The Wednesday with a blissful nothing

Hi,

So good to have an evening with no rushing around or anything.  Work was normal - but I did end up with two visits to Machete for iced lattes.  Mmmmm.

One with Victor needed my foot in the pic.  Hahahah!

Iced latte with Victor and Joycie - and my foot!  For the win!

A more typical iced latte pic

Got home on the bus and finished cooking tea with Mike.  The boys loved their steak and mash.  Hahahah.  So easily pleased.

Laundry done.  And off to bed.  Had such a good sleep.  Only woke briefly at 4am.  And it was raining when I woke properly at 5.30.  Weird.

Got dragon boat training tonight.  Woot!

Have a good one.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday that was like a Monday for me

Hi,

Hahahah - despite only having 4 hours sleep, I was fairly responsive at work (ok - maybe that was just in my own mind - granted).  But with dragon boat training after work, I was pretty much asleep by the time that finished.  Nothing like adrenaline to keep you going.

The training session was good - I was in the back of the boat, which took a little getting used to.  At the back, the water is already flowing past you as the paddlers in front move the water.  So you need to reach further and dig deeper to get the same resistance.  Hence your paddle technique needs to change a bit.  Took me a bit to get in sync.

Celia had us working on the start.  The 7 fast strokes after the 3 deep ones needed some work.  I think we were getting better by the end of the session.

Headed to the car and met Mike there after his Meet Up session.  Dropped in to get kibble for the cats and then home to stuff some food in and fall asleep.  Best sleep in ages (well, apart from the wee holiday break to Sydney where I slept well).  Sleep deprivation does well for a good sleep once you get the chance to catch up.  Hahahah.

Hope you have an excellent day.

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Sydney for Scott's big birthday

Hi,

Mike, Toby and I woke up at 3.20am on Friday morning and headed out of the house at 4.10am.  We were supposed to get away by 4am - but Mike made up time on the way to the airport.  Guess there is never any traffic at that time of the day.

Sweaty iced latte on Thursday

He dropped me and Toby off to check-in while we went for the long term car park and the shuttle back.  We headed through customs and waited for our flight.

Which was delayed.

But we did get to chat to some ex colleagues of ours from years back (Virginia and Rachelle) to pass the time.

When we finally boarded and headed for the runway, it was 45 mins late.  We thundered down the runway only to have the pilot abort the takeoff before we had left the ground and park up.  Turns out some "minor" light needed some extra attention.

It must have performed well when they restarted the system as we took off and never fell out of the sky.  Yay!

Seriously, this was the best coffee pic Toby took.  Why do I ask him?

Exploring Sydney - their "dead gaze" look to blend in with the locals.

Landed in Sydney, absolutely starving.  Found the train and went into Sydney proper.  Ate a Keto bowl while the boys found a burger.  Hahahah.

Iced latte in the  Rocks.

Exploring The Rocks

Guess where we are?

Yeah - Sydney is a lovely place to visit.

Headed out to Blacktown on the train and Karen collected us.  Saw Tyler and Abby after school and then got ready for Little A's.  At this point Mike had succumbed to a migraine so went to bed.  Not surprising really given what we'd crammed into our Friday so far. 

I helped Scott set up and watched Abby and Tyler do their thing.  Such fun.  Javelin.  High jump.  1500m run.  Shotput.

Helping with Little A's

 Toby helped us pick up stuff to put the things away.  And then we chatted to other Little A's committee people and relaxed after the excitement of a Friday session.

Attack of the licky dogs!

Saturday was a good day.  The day of the party!  Tyler and Toby made brownies while the rest of us went to watch Abby play her semi final in indoor netball.

So - turns out my wee niece is an amazing netball player.  I knew this.  But seeing it in front of me?  Priceless.  I won't forget that in a hurry.  She was amazing.  Just warming up I was stunned at how she reads the game and positions herself to get the ball and sees how to feed it onto the best receiver for a shot at goal.  Her last quarter when she was GA was a blinder!

Very proud Aunty.

Birthday!

4pm saw us heading to the venue for Scott's birthday.  We were very early.  Hahah.  Time for a drink or two before the main party arrived at 6pm.

Nom,nom

Lots of people celebrating with Scott

Party time!

Loads of people.  100 I think Scott said.  Awesome speeches.  Cliff was hilarious.  Scott was funny and kind - as always.  Thank you Scott.  It was a pleasure.

I took the kids and Mike home at 10pm.  That was midnight our time.  Karen and Scott stayed until 2am!  Hahahah.

Sunday we sent the kids into Sydney by themselves on the train to visit Luna Park.  They did so well - especially as there was a rail replacement to get to Milson's Point.  And we had brunch across the road.

Brunch at The Corner Cafe

Ossshhh - he is ready!

Monday was Oscars day and we sat yummy food while we watched the red carpet and half the ceremony.  Saw Tyler and Abby after their school day, said goodbye to everyone and then Karen dropped us back at Blacktown station.

Fast train to the airport and another delayed flight saw us get away 45 mins late.  Doh!  Mike got us the movies for free when he asked so politely on how we use Airpoints to buy movies as it didn't recognise us.  Cool!  I watched some movies I saw in the Oscars.  Crazy Rich Asians (hahah - Karen, I had to watch that one) and "Can you forgive me?".  I enjoyed both.

The delay meant we drove out of the long term park at 1:02am and it stung us for another $19 for being later than 1am.  That hurt.

Tuesday stunning in the best wee capital

Happy birthday to Col today!  It is stunning in the capital.  Woot!

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with nothing much

Hi,

Wednesday disappeared in a bit of a blur - but I did catch up with Andrew briefly at some early point in the day.  Legs eleven was our number.  Oosshh.

Iced latte goodness

Headed home and cooked tea for everyone.  Well, for me and Toby.  Steak for him, mushroom for me.  And when Mike got in, he had his.

I packed for the weekend.  We're off to Sydney Fri - Mon for Scotty's big birthday bash.  Woot!  Can't wait.

And did laundry, as I will be away and won't get it done like normal.  Hahah.

Hope your day is a good one.  Dragon boat training after work tonight.  They have their big fun day this Saturday so get out and shout support for them!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with a haircut

Hi,

Ok - might have gone a bit overboard with the iced lattes yesterday.  Had Arthur down from AKL and took him to Machete first thing.  Mmmm.

Morning iced latte with Arthur

Then in the afternoon, Khemry and Yosan took me there too.  And we all had iced lattes.  Mmmmm.

Afternoon iced latte

Not sure what Yosan is doing in this pic...

Had my haircut after work and enjoyed sitting doing nothing while someone fiddled with my hair.  Totally good call for the end of a stressful day.  Hahah.

Got home and cooked up butter chicken for the boys (from the recipe Sally and I got years ago when we did a cooking night) and substituted paneer in mine.  Yum!

Took a pic to lure Mike home from his Meetup session.  That worked.  Hahahah.

Luring Mike home with butter paneer (or chicken for him and Toby)

The cat (Moxley - she is the one we call "the cat" because she is the naughty one) has realised I get up at 5.30am every morning and although her timing is off, she comes and wakes me.  It just so happens she thinks 5am is close to 5.30am.

Sigh.

Her method isn't a lot of fun for me.  She cuddles up to me.  That wakes me slightly.  But then she finds a part of me that is slightly exposed, and bites it.  Ok, it's a gentle nibble kinda bite.  But still, not a lot of fun for a dog person.  This morning it was my upper arm.  And that didn't get me up, so she burrowed under the sheet and found a lower arm to nibble.

Cheeky cat.  Mike loves this and promptly rewards the cat with smooches and tickles.

Great - she is being trained to come in at 5am, poke, bite and prod me for 20 mins, before Mike gives her great affection.

I am never going to win.

I hope my wee sister Shona gets some good news from her tests - she is having issues with her vision again after many years of it being stable.  I hope they find out what is wrong and can address it so it doesn't worsen.

Huge hugs to her.

Have an awesome day.

Love,
Angela

The Monday with going home sick in the afternoon

Hi,

Well, that was a dud of a day.  I went home from work at lunchtime to try and recover from some headachy lethargy thingy.  Didn't really improve things though.  I feel the same this morning.  Oh well.

Vlad the Builder (maybe a bit like Bob, actually) found a rotten stud under some rotten weatherboards in the far corner of the house (Toby's room).  It is just a packer (whatever that means - all I know is it is not load bearing, thank goodness) so Vlad has hacked out the rotten part.  Maybe 2m?  And will replace it and then re-board that part.

Moxley chilling

Smudge exploring where only Moxley treads

Rotten stud - but it's just a packer

The cats got to explore out the front door with Mike watching them.  They were so cute as they never see out there much.  And they explore as a unit.  Keeping an eye on each other.

I slept fairly well (but still not sleeping as well as I usually do) and went off to Spin this morning.  Let's see what the day holds.

I know it has a haircut for me at 5pm.  Guess that might be a good thing to do.

Have a wonderful day.

Love,
Angela

The weekend with my birthday

Hi,

Iced latte with Andrew

Celia is so lovely, she gave me an amazing present for my birthday.  Dinner and a movie with her.  Perfect! 

Celia!  

Vanessa also sent cupcakes - nom, nom!

Vanessa!

Evidence of this is in pics below. 

Vanessa is now in Melbourne working in our parent company. So I hope to keep in touch with her.

Eating a cupcake

What a great weekend!  Headed home after work and enjoyed a Friday night with the boys.  Saturday saw quite a fair bit of activity.  Mike is on a declutter mission (still) and he hasn't even seen that programme on TV that everyone is talking about.  I can only imagine what would happen if he saw that.

Mike and I went to rock climbing with his PT and his clients at Fergs.  Such fun!  10am saw us just getting into Fergs.  Ok - 10.02am.  But given the queue was long, it was perfect timing.  We had a belay lesson then we were off.  I used the boots I got from a colleague in Auckland (his daughter's offcasts).  They are small- and hurt after a while.  But that is rock climbing boots for you.

Climbing with Mike

Our washing machine and dryer have gone.  And the treadmill too - after a Herculean effort by all of us (ok - I just did a lot of "it won't fit through that gap" talk) to get it out of the spare room and up to the garage.

Mike and Toby took it away at midday to deliver it to the new owners.  And they had complicated things to take care of - which I had no clue was actually for my birthday.  Hahahah.


 I went over to Amy and Simon's place for a neighbourly BBQ.  Met Yazu and Rachel from 26 (with their 4 boys!).  Fiona and Brendon were there.  Met Flo and Ben too. 

 Mike and Toby got back while I was over there and Toby made a short appearance.  Mike joined me after he sorted the car out (ok - it was my present and I had no clue).

Back home around 6pm and relaxed in front of a Jane Goodall documentary.  I fell asleep and missed the polio epidemic that decimated the chimp family at Gombe.

Birthday morning

 Up Sunday for my birthday to a splitting headache.  So weird.  Took two Neurophen and jumped in the shower.  When I came out, feeling ok, Mike got a migraine.  I hope it wasn't my off-key singing that did it!

He took medicine and Toby decided to stay home and Mike and I hurtled into town to try and get to The Larder for our 9.30am brunch date with Sally and Andrew.  Except - it was Round the Bays and the traffic was crazy.  From the Mt Vic tunnel it crawled through Kilbirnie (Cobham Drive was blocked off at the tunnel end and one lane from the roundabout).

So many awesome runners out there.  They got 13,000 competitors.  How cool is that?

Birthday iced latte

Iced latte goodness

Anyway, The Larder is superb.  I had poached eggs with mushrooms on the side. And an iced latte.  It was all good.  Everyone else's looked great too.  Even Mike's muesli (he wasn't up for much - two orange juices helped him lots).

Large thistle

We chatted away and eventually headed our separate ways home.  Via Island Bay to avoid the traffic.

Cicada debris from the cats

 At home I got my presents.  A subtle Bruce Springsteen t-shirt.  It just says:  Show a little faith, there's magic in the night.

A Dyson stick - and it sucked up cicada bodies really well.

T-shirt and lux!

Outdoor furniture for the deck - woot!  (That caused a lot of hassles for the boys on Saturday).  I can't wait to see that out there.

And Alexa!  I got Alexa!  She's in the kitchen and I have already used it to hear the Morning Report this morning as I ate my Weetbix.

Alexa - can you play Bruce Springsteen?

I am a happy woman.  What a great weekend.

Time to tackle the day.

Hope your week is a good one.  We are flying out early Friday to Sydney to celebrate Scott's milestone birthday.  Flying back late Monday. So - short week!!!

Enjoy the day!

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with dragon boat training

Hi,

What a weird day - had brekkie with Fran, as I mentioned yesterday.  Great to catch up - and excellent iced coffee at Arabica - Mmmmmmm.

It was yum!

Brekkie!

Went to a meeting at the far end of town and it was two hours by the time I got back to work for my normal day.  Which, really, wasn't terribly normal.

I was so busy, it was 5pm before I knew it and I had to rush to get myself changed for dragon boating.  It was so choppy.  We took on a lot of water and it was hard work.  But such fun.  Lovely weather still.  Just windy.

Surprise of my night was Mike there to collect me in the car.  So nice.  I happily crawled into the car and sat on a blanket to keep the seat dry and Mike took me home.

I cooked tea for the boys - apparently they were my best ever chicken schnitzels.  As I was only cooking them at 8pm,, I was hurrying.  Maybe I always need to just throw them together to get perfection.

