The Monday with nothing

Hi,

Mike and I split our resources after work.  He drove to collect my bike from its service (and despite the cost, my bike is purring like a beautiful purring thing) and I went to the supermarket to get groceries.

We have a budget for things now.  It is still fledgling, but I only have a limited amount of money to spend per week on groceries before we eat nothing but rice.  Lucky we like rice.  I came in well under my limit so I have a bit left up my sleeve for the rest of the week should I find out (highly likely) that I have forgotten some crucial groceries.

Mike collected me and we went home and cooked tea.  Scrumptious even if I say so myself.  Steak (rare for the younger Gilberts and horribly ruined for the older Gilberts - but they seemed happy), fresh salsa, salad.  I forgot the carbo component.  Oops.  We ate cheese and bread afterwards to compensate.  Made lunches for me and Mike with the leftovers.

Rode my newly serviced bike into town this morning.  Such a nice dry ride in.  And I went so fast because I can stop again now!  The sheer, unbridled joy of stopping power!  Love it!  Well, perhaps the joy isn't really at stopping, but the bit that comes just before that involving going fast down a hill again!  It has been too long.

Our deck is coming along!  We need photos of it.  It has the skeleton formed outside our bedroom now.  We can see how wide it is there.  And I can still loads of stars from the bed, so it's okay!  It's going to be great.  Despite the necessity for lots of rice eating to pay for it.  :-p

Have a wonderful day.  It is my last day in my current job - I have accepted a position upstairs for a while.  A secondment to the support services.  Should keep me out of mischief until the end of November.  Same job title and everything, just a different workload.  Different scenery.  Different people to work with.  I'll miss these guys here though.  What a nice bunch!  I hope they still call me for the odd cup of tea.

Mike's parents are doing a fabulous job with Toby.  He loves their company.  Yesterday Mike dropped them in Karori and they discovered the school holiday programme starts today instead.  So they walked back home.  Good on them!  Great walk for Toby.  Today Mike is dropping them off again and hopefully he is riding in from there.  That might mean a nice ride home today with him!  That'd be nice.

Love,
Angela

The long weekend

Hi,

Four days off - how nice!

Wednesday night Toby had a sleepover at Magnus's house so Mike took me out for dinner.  Strawberry Fare.  Yum!  I could only manage half of my pie.

What a huge dessert!

My banoffee pie

I got up for the dawn service on Thursday.  Mike had arranged me to go in with Christine, John and wee Tom.  So I wandered around to their place at 5.10am and we drove into town.  The service was great.  I was on the other side of the crowd this time, and could watch everything on a big screen.  Tom loved it.  We went back to the marae and had an ANZAC cookie and a cup of tea.  Lucky I noticed we were originally in the rum and coffee queue.  Yucky!

I left John and Christine socialising and walked home.  I hopped back into bed (well, it was only 7.30am and Mike was still snoring when I got home) and read.  And Mike got up and made smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels.  Yum!

Had a lazy day.  Toby got home from a sleepover with Magnus and he'd had a great time.  Sally and Andrew arrived at 5pm and we went for tea to Porto Vino (on the waterfront).  Scrumptious!  I had the salmon penne.  The place was full of St Kilda supporters having dinner before the game.  Walked to the game and shouted all evening.  St Kilda lost.  But we had fun.

There were 6 adults (us and John and Christine) and three kids (wee Tom had a friend).  John and Christine left a little early.  On our way back to the car we watched some idiots playing in the traffic on Waterloo Quay so Andrew did his civic duty and rang the police.

Friday I met up with Aidan and her boys and they all played lazer tag.   Aidan's friend Jane had organised it. Toby had a ball.  Then off to Te Papa for the Gamemasters exhibition.  Aidan went through it and it sucked her energy completely.  It was like another woman emerged from the hall.  Weird.

Duncan stayed the night and we had fun.  He watched Real Steel with Toby and declared it in his favourite movie list.  Next morning we went out for lunch and then watched The Croods.

Comfy

Glowing 3D glasses

I enjoyed that!  Back home to meet Zar and his wife and then off to Waikanae to drop Duncan home.  Via the best curry place in all Wellington.

