The Thursday with dragon boat training with Celia

 Hi,

After work I drove back into town and met Mike and headed to work.  Got changed and Celia turned up to crew with us on the dragon boat as our drummer.

She just fitted right in.  It was good fun.  Perfect conditions.  Still.  Bit grey overhead.  

Both cats waiting for us to come home

Went to the car to wait for Mike to finish his leadership Meetup session and then headed home.  Both cats were peering out the door when we got home.  Awwwww.

Made tea and fell into bed not too long after.

Up for brekkie this morning.  Oh - I forgot to take an iced latte pic with James, Ed and Celia this morning.  Doh!

Weekend soon.  More  Celia after work with friends (cocktails - hmmmmm) and then Mike's last night with me for a week!  He's off to Wanaka via Dunedin for demolition time.

Have a good one.  Next week is March.  Can you believe it?

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a free gym session for my birthday

 Hi,

Lovely day yesterday in Wellington - but it rained in the evening.  Managed to avoid it though.  Sweet.

Iced latte @ Mojo with Maureen

Got an iced coffee in with Maureen at the Mojo by work.  Did the cafe quiz that Mike sent me and it said Mojo was my cafe.  So I guess I am just a type, conforming to it.  :-p

Went to see Quentin after work for my birthday present - a free PT session.  Yay.  We did bench.  I need more bench in my life.  3 times a week - let's go!

Mike and I bussed home together and both cats were peeking out the front door at us.  Aawwww.

Both cats waiting for us

Mmmm - dinner

I made ta - Buddha bowl - and Mike packed for his week in Wanaka doing the demolition work ahead of the renovations.

Slept well.  Up for gym and back from there to WFH today.  Moxley was on Mike's suitcase when I got back.  Too funny.

She's going with Mike

Dragon boat training tonight so I'll drive back in after my last meeting.  

Have a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with birthday dinner and a movie

 Hi,

My Tuesday was so fine - mainly because I caught up with Celia.  But let me retell the events leading up to that.

Went for a walk at lunchtime with Mike and renewed our DoC backcountry hut passes.  Yay.  

Lunch time walk to Andrew's old workplace

That was it.  Not a lot apart from work happened.  But - after work I walked to Celia's workplace and she came and got me when I was almost there and whisked me away to Empire in Island Bay.

Movie night with one of the best humans on this planet

I got presents and dinner and a movie.  If I think about it, it makes me a bit teary.  Celia is one of the loveliest people I know.  I am a lucky person to know her.

She made a hand painted rock for me.  And it is brilliant.  And I got a cucumber from her garden.  It was all I could do to stop myself taking a bite there and then - because fresh from the garden is so, so good.

We had dinner at the cinema.  I had risotto and it was pretty good.  I also got a coffee ice cream.  Mmmm.

And that best human knows me so well.  I got a present made for me - and it suits perfectly

Celia dropped me home and I enjoyed the house to myself before Mike got home from presenting on the Paparoa walk.  He said it went well.

Slept well and up for a bus in with Mike.

Okay - note:  never take a selfie before you've looked in the mirror

Better.  At least my hair is vaguely under control

Busy day today.  And gym with Quentin after work as my present from him.  Choice.  I love that my birthday is getting spread out across the month.

We also heard from Toby.  He is loving the lectures and commented that the reading he has been assigned is fascinating and he is getting stuck in.

I think my boy is all grown up.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday that feels like Wednesday

 Hi,

Turns out the only way I know what day it is, is to consider my sporting activities of the day.  Monday = gym morning and dragon boat training.  Tuesday = gym morning.

I am certain that at some time on my Monday (yesterday) I knew it was Monday.  Then the day slowly morphed into Tuesday.  While I was working!  With my eyes open.  Tuesday just snuck in there.  

But no.  It was still Monday because I went to dragon boat training after work.  Awesome night on the water.  The team is amazing.

Yummy Buddha bowl courtesy of Mike

Drove home and Mike had the yummiest Buddha bowl waiting for me.  Delicious.  Scrambled tofu.  Nom, nom!

Slept a wonderful sleep.  The cat woke us with some vigorous litter box action, but I fell asleep straight away.

Up for gym this morning.  Deadlifts.  Showered at work and ready to go.  It's date night.  But not with Mike.  With Celia.  Looking forward to that.  We're going to the Empire - it is $10 movie night.  Goodness knows what we're seeing.  But I get to spend time with Celia - so all good!

