The Thursday at home

Hi,

Another day at home.  I must be hankering for company as I messaged a colleague a lot yesterday, and not always just about work.  However, it was a busy day so it also went fast.  Yay!

Perfect broccoli specimen

Harvested some spinach from the garden for dinner and the broccoli is looking so good.  Look at that!  It probably needs another week or so for a bit more growth - but they all look like miniature broccoli in their gorgeous perfection.

Happy.

My cauliflower on the other hand, look less than archetypes to behold in wonder.  More like a collection of straggly plants that don't have a head of cauliflower so much as a loose collaboration.

And they are yellow.  A quick google says I might be able to say I have Golden Cauliflower.  I don't think I knew that.

Let's see what that looks like in another week or two.

And the silverbeet is screaming out for some vegetarian lasagne very soon.  What else do you do with silverbeet?

The last row of vegetables belong to an as-yet-to-be-identified plant - possibly brassica.  I wondered if it was cabbage.  But if so, it needs a lot more growing yet.

Kale is in there - so I need to figure out what to do with that too.  Blend it in a smoothie so I have no clue I am eating kale.

Yeah - plan!

Last night after work we had the online quiz we used to do in lockdown - for old times sake.  Far less people registered for it.  But some of it was tough.  5/10 for the music round?  OMG.  My best 
"get" of the evening?  I got the Link question.

Link showed:

4 pics.  Some hairy legs.  A blueberry muffin.  Disney's Hercules.  And some chicken schnitzel.

After some head scratching I got:

Yes - all dogs from Hairy Maclary.

"Hercules Morse, as big as a horse" - and so on.

Anyway.  It's Friday.  Woot!

Karen's birthday tomorrow.  So sad I can't be there.  But Mum and I have a plan to call her at 5pm my time and chat on video to her.

Have a great weekend.  I hope my cold is goneburger!

Cherrs,

Angela

The Wednesday at home

Hi,

Another day working from home - and Toby too.  Well, Mike too because he could be a spreader even though he seems perfectly fine.

Hahah.  The House of Pestilence.

Just decided to work from home tomorrow too - because Mike's manager told him to stay home all week if I was sick.  Hahahah.

Moxley helps me at work

Mike went out to buy those elusive groceries last night.  He got home quite late because he left home late.  Toby helped him put things away though.

I had such a good sleep again.  Now I can breathe at night, I am getting a much better sleep.  Yay for clear nasal passages.

What am I saying?

:-|

Did online PT with Quentin again this morning.  And Mike decided to do an online session too.

Wow - Wellington turning it on for sunrise on Thurs morning

Mike working out hard this morning

Oh - was that what he was supposed to be doing?  Hahahahg

Crunch those abs

And now I am at work at my desk and organising for the day ahead.

I hope your day is a good one. 

Love,
Angela

Contact register:

Mike @ New World Thorndon 8pm - 9pm.

The Tuesday working from home

Hi,

Another day at home (and again this morning - Wednesday). 

But today is Shona and Sharon's birthday!  Woot!  Happy birthday to them both.  I hope they stay safe in the covid spike in Victoria.

Startled selfie this morning

Action selfie.

Last night I stayed on the couch reading, waiting for Mike's text to come collect him and our much-needed groceries after his catch up with Andrew.

I read a lot.

And then a bit more.

Finally, at 9pm I texted him.  Where are you?

I got some random pictures back - like playing an online "treasure hunt for Mike".  Anyway - by this time a supermarket trip was a silly notion.  And Andrew's train was an hour away!

So I got into the car and went and collected them.  Took Andrew home (I haven't seen him for ages) and fended off Toby's request for me to cook him some dinner (he was graceful in accepting that it was a bit hard given it would be 10pm by the time I got back home).  He had been out to see a play and was just getting home.

Oh, my boys.

Anyway - got home.  Tossed and turned for a bit (that's not like me) and amazingly I feel better this morning.

Yay for fighting off this stupid lurgy.

In bad news, Toby is working from home today with a scratchy throat and a snotty nose.

Oh - all that mask wearing was for nothing then.

Have a good day.
Love,
Angela

Contact register:

14 bus @ 5.25pm Mike and Toby
Mike @ pub with Andrew Hasigo Zake
Toby at play @ school 6pm

The Monday working from home

Hi,

Another day - but I do think I might be getting better.  Yay!

Tomorrow is Shona and Sharon's birthday.  Woot.  I hope they are both okay - lockdown in Melbourne but I think they are less restricted in Geelong.

Hmm - home made iced latte Tuesday morning

Moxley lies in wait for Smudge.  Smudge knows it.

While I was in my online PT session this morning, I watched Moxley do her "lying in wait for Smudge" thing.  Smudge knew and waited patiently outside.

Smudge won.  I saw Moxley give up, peek around the door and then wander off.  Smudge just casually strolled in.

Patience is a virtue.

Moxley has none.

Yesterday Mike and I both worked from home.  We were supposed to go grocery shopping, but Mike got busy with other things.  Tonight is the night for grocery shopping.

I slept so well - best night sleep in ages.  Yay.

Toby is better too and away to school.

Have a great day.

Love,
Angela

Contact register:

Toby @ school.  14 bus @ 8.15am
Mike @ CityFitness Willis St 7.30 - 8am

The weekend with a stupid cold

Hi,

My stupid cold meant staying home all weekend.  Missed the group PT session - gah!  I love that session.

But it was a good weekend, despite the stupid cold.

Saturday saw Mike cancelling his tramp due to his scratchy throat.  Apparently he thinks he got it from me.  Hahah.  He's probably right.

Mike copied the old UK videos from 1996 to a compressed format.  And in the evening, we watched The Old Guard on Netflix.  Like a real couple does - you know - sit on the couch watching a movie.

Ohhh - the normality of it all.

Sunday morning

Looking brilliant

Sunday was almost a repeat - and our weather is superb too.  Mike and I went into the basement to clean it out of debris and get it ready for laying black plastic over the clay to seal in any moisture.

We got two wheel barrows of loose clay out and Mike decided to start creating the steps in the back yard.  He made stakes and created a small retaining wall and we filled that.  Good  work!

Toby and Tessa had a picnic to the top of Te Ahumairangi hill.  With BLAT sandwiches and sparkling grape juice.  Toby has good wooing skills.

I went to bed early but it is hard to fall asleep when you can't breathe properly.  Stupid cold.  Have I mentioned that?  :-p

But had a good sleep in the end and up to have an online PT session with Quentin.

Monday home made iced latte

Monday fog lifting

Me looking at the view Monday morning

I am working from home today.  Hopefully my cold clears up and things can go back to normal ASAP. 

Toby has a migraine this morning.  Boo!  He must need more vitamin B.

Have a great week.  It's birthday week for my sisters.  Yes, all of them.  Shona and Sharon on Wednesday and Karen on Saturday.  Woot!

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with tree planting and te papa botany tour

Hi,

My Thursday was so busy, it's hard to remember what I did.  Hahah.  But, this morning (Friday) I woke with a sore throat.  So I am staying home and missing out on a good day in the office.  Boo.  But I hope my throat isn't going to turn into a full on cold.

I will stay home this weekend and make sure I recover.  I will do some basement prep work.  Insulation in the under floor.  Sweep out.

Anyway, yesterday...  Left my phone with Quentin when I was doing bench press with him.  Only just found the selfies he took.  Hahahah.

Did 5 x 3 reps at 35 kg.  Ohhh.  Every third one was hard.  Nailed the first two, each rep.  So I guess I am getting there.  As soon as I can do 5 x 5, I will go up a weight.

Want to get to 40kgs soon.

Ok - don't leave my phone with Quentin...  Hahah.  Could have been worse, I guess.  :-p

Headed to work and got an hour or two in before we went tree planting as a big group.  We were up beside AJs house in Churton Park.  Great day for it.  And we planted close to 1000 trees.

Tree planting crew

Matching Red Bands!

I planted this - for Ange

Juliet pogo technique

We planted this patch

Back to work for a few more hours then away to Te Papa for a botany tour of the back catalogues.  Watch for my write up on the Friends of Te Papa website.

Endeavour collection

Kowhai drawn from specimens collected by Solander

Beautiful prints

Such detail

A ponga (silver fern) from Banks and Solander's collection

So many specimens.  300,000 of them!

Special projection stories on Te Papa

Looking good

Jupiter and Saturn over Mt Vic

Friday morning

Your finger might be in the way, Mike

Mike selfie

I think your finger is in the way.  Really.  I do.

Hahaha - you are so funny

Oh - surprised pic with no fingers in the way

Weekend beckons.  Mike is away tramping to Roaring Stag hut.  I am staying warm and trying to stop a cold coming on.  But I hope to prep the basement work.

Right.  Enjoy your weekend.

Shona and Sharon have their birthday early next week.  And then Karen has a big birthday!  Woot!

Sad we can't all be together to celebrate that.  The wee baby hitting that milestone.  Wow.

Love you wee girl.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with dinner out with some friends

Hi,

Well, I have to say that dinner out last night after the hectic day was so, so good.  The day itself was well and good.

Mike and I left work at 4.30pm and jumped into the car beneath work and hurtled to Toby's school.  Got there and speed dated his teachers from 5pm - 5.30pm.  We were lucky his health teacher was free at 5pm as I couldn't snag her in the timetable. 