Sunday was lazy too.  Mike went tramping with Andrew and Josh, so he wasn't lazy.  I read lots.  And got through laundry and ironing.  Toby went around to play with Jacob and I had a cup of tea with Susan.

Mike's parents arrived with him to look after Toby.  He's hopefully off to a school holiday programme this week.

Have a great week.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday at work for me

Hi,

Mike had a work function at 5pm so he drove in and I swapped Toby duties with him.  I took Toby out to Epuni and he stayed the night with Mike's parents.  They will look after Toby all day Wednesday (today).

I drove back and had something to eat and fell asleep before Mike got home.  Sounds like he had a good time chatting to people at his work function.

We took my bike in for its service.  Outrageous cost.  Oh well.

The deck work is going well.  That's a good thing!  Mike has photos of progress.  Maybe he'll update the blog with pics.

Have a marvellous day!

Love,
Angela

The Monday with me working alone

Hi,

My boys had a relaxing day at home.  I know this because the house looked pretty much the same as it did when I left in the morning, apart from having less food in the pantry.  Hahahah.  I'm not going to complain.  Mike did come and pick me up when it hosed down at 5pm.

I took my bike in yesterday for an assessment before its service tomorrow.  They reckon it might cost me $450 to get it serviced.  I am a bit perplexed given it is only 18 months old and for the cost of two services like that I could buy a new one the same.  Sigh.  Decisions, decisions.  I do like my bike and it runs well.  I don't want it to fall apart on me.  But why pay half its price in services every 18 months when I could throw it away after three years and buy another one?  And this irritates me because my last bike went for 18 years and I never so much as changed its chain in all that time!  Nothing!  I put better brakes on it and that's all.  I'm thinking I might go back to commuting on my old bike and keep my new (ish) mountain bike for touring and exploring mountain bike tracks and my road bike for long road rides.

I think this is worthy of a protracted discussion with Andrew.

Anyhow, we got home and Mike cooked up a nice tea (leftovers from Saturday night) and we had a bath.  On Sunday night I had chatted with Janne about relationships and she mentioned she and Aidan had annual reviews of their relationship.  They compared goals, aspirations, likes, dislikes.  So Mike and I started it in the bath last night.  Turns out I am the perfect wife.  Mike couldn't think of anything that I did that irritated him.  Hahahah!  Who is the deluded one?  Not me!  He said he'd think about it and collate anything for the next annual review.  Jeepers, it might be four pages long by then!  We have a few things to try and implement within the next week to sort out annoying things (Mike wants us to budget - uh oh.  I said give me a plan and I'll stick to it!).  Mike also wants monthly assessments on the status of the items to instigate for the coming year.  My goodness, this is going to be huge!  :-p  Either that or he thinks he will collate my annoying habits and it might be best to heap them on me monthly rather than have 30 all at once next May!

What fun, eh?  Mike is very amusing to have around.  I'm pretty lucky!

Had a nice dry ride in - makes the front brakes work a little better.  Will try and ride home the long way tonight.  I bought a nice wee front light for my road bike yesterday.  I don't have a lot of handlebar space on the road bike and this wee aluminium machined LED light fits nicely and is out of the way for riding.  Also light and did I mentioned little? Here is the link to the website for it:  Femto front light  So now I can ride the road bike in and out when I want to try a long ride home.  Choice!

Work on the deck has started.  Wilf and Mike are there, poking around at the weatherboards.  Bit scary.

Have a wonderful day.  Mike and Toby meet Mike's parents today off the plane.  And Toby gets a haircut.  He will look even more handsome than normal after that!

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Wellington

Hi,

Friday night was such fun - we all went around to Sally and Andrew's house and looked at photos and watched a slide show that Vivienne had collated.  We also ate yummy fish 'n' chips.  Any night where you don't have to cook is a good night.

We decided to pitch the tent and sleep in their back yard.  Just as Toby and I crawled into our sleeping bags it started raining.  And never really stopped all weekend.  But with no wind, the rain came down vertically.  Always a welcome sight in Wellington - well, to my eyes at any rate.