I fell asleep well before Mike came to bed.  He had strewn stuff all over the bed (declutter Man strikes again) so I asked what was on the bed.  he said to just leave it.  So basically, I made a space for my body and climbed in.

I woke up when he came to bed, and heard him laughing at the body outline I was sleeping within.  It was so hot that we opened our bedroom window and the curtains - and it made no difference.  We then heard Smudge miaowing like mad and realised she was still out on the deck with the doors closed.    So Mike got up, let her in, and decided to turn on the air con to try and cool the place down.

Must have worked.  We both slept until morning after that.

I woke Toby this morning at 6am as I was dealing with a wasp that had flown in and had Moxley excited.  She was on the hunt.  I was leaping around, schooshing fly spray at it and shouting out "No!" to Moxley when she decided the wasp's death throes were very interesting.

Mike stayed in bed through this.  Toby was so concerned he even climbed the stairs to check out the chaos in the kitchen.

I stomped on the wasp, told Moxley to leave it alone, then ate my fly-spray tainted Weetbix.

Yeah - crazy.  And guess what?  It is raining now.  Friday morning.  Slight rain.  Wet roads.  At least the garden will be happy to get some rain.

It's my birthday weekend coming up!  Woot!  I intend to get brekkie in bed on Sunday.  Heck - I may even ask for that on Saturday too.

Hahahahah.

Have a fantastic day!

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with sailing - and spin and running

Hi,

OMG - what a day.  Tough at work.  And interspersed with madness from me in terms of activity.  I started with Spin - which is normal.

But I went for a run at lunchtime - and it was so hot.  I think it was a step (or a 1000 steps) too far.  My legs are a little tender even now, as I type a day later.

Walking to sailing

Vege stack

Stone cooked rump steak

Iced latte

Second iced latte

   Then we met Mike and Toby for dinner at The Grand (steakhouse on Courtney) and the boys had hot stones to cook their meat as they like it.  Which they certainly did like.

Toby caught a bus home and Mike and I continued to the sailing night with my work social club.  What a jolly marvellous time we had.  Stunning night for it. 

Mike and I are on the starboard towards the stern

We were out for 1.5 hours and all had a go at steering.  Great fun.  Hardly any wind. 

Eventually got home at  9.30pm and did laundry and fell asleep.  Up for Spin again.

Brekkie with Fran was so good.  And Mike popped in for a coffee too. 

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with spin after work with Sreejith

Hi,

I did get a coffee with Andrew and we have a plan to do some spot heights in behind Otaki Forks at some point very soon.  We just need to find a free weekend in common.  Yeah - good luck with that.  hahah.  Nah - it should be fine.

Went to Spin after work with Sreejith - and I like that class.  Hard work.  Sreejith's first one in ages - and he owned it!  Oosshh!

Got home fairly quickly - the bus came just as I got to the bus stop.  Lucky because I thought it was still 10 mins away. 

Mike had tea sorted - mostly.  And then he and Toby went to take the dryer to its new owner.  And buy a hose.  Because...  we are decluttering and we already have two. 

Ok - this made our conversation really weird when he got back.  Andrew and I were talking during our coffee catch up about Mike's tendency to buy something when he already has 2 of them.  So I was explaining how this just shows it exactly.  And Mike was saying that we really needed this extra hose.  So we don't have to move it from one tap to another.

Hence the pics of Mike laughing - because I think he was mainly laughing at me and my observations of his behaviour.

Mike was laughing at me

And the perspective was odd from my side of the bed

Iced latte with Andrew

Vlad is making changes!  Woot!

Partial selfie was easier to capture the under-the-stairs work

Today is weird.  Early Spin.  A run at lunch.  And after work I hope to meet Toby and take him for tea before he goes home and Mike and I go sailing.  Yes, sailing.

Well, we are never boring for long, are we?

Have an incredibly great day!

Love,
Angela

The Monday back at work

Hi,

Yesterday was stunning weather.  And I got away with Celia to met Andrew in a glorious iced latte meeting.  Except Celia went against the trend and ordered a normal latte.  Weirdo.

Andrew and me having iced lattes with Celia

Had my last swim lesson from the swim coach after work.  She can see improvement.  She's quite the optimist.  But now I have a 30 mins routine that I can use to try and get more cardio work into my week.  Let's see what happens.  You need to keep me honest.

Got home after Mike and he had the BBQ fired up.  Yummy tea and then I was in bed before I knew it.  And totally asleep by 9.15pm.  The night before was really a broken sleep for me.  Last night was bliss.

Up for Spin this morning.  And got Spin after work with Sreejith.  Oosshh.

Now - I need to find a space to swim in my week.

Have a brilliant day!

Love,
Angela