The weekend with a great bike ride and Yum Cha

Hi,

What a lovely weekend.  Friday night we went home via a work colleague's house not far from us and ordered in pizzas and settled in to watch Dark Knight Rises.  It went for ages and was a bit tedious.  And you know how much I love The Batman!  Too much talking as Bruce Wayne and not enough Batman.

Anyhow, we all crashed after it and had a great sleep.  So much so that I slept in till 7am!  I usually wake up every morning around 5.30am - it isn't often that my alarm catches me sleeping at 6am.  But this morning, with no alarm set, I slept until 7am!  And I woke with a start because I knew it was late.  I think I must have thought it was Friday.

Anyhow, I got up and showered and had breakfast.  Then I got my road bike ready and set off for Waikanae over the Akatarawa Road.  It was a great day for it.  Not too windy.  Still early enough to beat most traffic.  Plenty of cyclists out training.  I added 15 kilometres to the last time I rode this, but I did it in almost the same time as last time.  And my average speed was higher.  So I was pretty happy.

Aidan was out with the boys when I got to their house so she told me I could go in and make a cup of tea.  Which I did.  Gratefully.  I was a bit cold after my ride and got my tea and perched on the window sill in the sunshine.  I went into the sun porch to begin with, but the mozzies were after me there.

Aidan wasn't far off and I soon had lunch and was chatting away to her.  The boys had a playdate arranged so Aidan and I walked the dog.  Aidan had to pay the gardener so we walked past his house twice.  But I think he was away or he is deaf from mowing lawns without ear protection.  But it did mean we went on my favourite walk - past the blackberry bushes.  I must come up in late February/early March.  I also like the walk straight up the hill behind their house.  But it was probably cool under the trees.

Kapiti Island and the hills of my native island in the background

Aidan does selfies a lot better than I do

An afternoon tea with cheese and crackers followed and we also painted our toes.  Hahahah.  Mike and Aidan chatted for ages on the phone.  But it was to no avail - Toby wasn't interested in coming up for dinner.  So I caught the train back to town and Mike fortunately came to collect me because by 6pm it was raining and windy in Wellington and I would have been absolutely freezing by then.

Sunday we got up and I went to the market with Vivienne.  Such a gorgeous morning.  It was a popular thing to do this morning!

Vivienne buying fresh fish

We went to the Green Expo after the market and had a good nosey around.  It was worth attending that but I had to leave Vivienne there while I went back to Courtney Place for Yum Cha.  Yingting, her husband and kids, Yingjie, Alex and Yinjie's flatmate all came.  The Majestic at 11 Courtney Place was great.  I loved the food.

I took Toby back to William's house and he went to see Grown Ups 2 while I tidied the house.  Look!  I got the spare room sorted once more!  We have Billet Boy coming to stay tomorrow.  He's in a choir and from King's College.

Look - the spare room is a spare room once more

I collected both boys and we headed out to Sally and Andrew's for family dinner.  Sally made this awesome salad with spinach, feta, pine nuts and pumpkin seeds.  Scrumptious.  I provided vegetarian macaroni cheese.

Yummo!

Back home to bed!  Phew!  What a weekend!  Loved it.

This morning I rode in and had a blast down the hill because the howling gales had dried the roads completely.  But ten minutes after I got here, the rain came slashing down!  Today is going to be exciting on the weather front.  After yesterday's glorious weather, it is a bit of a surprise.  Apparently it is going to get worse.  Really?  Wow!

Have a lovely week!  First day back at school for Toby today.  He seemed okay with it this morning.
Love,
Angela