Mike got up early (ish) and went to get McDonalds for breakfast and we toddled off home via the supermarket.  We prepared dinner and then tidied up.  As much as I could be bothered.

Then around 4pm the Tabors arrived and Emerson and Duncan nipped downstairs and we hardly saw any of the boys.  We chatted to Aidan and Josh before Mike went out to get Liz.  Sally and Andrew arrived and the dinner was served.

What a lovely evening.  There was discussion about books (ta for cleaning up my Kindle, Aidan) and I have a list of recommended books to track down.  I heard political intrigue discussed.  The finer points of beer.  All manner of things.

Eventually it was time to drop Liz off home and come back to bed.  Slept like a log.  Next morning was demolition time. Toby loved it.

Take that!

Then I was off to meet Liz for an iced coffee at Joe's Garage.  Sllluuurrrrpppp!

Mmmmmmmm

Iced coffee - with none of the good stuff

Liz had them make her an iced coffee American style.  Yucky.  Hahahah.  Where was her chocolate fish then?

We then went to see a Film Festival movie.  From Up on Poppy Hill  I loved it!  A Japanese anime movie.  A sweet love story.  Cute film.

Then Mike collected me and we had a great family dinner at Sally and Andrew's place.  A huge family affair as Peter and his family were down.  We don't see them that much!  I chatted to Janne for ages.

Home to bed.

It was hard to get up this morning because Mike and Toby are in bed still.  Well, they did get up.  Mike has two days off to look after Toby.  I rode into iRide for my bike assessment before its service on Wednesday. Ouch!  It's going to hurt the back pocket.

Have a wonderful day.
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with nothing much

Hi,

I walked home pushing my bike with Mike for a good long chat.  I love walking and chatting.  It's almost as good as chatting in the bath!  Hahahaha!

We had tea and then did the bed routine (which actually did involve baths all round).

We're off to Sally and Andrew's place to have tea there tonight.  Vivienne will come around.  Should be a lot of fun!

Have a look at my bruise development this week!  How cool!  Andrew calls it a sunset now.

15

16 Apr

17

18

Friday

Weekend is a wee bit damp.   Should be a relaxing weekend.  Liz is coming for tea on Saturday as are the Tabors.  Fun!

Last day of term today for Toby.  Karen and her family are off to Thailand today!  Lucky them!

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with tramping club

Hi,

I rode home in the wet but it wasn't too bad really.  Collected Toby, fed him and then went to collect Vivienne and Andrew on the way to tramping club.  Mike was running the evening talk and it was a different night from the normal routine.  Mike asked people to come up and talk about their favourite piece of tramping gear.

Mike started with his tramping boots from around 1988.

Nice boots Mike - and happy birthday for tomorrow, Vince!

Here he is on Mana Island in about 1996 with Vince (who must have been around 7 years old) wearing his tramping boots.  Aren't they both cute?  Vince has his birthday tomorrow - happy birthday.  Bet you look a wee bit different now.

Andrew had the audience in the palm of his hand with his penny stove.  I think he could have talked for 40 minutes on just that!  The tramping/cycling light also got them excited.

Vivienne enthralled people with her external frame backpack that still looks immaculate.  A museum will be asking her for it one day soon!  Her photos were great.

Toby got up to help Ilske demonstrate her new sleeping mat.  Its carry bag doubles as a pump.  How cool!  Others talked about their favourite pieces of kit too!

Then I dropped Mike and Toby off, Vivienne off and Andrew off and sang all the way back home.  Nice way to end the evening.  I think I did a marvellous rendition of "Leave out all the rest" by Linkin Park, but of course, I'll never be able to repeat it and no one was around to confirm it.  Hahahah!

New Zealand just passed the same-sex marriage law reform last night.  What a great step to equality.  Even if I know no one who will use the new law, it just makes sense.  Yay for sensible decisions from politicians.

The rain is heavier today.  Pretty sure this means we're no longer in drought here.  My front brakes are even more hopeless in the rain.  I rode like a granny down the hill this morning.  No chance of getting to 60 km/hr today.

