas Tunnel. I don't think it was really a tunnel. More like a wee cave. Guess they were excavating rock for something.

Love this part of the walk

Happy

Got home and Mike was not long after me. He made tea and I got the first coat of paint on two of the risers on the stairs. The coat is pretty thin, but I see potential for this to be a nice look. I know what I will be doing for the next week or so in the evenings.

Sourdough

One coat on - it has potential

Managed ot bake a loaf of sourdough. Yay! Off to bed for a good sleep. It was a surprise when the alarm went off at 6am this morning. Caught the bus in because I walked home yesterday. Still raining softly here. PT session was tough. 90kg deads on the stiff bar. 2 reps x 3 sets. A bit hopeless.

Another busy day. Hope you enjoy yours.

Love,

Angela

The Monday at work

 Hi,

No pics - not of the cats and not even of me drinking my Lewis Road iced coffee. You are all out of luck. Worked from home. I did clear out my closet during my lunch break. So satisfying. We now have a lot of old t shirts for rags.

Mike got home and we had tea. Burgers. Then we finished Agatha All Along, I made dough, and we chatted to my parents to sort out various holidays. 

Went to bed. Got cuddles from Mike. Fell asleep listening to one of his podcasts. He used one ear and i used the other one. Hahah.

Up early. PT session next. Windy day for my ride in. And it is supposed to rain by lunchtime. Oh well. I am walking home with Barb. Will leave my bike here and bus in for gym tomorrow.

Hope the US sees sense and votes for someone without any criminal convictions.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend on adventures in Blenheim

 Hi,

What a weekend. So many activities. I must have smashed my November activity stats in that one weekend. Woot!

I picked Mike and Maureen up from work at 5pm and we headed to the airport. Got there easily and had some tea. Ramen for me. Mike finished off my leftovers as Maureen and I headed to the gate for our SoundsAir 18:30 flight over to Blenheim.

Weekend starts

The plane took off early and our 19:00 arrival time was smashed. We were outside the terminal at 18:45, and managed to beat Iona there. Hahah.

Back to their house and chilled out. Caught up on recent news and watched some TV before bed. Up early Friday for a run up Taylor river with Maureen. I managed to get 5k done. Woot!

Then back to get ready for a big walk. We decided against SUP as it was windy. Instead - we decided on the lower Mt Robertson loop. Usually the top of this loop is laden with possums in the traps. Col was very keen on this part. Hahah.

Iced latte to kick start the day

Grabbed coffees at Grove Rd cafe (I do like that place) and out to Whites Bay beach where we parked the car. Then up to the top. Yeah, right. Not quite as easy as that. It is a steep slog up much of that side of the ridge. 2 hours of slog before we got to the intersection that marks the split to either continue up to the golf ball at the top, or loop back down the other ridge to Whites Bay beach. 

Just before the split, Col spotted something in a possum trap. The 3 of them headed off the track to check it out. I decided to amble on up. As they drifted out of sight behind the trees, I saw someone (turns out it was Maureen) waving a huge stick and giving the tree a few thumps.

What I did not know was the critter stuck in this trap was a rat. Iona poked it as she approached and declared it dead. But as she tried to open the level, it squeaked and poked its head out of the trap. So Maureen got a hefty stick to help pry the rat out. Then they discovered it was paralysed. Tried to crawl up the stick using only its front legs.

Terrible. Iona womaned up and used the stick to put the rat out of its misery. OMG. What a horror plot. Meanwhile I was waiting about 1 minute up the track, wondering what on earth was going on. Plenty, as it transpired.

First reprieve on the steep slog up

Rarangi behind

Lunch was had - thank you for the sandwiches. And then down, down, down to the beach. We decided to poke into the hole in the wall, for extra fun. So lovely. Not quite warm enough for a swim.

Whites Bay

Climbing over the rocks to the hole in the wall

Another dumb pose by me

Okay - this is stunning

Much better posing

Above the hole in the wall

What a view

On the walk just below Mt Robertson

Back to base. Another chill evening. Then up Saturday for trap line day! Woot. We took ice this time for the coffee cart at Pelorus and Jason there made me a lovely iced latte.

View from the dining table

BYO ice but it worked out great!

Stock up for the trap line

Met Alan and Jean as they headed off to do their trap lines. And then we were off. U line followed by K line. It took us 5 hours (but that included the 20 mins in the shed stocking up, and a lunch break). We got 15 critters. 1 mouse and 14 rats. But boy - were some of those rats the mankiest rats I have ever seen in traps. Yuck. Organs on display. Maggoty. You name it, there was a variety of horror. 

Maureen has a rat!

Trap line fun

Cool fungus

View from K trig

Lunch stop - hi Iona

Lunch - hi Maureen

Lunch - hi random person (hahah - no it is not a random person)

It was this big!

We finished at 1545 and tidied up then popped in to see Barb and Hamish at their place in Havelock. Had a cup of tea. So nice to chill with them.

Then home. Grabbed takeaways from Thai Nine and had that. Watched some TV (movies were a bit dire. The Dry Friday night and The Yellow Birds Saturday night. Well done movies, but the darker side of humanity). Then to bed. Up at 4am for the All Blacks v England in Twickenham. Wow. How the All Blacks snuck away with that one was great.

