The Thursday with Jack O Lanterns

Hi,

A good ride in this morning - it looks like rain out there but the roads are dry and I whizzed down the hill after dropping off Toby.

We had loads of fun last night.  When I picked up Toby he asked if we could do something fun.  The first few things I suggested were politely declined.  But after I got tea ready and we were sitting down to eat, I had a brainwave.  "Let's go shopping for pumpkins and make a Jack O Lantern".  Toby was chuffed.

So, we hopped in the car, arranged to pick up Mike from the pub where he was having drinks with a work colleague, and bought the two biggest pumpkins in the supermarket.  Collected Mike, dropped off his colleague near the airport and got back to sort out the pumpkins.

Mike and Toby carved a great face into one of them and we popped in a tea candle and put it outside in the dusky night.  It looked fantastic!  We're all very pleased with our efforts.

Toby loves Halloween.

Have a great weekend.  We have swimming, then Toby has a sleepover in Waikanae and he has three Halloween engagements on Sunday!  Phew!

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with yummy dinner, tramping, tennis, karate and PTA meetings

Hi,

Mum and Dad came over to make tea and go with Toby to karate.  The dinner was so yummy.  Mum made potato gratin with our leftover camembert cheese and I ate three helpings.  Yummo!  One of the helpings was Toby's - he prefers Dad's mash obviously.

Mum and Dad then stayed on to look after Toby while I attended the Wadestown School PTA meeting.  It was actually very worthwhile and I think we'll make it a regular thing.  I found out loads about the school.

Mike went to tramping club as he has a day walk this weekend (Easy-Medium 5 hour tramp from Johnsonville to Makara via Mt Kau Kau).  He said the photos from the talk last night were great - Ilske talking about a day walk she did in Ethiopia.  Cool!

That's about it for now.  Have a great day and a great weekend (for those that have Fridays off!).

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with lovely evening weather and a walk

Hi,

Mike got back into town at a reasonable time last night.  Toby and I had just had dinner and Toby was talking to his Nana about the Wadestown Idol video when Mike got in.  He ate some tea and then we went for a walk in perfect t-shirt conditions.  It was absolutely lovely.  We walked to the Wadestown shops to play in the park.

Tonight is tennis night and karate.  Mike will ride home to get to karate with Gramps.  I think Mum is going to cook dinner - yummy!  I'll ride home and get there about the same time as the boys get there after karate.  I'm going to ask if Mum and/or Dad can stay for a while so I can go to the PTA meeting for Toby's school.  We have decided to invest a bit of time listening to the pulse of the school to help us make a decision about Toby's future there.  But Mike has to go to the tramping club for his tramp this weekend.  So I'm off to the PTA meeting.

The ride in was great fun.  Lovely conditions just like last night.

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The long weekend with so much gardening

Hi,

Mike and I drove to Toby's school to see him perform int he finals of Wadestown Idol. Toby in Wadestown Idol finals  He was superb.  One of the best there.

So that was a great Friday for us.  Toby was pretty happy but maintains he is embarrassed by the video.

We had a long weekend but the promised fine weather was sadly lacking.  It was overcast most of the time.  But that was good for us because we got stuck into the garden.  It was starting to resemble a tropical jungle and we needed to move lots of plants for the coming building project.  So it was time.

Turns out we learned a lot about the way Mike and I approach projects.  Mike uses upcoming projects to plan meticulously and send himself to sleep within 5 minutes every night on the various intricacies of the plans.  I ignore upcoming projects until I decide to jump in and do something.  Then Mike tries to recall the meticulous plans from his sleep fuddled mind as I launch into the middle of his planning with some ill-planned (read - none!) action!  But my crazy actions result in his careful planning coming together to produce what looks like chaos, but the job gets done.

So we have done loads of gardening.  Mike obviously had bigger dreams than my ideas as more came out and we took two loads to the tip (one load was from Sally and Andrew's place).

Saturday Toby had two friends sleeping over.  We went to H2OXtreme with them (and their parents) and had a ball.  We like it there.  Duncan and Emerson also came to watch the rugby league with us at the cake tin.  Dad had got us tickets for the game from work and when we said we had two extras, he got them tickets too.  Thanks!  Mike actually really enjoyed the game.  And our friend Grant was there as well.  He took us to the only other rugby league game we have ever attended - Leeds versus Wigan in Leeds.  Cool!

Mike is up in Auckland for the day today.  Back tonight.  So busy day for me.