Have an awesome day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with dragon boating and half marathons

 Hi,

What a crazy busy weekend.  Lots of activity.  

On Friday, my work colleagues decided to fire up the brand new barbecue and we had a spontaneous barbecue lunch. Complete with some sort of vegetarian burger patty that was quite yummy.

Mojo iced latte with Maureen

Callan cooks up a storm for Friday lunch

Saturday saw Mike up super early despite his late night Friday to make me scrambled eggs.  Must have done the trick. 

Headed down to the city in the car and Mike dropped me off at work at 8am.  We had our first race at 9.30am.  Next one at 10.50, next one at 11.30 then a lunch break.  The 4th race was at 1340 and the last one was the long distance 1km race at 1430.  

We use the BBQ again on Saturday for dragon boat fun day

PB - 193 heart rate during one of the races

The whole day was such fun.  Good weather.  Great teamwork.  We are pretty competitive.  Very chuffed. 

Mike and I caught the bus home after it all.  And I fell into the shower and then relaxed with Moxley for a bit.

Moxley finds a comfy spot for a snooze

Now on my arm

Next day was Mike's day for activity.  And wow - what a lot of activity he had.  Up early for brekkie and getting ready.  Then Janine arrived at our place and we drove in.  I dropped them close to the starting line and went to park in Clifton Terrace.  Walked back and found them on the start line.

On the start line

Laces tied and ready to go!

When the race started, I watched them both run over the start line with the other half marathon competitors and then went to Hangar for brekkie with Sally and Andrew.

Iced latte @ Hangar

Sip!

After brekkie we wandered around town a bit.  Watched the start of the 6km wave - there were so many people.  The wave just kept going and going.  Good to see Wellington up and active.

Mike and Janine did so well.  We got updates from Mike every now and then and we followed him on Messenger Live Location.  Well, sort of live.  Like 3 mins ago live.

Mike did it in 2 hours 16 mins.  If he hadn't had to go bush and do a wee he would have easily done it in 2:15.  21 km.  Wow!  I am very proud.

Janine also nailed it - I think she was about 2 mins faster than Mike.

Medalists - well done!

Ready for Master Kong yum cha

We went to Master Kong to celebrate.  Yummy food.  Got quite full.  Back home to chill and then at 5.30pm I went to the Bichan family dinner.  Retrieved my undies from Helen (she had collected them from Iona and Col - I left them there last time, tangled in their washing) and then enjoyed conversation with everyone.

Back home to collapse into bed.  Up early for gym with Quentin.  Boxing.  Oosshh.

Toby starts uni lectures today.  He has a lot of work on - and weirdly a Saturday class.  Not sure what that is about.

Timetable

Good on him!

Love,

Angela

The Thursday that was my unbirthday

 Hi,

My work day yesterday was a bit pants.  My locker battery went flat and I couldn't open it.  Very odd.  But that meant I had no shower stuff.  No deodorant.  Nothing that could fix the fact I had been to the gym.  Didn't even think I could put my hat on and pretend it was fine.  Hahah.

Iced latte start to the day 

I did get an iced latte and half a bagel with one of my fave people - so it had a momentary high spot.  But then work got in the way again.  And by the time it finished I was super keen for a evening out on the water paddling my heart out.

Heart rate while training

The GPS tracker

Mike collected me afterwards and we took Janine home with her bike.  Then went up to feed Sapphire.  She is very elderly - 19 years old! Mike hadn't seen her for a while and was amazed at how frail she looks now.  But the young social cat was still inside her and she enjoyed our attention.

Hi gorgeous Sapphire!

Mike was taken with her!

Friday is stunning here

Sapphire is happy to see us this morning

Masked bus ride

Kilroy

Miaow!

Up Friday to walk up to feed Sapphire.  She was on the couch and happy to see us once more.  Ran back down the hill to the bus and in at work at a nice time.

Big weekend for me and Mike.  Mike has his half marathon on Sunday.  21km around the bays.  Huge!  He is so ready.  

And I have dragon boat Fun Day tomorrow.  Woot!  From 8am - 3pm.  I will earn my sleep on Saturday night.

If you're in Wellington and the weather is good (looks okay to me) - come down and shout out encouragement.

Have an awesome Friday and an even better weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday that was my birthday

 Hi,

Can I have a birthday every day?  I love birthdays.  I love yours.  I do!  But I love mine more.  Hahahah.  I got so many birthday wishes.  It was lovely.