Have a fantastic day!  I'm going to start mine right now with the best cup of tea ever!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with no Mike

Hi,

I rode home and was amazed at how easy our hill was - I think the weekend's activities actually improved my fitness.  It may have decreased Andrew's fitness - he said he doesn't usually eat cooked breakfasts and have leisurely afternoon tea sessions afterwards.  Hahahah!  But I hooned up the hill.

Cooked some dinner (loose definition of the word) and dropped Toby off at Cubs.  Went home to do some laundry and then popped back to collect Toby.  He had a bath and went to bed.  I finished my awesome book (and there are more in the series!) and fell asleep.

Mike woke me by tapping on the French doors of our bedroom.  He looked cute enough so I let him in!  He had been out with a work colleague solving the problems of the world and generally skylarking about over Wellington.  I heard all about his evening.  If I'd have been upstairs I probably would have heard it just as easily.  His volume control was faulty.  Maybe he'd been somewhere loud???

Raining this morning.  I pushed my bike in with Mike so we chatted all the way in.  We have tramping club tonight - Mike is running the session.  I'm trying to convince Toby to do a spiel.  People have to talk briefly about their favourite piece of tramping gear.  Toby's is his backpack, I found out.

I got the latest version of Android on my phone yesterday.  I am all JellyBeaned up now.  Very nice - I like what I've seen so far.  I spent a bit of time face tagging people in my camera's photo gallery.  It's not as good as the Picasa one we use on the web - but it seems fairly accurate.

Have a wonderful day!  Hope Aidan's day goes well - she's got an unusual day to say the least.  Filming at her house for a training video she's involved with.  I hope I get to hear all about that at some stage!

Love,
Angela

The Monday with nothing

Hi,

Mike and I walked home yesterday (he pushed my bike) and we chatted up the hill.  We may have missed each other's company over the weekend!  Hahahah.  I put tea on and Mike collected Toby and we had a nice dinner after I popped out to get the groceries.

Mike rang around people for tramping club and I read and fell asleep within seconds of turning out my light.

And that is about it.  This morning was fine for riding in.  I must book my bike in for a service - the front brake doesn't stop me much anymore.

Sophie measuring my monitor height

Measuring accurately!

My colleague Sophie has been waging a campaign to get me to straighten my monitor.  She swears it is crooked and has resorted to taking measurements to prove her theory.  Mike thinks my desk might be crooked.  I wondered about my eyes!  Hahahah.  Sophie is great fun!  Hopes she gets in soon - I need a nice cup of tea.

Have a wonderful day.  Cubs tonight - but the forecast rain probably means they will be in the den for the last night of term.


Love,
Angela

The weekend with my first cycle tour

Hi,

Wow - just wow!  What a great weekend.  We got the 8pm ferry, which, as stated when you bought the tickets, has little in the way of services.  So holding out for dinner on the 8pm ferry is not the right idea.  I had the absolute worst sausage roll I have ever seen, let alone eaten.  But I was hungry.  Andrew had the last pie. Guess the flavour?  Kumara and cashew!  Yep - I know!  That's not a pie!  That's an abomination!

Anyhow, I fell asleep curled up on a seat lying over my pannier.  We were the only two bikes on board and lashed them together over the top of the pathetic bike stand.  We carried our gear up and strewed it all around us and dozed after the satisfying meal.  Or is that in spite of the less than satisfying meal?

Off the ferry and the excitement levels were high.  We rode past the waterfront at about 11.20pm.  I spied Le Cafe and discovered it was the cafe we have used the last few times we've been in Picton.  Cool.  Rode over the arched bridge through the marina and out into suburban Picton.  Soon we were outside the built up area in pitch blackness and hooning through the bays.  I'm sure they were pretty.  Couldn't see much.  Some houses looked spectacular.

I almost bowled a penguin (Little Blue - or Fairy for the Australian readers) sitting in the middle of the road.  Lucky for it there were no cars.  Seems like a silly thing to do if you ask me.  It was the same colour as the road and I braked hard and Andrew also had to as he was right behind me.  I yelped "Penguin" and Andrew noticed a blur on the road as we passed.

Soon at Whatamango Bay and pitched the tent, brushed my teeth under the brilliant Milky Way and fell asleep to the bird life all around.

