The weekend with three days off and the most fun

Hi,

What an awesome weekend.  I love three day weekends.

The Thursday that was like a Friday wasn't an overly auspicious start to the weekend.  Mike and I drove back into town with jumper leads to try and start the motorbike that got delivered from Dunedin.  To no avail.  It didn't help that it had fallen over in the gusty Wellington wind and flooded.  Mike dropped me off at Sally and Andrew's work and went to get a trailer.  While we ate yummy food at Portlander, he came back with the trailer and took the bike home.  Andrew helped him get the bike on.  Mike was so efficient that he was back in time for our mains.  He's amazing.

Next morning I eventually got up for my run.  A bit later than usual at 8.30.  But it was good fun.  Aidan dropped her boys off at our place and she and I left in the wee green car for a day of driving adventure in the Wairarapa.  We left around 10.30 or so and wandered slowly over the hill, with Aidan doped up on her car sickness medicine.  The last time I drove her over the hill without it, we had to stop on the side of the road and allow the waves of nausea to subside.  I was all for her medicating herself this time.  And it seemed to work.  We were held up in slow traffic going up and over and Aidan was eternally grateful for small mercies.  But she never felt sick.

Top of Rimutaka Hill

We got to the Clareville Bakery just on midday and Aidan bought me lunch.  Whereupon I promptly ordered breakfast.  Eggs benedict.  Mmmmm.  And it was good.  We shared a cronut (is that the way I was supposed to phrase it, Aidan?) and I had an iced coffee.  It was a pretty good one.

Aidan had a sandwich, but I think my eggs trumped her sandwich.











We chatted about music and work and sang lots.  Aidan enjoyed the roof being down when I was singing particularly loud.  Something about drowning out the noise.  And I don't think she was referring to the driving noise.

Iced coffee at Clareville Bakery

Driving in the wee green car

From Clareville Aidan decided the goal was Napier, but after we went through Masterton and Mt Bruce she had decided that Lulu would have felt abandoned by the time we got back from there.  So Aidan navigated us from Eketahuna to Castlepoint via route 52.  A lovely drive,  And yes, Aidan self medicated again.

Walking to the lighthouse

We got to Castlepoint relatively late in the afternoon.  Maybe around 4pm.  And was it windy.  Wow.  The car has been finely sandblasted.  As have Aidan and I.

Aidan braced against the wind taking the photo of
 me sitting under the lighthouse

My favourite photo - me next to the lighthouse

On top of Castlepoint headland.  There is actually a lighthouse growing out of my head, but you can't tell from this photo.

 We wandered up to the lighthouse and around to the viewpoint.  The waves were strong enough to be breaking over the path.  One woman looked a bit fearful at the location her husband made her pose in.  But she got back to the path safely without me having to go over and get her.  I would have got wet.

On the top the wind blew out any cobwebs.  Wow - did it what!!!  But the sea was a lovely colour, tipped by whitecaps.

Walking up to the high point

Aidan posing in front of a dramatic, stunning backdrop

Aidan and me on top of Castlepoint

More driving fun

Virgin mule.  Lovely.

Aidan has a matching drink

 We got back in the car and headed to Greytown for tea.  Salute.  The tapas restaurant.  Mmmm.  Tapas.  We had a selection of yummy things and Aidan got me a drink.  She had a matching one but with a bit of alcohol in hers.













I am completely mystified by the formatting in this blog post.  No idea what is going on with it.  This particular paragraph is formatting in the middle of the page.  Too weird

Ok.  Whatever.  The formatting is pants and I can't move any photos around anymore.

So, where were we?  Eating tapas.  Yep.  From there we drove to Kaitoke and caught up with Mike and the boys.  They were camping and unbeknownst to us, they had only been there a few hours before we got there.  They had a slow start to their camping day.

We dropped off dessert to them and headed home.  Aidan got home and fed Lulu and didn't lose any limbs in the process.  She's lucky Lulu is so understanding.

Next day was Saturday and I did a load of tidying.  I also worked a bit.  A release to a production site wasn't going as well as expected.  But by midday it came right.  Yay.

I called Vivienne and got Benjamin on the phone.  So I said Hello Benjamin is your mother there?  And Benjamin helpfully said "I'm at work".  So I looked at my phone, sure I had called the home phone.  And Benjamin said "You'll be wanting Vivienne then".  And I said "Yes".  As the phone got handed to Vivienne I realised Benjamin was actually John.  Oops.  He sounded just like Benjamin!

I fed Ange's cats at 5pm and then got ready for karaoke night.  I collected Vivienne, got the Jazz and then we collected Aidan and Shannon and got to Monsoon Poon at 6.30 on the dot.  The others arrived soon enough (Andrew, Ilske, Christine and Brian) and we all ate a banquet of yummy food.

Andrew mixes

DIY iced coffee

Taste test at Zany Zeus

From there we went to K-Zone on Wakefield for karaoke fun.  Well, I had fun.  And I think Ilske had fun.  Aidan says she had fun.  But whether she ever does it again with me would be the determining factor.  Andrew sang, despite not knowing most of the songs.  Christine spent a lot of time chortling at the lyrics.  The best lyrics mess was "Ricochet, take your aim" translated to "Brick of shame, take your rain".  That had us in fits.  Aidan was translating that song on the fly for us.

Home early enough after dropping off everyone.  Slept well and up for my run Sunday morning.  More tidying before brunch with Sally and Andrew at Zany Zeus's.  Then a bit of computer stuff before going home to see my boys.

Dinner with Emerson and Duncan

Aidan was collecting Josh from Holdsworth and there was an accident on the way home so they went via Palmerston North.  They got to us quite late at 730 pm and their boys zombied into the car.

So, it was an action packed weekend.  I loved it.  Chatted Mike's ear off last night in bed and now need an early night to compensate.

Have a fantastic week.

Love,
Angela