After oaty pancakes for brekkie we went to the market on bikes. Great fun. Lovely morning for it.

Sunday market

Iced latte was... there. At least I got one. It was a bit tasteless

Link walk

Then Iona, Maureen and I went to Shakespeare Bay for the Link walk. Col stayed to walk Twigg and mow the lawns.

Link walk

Loved the walk. This is the 3rd time I have been here. But this time we got all the way to Wedge point. Iona and Maureen have amazing walking speed.

Popped into Seabreeze cafe for a late lunch. BLTs all round - with variations. No bacon for me, with a fried egg. It was really good.

Back to chill. Have some tea. Jigsaw puzzle time. Country Calendar episode (iykyk). Soon it was off to the airport for our 1820 flight. We bumped into Billie from work waiting for her flight home. So nice to walk into a building when you are away from home and see someone's smile light up at seeing you. She had a great time in Kaikoura.

Airport

On the wee plane

Good views into Wellington

And home. Super smooth flight. Mike picked us up and we dropped Maureen home. Then we sped out to Aotea and picked up the RAV4 from Callan.

I got to drive it home! It is a nice wee car. Handled the motorway like a champ. Parked it up on Mairangi, away from the buses on our street.

And unpacked and went to bed. Phew! Great weekend. Thank you to everyone that helped towards such a great time. Our hosts, Iona and Col. Maureen for being game to head away for the weekend. Mike for cat sitting and letting me have fun without him.

Enjoy your week ahead.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday that was like a Monday

 Hi,

What a funny old day. The rain came and went. The wind came and went. I ended up riding home and avoiding too much wind and rain. Had Jesper at work check the rain radar and saw my window of opportunity and rode with it!

Work iced latte - because I needed it

Another coat on the stairs

Got home and sorted a few things out. Made porridge. Started a dough. Made some pasta from leftovers. And then got stuck into the second coat on the stairs.

Mike got home after his run after work and made himself tea (same leftovers) and played with the cats. Then he took the cats downstairs via the outside steps. Smudge tolerated this really unusual behaviour. But while he was talking to me from the bottom of the stairs and I had finished and was surveying my handiwork from the top, Smudge escaped from the downstairs and started padding up the stairs.

She was so funny. Obviously sticky underfoot. And both humans watching her - one at the bottom and one at the top. Not typical for Smudge at all. Anyway, she decided to continue up. And we frantically peered at the stairs to see if there were tiny paw prints. There were not. Phew!

Eventually, after my dough stretching, I came downstairs (via the outside). And we went to bed with just Moxley downstairs. But then Smudge decided to come and scratch on our door, having braved the slightly tacky stairs once more. In the end, both cats were in our room as we went to sleep.

Up for the morning ride in for me and PT session with Quentin. Slightly spitting. And I bumped into Maureen as I left the bike shed. So I opened the door for her and she breezed in and we went up the lift together. I headed to the gym and did deads. 90kg. 2 reps x 4 sets. Oooshhh.

After work I have planned to do a wee run with Hope. Let's see how that goes. Might also get to yoga with Juliet if I am lucky.

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend that was long and in Wellington

 Hi,

Mike ended up not going to Carkeek hut due to the atrocious weather. And it really was atrocious off and on over the weekend.

Instead, we concentrated on the stairwell. But the sanding and polyurethane took ages. The varnish needs 24 hours between coats. In the end I only got one coat on. Something to do tonight. And the cats can't wander around when we're doing it. So they get to stay downstairs while it dries.

Run in Otari bush

We got a run in Saturday morning in the bush before it started to pour down. Lovely. Mike did 10k and I did 4.5 - with a walk added in.

Walk up to flax clearing

Main aim was to get the stairs done. And there is a lot of work, so it is still not done. But I did get one coat of polyurethane on them all. Looks ok so we will persevere.

Time to start the varnishing

We met Sally at the gym and got a brunch with Andrew after it. And funnily enough, in the gym I spotted a PT that looked familiar. Then I remembered I sat next to her on my flight back from Aus in May 2022. My first post covid visit to Aus. She was a founder of Cryptid Women's Society in NZ and had been looking for ghosts in Ballarat. And she was also a PT. So my brain connected the dots and I said hello. Said I knew her from cryptid and the plane flight. And she was chuffed. Lisa. Funny.

First iced latte after gym

Second iced latte after gym

Derpy cat

Wally and Jason came over for a garage gym session. But I was gymed out already. We did have a cup of tea afterwards then Wally joined me on a bike ride up to the Skyline and down through the cemetery. Great fun. Hard for me.

Eyes

Bike ride with Wally

Started the varnish

Then it was all about the stairs. Got a coat on. Takes 24 hours to cure and needs 3 coats. So I know what I am doing this week after work.

What will it look like?

The floorboards under the wall

First coat done

From the top

Made bread

And biscuits

Elly popped in to say hello and pick up some overtrousers. Then it was time for tea. And we were in bed early.

Hope you all have a great week. Short one for me. I have Thursday off and I am flying to Blenheim at 1800.

Take care.

Love,

Angela