We also found Tyler's Hannah Montana jacket and I'll be mailing that off today!

Have a great week (short for us here in NZ).

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with dancing

Hi,

Toby is in the finals!  How great is he?  He was so chuffed when I drove there in my lunch break and found him playing after his success.  Yes - I missed it.  The office had given me the wrong time - Mike was right all along.

But I can redeem myself.  The finals are today at lunch time.  I will see if I can swing the same lunch break deal in my training course.  Fingers crossed - again.

We have a long weekend here this weekend.  And the weather is supposed to improve.  I was in my bike gear this morning about to walk out the door when Mike asked if I had 5 minutes to check something with him.  When we were done, I looked up and it was hosing down.  I flung off my bike gear and into work clothes and hurtled to the bus.

Oh well.

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with tennis, karate and Burger Wisconsin

Hi,

The ride to work this morning was great - the weather is supposed to be pants (I always think of Judith Holloway when I use that word - she says it with a great English accent) but the roads were dry and I hit another maximum speed on the fast downhill bit.  I won't say how much as it is starting to be slightly the wrong side of legal and I won't condone that sort of irresponsible behaviour.  Heheheheh.

Mike is driving in and giving me the keys as I want to shoot to Toby's school at lunchtime to watch him in the talent quest as he dances his way to Footloose fame.  I will be proud.  However, a fly in the ointment is my two day CRM training course I am on today and tomorrow.  Fingers crossed I can sort it out.

We have also (madly, with little forethought) booked a wee holiday to Samoa around my birthday.  Air NZ had some flights that looked cheap.  So we need to find some accommodation now.  Anyone want to join us?  We're leaving on Friday Feb 18 (and arriving on my birthday - I get two birthdays because Samoa is over the date line) and come back on Tuesday Feb 22 (we leave on Monday though and lose that extra birthday I gained).  We've got tickets that only allow hand luggage so we're going to live in togs for the 4 days.

Karate went well - I was hoping to ride straight there to see the end, but I was held up leaving work.  I met the boys at Burger Wisconsin in Northland and they took me home in the car - with yummy burgers to eat.  Mum and Dad were unable to come for the traditional karate/dinner special.  When we fend for ourselves, we get burgers!  Heheheheh.

Can't wait to see Toby dancing.  Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with school talks

Hi,

Our talk with the principal at Toby's school went quite well.  We're going to pursue another course of action with regards to enrolment at another school, but wait and see what happens when the principal has a chat to Toby informally.  He wants to help us get to the bottom of it too.

Karate and tennis today.  I got rained on by cold raindrops this morning riding in.  It is supposed to clear though so Toby might have tennis.

Busy at work.  Phew!

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The Monday with Keas, Keas and Keas

Hi,

Yes - Keas was huge!  We had 17 children running around (and several younger siblings from time to time), with two of them being older Cubs of Keas.  We invested 11 Keas!  I was expecting 10, so I had to "steal" Toby's woggle for the last Kea invested.  Toby didn't seem to mind too much.  Then we had dinner at the Sampson household, so Toby was happy.

We have an appointment with the principal of Toby's school today as we endeavour to get to the bottom of Toby's sudden (last two months) increase in talk of bullies and lack of interest in going to school.  Oddly enough, yesterday Toby brought home a merit certificate for possibly the first time this year.  Coincidence?  The cynic in me says not.  Anyhow, let's see what he says and where we go from there once we know.

Lovely day here today - I do think rain is expected this evening though.  But the ride down the hill was unbelievably good.  I think I hit an all time maximum speed as I pedalled like fury down the fast bit.  Of course, it wouldn't be over the speed limit.  But possibly my bike computer speedo read  54 km/h.  Wooooooo!

Have a marvellous day!
Love,
Angela

The weekend with wild weather, camping, tramping and Zealandia

Hi,

Phew - I'm at work and can take a breath from the hectic pace of the weekend.  Despite the weather straight out of winter we were out and about all weekend.  Let's see?  How did it go again?  The blur that it was...

Friday night we rode home together (ahhhhhh...) and collected wee Toby and packed the car ready for camping at Camp Woburn (Sally and Andrew's backyard).  We saw quite a few of their photos and pitched the tent in the backyard and slept like logs.  We never got around to mowing their lawn the whole time we were away (in our defense, only the last week was dry; we ran around their lawn at one stage and splashed our way through the grass) so the ground was so soft - it was heavenly.

