The weekend with some Wellington fun

 Hi

We had an interesting Thursday night - we got to stay at a friend's AirBnB and look after their dog, Momo. Went there straight after work and settled in. met Momo. And Mike came after his working day finished. We watched YouTube briefly and fell asleep by about 8.30pm with Momo sleeping on our bed with us.

Momo on Thursday

Smudge on Friday

Back home nice and early Friday morning to the usual cats on my lap. They were very interested in Momo smells. Hahahah.

Saturday brekkie in bed for me

I got brekkie in bed on Saturday. Thank you Mike.

We did some DIY in the upstairs bathroom - fitted the door stop, siliconed some gaps and holes, cleaned up some old misapplied silicone - woot! Then some messages in the Hutt and called in to see Sally and Andrew.

Their garden looks amazing.

Garden

Up early Sunday and off to pick up Janine and Callan for a mysterious walk Janine had discovered. Whitecliffs Boulders, between Mangaweka and Taihape.

Sunday brekkie in Bulls while the car charges

What a great place. We walked there and back and only covered maybe 3 km. But the place itself was so good. We spent ages poking around at the lovely boulders. The Rangitekei river created them. Seems as though mud secreted around something like a rock or something and created these round mudstones. And now they are all through this wee patch of native bush.

Walking to Whitecliffs Boulders

Mossy boulder

Like Monkey hatching from the mountain top egg

Dappled sunlight

Trees on rocks

Perfect spheres

That's me

Walking back

Contemplating my path in life

We stopped at Levin to charge on the way back - and oddly Janine wanted to eat at the Cobb and Co, because she'd never experienced this kiwi (and Aussie) cultural institution before. What a laugh. We enjoyed some food there before getting back to Wellington. Fresh, well made and ... bland and uninspiring. Just like our parents and grandparents would have loved. 

Fantastic weekend.

Hope your week is a good one.

Love,

Angela

By the numbers:

Where	Start	End	Duration	Rate (c/kWh)	Cost	kWh
Bulls Chargenet	09:40	10:35	00:55	$0.95	$31.38	29.8
Levin Chargenet	15:27	16:25	00:58	$0.90	$29.76	29.4

476 km

2 charges

1h 53m charging time

59.17  kWh charged (89.96 kWh total)

$61.14 charging fees

Plus RUC ($76.00/1000km) $36.18 = total cost $97.32

Versus the Forester, at $3.13/L for 95 petrol, would have cost $148.99

The Wednesday with work

 Hi,

The end of Wednesday was weird. Mike had to go look after a friend's dog at short notice. His friend went for some tests at the hospital and his wee dog is a bit anxious about separation. Although given how good the dog was for Mike, maybe it is the human that is more worried. Hahahah.

That meant Mike was in the car. So he came to work to swap so I could drive home. But the uncertainty meant Mike's plans were all disrupted for his run with others. So we both just went home.

Mike made tea - nachos. And we watched some YouTube and went to bed. 

Up for a bus ride in because after work I am bussing home with Barb and doing garage gym. Woot. And tomorrow - do not let me forget. Quentin is coming at 12.15 to garage gym! Must remember.

Gym Thursday morning

Deads. 87.5kg. 3 reps x 4 sets. I was a bit hopeless. Could have done better.

Off to data brekkie. Big crowd of people today. And I spotted Reimer briefly. Then Sally arrived for a coffee and brekkie before her gym session.

Smith the Grocer iced latte

Look who turned up

Big crowd

Back to work. Big day. Madeleine's last day is tomorrow. Waaaaah. Morning tea today for her. And I made banana bread. Nom, nom.

Weekend is a Wellington one. Lots of work to do around the house. Need to do a big walk or bike ride too.

My parents are on their flight to South Korea now. Woot.

Have fun. 

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with a quiz win

 Hi,

Do I need an iced latte this morning? I am now at my desk and staring at the pic from yesterday and thinking a little too much of a delicious caffeine hit.

Tuesday's iced latte from French Kiss cart

Work treats

We are gathered together.... to eat donuts

After work we had Green Man quiz. Jesper, Juliet (and Rose), Celia (and Eva and Charlie) and Jon all joined us for the evening. Awesome mix because we ended up winning. Smashed them with 92 points.

Moxley is AMAZED at our abilities

Okay - there were only 4 other teams. But still. We had a great run through most of the rounds. 92 points would have been a winning score on any other Tuesday I think. Some easier rounds though, including the Ponderous which Mike got first go - along with nearly all of the other teams. 

Can you too get 10 points?

We ubered home afterwards and fed the starving cats.Fell into a coma. Up to bus in with Mike and he had his PT session with Quentin while I did a run.

I will walk home tonight. Feed the cats. Get the groceries that are coming. Bake banana loaf for Madeleine's morning tea tomorrow. Mike is running in the rain. Make good clothing choices, Mike!

Have a wonderful day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with spring challenge training in Wellington

 Hi,

What a busy weekend. Long weekend here in Aotearoa with the King's Birthday weekend. Friday saw my haircut cancelled so I ended up walking into town to meet Maureen for lunch to plan the weekend fun.

Sourdough last week

Walk in on Friday

Mike joined us as we got a vague plan together. I rode home (I had left my bike in the bike shed at work on Thursday) and blitzed my way up the hill. 2 seconds slower than my PB. Woot!

Tidied the house. Then picked up Mike and Callan from Foxglove on my way to the airport for a 8.30pm pick up for Iona. She had a smooth flight and we were quickly into the car for our drive home. Mike and Callan decided to go out on the town and meet Quentin at Rogue and Vagabond. So we dropped them on Dixon and continued home. We had a nice cuppa and then off to bed.

I did get woken at 12:30am with Mike trying to find a sleeping bag for Callan. Despite the copious amounts of alcohol they did decide a night on our couch was wise. So good on them. But my broken sleep meant when the alarm went off at 6am, I was not ready to get up for parkrun.

So we slept in a bit. And then I made lots of scrambled eggs. Callan headed home before he could eat some though. We all ate eggs then got ready for our day.

Margies lunch

Iona and I rode our bikes down the hill to Ngauranga Gorge to meet Maureen. And then we proceeded through the new pathway to Eastbourne. At Eastbourne we stopped for coffee and grabbed some lunch. I went to Hive cafe and it was very good.

 

Saturday bike ride

Views

Continued down to the lighthouse and had lunch looking out to the southern ocean. Then we started back and realised just how strong the tailwind had been. It was a hard slog back.

Lunch spot

Bikes in a pile

Originally we were going to ferry back from Eastbourne but the ferry bike passage was full. So we had to continue right around the harbour back to town. We said goodbye to Maureen at Ngauranga and Iona and I got to Spotlight where Mike came to pick us up. Thank you Mike.

We managed 65km all up. Phew. That bike path was so busy at both ends of the day. So good.

And done.

A quick shower and out to town to meet the Forbes family at Great India. It was a good reminder about how good that restaurant is. Yum.

We caught up on all their news. Ellen was in town for a Shakespeare competition, so everyone was up to support her. I absolutely loved the conversation. So good to see them all.

Great India for dinner

New bridge

Sunday saw Mike drop me and Iona at Khandallah pool where we met Maureen. We headed up to the summit then along the Skyline track. It was pretty windy. I needed to hold my cap a lot. I saw Maureen get blown off the track a bit at one point.

Mt Kaukau

Selfie

View of Wellington

Walking on the Skyline

Such a good walk. 3.5 hours later and 13 km later we walked across Karori Park to meet Mike. And he whisked us to the pool car park where we enjoyed lunch at the cafe there. Cafe du Parc. Maureen headed home after that and we got home to get ready for the next social event.

Cafe du Parc

Sally arrived at our place and we got in the car with the ladder and water blaster and went to visit Quentin and Courtney. What a gorgeous house they have. Wow.

We got a tour of their house and a cup of tea. Quentin's mother came home just as we finished chatting so we got to meet her too. We heard about Joel's wedding to Rachelle the day before which sounded really good fun.

Out to Sally and Andrew's place for a chat and Sally cooked dinner. Roast vegetables with haloumi. Mmmmmm.

Home to bed.

Monday morning saw me drop Iona at her mother's place. I got a cup of tea with Helen and heard about her latest news.

Monday morning cats

Monday project

At home Mike got stuck into the plywood project. We want to extend the floor of the loft in the garage. Phase 1 is now complete. Ply measured and cut. Next phase is ready.

Skilsaw work

Sourdough #2

Brekkie Tuesday

I made more bread. And then off to bed where I slept like I was in a coma. The alarm at 5.25am was really tough.

Quentin was sick so my PT session was cancelled. Poor Quentin. Hope he is ok soon. I did garage gym instead. Bench 37.5kg 4 x 4.

Mike and I bussed in at 7.30am. It was nice to have a 3 day weekend. I so enjoyed the adventures. I have so much work to do to get fitter.

Enjoy your week.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a lifting session after work

 Hi,

Wednesday saw me grab a lunch with Mike and get a quick walk in. I saw a Bauer bike like the one we inherited from John on the streets.

Bauer on the streets of Wellington

Selfie with... the radio

I bussed home with Madeleine and we did a gym session. Good fun. 27.5kg bench and 45kg deads. Dropped her home with a sourdough and went back home hoping Mike needed a lift home from town on my way. No - he did not.

But he was home nice and fast. I was making more bread.

Good sleep. Up for a ride in for my PT session. Hope your day is good.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with quiz after work

 Hi,

I enjoyed my iced latte in the morning with Kris. Needed that. Also had a text from Andrew around lunch time to see if anyone was around and free for lunch.

Kris and I enjoy extra extra iced latte

I was intending to walk around the waterfront. So he joined me and made it a lot more interesting, that is for sure. Mike had a meeting so he had to go back to work.

Waiting for Andrew

After work we went to Green Man. Jon arrived and our team was small but mighty. The sports and games round killed us. 2/10. Ouch. Where is Col when you need her? Well. Blenheim.

Quiz team

Sourdough

Got home with Mike and made my sourdough while watching You Tube. Mike went to bed and was fast asleep when I got to bed.

Up to walk in this morning. Part of the step count plan.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with WFH for me

 Hi,

Monday was a bit grey in Wellington. But the sun did eventually burn through the cloud cover. By the time I went for a wee run, the sheets could go on and have some solar cover the cost. Yay!

Moxley checking out Smudge's food

Moxley checking out Mike's water

RoboMop also did its thing and cleaned up the house for us. Groceries got delivered. All in all, back into the routine after a lovely weekend.

Work was work. Kept me mostly out of mischief. After work I made some tea. Cooked up Barry's fallow deer back steaks. Mmmmm. Thank you.

Watched some You Tube. Got ready for going to work. And had a bath. Mike got home and joined me. :-)

We were in bed really early and I am not sure I was up much past 9.30. I stopped reading at about 9:25pm and I reckon I never saw 9:30pm. Hahahah.

Moxley and Smudge in a temporary truce,
facilitated by the bedroom heatpump

Up for shaping a loaf to chill after overnight proofing. Brekkie. Then bus in as I thought to walk home. But it is quiz night after work.

Might get out for a walk at lunchtime then.

Hope your day is good.

Love,

Angela