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

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

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

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

The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

What a big weekend. Friday was crazy. I took the MG in for its WoF and they decided to keep it until Tuesday. Rear wheel bearing issue (under warranty - phew) and the back door rubber seal. It was hosing down rain too so I used their courtesy ride to town. I got squashed in the back between two blokes. Still - happy to get dropped off outside Green Man.

I got to Smith the Grocer just behind Shane and Holly. It was Shane's last day at work and it was nice to chill with them both before his big day.

Friday brekkie with Shane and Holly

I then jumped on the train to Petone to walk to Revive to meet Alistair. We had a good catch up and then he surprised me by getting Emma to bring in wee Lachy. It was good to meet them both. Lachy is such an adorable wee chap. Alistair has a new job with Parts Trader. Woot!

Friday coffee with Alistair

Emma surprised me with wee Lachy. Awwww.

Mike was working from home and still recovering from his op. He felt so much better and made it through all his back to back meetings.

Saturday we were up for the bus to town (no car remember) for Park Run. Mike is volunteering while he is unable to run. I knocked 4 minutes off my Park Run time in Blenheim last week. So I was happy about that.

I finished and walked to Joe's Garage for brekkie. And bumped into Jurica and his wife at the next table. How cool. We were meaning to catch up - this was perfect. Fiona is working at Cap Gemini now (I love that!) and Ivan is in his last year at high school. 

Post park run brekkie and we bumped into Jurica and Djana

Then we bumped into Anthony with his mate Basil

Jurica and Djana were in town to see Fiona sing in a choir at the library re-opening so we also toddled off to take a look. And bumped into Anthony also going to take a squiz at it. He was with his mate Basil and had only arrived in the country the night before.

Checked out the library re-opening

Looks good

Sunday saw us have a nice brekkie at home. French Toast morning. And then Mike got stuck into tasks all over the house - but mainly in the garage.

Sunday brekkie 

Moxley checks the outside

I help Maureen build her new squat rack

Some weird fire engine issue on the road near Bowen Hospital

I went to help Maureen build her new squat rack. Titan. Very nice it is too. And I am kinda glad I said yes to helping her. It would not be easy on your own. I think it took us close to 3.5 hours. The instructions were a little sparse. We got to the end and realised one back post was upside down. So we pulled it off and sorted it out.

Back home to chill with Mike.

Up for a run Monday morning. Mike caught the bus while I was running back.

Running and waving at Mike

Working from home. Busy day. Hope your day is brilliant!

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with the op for Mike

 Hi,

Wednesday was all about Mike and his operation. He worked from home for the first half of the day then toddled off to the hospital at lunch time.

Chris behind me got me a work iced latte

His op was scheduled for 1pm but he was still chatting to me at that stage as they processed him. Then it was a pic of him in the gown and then silence for a bit. I saw Mike and Toby in a call at 4pm so quickly chatted to them.

Chatting with Mike post op

My day was frantic - and I rushed home with madeleine after work on the #4 bus and then hurtled into the car and headed to Petone for the rugby movie Mike had suggested a few months back. It was weird to be in a movie when he was in hospital.

At the rugby documentary movie

It was a special screening of No Tears On The Field - an awesome documentary on Taranaki grassroots womens rugby. Go see it - you will be inspired. Great story-telling with awesome heart behind it all.

Elly was there and had two friends come along too. But the cinema was probably only half full. The director and two of the main people from the movie were there to answer questions. Alice Soper guided the kōrero. Great fun. We had front row seats for it too.

I dropped Madeleine home afterwards (she took Mike's ticket) and got home to bake sourdough. I chatted to my Mum for ages too.

Sourdough

Up this morning after a good sleep to hear from Mike and chat to him. He is doing really well. Quentin is sick so no PT session for me. Just in for data brekkie and a goodbye to Shane.

Smith the Grocer iced latte Thurs morning

Brioche time

Punters

Right. Time to really get stuck in. my day looks huge ahead of me. Enjoy yours.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with work

 Hi,

I had 3 iced lattes yesterday and I think it showed. Must not do that again. But anyway - all the pics are about the iced lattes in this post.

With Quentin - is it though?

Mike got me a French Kiss cart iced latte

We met Amber for lunch at Gemini cafe

Mike and I caught up with Amber from work for lunch. It is her birthday this Friday and also her last day at work before maternity leave. It was great to chat to her ahead of her leave. We heard about Aryton and Grayson - her two older boys. And we're excited to hear from her when she has the next wee one soon. Good luck, Amber.

Caught up with Ben for a coconut iced latte

After lunch I caught up with Ben from my old squad. Good to chat to him. He bought a house a few years back and is facing a lot of maintenance. Yep - I hear you Ben. Your house becomes your hobby sometimes.

After work (long day) I bussed home with Mike and he made tea for us. Venison burgers. Thank you Tony. Delicious.

Watched some You Tibe before bed. I wondered if I would lie awake, a little concerned about Mike and his simple surgical procedure today. But no. Sorry Mike. I slept really well. 

Up this morning for my gym session. Deads. 60kg Paused deads. 6 reps x 4 sets. Back to work after that. Mike is working from home this morning and then off to the hospital at lunch time. He is staying overnight - just because it is a late op and they want to just check him for a bit longer than the time allows. Meanwhile I will fidget my way through a rugby movie - we booked it ages ago. Mike told me to go anyway. So we have a spare ticket if anyone wants to come.

He assures me he will be fine. But I am a tad nervous. Good I am so busy today!

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela