Monday, March 30, 2026

The weekend with Toby in town

 Hi,

What a cracking weekend. Toby arrived Thursday evening and I finished my planning day and walked over after work with Mike. His late meeting finished early. We had tea at Sweet Mamas. My haloumi and hashbrown burger was good.

Then I went home in an Uber (the driver was lovely - said he thought I was 40 years old. It was dark!) while Mike and Toby went on to San Fran to see Electric Six. They really loved it. 

Third row from the front!
Two guitars, bass and drums, what more does a rock band need.

Dick Valentine staring into Mike's soul


Toby got a pick from Electric Six

When the boys got home I did hear about the gig. And Toby scored a guitar pick! 

Friday saw me and Toby on the bus to town. Me for a haircut at 10am and Toby to chill at the new cafe in the refurbished library. I joined him and we had brunch there. Food was good. Coffee was not quite as good as I would have liked. Toby liked the coffee though.

At haircut Friday

New cafe in the revamped library

Saturday we got up and drove the Corolla to town for park run and eWaste drop offs. I met Eunice on the actual run itself. Toby did well - just under 32 mins. The wind was pretty strong. Lisa was there so we had a coffee at Shelley Bay baker with her. Saw Jessie there too.

Post park run with Lisa

Dropping eWaste off

Moxley stretched out for a nap

Dropped some old eWaste off at the bottom of Taranaki St on our way back from Park Run. Chilled Saturday watching The Bear on some streaming service or other.

Fish n chips Saturday night with Sally and Andrew at their place. That was good fun. Wandered around looking at work they have done and want to get done. We also ended up taking their old TV home with us because it was a better one than our old TV.

Got all the tools

Toby and the old car

TV off the wall

Mike actually got the "new" TV installed and our old one taken down before we went to bed. Wow. And we have since watched it and it has made a huge difference. Lovely to have 1080p on both TVs now.

Sunday we had a chill morning - I made French Toast for the boys. Then off to see Project Hail Mary at The Embassy. That movie was stunning. I loved it. Science stuff. In space. With aliens. What is not to love? Go see it if you enjoyed The Martian. Same author. Similar vibe. One scientist against a lot of challenges to survive and complete the mission.

Sunday movie - Project Hail Mary

Bye Toby

Went to the airport and had some tea with Toby before he got on his 5.45pm flight to Chc. We went home and moped with the cats at his absence.

Watched Season 2 episode 1 of Deadloch with Mike before falling asleep. He was up to head to the gym with Quentin. It's supposed to be rainy and windy here today but the morning hasn't been too bad so far.

Have a great week.

Love,

Angela





Wednesday, March 25, 2026

The Tuesday with working from town

 Hi,

What a day, eh? The weather wasn't quite as stunning as the few days before. The wind had picked up. But it was still okay.

Mike worked from home.
Smudge hung around the office with him.

Moxley stayed curled up in the barrel in the bathroom,
watching the comings and goings


I met Erin for lunch - so good to see her and catch up. She is well - bounced back from her knee injury and off to play overseas this coming winter. Wow!

Lunch at Gemini with Erin

Love the ice bear

After work I caught up with Maureen and we headed off to the start of the around the bays. We only went to the new development area on the peninsula before turning back. It did get me ready for the evening as my day at work had been long and tiring. Thanks Maureen.

Cycling after work with Maureen

I got home just after 19:00 and Mike had tea ready to go. Tofu stir fry - yum. And after the crushing disappointment of the online shopper sending me hot cross buns WITH RAISINS IN (yuk!), he had made fruitless hot crossless loaf for me. Awwww. Thank you so much. It was delicious. 

Off to bed for a coma-like sleep. Up for Mike to walk in and I need to fit a run in this morning. 

Take care. Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

The Monday working from home

 Hi,

Worked from home on one of the most glorious days you ever see here in Wellington. Stunning. No wind. No clouds.

Smudge was happy I was at home and tucked onto my Surface wallet to sleep next to me for a few hours.

Smudge

The groceries arrived and the picker has no idea what fruitless hot cross buns mean to their end customers. I got fruitful ones. This is not a direct substitution. 

Fruitful hot cross buns

Mike got home after his walk and Bin44 fun. We watched some YouTube and then off to bed. Up for my ride in and gym session. Quentin is off after this morning to get his wisdom teeth out. I hope he recovers well from that. I did bench with him. 47.5kg for 1 rep. And then 2 more sets of 1 rep - but he had to help with his pinky finger. Hahahah.

Sunrise on my way to the gym

Sun has risen on my way back from the gym

Another lovely day here. But I suspect it is going to change a bit and we will get some yucky weather soon. Riding with Maureen after work though. Should be fun.

Have a good day.

Love,

Angela



Monday, March 23, 2026

The weekend with a camping trip to Holdsworth

 Hi,

What a busy weekend. Friday saw me hang out with Sarah and meet Unis (a recent immigrant to NZ) at a cafe in Newtown. What a great chat we had about digital work options. Thank you Sarah. Let's see what connections we can make.

Friday with Sarah

Iced latte in Newtown meeting Unis

After work on Friday we jumped on the bus and train to go to Woburn to pick up Sally and Andrew's Corolla for the weekend. The car is still in the garage waiting on a part from China. Said hello to everyone, saw some photos from their cycling trip up north. And then headed home.

