The weekend with disease and pestilence

Hi,

After a mammoth day at work (in to start at 7am and home at 11.15pm - okay, so I came home for a few hours in the evening...) I was not feeling up to much on Saturday.  I slept in and then stayed in bed sleeping until 1pm!  So I obviously hadn't quite recovered from my illness.

Mike started to feel sick Saturday night, and after taking Toby to the movies and eating chickpea curry, he wasn't feeling too well when he came home.  Toby had a sleepover with Isaac.  Mike and I watched a movie and then Mike woke at 1.30am shouting into the bucket.  Poor chap.

When we woke Sunday morning, we had forgotten it was daylight savings.  Mike was saying I needed to get up because Toby would be home in an hour.  I was reading an email from Aidan and puzzling over her sentence that mentioned the time change was less than ideal for her right now, when I put two and two together and yelped and leapt out of bed.  Toby wasn't due in an hour, he was due any minute!

I got up and had breakfast.  Mike was still feeling sick and skipped eating for the day.  Apart from some fruit I got him at one point.  Toby was dropped off and started playing while I decided to start the putty and sanding.  Puttied all the nail holes along skirtings and trims and then I sanded it all once it had dried.  I ended up looking like a grey ghost.  Hahahahah.

Andrew had mega adventures in the South Island riding around.  I hope I catch up with him this week to hear all about it.

Toby is on school holidays.  Mike is off sick and recovering nicely.  He seems much better than yesterday and even attempted to eat some Weetbix this morning.  That will be interesting.

I rode in.  Yay!  And I feel not too bad at all.  So I am looking forward to the ride home.  First ride home in over two weeks!

Have a wonderful week.
Love,
Angela

Wellington Elections - a guide for the well-meaning but disinterested

I've done my duty and voted.  I based my votes on 30 minutes of research on the internet and getting someone to tell me who I should vote for.  Informed citizenry at its finest!  So I thought I should share my methods with you.

How does this STV thing work, anyway?

Short answer is, pick the x candidates you like or are 'meh' about; rank them from 1 to x; leave a blank against the other candidates that you don't like.

But how does it really work?  What happens to those numbers?

Just ask Dennis, the election Koala!
http://www.chickennation.com/2013/08/18/you-cant-waste-your-vote/
Here's a snippet of the clearest explanation of Preferential Voting I've seen...

With STV and multiple winners it's slightly more complex, but the idea is the same.
http://www.stv.govt.nz/stv/how.htm
So complex you need flash animations to explain it.  So that link won't work on your iPad because that device is not capable of the complexity of STV.  And all of the candidates are film stars and none of them appear to have chastising the poor as a policy plank.

One difference, is, you can leave entries blank.  You can vote for just one candidate, or 3 candidates - you don't have to rank the ones you hate in reverse order of abhorrence, you can just leave their boxes blank.  Kenneth the Voting Dingo has to fill in every last number in every last box, but that's because he's Australian.

How do I vote for Wellington Mayor?

That one's easy, because it's really first-past-the-post.  The next mayor will either be John, or it'll be Celia.

So put a '1' beside the candidate of your choice that is named John or Celia.  Leave the other names blank.  They're just time-wasters.  Though Dennis the Election Koala would slap me for saying this.

How do I vote for Wellington Councillors?

This is harder.  You're choosing 3 from a list of 12, and it's not so clear-cut who will get in.  (Well, it might be, but you'd need to like, read the news and stuff to know that.)  So you need to actually read something about the candidates and figure out their views and policies and suchlike.  Yes, I know!  That's pretty hard and involves minutes and minutes of both reading and thinking.

Clearly the candidates think that's unnecessary effort too, because at least 4 of them in my ward have made life far easier for me by putting no information about themselves whatsoever on the internet.  So I put no numbers whatsoever against their names on the voting form, in return - it's only fair.

For the others, I did this.

1. Read about each candidate - figure out where they stand on things that matter to you.  Give them a score out of 10 or something.
2. Figure out an order of candidates that you like or are neutral.  Then put '1' through 'x' on the voting form based on that order.  The ones you don't like at all - leave their entries blank.