Mike got a migraine after cooking an awesome brekkie for me.  So he took painkillers and went back to bed.  He eventually was okay enough to venture out - but it took a while and he did sleep lots.

Toby got the hint around 11am when I asked him what day it was.  We got a video chat with him - met his flatmates in the hostel briefly.  Hahah.  Good on you Toby.

We were in level 2 restrictions in Wellington (and the rest of the country outside of Auckland which was in level 3) so I was working from home.  We switched out our in person birthday lunch for an online lunch.

Thank you to my colleagues fore making it such fun.  Ellie made her lunch and Kirsty copied it.  I reckon we could be onto a new form of entertainment.  We choose 2 people each time, one selects the menu and puts out the ingredients ahead of our online lunch.  And we watch someone copy the recipe.

Totally a covid-era winning lunch time bit of fun!

Home made iced latte for my birthday online lunch

I had visions of Kirsty setting off smoke alarms as she replicated Ellie's wrap cooked by popping it into the normal toaster.  But Kirsty had a secret weapon.  Toasted sandwich toaster bags.  Who knew!

Online birthday lunch!

Angie also told us about her exploding watermelon.  Sat fermenting in the fruit bowl for a bit and then Rob touched it lightly with the new fruit (banana!) and it exploded.  Spat its watery contents up the wall and in the fruit bowl.

Weird!

Straight after work I chatted to my Mum and sister Karen for a while.  Dad was there too so we all caught up with each other's news.  Grandmama passed away the day before so Dad is feeling that a lot.  Mum is also upset and they are working through it all.

After work Mike  and I headed into town at 7.15pm and went to Atlas.  We were early for our reservation (7.45) but Sally also arrived.  Andrew wasn't too far away either.  The food was superb.

Atlas was good!

We all enjoyed our meal at Atlas

I got some presents too.  I was so astonished that Andrew made time in his hectic day and got little things that meant something to me.  They know me well.  Lewis Road iced coffee.  Cheeses.  Crackers.  An Orangina substitute (hahahah - that was a memory from our French trips where I loved that drink!).

Thank you.  

Mike also got an awesome present for me too.  Indian vegetarian cooking course.  4 evenings.  And I get to do it with Sally (or Andrew or Mike - whoever is free on the night).  Can't wait!

Birthday flower

Day after birthday is turning on the magic weather

Got home quite late and it was rudely too early when my alarm went off at 5.30am.  Off to the gym.  Then to work where our doors are not working properly.  And I can't get my locker to open.  So no shower for me.

Turns out Andrew is also pretty sick.  No sign of it for me or Mike.  So we hope it wasn't the food at Atlas - but maybe the leftovers he had from home that he didn't reheat as Sally was expecting.  Hmmm.

Anyway.  It's my unbirthday.  Almost as good.  Right?

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday that is my birthday eve

 Hi,

Tuesday was full of wind and rain - but it was okay working from home.  Heater on, despite it being summer.  

Moxley found her place to curl up yesterday

Moxley is happy we're working from home though.  Yesterday she cuddled up onto Mike's lap and stayed there for ages.

We had a quiet day and when work finished we just ate some rubbish food and chilled out.  Had a bath to relax ahead of a lovely long sleep.  Mmmmm.  Pretty good to me.

Up on my birthday morning to an amazing brekkie from Mike.  Scrambled eggs on pancakes.  With a home made iced latte.

Scrambled eggs on pancake - what an amazing birthday brekkie

Birthday morning view

Fixed it!

Weather is a bit cool - so I fixed it.  Woot!  That's how it is in my mind.

Have an awesome day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back in level 2 restrictions

 Hi,

Happy birthday to John today - good luck with the dodgy weather today despite it being "summer".  Yeah, right.

Yesterday was busy - working from home under level 2 restrictions.  But dragon boat training was on so I went into town and did that.  Gee - it was hard (see screen shot below for a look at my effort).

Heart rate high!

Came home, showered and did the washing (I was soaked from training - there was a light rain out there too).  Then fell into bed and was asleep by 9pm!

Up for work - at home once more.

Normal home made iced latte pic

Then photo bomb by Mike!

Birthday eve - me looking at the weather outside

Weather outside looking back at me and laughing at my thoughts of summer

The weather is bad.  Bad!  Like - winter.  Brrrr.  Gales.  Rain.  Clouds.  Not super nice.  And tomorrow is not looking a lot better.

But let's see.