Whatamango Bay - very pleasant spot

Up early enough to misty drizzle and ate my muesli.  It was yummy.  Hubbards toasted with no fruit.  Mmmmm.  Struck the tent, packed up and left after circling the campsite to check it out.

Out of the campsite and the road immediately went up.  And up. And up.  Five kilometres of unrelenting up. I was down in the granny gear before too long and eventually, after about an hour, I was up.  Phew!  Good views!

Down the other side was fun.  The little bays and inlets were lovely.  Lots of hills and we ran out of seal pretty soon.  I found it tough riding up loose gravel on steep hills.

Cup of tea at Tom Canes Bay - very pleasant.

Shot of the bike computer showing kms.

Cup of tea?  It was welcome!

My bruise from netball on Friday afternoon looks good

More of the same for the afternoon.  I had to push up the hill out of Robin Hood Bay as the steep hills and gravel defeated me.  But I got back on at every opportunity!

Robin Hood Bay - historic whaling bay

Loving my bruise

We decided to ride all the way to Rarangi - the seal started again at White Bay.  We got a bit of rain for 5 minutes so we didn't stop.  Got to Rarangi and pitched the tent and it started hosing down!  Andrew cooked tea in the vestibule of the tent while I perhaps fell asleep.  Dinner was scrumptious.

Rarangi DoC campsite

Up early to strike the tent and off to Blenheim for breakfast at Figaros.  It was great - I had Eggs Benedict and a great cup of Rooibos tea.  Andrew had buttermilk pancakes with lashings of bacon and banana and maple syrup.

Blenheim Farmers market - these were the best!

 Off to the Farmers market to check it out.  It was very, very nice.

Bruise developing nicely

 Then along to Renwick, I went back via the shortcut road and Andrew rode along the Wairau river bank.  We met at Wairau Affray and had lunch.  Then we tackled the Picton hill.  I didn't realise it was not that steep - I was anticipating a devilish ride.  It was easy in comparison to the hills Andrew had me on the day before!  We rode 125 kilometres all up - but the 40km on loose gravel with steep hills was by far the hardest part.  The ride around Blenheim was indulgent really.  Now I know how easy that can be!  The off road, not so much!

On the road back to Picton

Picton and a really strong iced coffee at Le Cafe

A long afternoon spent sampling the delights of Le Cafe.  Andrew is converted to that cafe.  We watched a Herald Triumph lose its front wheel right in front of us.  It makes a loud noise when that happens.  The driver was doing a sharp u-turn and the wheel didn't turn.  Oops.

Onto the ferry and Mike met us at 10pm and took us home.  What an amazing weekend.  I'd like to do more!

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with user group

Hi,

Went out to the user group session last night and it went well.  We had a good healthy discussion about the future of the products we're interested in and at least 15 people turned up.  We even had a few newbies!

Mike came in to collect me afterwards and we went home and watched Toby do his homework.  It was very hard to get him to settle, but once he was into it, it went well.  Then off to bed.

We have ferry tickets for tonight.  We're on the 8pm Interislander crossing because the 6pm sailing was full! Maybe there is something on in the South Island Andrew and I are unaware of completely.

I have my panniers packed and my bike ready to go.  Well, those wee things I mentioned I needed to get together yesterday?  I still need to get them together.  But all good.  I'll ride home after work, finish getting ready and Mike will drop me at the ferry.  I want to put his bike light on my bike too!  This is because Andrew and I will be riding at 11.30pm tonight to the campground.  How cool is that?  Well, so long as Andrew let's me sleep in a wee bit the next morning, it is cool!  If I have to get up at 5am to be on the road, it might not be quite that cool.

The weather looks superb where we're going.  Blue skies, light wind and sun, sun, sun.  I'm really rather excited.

Have a wonderful weekend.  Hopefully my phone will keep a charge and I get some photos from the weekend to show you.  Aidan has one request I am happy to oblige - I need to get one at Le Cafe on the waterfront at Picton.  I wonder if they do iced coffees?  I know I can convince Andrew to sample their wares if they have iced coffee on the menu.