Where do I find information about the candidates?

Here are some good sources that have more than enough info:

• Strathmore Park blog: http://strathmorepark.org/wcc-elections-2013/
• WECC Questionaire: http://www.wecc.org.nz/advocacy/mayoral-debate-2013
• WCC Watch: http://wccwatch.wordpress.com/candidates/
• Stuff 'Your Voice': http://yourvoice.stuff.co.nz/local/index.php
• http://vote.co.nz

Strathmore Park Blog

Ian Apperley has a great blog that summarises all the candidates' positions and sources of information on them:

He provides links to all their policies and opinions on their websites, vote.co.nz, twitter, facebook, and other places.  He summarises their positions.  And he adds his opinion; but he's made it easy to separate out his opinion from facts about the candidates which is great.  For instance, he'll praise candidates with good, clear, actionable policies that you can find, but then in another paragraph tell us that he doesn't agree with those policies and say why.

Follow the links on each candidate page and read about what they really think.  Google the 'ghost' candidates and see what you can find - some of them even have publically open Facebook pages where you can see their photos from the AC/DC concert last year!

WECC Questionnaire

The Wellington Employers' Chamber of Commerce sounds a bit like the Business Roundtable to me; a shadowy force of darkness.  But you can't complain about their questionnaire. And you can't help but notice that it forces candidates to all answer the same questions, in a format that gives them not too much ability to weasel-word their way out of revealing their true colours.  Well worth reading every Questionnaire for every candidate you might consider voting for.  (Let me know what you find, because I didn't bother.)

A particular question you should pay close attention to is this one:
What are your views on amalgamations with neighbouring councils? Should we have a super city in Wellington? 
The next electoral term is going to be all about the Super City - not public transport or roading.  Plans for transport have been made and they'll be implemented.  Too many candidates are talking about 2010's issues and not enough are talking about 2015's...

WCC Watch

This blog looks like a goldmine of information about issues of the day and candidates' policies about them.  I didn't read it though because I was bored with local body politics by the time I got to it.

Stuff 'Your Voice'

Looks pretty good ay!

http://vote.co.nz

Same as WCC Watch, I'm sure it's great.

How do I vote for the Wellington Regional Councillors?

Same deal as the city councillors.  Use the links above and figure out who you like, who's 'meh' and who is terrible.  Rank the good and OK ones, leave the terrible ones blank.

How do I vote for the District Health Board Members?

This one's far too hard.  I don't know any of them and I don't know what a District Health Board is supposed to do anyway.

I'm going to ask Helen because she's wise and knows about this stuff; I'll just do what Helen says.

So there you go!  The informed community at work.

The Thursday with work quiz night

Hi,

Benjamin came and looked after Toby - hooray!  So Mike and I got to go out and play.  Work had a social club quiz night.  It was a lot of fun!  Mike and I were on opposing teams and the important thing to note is the team I was in beat his team.  Hahahah.

It was all pretty close.  We came second, but only by half a point to the team in third place.  And we were about 3 points behind the winners.  Our sports round killed us.  We got 3 out of ten.  The lowest of any team.  But all the other rounds we got 8 or 9 out of ten.  Sports.  Hah!  Mind you, if they were relying on me to get the video games round we would have been looking at two!  We had a whiz on that who easily got 9 right!

The weekend is looming. I want to go bike riding tomorrow with Toby.  Should be fun!  And we need to start painting.  Not so much fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with nothing

Hi,

Well, I am getting way better.  That is a good thing after this bout of illness.  My Wednesday went well.  I managed to catch up with Aidan for a late lunch.  Any day where I get lunch with her is a good day.  We chatted about loads of things, but mainly her work and my work.  Boring topics for some perhaps, but I find her full of sensible advice.

Not a bad iced coffee at Soho at the bottom of the Vodafone building.

Seeing Aidan also made me happier on the day when Sophie left work.  Shucks - that is stink for me.  But great for Sophie.  She has an amazing year ahead of her in the world of contracting.  Oooossshhhh!

Mike worked late last night so I got tea sorted for Toby.  I even managed to read to Toby for the first time in over a week!  I get breathless talking for ages and end up coughing.  But it has calmed down a lot!  We're reading the first book in Lord of the Rings.  Or LoTR as Toby calls it.  I am quite enjoying it.  It has been a long, long time since I read it.

We have a work function tonight so Benjamin is coming around to look after Toby.  Best remember the pizza order.

I have stupidly said yes to talking in front of loads of people for Friday.  And Mike has a meeting in Palmerston North.  The heady heights of consulting takes you to wondrous places.

Andrew is riding his bike through the cold snap for 100s of kilometres through the top half of the South Island.  I hope he has managed to keep warm.  I can't wait to hear from him how it all went.  I enjoy Sally's updates.

Have a lovely day!
Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with nothing

Hi,

Had a busy day at work.  Came home on the bus with Mike and we cooked tea.  Vegetarian spaghetti bolognese.  This was a bit of a hit with Toby.  Hurrah.  A meal he can eat.

I also had a lesson in Love 101 according to Toby.  Here is his surefire way to get someone to love you.

1.  Give them lots of kisses
2.  Be nice to them
3.  Give them presents

Mike encouraged this belief by declaring it had worked for him.  He kissed me lots, was nice to me and gave me presents.  And now we're married.  Toby looked smug at his theory being completely ratified.

I didn't want to point out the flaw in point 1.  If they are prepared to accept lots of kisses, they may already be quite well disposed towards you.  Best Toby keep a simplified view of love for as long as he can.  Reality may prove a far trickier prospect.

The weather is a little pants here.  I am still on the bus because I still find it hard to breathe deeply.  But I sense the time is coming to attempt a ride back up the hill.  Oooossshh!

Have a fantastic day!
Love,
Angela

The Monday with a bike ride in but no ride home

Hi,

It was sense that prevailed and I ended up walking home with Mike instead of trying to bike.  It took us over an hour, I was so slow.  Five minutes was spent trying to catch my breath at one point.  Hence the bus back in this morning.

Today is sad for me.  I have a work colleague leaving tomorrow whom I love having around.  Work will be a less inviting place without her presence.  But she has a fantastic opportunity and will be amazing in her next job.  The bright side?  We get a team breakfast with her this morning.  Yum!  I am starving.

Last night Mike made tea while I recovered from the walk home.  Beautiful corn fritter burgers.  He knows how to cook.  However, his relationship with Dame Allison took a beating.  He'll have to make more effort in future or she'll just walk away from his life.

I started writing my speech for Friday morning (I am doing a Toastmasters course).  I got about halfway through writing it and so I read it out to the boys and they timed me.  I was already 3 minutes over my time limit.  Oh dear.  Back to the drawing board.  Obviously I was writing for an hour long speech!  Hahahahah.

Have a wonderful day.
Love,
Angela

The weekend with yummy food at Taste

Hi,

What a great weekend.  Saturday morning was lazy for me and Toby.  Mike had to get up and take the Corolla into Pitstop Petone for its WoF.  Toby and I watched a movie and watched Americas Cup racing (such a disappointment) and read books until it was time to get out of bed.  Mike collected us and took us to Taste in Khandallah.  Benjamin is working there (and we did see him).  The food was great!

French Toast looked great!

But my asparagus rolls were scrumptious

The weather was diabolical.  Such heavy rain.  We ran back to the car and home to relax for the afternoon.  William came over for a sleepover.  I took the boys to meet Jacob and his mother Susan and we watched Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters in 3D.  Great fun!

Next morning was another lazy start to the day.  Tidied and that was about it.  The Tabors arrived at about midday and left the boys while they went and explored Wellington Open Homes.  Louise came to collect William and we had a good chat to her.  Then the Tabors got back and we chatted a bit to them before they left.

I faced a mountain is ironing and conquered it.  Without the need for crampons, it must be said.  Or extra oxygen.

The week looks busy again.  But we don't have multiple after work activities.  So it might be okay.  I rode my bike in this morning for the first time in ages.  Here's hoping I can breathe on the way up the hill at the other end of the day!  Oooosshhhh!

Have a lovely day!
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with nothing for me

Hi,

I struggled through Thursday.  More like falling over the line at the end of the day rather than any graceful ending.  I caught the bus home and collected Toby and cooked tea.  We had a quiet evening.  Mike eventually came home and chatted to me about his evening with Andrew and then catching up with Carrie (previous work colleague).

This morning is the first day of my Toastmasters course here at work.  So in very early on Fridays for the next 8 weeks!  Better go grab my tea.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,
Angela

The Wednesday where I felt better

Hi,

As compared to the Thursday morning where I feel like pants again.  Not sure what has gone wrong - I did have a good sleep until 3am when coughing woke me.  I think perhaps it is the soreness of my body from the hacking cough that is causing my health to feel like it has gone backwards.  In fact, I finally had enough energy last night to go out grocery shopping.  Woot!  It's just that I want to sleep now.  Hahahahah.

Mike made a nice vegetarian dinner last night - macaroni cheese.  Yummy too.  His salad is purely functional.  A kinder description would be rustic.  Think massive pieces of lettuce that could only fit in Mike's mouth.  A half hearted attempt to chop red onion.  And unchopped cherry tomatoes.  And there you have Mike's salad.  Functional.  It was a salad.  Toby liked it.  Whereas I finely chop the onion, chop tomatoes, shred the lettuce, add crumbled feta and pumpkin seed sprinkles.  Hahahah.  Toby doesn't eat my salad.

Another busy day at work.  I didn't ride in again - still a bit sick to do that.  It is the long ride uphill that necessitates breathing that would be difficult to maintain right now.  :-p

Have a great day!
Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with work

Hi,

Well, I went back to work, but perhaps it was a day early.  I probably should have stayed at home to recover a bit more.  But I had some important meetings and loads of work.  Never mind.  Today I feel much better.  Mike says I am worse though.  I did wake up coughing a lot during the night.

I can see sunshine today - so nice.  The bus is completely boring and I can't wait to get back on my bike.  Maybe tomorrow, if I can keep from getting a coughing fit on the way up the hill.

Toby is doing well.  I think he had a great day at school.  We got through his homework and he had a good evening.  Mike got home after his meeting and told us about his vegetarian beef meal.  Right.  Beef.  I had vegetarian lasagne.  Toby pretended to eat some.

Anyhow - Toby made up for less than ravenous eating with 6 Weetbix this morning.  Oooossshhh!  Maybe he can live on tomatoes, Weetbix and apples?

Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Angela

The Monday with me sick

Hi,

And Toby sick.  And Mike looking like a candidate for being sick.  Oh dear.  Auckland obviously gave me a good dose of some germs I had little resistance to.

Family lunch went well

First vegetarian meal - not super well received by Toby

Sunday everyone came around for the family lunch.  It was good to catch up.  I did go to bed as soon as the last people left and then had two more visitors.  But I held court from bed!  Hahahah.  I got worse in the evening so I was in no shape for work the next day.  All I wanted to do was sleep.

Monday I was indeed sick.  And Toby also claimed sickness benefit.  Admittedly he did have a wee cough.  But a day off probably did him some good.

Back to work today.  Will see how I get on.

Have a great week!
Love,
Angela

The Tuesday and Wednesday in Auckland

Hi,

Busy up at the TechEd conference in Auckland.  The days are pretty full and these work colleagues are just so sociable.  Remind me to never let Mike come up here with them all.  Hahahah.  He'd love it!

Caught up with Roz last night.  She is looking very well and telling me all her news.  We tried to see a movie, but there was nothing on we wanted to see at a convenient time.  So we found a coffee shop and I had an iced coffee.  I can't believe how yummy it was from a chain that mass produces its coffee.  Will have to try a Gloria Jeans iced coffee again to check it wasn't a fluke.

Iced coffee with Roz.  Roz is camera shy

Yep - I'm yellow!  Lucky I like yellow!

Keynote for TechEd

Got a few people to try and meet today in-between sessions.  I bumped into Ilske.  Cool!  She's even staying at the same hotel.

Mike and Toby sound like they are having fun without me.  Quote of the week on Facebook from Mike.  Toby says "It's like four days of Dad Camp."  Riiigghhhtt.  Is Toby drinking from the toilet?  Hahahah.

Have a great day.  Time for breakfast.

Love,
Angela

The Monday with packing

Hi,

I rode home in the most lovely evening conditions.  Such a gorgeous evening.  I collected Toby and we went home and I cooked some dinner.  Mike was out celebrating a big win at work.  Sally rang and asked about the stars aligned with the moon that she was sure were planets.  I went out and had a look and discovered she was right.  Venus was under the moon shining very brightly.  Saturn was a similar distance above the moon, shining with its usual orange tint.  And below Venus was a star called Spica.  It's a bright star in our sky.  They looked spectacular, all lined up.  The earth shine on the moon was lovely too.

I finally got all my gear packed and had a relaxing evening.  Mike got home and chatted away about work a bit.  I think I fell asleep pretty fast.

I'm off to Auckland until late Friday now.  So, don't panic if you don't hear from me.  Hahahah.  I may be busy.

Have a great week.
Love,
Angela

The weekend with loads of fun

Hi,

What a wonderful weekend.  I drove to Waikanae with Toby in the wee green car.  We sat in bumper to bumper traffic all the way from the Whenua Tapu off ramp to Waikanae.  Crazy.  But I got to the Tabor house in plenty of time for a cup of tea with Aidan.  Toby was staying for the weekend.  Aidan is good to us.

Turns out Mike was held up in town a bit and negotiating traffic almost as bad.  So he was late getting to me.  I ate a sausage with everyone (barbecued sausages, nicely blackened, with grated cheese, tomato sauce (sorry, ketchup apparently - I can't tell any difference) and in a slice of bread).

When Mike eventually arrived, he also got a sausage.  And what's more, even our passenger (James, still in the car outside) got a sausage.  We were off and stopped at Levin to get more dinner and supplies for the weekend.  Then off again.  Up at the lodge around 10.30 or something.

Into bed and I had a broken sleep.  But not too bad.  Andrew was up early to ride around the entire volcanic plateau. Yes, crazy, isn't he?  And he did it too.  In 6 hours 20, and 175 km.  Wow!  Meanwhile, the rest of us went skiing.  The day was supposed to clag in, so the earlier the better.  Not much was open.  But we skied the Waterfall T and had fun.  But the queues were so long and the run so short.  But then they opened the Valley T and that was lovely.  We skied there all day.

See?  Nice conditions!

Mike was on skis for the first time in ages.  He kept muttering about how nice it would be on his board.  And he did a spectacular face plant down some sticky moguls right next to the T bar.  Choice!  I missed it all as I was negotiating the sticky moguls carefully.

More photos and videos of the weekend here...

Mike got a migraine right at the end of the day, but after some drugs and a quick nap he seemed ok if woozy.  Meanwhile I chatted to Andrew.  He was ravenous after his ride.  So we went off to the pub for dinner.  Ate a felafel burger and watched the first half of the rugby (All Blacks v Argentina) with Andrew on a couch.  We left at half time because we thought it'd be embarrassing if we both fell asleep on the couch and stayed for hours there.

Back to the lodge and I had a great sleep.  Mike came to bed late after playing the Battlestar Galactica Board Game with some others.  Sounds like it didn't end well for the humans.  But Mike welcomed his new Cylon overlords so all okay.

Up early to have breakfast and do a bit of tidying before Andrew and I headed off on our bikes.  We rode through heavy rain from Whakapapa Village to Waiouru.  I did 80 km in 3 hours.  I was slow from Ohakune to Waiouru.  I need a better breakfast on the morning of a big ride.  Andrew kept going to Taihape and in hindsight I should have too.  I sat in the Army Museum cafe for about 45 mins or more getting steadily colder.  I think it might have been better to keep riding and stay warm.  And the road from Waiouru to Taihape looked great to ride.

But it was nice to change into dry clothes when Mike got there.  Into the car and off to Taihape to collect Andrew's bike.  Then it was just me and Mike all the way home.  I was happy.  I haven't driven with him a long way for ages (he has always been driving the van).

At Waikanae we stayed for tea.  Pizzas.  I collected them (and some groceries) with Aidan.  Toby had a great time with Emerson and Duncan.  Emerson was sick, as was Aidan.  And Josh was busy in their bedroom getting it ready for the carpet getting laid today.  I picked grapefruit for Vivienne.  I must try and pop over to see her tonight.

I am away Tues to Fri for work.  In Auckland.  At a conference.  Filling my brain with Microsoft loveliness and schmoozing with clients.  And friends.  Heheheh.  Who may or may not work for the competition.  Right, Roz?

Have a fantastic week!  If you're in Wellington this week, keep an eye on Mike and Toby for me.
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with nothing

Hi,

I rode home and Mike had a nice dinner cooked for us.  Yum.  Then I packed for our ski weekend and Toby's stay with the Tabors.  Aidan kindly volunteered to look after him when he complained a work ski weekend with no other kids was a bit boring and could he miss it.

Yesterday I had another iced coffee at Thunderbird Cafe.  Mainly because I met Josh and Aidan there for lunch.  I also wanted to check it wasn't a fluke yesterday.  The service was soooooo slow.  Josh missed his lunch.  Aidan and I ate our lunch and then shared his.  It was good though.

No - it really is a different shirt.  The light just makes it look the same as yesterday.

We have a mountain of gear because I am going to ride my bike on Sunday instead of skiing.  Crazy notion.  Andrew will ride with me as well.

Today is the most gorgeous day here.  Makes me forget (almost) about the weird morning with Mike and Toby showering and causing temperature fluctuations in the water.  Toby decided the best tactic to deal with this was to scream "Muuuuummmm!" every time.  Nice.  What could I do about it?  I ate my muesli.

Have a wonderful weekend.  I hear the Kittos are off to California on Sunday for a Disneyland visit.  Wow!  How cool.  Toby is very jealous I think.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with tramping club for Mike

Hi,

There is a definite theme to my post titles.  Mike has made me a tramping club widow.  Far too young too.  Hahahah.

Happy birthday today to wee Abby.  8 years old.  Wow!

Yesterday I caught up with Helen in town and I had an iced coffee with her at Thunderbird Cafe.  It was a really good iced coffee.  I'd go back just for that!

Helen getting to grips with my phone's camera.  No, you have to point it at me!

That's it!  Iced coffee, front and centre.  With a bit of background.  Perfect shot.

We bought a portable backup hard drive for Helen's computing needs and I left her rummaging around in her backpack for her camera so she could capture some nice urban reflective shots.

My ride home was dry, would you believe.  When I nipped inside to get out of my bike cleat shoes, and jumped back in the car, it had started raining.  Lucky, eh?

We had another decent quake last night - apparently!  It didn't wake any of us at midnight.  Zzzzzzz.  But they have certainly tapered off.

Time for a cup of tea.  Busy at work.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with nothing for me and a tramping club meeting for Mike

Hi,

Toby got dropped off at work by Akash's mother and I was horrified to see he had been to the movies at Queensgate in his Ugg boots.  He told me he hadn't garnered any strange looks.  Riiiight.  Good, Toby.

We drove home via the supermarket and I cooked a nice dinner for him.  I got to eat all of the tomato/basil,mozzarella salad by myself as Mike was still out at his meeting.

It was as yummy as it looks

We had a lazy evening and eventually went to bed.  Mike got home from his meeting and came to bed.  I was asleep quite quickly after finding out all about his evening.  Slept well.

My ride in this morning was fantastic!  The roads were so dry with a fierce northerly.  The day is supposed to turn to custard at midday with a galeforce southerly and freezing temperatures.  Ooooo.  It should blow me home, right?  Hahahah.

September 4th.  The day we moved from Dunedin to Melbourne back in 1980.  Wow.  And tomorrow is wee Abby's birthday.

Have a marvellous day.
Love,
Angela

The Monday with no Toby

Hi,

Toby was having a sleepover with Isaac Sunday night and there was a handover where Mike saw him for about 15 minutes before another parent took Toby for another sleepover.  He slept last night at Akash's house.  There is yet another handover today from Akash's Dad to Akash's Mum before we collect him at 5pm today.  After all that, I am going to attempt to lure him back into the family fold with his favourite dinner tonight.

Mike and I had a lazy evening watching some television (I finally watched First Crossings - a re-enactment programme.  This one was playing out Ed Hillary's first ascent of a decent mountain in the Kaikouras.  It was rather good.).  I did fall asleep on the couch though.  Woke up and went to bed.

I drove into today with Mike because of the Toby handover that occurs this evening somewhere in Ngaio.

Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Angela

The weekend that was unexpectedly wonderful

Hi,

Happy birthday to Jamie and Cameron.  Wow - the year is flying by.  And Happy Fathers Day to the Dads I know for yesterday.  That snuck up on me.

Friday night Toby got off the bus in town and we met Aunty Sally and went to the Steer n Beer at the Reading cinema.  Andrew joined us after a wee while (our waiter was concerned about his steak getting cold).  Toby and I went to see Wolverine.

Then Toby and I picked up Mike from his session with work.  A colleague was leaving and it was a big night.  Mike woke a homeless woman sleeping on a bus stop bench on Willis St demonstrating how he shouted at the band to play a Hunters and Collectors song.  She was a bit disturbed and expecting some massive fight or something.  I could see her fight or flee instinct had kicked in.  But she determined Mike was harmless and went back to sleep.  Toby giggled at this.  "Dad, you woke a hobo woman".

Back home and to bed.  The boys slept well in the morning because it was midnight before we got to sleep.  Aidan texted and asked if I could bring the movie forward to the afternoon and come for lunch.  Certainly could.  Asked Mike and he said yes.  So I was out of the house quite early because I wanted to buy a Fathers Day present for Sunday.  Having it on Sunday 1st is not conducive to a lot of planning.

I popped into Harvey Normal in Paraparaumu and found out the Dyson turbo lux head was not an option (we have to order it).  But I did find another present there.  Choice.  Then went to collect Aidan from home.  Her boys had a Scouts session, so she was free all day.

Front Room iced coffee

We stopped off at Bunnings to get a voucher for Fathers Day for Josh.  I missed the turn and Aidan's brain was still trying to figure out the best way to get me back to the store when I put the car in reverse and hurtled back to the intersection to turn left.  She only squealed a little bit.  There was no traffic behind me.  Well, about 100m behind me and closing fast if I didn't do something.

We went to the Front Room for lunch and I had a yummy breakfast for lunch.  And an iced coffee.  Why not have breakfast for any meal you can?  I love breakfasts!

Then we went to Paraparaumu shopping mall and I got distracted in the bookshop by a Bruce Springsteen book and Aidan thought I'd done a runner.  Oops.  Off to the movie.  Mortal Instruments - City of Bones.  Don't bother!  Read the book.  The book isn't bad at all.  The movie?  Yeah.  Not so much fun.  It made me laugh with derision at one point.

Back to New World to get Fathers Day breakfast stuff and dropped Aidan off after getting some grapefruit.

Next morning was Fathers Day and I got a yummy breakfast ready for Mike.  I had put bread on so that was the starter.  Yum!  And bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese (and freshly squeezed lemons from the Tabor citrus market!).

The morning was spent tidying.  As was the afternoon.  Mike went to handover the tramping club website to a volunteer!  Choice!  And then we went out to Sally and Andrew's place for tea.  Had a great catch up with everyone.  They are all well.  Then we went to drop Toby off at Isaac's house for a sleepover with him and some mates from school.  We chatted to Sally and Tim for ages.  Well past my bedtime.

Up for work this morning and in my bike gear to find I was the one that had left their bike at work on Friday.  So we caught the bus in!  With all the grapefruit.  So not too bad!

Sally and Andrew's back yard looked stunning

The plums might be good this summer!

Have a wonderful week.  Happy birthday week for Abby too later this week.  Hope I don't forget that!

Love,
Angela