Saturday morning Mike walked to the market with Sally and I got yummy pain-au-chocolate for breakfast.  How lucky am I?  Then off to swimming for the first lesson of the term.  Toby is now in the big pool!  Same class but they have moved them.  Good move I say.  We're going to try and work on his swimming this term with extra swimming afterwards at H2OXtreme.  We'll see how that goes.

Then home for a quick lunch and then off to Makara Beach to brave the winds for a day tramp with the tramping club.  It took us from 1.45pm to 5.30pm but the kids were great.  Three boys all about 7 years old and Toby loved having his best friend Jack there.  Jack has changed schools and Toby misses him a lot.  Turns out it was Jack's mother's birthday on Sunday but they had no babysitter sorted.  So we asked if Jack would like to sleepover with Toby and his parents could go out.  Toby had a ball!  Jack was so polite.  Mike cooked tea (spag bol) and after his first taste, Jack declared "This is delicious" and promptly devoured the huge bowl.  There were other outbursts of delight at Mike's cooking at Jack slurped through the bowl.  Jack can come to our house for a sleepover any time!

We're going to sort out trick or treating with Jack and Toby.  So I have to plan that.

Sunday was a bit more leisurely.  Jack's dad came to collect Jack quite early (and he brought around lovely purple tulips as a thank you - Mum, you will like them in our vase!) and we got ready for Zealandia.  The weather was atrocious.  Mike dropped us at the door and parked the car and as we waited fro him, there was a multitude of fathers doing the same thing.  We saw the exhibition and headed back home rather than getting more wet wandering around the valley.  Toby loved the animatronic moa.

Sunday afternoon passed with us watching Footloose as Toby has a talent quest on Tuesday and wants to dance to Footloose.  Ok.

Toby is also doing 2 weeks of chores to earn a plastic bag science kit toy from us.  He made us lunch on Sunday and said he'll make his own lunches too (I forgot today and made their lunches - but I'll try and remember tomorrow).  I might be eating a lot of toast over the next fortnight.

This morning was lovely until 7am and lovely after 8am.  But in the middle, I was riding to work and got caught in heavy, cold raindrops with a strong nor'wester.  Brrrr.  I dropped off a letter for Jack to their letterbox (from Toby) and had a good ride in as it started to clear.

Keas tonight - and ten Keas for investing!  Wow!  It's going to be busy!

Have a great week!
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with no Gin Wigmore but a CRM party

Hi,

Yes - the concert we were supposed to attend last night was cancelled (Gin had a sore throat).  So we cancelled our babysitter.  Then we remembered we had a work party on after work, so we re-instated our babysitter.  Heheheh.

The party was good fun - caught up with the fellow project people in the pub and got lots of food.  Yum.

I hope the concert is re-scheduled for soon and we can make the new date.

Turns out our babysitter couldn't make Thursday night, so Hannah's mother babysat Toby instead.  As I came down the stairs to his room I could hear "Hannah" talking to Toby, but when I went in, I saw Lesley there.  They had normal family logistics for the evening, so Toby had a ball driving all over Wellington, picking up various family members and generally being one of the family for the evening.  And got to play with Chelsea and Brennan and eat pizza.  I think he'll be keen on that every night!  Thanks!

And today is wet and drizzly.  But should clear by the evening - when I ride home.

Have a great weekend.
Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with karate and yummy dinner

Hi,

Toby went to karate for the first time this term (after his holidays).  He's got a new Gi because his old one is getting very small on him (you have to jam it over his head!).  Mike washed everything and next week he'll be wearing his new Gi!

Ma and Da came over for the traditional Wednesday night dinner.  Yummy pie (with mash as good as it gets).  It was very nice.  Then Mike went to tramping club, Mum and Dad went home and Toby went to bed.  I watched more t-box programmes - I am so pleased with this.  I can record Time Team whenever it is on, so when I want to watch TV, it is up.

We're going out tonight.  But not to see Gin Wigmore as intended.  She has cancelled the concert.  But we're off to an event for work for a few hours anyway.  So Toby is getting babysat by Hannah.  Hell Pizza is on the menu.  We should be home early though.

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with Sally and Andrew and a good ride home

Hi,

What a gorgeous morning we have this morning.  An ideal day - although I can still feel the southerly is in effect.  I had Toby drop-off duty so we had a good leisurely morning and I managed to tidy before we left for school.  It was a good chatty walk in and then I hopped on my bike and blatted down the hill.  I beat a scooter down.  Heheheheh.  I also wore my sunglasses - that's how nice it is.