I hope the boys have a good time in my absence.  I don't often go away and leave them behind.  I am concerned about things like laundry and ironing.  Can't see an awful lot of that getting done somehow.  Maybe that'll be Monday night's job?  Toby will be thrilled to spend so much time with Mike.  He loved last weekend's tramp with him a lot.  Good bonding times.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with tramping club for Mike

Hi,

Mike is now officially on the tramping club committee.  Are we happy?  Well, I was training him to say "No!" very firmly.  Look where that got him!  Hahahah.  He seems pretty happy with his new found social standing in the community.  He got home late from his celebratory night.  (Snorting with a bit of derision here).

Toby and I had a quiet evening in.  I am in denial that I am getting Mike's cold.  What cold?  Nope.  I packed for the weekend and was horrified that my sleeping bag (well, Mike's good one actually) took up half my pannier, even with my compression stuff sack squashing it to bits.  No room for undies!  Hahahah.  Andrew is going to wish we were in separate tents at this rate.  Lubed my bike and declared it ready (ready as it'll ever be - no, hold on.  That's applicable to me!  I'm as ready as I'll ever be.  The bike could easily be a lot more ready.  If we waited for me to be ready, we'd never get there.).

I just need to gather a few more wee things (tube, pump, tyre levers) and I'll be sorted.  We're on the ferry straight after work tomorrow night and back on Sunday night.  Weather looks good!  Oooshhh!

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with Cubs

Hi,

I rode home and stayed dry - we had a huge downpour in the afternoon but it was all over by the time I knocked off work.  Collected Toby and cooked him some tea.  I dropped him off at Cubs and picked Mike up from work.  He's busy at the moment and working late hours.  He's also coming down with a cold, so I might have to make him soup in the near future.

Andrew and I have started plans for the weekend.  We're heading to Picton with our bicycles and we're going to go... somewhere.  I confess I have no idea where Port Underwood is.  But I'll follow Andrew.  Anyway, with Andrew leading it might be blissful to be a tiny bit ignorant of how far he wants me to ride.  Hahahah.  I'm very excited.  I have never been cycle touring before.  And Aidan has tried to convince us that Picton is the most underrated tourist destination in the country.  So obviously I am mad keen to spend any time there at all!  Just what does she see in that place?  I'm going with new eyes, just to check it out.

I collected Toby at the end of Cubs and went to bed to keep reading my book.  It reached a bit of a drawn out part where I think it is meant for the hero to realise the heroine isn't necessarily helpless.  He's hopelessly old fashioned.  Happens where you're 6000 years old, I guess.  But I'm still enjoying it.  Lots of fighting at the end of last night's read.  Nice and gory.  You get that with fierce, but stupid and criminal, werewolves.

Nice ride in this morning.  Roads nice and dry.  Not too cold.  Not much wind.  I can even see some sunshine.  Today is supposed to be nice.  Tomorrow, not so much.

Have a fantastic day!
Love,
Angela

The Monday with nothing

Hi,

I drove home via the supermarket yesterday and collected Toby.  Turns out the deck builders had been at work and we have no gib on our dining room wall anymore.

Toby doing his homework and checking out the missing gib

The builders wanted to check what was under the gib.  Okay.  There you go.  Studs, dwangs and dust.  That's the limit of my building knowledge.

Cubs night tonight.  A scavenger hunt at the den.  Should be a lot of fun.

Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Angela

The weekend with tramping for the boys and lots of reading for me

Hi,

The boys left early on Saturday morning after a Friday night movie (Jurassic Park 2) and I left to get the wee green car warranted.  Oh, no.  Hold on.  I didn't.  It failed due to wonky headlights.  Yes, I know.  The same issue as the Corolla.  How many wonky headlights can our cars possibly have?  Now we have to sort out taking it in to get it fixed.

I went home and read.  Actually, I think that sums up the rest of the weekend for me.  I read a Young Adult lovey dovey story called "Slammed" which has made me swear off soppy books for a while.  I finished reading a Sookie Stackhouse book, a No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency book and started the first book in ages that I don't want to put down.  It's called Alaskan Fire (Guardians of the First Realm) and I am loving it!  Yay for fantasy.  Boo for soppy stories that make you cry.

Tried out a bath bomb from Lush in the evening.  The bubbles get quite thick in a spa bath!  It was fun and combined with reading; several hours did pass.  Our spa bath also heats water, don't you know!  Hahahah.

Up early Sunday to go to the market with Vivienne.  We had a great time wandering around with Ramble - my first time in the under cover market under the apartment buildings down near Waitangi Park.  Yummy stuff there.

Our concrete slab is all done now.  It looks great.  The deck is going to start any day now.  Yikes!

Slab from the side - Mike doing his male model impersonation

Toby back from tramping - he jumped straight in the bath (using his new carrot bubble stuff from Lush)

Andrew had an amazing weekend cycling in the top of the South Island.  Speaking of which, I have made a submission to LINZ for its official name change.  I support two official names for it.  South Island and Te Waipounamu.  I'm heading there with Andrew this coming weekend.  Cool fun!

Forgot to mention I passed the exam on Friday.  Yay!  Maybe that will put off the calls for me to do an exam for a while.  I am hopeful.  I hope they don't see that as an admission that I can pass them and I should do more.  Hahahah.

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with parent teacher interview

Hi,

I rode home to collect the car and Toby and get changed and then head to collect Mike.  But a wee change in plan saw Toby staying with Alex for the evening (his mother also had parent teacher interview).  So I collected Mike alone and we went to see Mr Wilson.  Toby is doing well and his teacher has no issues.  He needs to focus more.  Yep.

Grocery shopping while hungry wasn't a good idea.  We bought so much food!  Ouch!  Collected Toby on the way home and put away the groceries.  Had a good sleep!

This morning (Friday) is lovely.  A few more weeks into autumn and I think it would have been a good frost today.  My fingers were cold on the ride in for the first time in months.  No wind, blue skies.  Absolutely lovely here.

Mike and Toby are off tramping this weekend. The weather is supposed to deteriorate though.  But I think they'll still have a lot of fun.  I'm meeting Aidan for lunch so that makes me happy.  I do have an exam for the first time in years before that though.  I hope it goes okay.  Yuck!

We have a concrete slab!  Yes.  Look!

Slab poured

What next?  Arrghhhh.  The deck.  A bit of disruption to our lives for a while.  Never mind.  Next summer it'll be worth it.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with tramping club for Mike

Hi,

I rode home (yucky weather - strong wind and rain) and collected Toby and cooked a yummy experimental dinner.  I liked it and Mike has it for his lunch today so he'll let me know if it is yummy.  But Toby didn't eat an awful lot of it.  Looked pretty good to me.  Experiments happen when you need to go grocery shopping and you end up having to raid the pantry.

I call it:  Chicken rice cheesy thingy - with broccoli

I chatted on the phone to Mike and then his Dad rang.  So it was a while before I went downstairs and found Toby enjoying the Minecraft videos on YouTube (and hardly touched his dinner).  Toby and I had a bath (not together!) and went to bed.  Mike got home late because it was a special tramping night - the photo competition!  Vivienne joined him there.

A bit rainy again today but I avoided getting wet (just) on the way in.  We have parent teacher interviews tonight.  Lucky I remembered and booked it in yesterday.  Yikes.  Aidan and I were thinking we need a Mary Poppins to keep our lives organised.  The position is open.  Happy to accept all applicants.  Feel free to supply a trial run.

Have a wonderful day!  I have lunch with Roz today (she's down from Auckland), so my social life is going great guns.  And maybe lunch with Aidan tomorrow.  Ooosssshhhh!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with dinner in Waikanae

Hi,

We collected Josh at 5pm and drove up to Waikanae.  It was a race against Josh's normal train and despite a slight clogging of traffic below Pukerua Bay, we beat the train easily.  Mike and Josh chatted about all manner of things while I listened.  In fact, that proved to be the tenor for the night.  People talking, me listening.

Toby had a great day with Duncan and Emerson at the holiday programme.  I heard about Lazer Tag and playing arcade games.  Cool fun!

Aidan cooked up a great meal of tacos, corn and salad and I took Lulu for a walk.  The drive back was great too.