Have a good day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Wellington with Lesley and Wally visiting and lots of social things

 Hi,

What a difference a few days can make to things in the era of covid.  This weekend saw so many social things happening all over Wellington.  And yet, by the end of it, we're in Level 2 restrictions (masks, distancing and <100 people in one place) here and Level 3 (locked down, but with takeaways) in Auckland.

Aucklanders doing the hard mahi once again.

But I think the government is right to use an "abundance of caution" to handle this latest community transmission case.  That seems to be the new phrase for this series of press conferences.  I like how the politicians and the health ministry staff all align - it looks like they really do talk to each other!

Friday working from home

Friday night pizzas with Sally and Andrew

Friday after work saw Sally and Andrew coming over to enjoy a movie and pizza with us.  Woot.  

We also slept downstairs for the first time in Toby's room.  Seemed to work well.  Nice and clean - thank you Toby.  The cats seem to be coming to an arrangement.  Moxley has the bed and Smudge is sleeping on the chair by the bed.

In my PJs having a home made iced latte on Saturday morning

Mike made me a home made iced latte ahead of boot camp.  Woot!

Boot camp was hard.  Quentin made us run around the park and then around the block to the police headquarters and Green Man.  Then it was right into cardio.  Ooohhh.

Good fun!

Boot camp done Saturday!

After boot camp Saturday

We did some messages (Animates for cat supplies and Mitre10 for more waratahs) before we got home and Mike got stuck into the steps once more.

Moxley patrols the garden while Mike makes the steps

Moxley tuckered out from paw patrol

Toby moved into his new room at the hostel in Chc.  We had pics from everyone and then Toby did some video before a video call.  He looks pretty happy.  I think they also ate at the hall there.  Toby had a huge plate of salad.  And according to others, he ate it all.

We had an unexpected phone call from Sally at 1740 saying we were still on for dinner out at 1830.  This was a surprise - apparently Sally and Mike decided it over the movie/pizza night as a surprise - but they had both fallen asleep in the afternoon!  So we got ready super fast and headed into town.

Dinner was Boquita - a new little Mexican vegetarian restaurant. They are scaling up from a food truck. It was yummy! They had a limited menu since they had been serving at the Wellington Food and Wine festival all day, so they kept giving us extras to make up. We ate so much. 

With the wine and food festival during the day, and Six60 concert and Chinese New Year fireworks, it was a huge night in the capital.

We went home for a blanket and then out to try and see the fireworks from the hill above our place.

Manic selfie time - waiting for Chinese New Year fireworks from Te Ahumairangi hill.

I spy Sally and Andrew hunkered down in the grass

Yeah - ummmmm.  Fireworks obscured by pine trees that need to get chopped down!

Turns out the spot we picked was a little less than ideal.  But the evening was pleasant and the views were stunning of the city and the Hutt valley.

Fireworks were mostly hidden apart from the huge ones.

Dropped Sally and Andrew home and then had a good sleep.  Up for brekkie with Lesley and Wally who had driven down the day before from Auckland.  Chelsea was moving into her hostel accommodation.  Her boyfriend Connor was with them too.

We went to Karori and found a cafe that was open.  The food was fine but my iced latte was so, so sweet.  I couldn't actually drink it.

Okay.  Good cafe let down by the sweetest iced latte ever!  Sunday morning in Karori

Then off to the Mini cafe for an iced latte only to find I had left my phone in the cafe.  Mike drove back to get it and all was good with the world again.

The Sampsons left to get Chelsea settled in and then we headed home.  I made seed crackers and Mike finished off the steps.

I made seed crackers

Wild hair, gorgeous cat!

My arm drapes across the couch, sunlight playing upon my skin.  Smudge revels in it too.

Smudge patrols the deck

As evening fell, we heard more and more about the new community cases in Auckland.  And at 7pm the Prime Minister announced Auckland was moving to Level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country into Level 2 distancing and other restrictions. 

Toby is okay - he is at Tessa's place.  Lesley and Wally decided to drive through the night and head home.  I think that was sensible.  Glad they got home safely.

And we're working from home as much as possible why tests get carried out by everyone around the cases.  I hope it is contained. 

Andrew is a busy man with his work and no doubt Sally will be too.

Melbourne has gone to a lockdown too - until midnight on my birthday.

So, my birthday this year is likely to be a quiet one at home with Mike.  Oh.  Well - there you go.  Movie night and dinner.  Sounds good to me. Our upcoming weekend of dragonboating and half marathoning won't be happening if we stay in Level 2, either. Mike will probably run the course anyway.

Take care.  Have a good week.

Love,

Angela