Last night was pleasant.  We played Mathletics for a while and then had dinner.  Tuesdays are quite relaxed in the Gilbert household.

Yesterday I collected Sally and Andrew from Wellington airport.  Mike drove into work in the Mighty Red Galant and so it was easy to colelct them.  They dropped me at work on their way home.  They look very happy and relaxed.  Sleepy almost.  Heheheheh.  They had been travelling since Sunday to get here.  Phew!  I can't wait to catch up with them.

Ok.  Time to start in earnest!
Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

Can't think in connected paragraphs anymore

... I've spent too much time on Facebook, so now I communicate in short, random sentences.  Like:

• RIP Rushes Restaurant, Pauatahanui - it's gone broke and is closed. A few years back, used to be a fantastic little spot when you wanted to splurge after a nice drive over the hill. But the reviews tell its sad decline.
• Sunny and warm on Friday. Gales and showers Friday night. Suny and breezy on Saturday. Changeable on Sunday. Hail and biting southerlies on Monday. Crisp and nice on Tuesday.  Welcome to Wellington in the spring!
• Was a bit late this morning, because Toby just wouldn't get off the computer.  Which I'd normally be grumpy about - but he was trying out mathletics.co.nz and didn't want to stop.
• Drove Sally's Mighty Red Galant in so collect them from the airport.  Gee, it's an old girl.  It's very exciting to drive now... as in, 'will I be able to brake in time??' exciting.

Well, that's my attention span done.  What was I talking about again?

The Monday with freezing rain and hail - brrrrrr

Hi,

I am so happy I took the bus in yesterday as it was absolutely freezing all day.  I got hailed on collecting Toby for Keas at the other end of the day too. 

Keas was great fun last night.  We had 14 Keas and that included 4 girls.  A good mix.  We were supposed to learn about Keas but we'd done that a while back.  So we played a version of "Robbing the nest" called "Steal the shiny objects from the car".  We were Keas afrer all.  The kids had a ball.  Toby's team won a round and that made him extraordinarily happy.  Then we played "Pin the beak on the Kea" and that was fun too.

Next week is investiture week and we're planning on doing 10 of the children!  Woo hoo!

Tonight is homework night.  Mind you, I don't think Toby has any just yet for this term.  But we have bought a Mathletics membership for him and will do that in earnest tonight.  http://www.mathletics.co.nz/  I have watched the Sampson children doing this and it looks like a fun way to help with Maths.  We'll see how Toby gets on with it.  He likes working on the computer so it might be very good.

That's about all.  I hope you have a great day!  Sally and Andrew are due back at around lunchtime today.  Cool!

Love,
Angela

The weekend where we did nothing - how nice for a change!

Hi,

My goodness, this is a wintry blast this morning.  I lay in bed listening to the howling wind lash raindrops against the house and decided on the bus.  When I got up, it sort of looked ok.  So I got into my bike gear.  Then 30 minutes later a hailstorm came in from the south pelting us with little chips of ice and I scurried back into my work clothes and settled on the bus.  Lucky too as it also hailed on the way in and I would  have been riding then still.  My feet were little blocks of ice on the bus.  Brrrrr.

Keas tonight - first one back for the term.  Oooooo.

The weekend was lazy.  We did next to nothing.  The main computer has blown up and Mike took it apart on Saturday and we figured out we need a new power supply for it.  Fingers crossed that works.  We also got a new cable box called t-box that lets us record what we want onto its hard drive.  It's so good because we don't like to watch much television, but when we do, we like to watch specific things.  I have Time Team recording everywhere.  It's superb!  We also have a lot of Cartoon Network.  Oh well.

Sunday we had good intentions of riding in a bike race in Waikanae.  But the Gilberts couldn't get out of bed early enough to be in Waikanae by 8.45am.  The bed had us in a steel grip!  So we did very little before a flurry of activity in the afternoon.  Afternoon tea at the James' house with other friends arriving too.  Then dinner at the Bichans where Toby fell inexplicably ill with a bit of puke in a convenient (phew!) plastic bag on the way there in the car.  He had some toast and seemed to perk up.  He tells us it's because of the Halloween lollies he was looking at (just looking, not eating).  The lollies were eyeballs, fingers and skulls.  Heheheheh.  Better get rid of them then.

Hope your weekend was fun!
Back to normal routine now after Mum and Dad looked after Toby for most of the school holidays!  Let's see how Toby copes with the first few days of normality.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday that was fun

Hi,

This morning is gorgeous.  Mike is off to Auckland for work and back tomorrow night.  I have tomorrow off and can only hope for nice weather like today!