Saturday had us frantically packing for a spontaneous weekend camping with Kara and Janine. We were already full of gear when we left home. We managed to fit in Kara and her gear and then got rid of some in Upper Hutt to fit in Janine and her gear.

Hahahah

Horror face due to the packed car - and this is only our gear

I have some space here

Mike hits 4k revs - which would upset Tessa if she was here due to petrol costs

We are indeed on a poster at Holdsworth

Holdsworth was lovely. We saw our poster for the pest trapping work - and Janine and Kara had a good laugh at the photo.

We pitched the tents in the same spot that we camped in with the Sampsons many years ago - after the storm threw all the tents around the place.

Mike and I nipped into Masterton to drop off Shane's dongle. Mission accomplished.

Close up of the photo

Toby's fave place

Guess where I am

Holdsworth

Enjoying the late sun

We had a nice evening in the sun but it did get cold when the sun went behind the hills. The stars were stunning.

Sun is gone

Sunday morning

Sunday was lovely. We went for a wee walk. Mike and Janine to the Pa Pahunga lookout and Kara and I went to Donelly's Flat.

The purple palace

Sunday walk

Buttercups

Packing the car

Iced latte at Aunty Ginger's

Are these my last tomatoes?

Packed up and managed to squash everything back in the car. Had lunch at Aunty Gingers in Carterton. The coffee was good. 

Back home to chill and unpack. Got the last of my tomatoes harvested. Yay.

What a lovely weekend. Enjoyed that. Thank you for the car, Sally and Andrew. It would have been hard in Neil's Aqua. :-)

Have a great week ahead.

Love,

Angela




Thursday, March 19, 2026

The Wednesday with some lifting

 Hi,

Busy times - it is getting close to quarterly planning after all. I bussed home with Madeleine and we had a garage gym session. Good fun. Because we have no car, I sent her home via Uber.

Passionfruit from Barb's crib

Umesh found Shane's dongle

Shane pinged me during the day to ask about his dongle he left in his work PC. Umesh found it in 5 seconds. Phew!


Up for a bus ride in this morning and a bench session with Quentin. 45kg 2 reps x 4 sets. 

Iced latte and brekkie with this crowd

And Khemry

Then brekkie with Kate, Khemry and Steph. So good to hear from them. Back to work and soon to see Jase for a coffee.

I also have a coffee date tomorrow with Sarah and a recent refugee that wants to get into cyber. Sounds cool. Camping with Kara seems to be in our weekend too. Yay. Rasta has gone to doggy heaven (last Friday) so she is embracing the freedom while processing the loss.

Have a great day and an even better weekend.

Love,

Angela



Wednesday, March 18, 2026

The Tuesday with working from home still

 Hi,

Another day at home and another day with no pics. But I got a wash done. And the cats were happy. So there is that. I did have a lot of meetings so things were efficient there.

Mike had a lot of meetings after 5pm! Poor Mike. He didn't get home until after 8pm. He ate some tea while we chatted to Kara. Her dog has finally died and it was a terrible experience for her. He was a lovely old fella. I am so sad and will miss his wuffy woof and tail wag when we visit her. Sending Kara all the kia kaha vibes as she processes his loss.

Had a good sleep - after the night before with crazy dreams it was good to just sleep. Alarm went off at 6am and we were dressed and out the door at 6.30am for our walk to town.

Hack squats

48 minutes later I was at the gym and Mike headed off to drop off my sample at the lab on the Terrace and get brekkie. What should have been a quick mission for him turned into a longer one when he bumped into an Architecture Forum co-organiser and they talked for half an hour about whatever IT Architects talk about in their spare time (who can tell?). 

I did hack squats with Quentin. 56kg. 8 reps x 3 sets. With split squats as the superset. Legs did not do well walking back down the stairs for leg curls and extensions. Hahahah.

Sad face

Margies iced coffee

I popped into Margies to get eggs and an iced latte. The coffee was delicious. Thank you. They probably wondered where my friends were. Hahahah. I usually only go here with Maureen or Dave.

Enjoy your day!

Love,

Angela



Tuesday, March 17, 2026

The Monday working from home

 Hi,

Working from home so no photos were taken. Boring. Hahah. Mike did send me a pic from the Park Run Facebook page showing me slog around the course. 

Mike sent me a pic of my Park Run

What else happened yesterday? Mike wanted to walk after work but late meetings scuppered that idea. He ended up at the pub afterwards with a bunch of people. Sounded like he enjoyed the catch up.

He got home fairly late and I was already in bed. But we chatted away and he did the rubbish (Tuesday is rubbish day) and came to bed not long after that.

We both had dreams except Mike texted me and Toby them in the middle of the night and I did not. And now I have no idea what my dream was about.

Up for a ride to work. But I felt a bit queasy as I tried to eat my porridge. So online session with Quentin and work from home again.

Did 40kg bench 5 reps x 4 sets. Then 80kg deads. 4 reps x 4 sets.

Looks like a stunning day here today. Blue skies. No wind. Lovely.

Have a fabulous day.

Love,

Angela