Toby is doing okay - his migraines make it harder.  But he is on track - needs to get a few internal assessments done soon.  Drama, History, Sociology, Maths and Health.

Chow with Preeti, Pritesh and Akshatha

 Mike dropped me at Chow on his way home to get his outstanding work done (at least, caught up) and I met my friends there for dinner.  Preeti is pregnant and due Nov 7.  Woot!  It was such a lovely evening, chatting to them.  Hearing about their adventures through lockdown and their families back in India.

As we were paying, I met Josh!  We really have to go visit him soon!  He was looking good.

Caught the bus home (my friends waited with me in this cold - shucks!) and enjoyed a glimpse of the planets high in the night sky.

Jupiter and Saturn!

Slept well, though could do with a bit more, tbh.  At the gym, and benched 35kg, 5 x 3.  The third one was always a bit shaky.  But better than the 5x2 10 days back.

Hope your day is a good one.  I am off tree planting with work and then in the office this afternoon, followed by a Te Papa event.  Botany tour of their back catalogue.  Woot!

Take care. 

Love,
Angela



Contact register:

Wed July 22
Angela @ Mike @ Yoshi Lambton Quay 12.15 - 12.26pm
Angela & Mike @ WHS 4.55 - 5.30pm
Angela @ Chow from 5.40 - 7.50pm
Angela @ 14 bus ~ 8pm

Thu July 23rd
Angela 22 bus @ 6.16am
Angela @ CityFitness Willis St 6.40 - 7.15am
Angela @ work
Angela @ tree planting day
Angela @ Te Papa 5pm - 7pm

The Tuesday that was like my Monday

Hi,

No pictures today.  The only one featuring me yesterday was one Mike took on his phone of Moxley sleeping on my chest as I read on the couch.

She must have missed me.

Or she was freezing and I was warm.

I ended up walking home after work and discovered Toby had been home with a migraine.  I must have missed that memo in the morning.  I left from the street outside work at 1715 and stepped in the door at 1800.  Not bad.  45 minutes.

I cooked tea for Toby.  He requested chicken schnitzels.  I think a week away from me made him appreciate my cooking skills.  Hahahah.

And I made him a mountain of mash.

Mike was out for a catch up with Andrew and got home just as we finished our dinner.  So Mike got leftovers.

There are plenty of schnitzels left in the fridge too.  Yay.

Up for gym this morning and Mike ran in the gym while I had my session.  I had a dream featuring Sally and Andrew - where Andrew stuffed two bits of toast down the same side of the toaster and broke it.  That's it.  That's the dream.  Don't remember another thing except Sally being singularly nonplussed about the broken toaster.

Weird.

Busy day today.  Parent teacher interviews.  Then I have dinner out with Preeti and Pritesh.  Yay!

Hope your day is a good one.  Wellington is wet, wet, wet.

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Blenheim

Hi,

 What a lovely weekend - I am always made to feel so welcome when I visit Iona and Col.  Everyone needs to have a place to visit that makes you feel so relaxed and safe.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Col collected me from the airport at 5pm.  Well, I think we landed at 6.47pm if my watch was correct.  Slightly ahead of time.  It was a little cloudy on the way over, but I got a reasonable view from my single seat.  The plane was full which was good to see.

Iona was home when we got home and we ate a yummy slow cooker dinner.  Mmmm. 

Awesome dinner

I stupidly read until 11.30pm in bed because I had to get up at 5am to join Iona at a special dawn service in Picton to unveil a new te pou for outside the library there.

Te pou is unveiled

The ceremony was great.  Short speeches in the library out of the cold and rain.  Then outside at 6.30am for the actual unveiling.   The pou was covered in cloth and a tarp - with specially tied ropes designed to magically pull off the covers with one tug.

The relentless rain must have made the ropes swell and tighten - so the coverings needed a lot of persuasion to fall gracefully to the ground.  Persuasion in the form of a knife and lots of ripping of the tarp.

The speeches were curtailed due to the crazy weather.  Lashing cold rain.  We all got the chance to touch the new pou and then back inside for some much needed kai and a cup of tea.

Kai time

Every bit of the yummy kai had meat though - so I went straight for dessert.  Hahah.  And the tea was superb.

Back to Blenheim and Col had a job interview and Iona and I walked into town to meet her at Herb and Olive afterwards.   It seemed to have gone well.  Yay.  Also met Mandy and we enjoyed... second breakfast?  No, wait.  My third breakfast?  Or - my first lunch?

Beaver friends

Herb and Olive - 5.5

Okay - Friday afternoon and evening is now some black hole.  I seriously need to blog as I go instead of waiting for the weekend to end.

Lucky I took pics.

Slightly cold walk - but it stayed dry.  Wairau Lagoon.

Bella gets some attention

We went to Wairau Lagoon for a walk, but Mike, Toby and Tessa made better time than we thought from Chc to Blenheim so we cut it short of getting to the wreck of the Waverley and headed back home.  Mike had just pulled up ahead of us.

They got to meet Bella (she got a lot of attention) and we played Bananagram.  Then they had to rush off at 5pm for their ferry crossing.

Taste test

Up after a lovely sleep.  Mmmmm.  And we had a blind taste test of a selection of iced coffees.

Fun with the iced coffees

Cheers

We may need to do it again next time as one of the drinks was a mocha and the chocolate threw me.  I think that one may have won in a straight contest.

As it was, I was surprised to pick the V as the best.

Weird, but true.

 Off to collect Sue from her caravan (I ducked my head in - it was small but perfectly fine) and off to Picton for a walk.

We walked to the old Picton dam.  It was a very pleasant, if damp, walk.  Then back to have a quick lunch in Picton.

Wait.  Let me guess.  Iona is making rabbit ears.

Back home to while away the time with more Bananagram.

Bananagram.  I was in the presence of experts.

Off to pick up Thai takeaways and then to visit Helen and Mandy.  Ideally we'd get their new telescope humming - but the rain foiled that notion.  The 'scope was so smart it knew there was no star in its sights.

But we watched the rugby (Hurricanes and Blues) and enjoyed the company and food.  And the Hurricanes won - so - yay!!

Their house is a mansion - very nice.  They seemed to have settled in very well.  :-)

Cats hog the warmth @ Helen and Mandy's house

Sunrise

Up early for trapline fun.  Sue drove us in her ute.  We met Jean and Allan there at 9.30am, and after an iced coffee (normal hot ones for the others) we were off.  Iona and I did the bottom traplines.  And Col and Sue did the high ones.

Pelorus cafe

Getting trap line gear ready

Pelorus with no one

Rat 1

Rat 2

Possum 1

Piece of... rat?

Delicate

The dream green team

Back to the cafe after the fun for another iced coffee and a bit of lunch.

Pelorus cafe iced latte top up

 Off to watch the rugby at Springlands pub.  I was sure the Highlanders were just there for show and the Chiefs were smashing them.  So I got to chatting to Sue.  She is amazing.  I could listen to her talk about the exciting things she has done for ages.  Police work (okay - some of that made an impact on me and no wonder she left to pursue career choices in the great outdoors and would love to work with animals) and the work with conservation.

Anyway, the Highlanders stormed back to win in extra time by 2 points.  Phew.  Talk about exciting stuff.

Back home for ... more Bananagram.    Then we made chocolate mousse using our avocados.  And dark chocolate.  It was good!

Avocado chocolate mousse

Monday morning saw Sue arriving with some coffee and we made a home made iced coffee.  Worked well.

Home made iced latte

Then headed to Noel Leeming to see if we could get a new phone for Sue.  Let me just say, ask for Curtis at Noel Leeming in Blenhein.  That young man was so lovely.  He chatted away with banter to these 3 old women - probably older than his mother.

After a few considerations, and a trip to 2degrees, we went back to Noel Leeming and bought a phone.  Had a quick lunch at The Little Cafe and then home to get Sue migrated from her iPhone5 to the Android universe.

Did it.  Mostly.  Took a wee while though.

Sue headed home to get ready for work and Iona got home.  We ate and played.... Bananagram.  Then they dropped me off at the airport.  I caught a smooth flight home, in the dark.  Met Mike at the airport and he took me home.  He had already bought groceries.  Yay.

Slept well - up for gym work.  Boxing.  my arms seem almost back to normal after being sore Sat, Sun and Mon.  Hahah.  Quentin killed them Thu morning last week.

Wet here.  Super wet.

Hope your week is a good one.

Love,
Angela

Contact register:

I zapped covid tracer app where I could

Fri Jul 17
ASB bank 9.45am
Paper Plus 10am
Bike shop 10.10am
Herb and Olive cafe 10.30am


Sat Jul 18

Thai takeaways ~ 6.30pm
Helen & Mandy's house for rugby 7-9pm

Sun Jul 19
All @ Pelorus cafe.  Jean and Allan too.  There twice.
Trapline
Col, Sue and me @ Springlands pub from 3.30pm for rugby

Mon Jul 20
Col @ her gym, Sue @ her gym
Iona @ her work
Angela @ Noel Leeming
Angela @ 2 degrees
Angela @ The Little Cafe
Angela @ Blenheim airport/WLG airport


Tues Jul 21
Angela & Mike 22 bus 6.16am
Angela & Mike to CityFitness Willis St 6.45 - 7.45am
Angela & Mike at work

Cats @ Helen and Mandy's house