Today looks like a spot of rain!  Oooooo.  Hahahah. It is certainly threatening enough.  I'll ride home and cook tea with Toby.  Mike has to work late.

Have a fantastic day!
Love,
Angela

The Easter at home

Hi,

Happy birthday to Mike's Dad today!  Woo hoo!

I'll never remember what we got up to.  But here goes.  Good Friday was a pleasant relaxing day at home.  We mucked around - I did some half-hearted cleaning.  Well, actually, all my cleaning is half-hearted, so I'm not sure it was any different to normal.  Then I finally gathered enough energy to hop on my bike and ride to Sally and Andrew's place via the bottom of Haywards.  Mike and Toby drove there with the tent.  I rode 35 kms and got to their house in time for a good chat with others.  Iona and Col were there because they were heading to the airport bright and early for their Tasmanian holiday!

Vivienne, John and Benjamin came too, as did Helen and Ron.  So it was a good family affair.  Great BBQ outside and yummy food (as usual).  We eventually pitched the tent and fell into a coma.

I was up early-ish and rode my bike from there to Waikanae over the Akatarawa Road (through Upper Hutt).  I got a little lost riding to Upper Hutt - I meant to get on SH2 and ride up there, but I missed a bridge and ended up riding up the river trail and through the centre of Upper Hutt.  Anyhow, it took me 3.5 hours to do the 60 kms to Waikanae.  I need to get faster - and I might be addicted to it!

I relaxed at the Tabor house on my own,m chilling out in their porch.  Aidan rang and gave me permission to use their key and go inside.  I made a nice cup of tea.  Eventually everyone got home and Mike and Toby drove up.  Aidan even kindly fed me a yummy lunch (her tuna mayo is spectacular!).  We went for a ride in the afternoon with them.

Then Mike and Toby and I bundled into the car and went to the beach for fish n chips.  William was playing at the park so he caught up with Toby briefly.  After chippies, we drove home and crashed into bed.

Easter Sunday we were up eventually and pulled on some clothes so we could roll eggs down the hill before scoffing them.

Egg rolling done right

Toby bowling his egg

Mike's egg is a bunny and in a bucket so it can roll - sort of

Toby got to go swimming with his friend Akash in the afternoon.  When they got home, they had an Easter Egg hunt inside because the weather was quite yucky.  A bit of rain finally.  Sunday evening we spent at Vivienne and John's house and had a cracking roast pork dinner.  The starter soup was very spicy broccoli soup but Toby ate it just fine.  I think he is getting a great tolerance for spice.  Time to up the levels on our food!  Sally popped in to join us and we all had a great chat into the evening.  Until I fell into a coma on the couch!

Monday we were up early and away for breakfast at Maccas at Paraparaumu.  Mike and Toby ate breakfast and when they went back for seconds, it was normal menu so they ate burgers for follow ups.  Toby ate a bacon and egg muffin, pancakes, and two chicken cheese burgers.  He has holes in his legs at the moment.

We arrived at the Tabor house to find Aidan chatting to her father (a quick hello/goodbye from us) and then we dropped Mike and Toby at the Scout den and Aidan and I raced off to see The Host.  Aidan snacked on sushi before the movie.  She was so funny - she hid the sushi in her jersey to get i in.  And then wouldn't start it until the lights went out for fear of discovery.  Turns out the sushi wasn't great - but eating in the dark might not have been the best option.  Made me laugh.  I enjoyed the movie - thought it did quite well trying to capture the book.  Aidan loves the book to bits and the movie didn't quite live up to her expectations.  But she thought it was okay.

Back to her house and off to Otaki for sneakers for the kids.  On the way back, Aidan and the boys and I stopped off at the apple Pick Your Own place and we had a ball.  Got loads of apples and chillies.

Toby loved picking apples

Down the jalapeno row

Back home and an awesome dinner.  Huge yummy burgers (thanks Josh) and an awesome apple crumble (thanks Aidan).

Mike and I left Toby in their capable hands and drove back home.  Mike had enjoyed his conversation with Aidan immensely.  He was buzzing and singing loudly on the way home.

We're going to see them tonight when we collect Toby.

Have a great week!
Love,
Angela