The kids have had loads of fun and Karen comes at midnight tonight to collect them and whisk them away early on Saturday morning.  Toby is going to be very sad.

We went to dinner last night to Christine and John's house.  Risotto.  Yum!  Wee Tom slept the whole time we were there.  Had a pleasant time chatting away (I avoided the suggestion to play cards quite deftly).

Busy at work again today. 

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with lovely weather and a great bike ride home

Hi,

Yesterday was so lovely - and the ride home with Mike was late enough (about 6.15pm) to avoid any traffic.  It was calm and still and I got up the hill just fine.  And Mike changed my tyres when we got home to my road slick hybrids so I'll go even faster next time.  We spoke to Mike's parents for a bit (Ron was selling his Velocette motorcycles at an online auction so we watched that) - they are fine.

The kids may have gone to Staglands in Upper Hutt yesterday.  I spoke to Dad early on and that was the plan.  I think they would have loved it.

Mike and I walked in again this morning.  It takes almost exactly 55 minutes.  And about 60 minutes walking back home.  Not too bad.

Ok.  Time to get stuck in - and I need a cup of tea.

Love,
Angela

The Monday with lovely weather, dinner out and a Tuesday morning with no technician

Hi,

What another gorgeous day.  It's very odd though as I was waiting for a technician to arrive between 8.30am and 9.30am.  At the end of that time I asked Mike to see if there was a problem.  After 40 minutes on hold, Mike discovered the technicians had lost all 30 scheduled jobs for today and they weren't coming.

We're booked in for Saturday morning.

Mike took me out to dinner last night - to Mungavin Blues in Porirua.  It was ok.  Nothing sensational although Mike loved his dessert.

And that's about it.  Rode in for the first time in ages today.  It was quieter at 11am compared to even 7am!  Nice ride.

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The weekend with lovely weather, water fun and Yum Cha

Hi,

What a lovely run of weather we're having.  All for a nice spring feel.  This morning Mike and I walked in with a still, calm morning, with the sun shining.  I wore sunglasses!  Honest!

Sunday was great fun.  We went to Yum Cha and Abby had stand by sandwiches just in case she didn't like the food.  But she ate well (maybe she likes Toby's kids chopsticks) and the sandwiches were unnecessary.  We met Christine and John and Tom there as well.  Very nice.

Then home to get the kids togs (they were at Mum and Dad's place) and off to H2OXtreme in Upper Hutt for some water fun.  Abby loved the water slides.  One was pitch black inside and she always went down on my lap in that one (mainly because I asked her to) but she went down the other one by herself many times, with Tyler sometimes and with Toby a few times.  We both steered clear of the almost vertical yellow fast slide.  Yuck!  Mike and I did have a comms mix up though.  I thought he was going to collect Tom and he thought it was me.  So when I got there and met Mike and William (Toby's friend from his class), I said "Where's Tom?" at about the same time as Mike said it to me.  Oops.  But Christine came and brought him.  A good thing too as it would have been hard looking after Tom and Abby (they are fulltime in the pool) and William, Toby and Tyler who like to run around like mad things.  Phew!

Saturday we won't discuss much.  The AFL Grand Final was a disappointment.  Can't see St Kilda bouncing back after that dismal performance to get into another Grand Final next year.  Woeful.

I hope Mum and Dad have fun with the kids today.  They are enjoying each other's company still.  Now, if only Tyler can get Toby away from his DS Lite for a few hours today...

Anyhow - time to get stuck in. 

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with table tennis and migraines - nice!

Hi,

The rain has stopped just in time for Dad's birthday!  Happy birthday, Dad.  He has the day off and the kids are off to Skids (school holiday programme) for the day.  They have a movie excursion so I hope they have a lot of fun.

I'm going to collect them from Skids at about 5.30pm.  I'm looking forward to some Friday night fun.

Yesterday was so wet - it was amazing.  There were floods and slips everywhere.  Chaos ruled the world.

I went to table tennis last night for the first time in ages.  My cold is still there in some form or other, but I played ok anyway.  It was the last night of the season.  A big night - and they all missed Mum.

Mike is better after his migraine yesterday.  He'd have to be - it was pretty bad.  But he came back to work in the afternoon.

We walked into work this morning once more.  It was a nice morning for it and I felt better after the break from walking yesterday.

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela