The weekend back in Wellington

 Hi,

I got home early Saturday morning after Mike dropped me off at 6am at Chc airport. Had an easy flight to Wellington and so lovely to see Sally at the airport to whisk me home.

I managed to snaffle a 5pm New World grocery delivery which meant I had no need to venture out into the stormy weather.

I did a lot of washing and tidying.

French toast brekkie Sunday morning

Finding the paint

Sunday I made a nice brekkie for myself. Then got the paints ready for doing the fake stairs stringers. Spent almost 2 hours doing that. Another top coat on the true right and first coat of primer on true left. 

Tackling the stairs

Two coats on that left side and one primer on the right

Iced latte with Maureen

Went to Karori Park to meet Maureen for a coffee and enjoyed catching up with her. The rain finally eased off and I got out for a run afterwards.

Cats happy

New sink cover from Mum and Dad

I installed the sink rack that my parents gave me. It was in my checked luggage from Chch and I found a note in my suitcase saying an item had pinged their sensors. I guess steel rods like that must have looked very odd.

Mike flew home and Sally and Andrew picked him up and we ate haloumi and egg pie and sticky date pudding (courtesy of Sally). We dried some curtains from 40WLW and watched some Deadloch.

Off to bed. Wellington got hammered by rain and there has been flash flooding and slips all over the place. Phew. Hope everyone is ok.

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with Toby's graduation

 Hi,

How amazing was Toby's big day? So amazing. Surrounded by his whānau and friends, supported by Tessa every step of the way. So good to see Toby succeed.

We all gathered at our motel unit at 9.15am and split into a car group and a walking group. We headed to Victoria Park, right next to the town hall, the end of the parade. Met up with the car group and waited for the parade to start at 10am.

Holding the banner in the parade

To our surprise, right after the marching band, Toby was up front, helping hold the banner. Apparently they approached him at the start line and asked him to sign a waiver saying his image could be used for UC purposes and then he was given the banner to hold.

He looked so proud.

Awwww

Family

Family

Lots of pics afterwards. Toby got a free t shirt (to join the Alumni). Some Rollickin' icecream. And we all got glasses to enjoy a toast with some delicious sparkling juice of some sort.

We headed back to Ashford Motor Lodge to eat. Then Toby got dropped at the town hall for his shuttle to Wolfbrook. We took two cars to Wolfbrook (thank for Steph and Dave for taking me and Tessa).

Wolfbrook arena

We sat high up in the arena and had a great view. We could see Toby sitting in his seat and he was some of the last after almost 2 hours of people walking the stage.

Toby strode over to the chancellor and shook her hand and bent under the raised hat and walked off to pick up his degree.

He has his degree

The final chap doing the speech was fantastic. He got an engineering degree at UC in 1992 and put through 100 job applications before securing his 101st job in Whakatane. From there, with 3 people to do road maintenance, he ended up working all over the work. He also had a funny story about Beca. They "enthusiastically" rejected him - and 20 years later asked him to be a keynote speaker at a conference where he told the rejection story. Hahah. Anyway - his 3 main points were so good. Take risks (calculated), own something (so true) and .... the other point.

Town Hall fountains for the iconic Chc pic

From here, Mike and Steph shuttled people back to Ashford. But Sally and I didn't fit so we walked to Z Addington and enjoyed a free coffee from Z Reward points while we waited for Mike to return with the car.

We ended up going straight to Pomeroys. And it wasn't too long before others joined us. 13 people to celebrate Toby's success.

From there, we dropped some people at the motel, and went to Gogi for karaoke. But Mike and I left at 10.30pm to leave the others singing away.

What a great day. So proud of Toby. Well done to him. And thank you to everyone for showing up and supporting him.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with working from the Chc office

 Hi,

Mike and I were at work all day - and it was so busy. But we got away at lunch time to the Spitfire shopping centre and got our jabs from Unichem. 

Covid and flu.

And we also measured ourselves while Andrew (the chemist) was sorting out the vaccines.

Mike's height

Toby at Scoundrel in his new shirt

After work we got back to the motel and headed to dinner at Scoundrel. Good fun. I drove us all home to Ashford Motor Lodge in the wee Jazz.

Good sleep. I like having Mike back!

Up this morning to head back to work. Lovely day. Did a run at CityFitness. Will finish early today and hope to take photos with Toby and his regalia today. Wander around key locations in Chc and take his pic.

Tomorrow is the big day. So excited. And proud.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Christchurch

 Hi,

Busy times. I flew to Chc on Friday (thank you for the early morning drop off, Mike) and had an easy flight down. Toby and Tessa picked me up and we went to Little Poms for brekkie.

We checked into Ashford Motor Lodge and then went for a big walk to the CBD. Got a shirt for Toby's graduation.

Back for tea at Strawberry Fare. Then chill before some sleep ahead of my parents arrival at 12:20am. But their flight was delayed and ended up landing at 2am. Toby got to my motel at 1.30 and we went to the airport to wait for them. 

Strawberry fare

Dessert

Getting full

2am arrival

They were shattered. 2 hours at that time is tough.

It meant I slept in for Park Run. A 4am bedtime was a tad too late for me. But that did mean I got to watch Artemis splashdown. Wow. And the view from Orion showed the impending cyclone coming our way.

Artemis 2 coming back - with a view of the cyclone over NZ

Walking to C4

Went to lunch at C4. Not sure my parents liked that place as much as we do. Continued watching the splashdown events on Steph's PC.

C4 iced latte

C4

We had tea at the motel - enjoyed wraps and salad. Then up Sunday morning to see Mike was on his way from Dunedin with his mother in the wee Jazz. Yay. We watched his journey on Glympse.

Brekkie in Ashford Motor Lodge

Toby trying on clothes

Took Toby and Tessa shopping for a shirt for Toby. They washed his op shop shirt and found out the dye had gone blotchy on the back.

Then when Mike and Polly arrived, we went to Little Poms for lunch. But Mike did not avoid the CBD for the marathon traffic and took an hour spiralling the CBD,

Little Poms

Toby and Tessa

Sunday saw us chill for a bit. Mike and Toby and Tessa went out to Carlton for some dinner but I was so full I just stayed in the room.

Good sleep and up for work. Left to head to work and the gym. Bench with Mike. 40kg 4 reps x 4 sets. Then off to work. Sitting next to Martyn. Busy day.

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with working from home

 Hi,

Oh look. I worked from home and took no photos. Hahahah. Rest assured the cats were very photogenic. I just didn't take any pics of them.

But Mike did!

Moxley always finds something to lie on 

Smudge is fully, fully relaxed

Work was work. Super busy. And my stupid cold is not going away. It is also not getting worse. So there is that.

After work I attended Mike's presentation for the Meet Up architect forum. I was online, as were a few others. It was very good. He is such a good speaker - everyone was very engaged and asking lots of questions. Good topic, eh? All about TOGAF certification. 

I had tea and Mike eventually got home but I was already in bed by then. Straight to sleep. Cat (Moxley) woke us at 4.45am puking up kibble from our bed onto the floor. Thank you Moxley. Charming.

At least the carpet cleaner made the bedroom smell nice this morning.

The cats are off to the vet today for their annual check. Trauma for them but a necessary trauma, got to keep them fit and well.

Mike went off to town in the car to gym with Quentin while I did 50g deads in the garage gym. I will pack after work today. Got an early flight to Chc tomorrow. It is Toby's graduation. Woot!

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with Easter and a sick day

 Hi,

We had a good Easter break. We got the car back just before Easter from Gazely MG. Yay. And I did get out on Saturday night to Bella Italia with Sally and Andrew. 

Mike was a bit sick on Friday and Saturday he felt like rubbish. So we stayed home most of the time. Did some things around the house.

Sunrise last week

Stunning day

Emma at Bin44

Moxley wonders what we're doing

The CAT6 is finally in place. Mike opened up behind our bedroom wall and found the draw wires. And we attached the CAT6 and hauled it through to the attic space.

Access open to under the stairs and CAT6 installation

Mike finds draw lines

Moxley explores

Mike going up to pull up CAT6

Cat follows CAT

Run in Otari Wilton bush

Brekkie for Mike

Egg rolling on Sunday

Sunday saw us walk up to the flax clearing in Otari Wilton bush to roll the eggs down a hill. We climbed up to close to the Skyline too.

Bite out of my egg

Walk up to the pylon near the Skyline

Views from the pylon

Home iced latte

Brekkie

Monday we went for a bike ride up to the Skyline. But my eBike MTB had a flat front shifter and what a faff to change the battery. Mike chopped a coin in half and that did the trick.

Smudge

Stupid bike shifter battery issues

Top of Skyline on Monday

Then Monday evening I felt a scratchy throat. Sure enough, Tuesday morning I was a bit snuffly. I did go to garage gym with Quentin. But it was like walking in treacle. So I listened to Mike and took the day off.

He worked from home too. 

Wednesday morning is wet here. I am WFH and not sure I will do an entire day. Let's see.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela