The Wednesday with a walk home

 Hi,

After a huge day at work, and a catch up with Barb to get ready for an early meeting this morning (Thu), Barb suggested we walk home.

Barb tackles the steep Garden Road steps

View on the way up

Brilliant idea.  The evening was warm enough that I just needed my hoodie.  Barb took me up behind Clifton Tce car park and under Aurora Tce to Bolton.  We popped out in the gardens.  Very pleasant.  Then we tackled the Garden Road steps.  Steep steps.  Barb was like a goat getting up them.

Me?  Not so much.  The view on the way was superb and Barb pointed out some landmarks.  We separated at the top and she wandered home (she lives not far from Northland school) and I walked back Mairangi Rd way.  Met Mike coming to meet me.

Spoke to Kaustubh and Aparajita before a lovely dinner from Mike.  Headed to my late meeting.  Then finished that and went to bed.  Quite tired after a big work day.

Up Thursday for the early bus and a PT session with Quentin.  Leg day.  Groan!

Going to meet Krishna for lunch today at Higher Taste to say goodbye.  She's heading to India to have her baby with her family around her.  Good on her.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday working from home

 Hi,

Busy day at work - lucky I was working at home and it was an easy commute.  Hahahah.

Smudge lounging in the sun

Mike and I finished work and headed across town towards Newtown for the AFL training night.  Gorgeous weather.  Cold.  But no wind at all.  Mike ran 7km around the park while we trained for 90 mins.  The last 30 mins he huddled in the car as the sun set and the temperatures plummeted.

I had such fun.  There were about 14 or 15 of us.  The most I have seen for a training night.  My kicking has gone backwards so I need to practise lots.  Hahah.  We warmed up.  Did drills.  Played a game of "keeping off". 

Wandered home.  Had a bath to warm us both up.  Fell into bed and had the best sleep for a while.  Up for a trip into town for work.  It's our busy quarterly planning day today.  Loads of work.

Hope your day is a brilliant one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday at work

 Hi,

Had a busy day at work.  Did get away for a short lunch with Juliet - I do like the Mojo haloumi BAPs.  Mmmmm.

Ange was heading home so I got a lift with her.  Lovely chance to unwind and chat to her as she negotiated the traffic.

Made tea with Mike.  Okay - he made tea.  Leftovers from the freezer.  Mmmm.  Had a late meeting so I did that.

Derp

Off to bed.  Not a bad sleep.  Up for PT session with Quentin.  Mike drove me in for my 7am.  I grabbed the keys off him when he started his 7.30am.  I went to Thorndon New World to do our shopping we had put off from last night.  Mike scootered to me.  We finished up and drove home and had breakfast.

At work now.  WFH.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Wellington with lots of things

 Hi,

The weekend was fun and full of random events.  Started with boot camp Saturday under the eaves of TSB as it was raining a bit.  Great fun.  Then off to Mojo to meet Sally and Andrew for the brekkie deal.

How many chilli flakes is too many?

2 for 1 brekkie @ Mojo on Saturday

Candid iced latte

Mike and I dropped into Mitre10 Mega to try and get some black Expol for the Epuni unit to insulate the floors.  But they had none - place was heaving.  But all social distanced with masks.  

Back to the unit to finish the plastic and start taping and sticking it down.

The crypt is shrouded in black

Mike did a wonderful job.  At around 3pm Sally and Andrew dropped by with scones (two different ones as a taste test) and lunch.  Wraps with avocado, hummus and tomatoes.  Mmmm.

Off home not too long after that.  

Nice sleep.  Clocks went forward.  We had a relaxing morning until I tickled Mike at the dining table and his spasm of ticklishness meant he slammed my head into the table.  I have a wee bruise on my forehead now.  Then I dropped Mike in town and headed to Totara Park for the first AFL game of the season.

What fun that was.  6 a side is hard work though.  So much running.  No subs.  Woot!  The ground at Totara park was a bit boggy.  I took an unexpected mark right by the goal.  But my surprise gave time for a defender and then I missed a sitter.  I need to start practising more.  Training is back to Tuesdays.  Here we go - bring it on.

Back to Gorilla Burger in Miramar to meet Mike who had run there via Bunnings and Janine who had run there from Karori.  At Bunnings, Mike had got Janine a drill for her house warming present.  Good work!

We went from there to the Mini coffee bar and enjoyed an iced latte in the sun.  Dropped Janine off at her old house and then headed to Island Bay to meet Elly.

Getting an iced latte @ Mini 

Elly had to walk around in her uniform to have a presence at the marine reserve there.  So we wandered along with her, chatting away.

Island Bay tour of duty

Mini iced latte - so, so good

Feet take on Island Bay

Cute paua shell colours

Then to a pub called  Brew'd in the main street of Island Bay for a late lunch with Elly.  Mike and I headed home after that and basically fell into bed not too much later.

Nice sleep.  Rainy weather for Monday.  Up for the 6.16 bus and dead lifts with Quentin.  Then into work for me.

Hope your day is a good one.  Mike will meet me at the supermarket after work as we need some groceries.

Take care.  Love,

Angela  

The Thursday with a busy day

 Hi,

Thursday was so busy.  Hahah.  I had meetings from 11.30 to 3.45pm and decided the cafe at work would tide me over if I went at 11.20.  They had hardly anything for my vegetarian diet.  I found the vegan sausage rolls - two of them in the warmer.  They are pretty good.  So I bought one of them.  Went back to my desk.  About to get stuck into my work again and took a bite.

What the...?  It was a meat sausage roll.  And how yucky was it?  So, so bad.  Made me super glad I make vegetarian choices. It was unbelievably salty.  I popped the sausage roll back into the paper bag with my bite taken out of it.  I had run out of time to get anything to eat and was looking at quite a few hours before my next break.

But Ange jumped to my rescue.  Ate the meaty sausage roll.  Found Dave's leaving snacks and got me a ham and cheese croissant that I could easily pull out the ham from.  So I ate that in my meetings.  And then Ange gave me half of her delicious home-made salad.  Tricolore.  Mmmmm.  Thank you Ange.

Work iced latte

At the other end of my day, Ange drove me home.  I feel like Thursday was just an entire day of Ange rescuing me, really.

Hahah.

Cooked tea when I got home.  

Omelette dinner

As we finished, we heard some weird noises in our wall.  Sure enough, sounded like a bird was stuck somewhere.

Moxley hears the bird in the wall

Mike got out the ladder and went into the attic space to see if he could help the situation.  But we think the bird sensed the approach of a massive predator (Mike - not Moxley - she stayed with me) and went silent.

Climbs the ladder looking for Mike and the bird

What does she hear?

We went to bed after that and slept the sleep of the dead.  Up leisurely this morning as I am working from home today.  Short commute means a little sleep in.

The weekend is fast approaching.  Boot camp tomorrow.  Then more work at Epuni to get the plastic taped down and stuck in place.  And maybe some Xpol under the floor between the joists.  Should make a huge difference to the unit for warmth.

Mike and Janine intend to do a run somewhere.  I might do a shorter one or ride my bike.  :-)

Have a lovely weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a dinner at the pub

 Hi,

Mike and I had a busy day at work - but working from home.  And a good day to choose to do that as the weather was wet, wet, wet.  And windy.

And Melbourne had a decent earthquake.  5.8.  Bricks fell down and everything.  And Riots.  They had full on riots.  Like it was some military zone.  These here are crazy times.

Bench Thursday morning.  Now my arms are like cooked spaghetti

We worked all day and I even had a late meeting.  But after that we headed to the pub at Khandallah and enjoyed dinner with Elly and Tom and their friend Dave.

Nice pub food.  I had their summer bowl.  Quinoa, avocado, hummus, black beans.  It was really good.

Adorable cat

Back home and into bed.  Well past my bed time.  Hahahah.  Slept okay.  Up for gym.  Bench morning.  I did okay.  But I feel very relaxed now in the arms and back.  Typing is quite taxing.  Hahahah.

Also had a strange dream - usually Mike's domain.  I often wake up and read texts from him at 3am telling me all about his dream.  But this time - it was me.  I played football on a pitch that was indoors with high walls and structures inside the pitch.  Four teams.  Fortunately Tobin Heath was on my team.  Huh?  Yeah - weird.  And I played with a baby on my shoulders.

I don't understand it either.  But - we won!  So there is that.

Have a grand day.

Love,
Angela

The Monday and Tuesday that I seem to have forgotten to blog about

 Hi,

Turns out I forgot to blog yesterday.  It was a busy day for me.  That's my excuse.  Monday was good - busy too.  But we worked from home that day so commuting was a breeze.  The weather was nice too so we ate lunch on the deck.

You can see Mike in his hoodie and me in short sleeves.  Hahahah.  The wind was slight but cool - and we ate omelettes.  Mmmm.

Monday lunch

Tuesday saw me up for gym and leg day with Quentin.  Then off to work to shower and get ready for the day.

Lunch with Barb - we grabbed a Tank salad (remind me - I owe her lunch now).  And then Mike came in for after work drinks and dinner with me.  Celia joined us for a drink which was so nice.

We had a lovely meal and wandered home in the car.  We were not long out of bed.  Wild and windy night.

Cats prefer warmth over their animosity

Looking gorgeous

Looking sleepily gorgeous

Up for Wednesday - it is wet and windy.  We are both working from home, but we might be going out for tea with Elly and Tom.  Woot!

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in level 2 with dirt duathlon race 3

 Hi,

What a busy weekend - level 2 allows a few things to happen.  We got up early for our first boot camp outside for a long time.  Great fun.  

Then Mike got his second covid jab straight after it.  18 Sept.  He went in early and there was no queue so he got it straight away.

Off to Sally and Andrew's after that for a quick pastry and coffee catch up.  

Lunch at Arabica with Celia on Friday

Curled up cat

Two cats sleeping on our bed

Back home to get ready for the third Dirt Duathlon race.  Mike helped me lots.  He even ran out to get new taillights for me.

Left home to collect Callan at 4.45pm and was at his house by 5.15pm.  Strapped his bike to the rack and we were off.  As we passed the Z and Maccas, Callan wondered where Chris was as he was saying he would pre load at the Maccas.  But as we stopped at the traffic lights just beyond there, he pulled up next to us.  Hahah

Venue for race 3 was QE2 park at Paekakariki.  The weather was superb.  Only 100 competitors were allowed and no support crew at all.

Race 3

Moonrise

We started at 7pm.  Did the first loop - around 5km on nice paths.  Not a lot of up and down.  Calm and crisp conditions.

No issues with navigation.  Back to the hub where we switched to bikes.  I realised my laces were unthreaded so I had to thread them.  Gah!  Wish I'd noticed that earlier in the day.

The race is on!

Took off at just after 8pm - probably 8.15pm by the time I sorted out my gear.  This loop was about 8km.  And I had to push the bike a few times - but it was waaaaaay better than getting up to Belmont trig.  

By close to the end, I was smashed.  I ate a Fruit Burst at the Detour game and it sat in my mouth for about 15 or 20 mins.  I had to energy to chew it.

So I decided to hide in the car for loop 3 and let the others have half a chance of finishing with a decent time.  Back at the car at 9.40pm and I huddled in there until the others finished the third loop.

They got a bit lost on C1 and they got in late at 11:10pm.  Wow.  That an epic loop for them. They did a lot of bush bashing and found a stash of special plants at one point!  :-o

We threw gear in the car and left.  I dropped Callan off just before midnight.  What a great set of races.  Thank you, Theresa for getting us all involved.  I found them really challenging.

I got home at 12.10am after the race and was feeling quite tired.  I had considered a bath on my way home, and then reduced that to a hot shower.  But in the end, I just took my clothes off and hauled my pyjamas on, thinking I would cave in to the tiredness.

As I changed in the upstairs bathroom, I saw Moxley grooming like mad.  A closer inspection made me realise she was completely wet.  Like - soaking paws and her fur was all wet.  She was licking herself dry.

Looking around, I noticed the toilet lid was up.  Maybe she had fallen in?  She did that as a wee kitten.  It seemed weird she got that wet from that, though.  She is after all a lot bigger now.

Moxley drying herself

Anyway, I wandered down to the bed, ready to crawl in beside sleeping Mike.  I noticed the downstairs bathroom light on.  So I walked in there, and looked around.  The bathroom floor was sopping wet.  That's weird, I thought.  How did that happen?  A flood?

Then I noticed that Mike had drawn a nice bath for me.  Ohhh - how lovely.  

Slowly, my sleepy brain caught up.  Moxley has always been fascinated by the bath water.  So obviously she had fallen in while checking it out.  Thrashed around in the bath.  Leapt out and shook herself over the bathroom floor.  Looking into the office, I saw soggy cat pawprints on the single bed as a frantic cat jumped over it.

I woke Mike and we both had a good chuckle at our funny cat.  Poor wee Moxley.

I had a lovely soak in the bath - with some added cat hairs.  Hahahah

Two cats sleeping

Home made

Home made iced latte for Sunday morning.  We went to Epuni to start the black plastic work under the wee unit there.

Spotlight on Toby and Tessa

Home made

New roof

Under the wee unit

Laying out the plastic

Tight squeeze

Pic from Nana's unit

I have a new lock screen

Mike got 3/4 of the clay under the unit covered in back plastic.  Sally and Andrew have a bit more for us to finish it off.  Then tape it up and Xpol in the joists and we're done.  Maybe 1 - 2 more days.

Sally and Andrew popped by with home made scones and coffees.  Mmmm.  Then we went to visit Janine's new house in Trentham.

Her house is really nice.  It has a lovely feel to it.  2 bedrooms.  She gets a flatmate in a month.  Nice wee section.  Good on her.

Back home to have some food and off to bed.  Up for gym PT session with Quentin.  50kg deadlifts for my first time back with those.  Not too shabby - they felt quite good.

Working from home today.  News about changing levels in AKL today.  Bit of community spread in the last day or so into Waikato.  Fingers crossed Level 3 is a goer for them.  

Have a good day.

Love,

Angela

The Thursday working from home with a surprise visit

 Hi,

Another day at home for work on Thursday.  It just worked better for logistics.  So not many photos to choose from.  Although it did remind me that on Wednesday Moxley caught a bird.  Okay - that is not absolutely the truth as we don't know what cat caught it.  But Moxley was left with the smoking gun.  That is undeniable.

Moxley gets in on Mike's meeting

She strutted down the stairs to Mike in his meeting and presented the bird proudly to him.  He promptly squawked like a bird himself and excused himself from his meeting and chased Moxley and the aforementioned bird victim to the front door area.

Poor sparrow

This bird did not survive this type of playfulness.  Mike disposed of it and I suspect it did not fly off once he threw it into the bushes.  I guess it might be really good at playing dead.  Shall we choose to believe this?  Mike said its neck was very wobbly.  

:-o

Anyway.  After work on Thursday Mike and I had tea and then chilled reading Twitter until Andrew finished his work and surprised us with a visit.  First time we have seen him face to face since the start of August.  Mind you, he is so busy at work, it is entirely possible Sally might be able to say the same thing.  Hahahah.

Rainy cold weather.  Brrr.  But it is expected to lift some time today (Friday).

Boot camp tomorrow in the park.  Might need thermals.  Mike's second jab.  Woot!  Some black plastic under the basement in Epuni.  Maybe.  And my 3rd and final race for Dirt Duathlon.  In the dark.  Ooohhh.  Sunday looks free still.

And tonight we are catching up with Celia and Ange for drinks after work and then burgers with the James' at their house.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with a busy work day

 Hi,

Well, I ended up taking no photos yesterday.  I guess that means I had no iced lattes.  What?  Hahahah.

Busy day at work.  I did get away for lunch with Celia and Barb - so that was a good thing.  Celia is already settling in and getting to know people.

Mike came to pick me up at 5pm and bring me home.  We had tea and I tidied before my 6pm meeting - which I did from home.  Hahahah.

Went to bed not long after that.  Had a good sleep.  Up for online session with Quentin, but Mike has driven into the gym for his 1 hour session.  Then he'll come home to work from here.

I am hoping to go to the MTB park after work tonight - where we have the 3rd race this Saturday.  Just to try the lights out and see what the place is like.  Theresa will meet me there at 7pm.  Possibly Callan too.

The only hassle might be the dodgy weather.  Hahahah.

We will also collect the Subaru from the mechanics today.  It needs 2 new front tyres for its WoF.  As well as hopefully finding the source of the recent leak.  :-(

Have a fantastic day.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday back at work that felt like a Monday so it is nice to realise today is Wednesday

 Hi,

Yes, back at work on a Tuesday is very confusing for the brain.  Because today feels like it should be Tuesday - but it is Wednesday.  And how nice is that feeling?  

Hahahah.

Went into work yesterday and we are social distanced at work.  Every second desk is unavailable.  The meeting rooms are restricted too - the small ones only allow 1 person in them.  So despite work being open, a lot of meetings are still online.

I got away for a bagel visit with Juliet and enjoyed an iced latte there.  Mmmmm.

Iced latte with Juliet

Also went out for my second covid jab at my GP.  Wandered around behind St Peters church before discovering it was actually in an office building on the same block as the church but not really behind it.  Or - maybe because it is not obvious where the front of the church is, it is tricky to determine the back of it.  Hahahah.  I circumnavigated the building before looking across a garden to see the vaccination centre.  Turns out they had no flags out due to the wind.

Super efficient service.  Checked in.  Got my jab, sat for 15 mins and was let out.  All done by 1.35pm.  

Walked back to work.  Saw the slide had been removed at Frank Kitts park. Took a pic for Toby.

The slide has gone

Worked until Mike drove in.  Went to Rosies for a bite of food and drinks with him and Callan.  Chatted away.  Then headed home.

Slept well.  No side effect from the jab (yet - anyway).  If I rolled over onto it during the night, I could feel it.  But that is typical for any flu jab.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Christchurch

 Hi,

We had a lovely weekend away to deliver the van from Blenheim to Christchurch.  So good to catch up with Toby and the Christchurch whanau.

Travelling at level 2 delta wasn't too onerous either - looks like a lot of NZ is really behind this.  Masks everywhere.

Mike and I drove to the airport and parked in the long term car parking, in case we needed to sit in the car for social distancing.  But with masks on, we easily checked in - no crowds to speak of.  And went to sit by our boarding gate entrance.  We were very early in case of any queues.  But - the crowds weren't there.

Boarded the plane (a wee Dash 8 sort of plane) for the 15 minute flight to Blenheim.  Landed and walked to the van that Iona and Col had left there for us as they went off trapping.  We unlocked it with our keys and found presents - seed crackers and walnuts in a kete - hiding the spare keys.

Flying to Blenheim Saturday

Seed crackers.

Kete with walnuts

We popped into Pak n Save and got some snacks and lunch things for our journey south.  The weather was gorgeous.

Road trip

The van

We saw snow capped peaks most of the way down to Kaikoura.  We popped into the New World there and also Hammer Hardware as supermarkets are not carrying knives currently due to the terror attack in Auckland a few weeks back.

Then we sat on the beach and had our lunch.  

Lunch in Kaikoura

Gore Bay excursion

At Cheviot we headed to the coast for a 21km diversion to see Gore Bay.  We now want to go and stay there for a weekend.

Got into Christchurch at 4pm and Mike navigated without GPS to Pomeroys.  We checked in and then secured a table at the pub.

Level 2 delta means we are spaced out and have a single server.  Masks on unless eating.  Everyone joined us - Steph, Sam, Tessa and Toby.  We had a lovely meal.  Reduced menu.  But scrumptious.

Poms for tea

Off to our B&B after that for a good sleep.  Up for a run with Toby around the Avon - Mike went to collect him.  Then a shower and brekkie again.

Little Poms for brekkie

We then went to Oderlings garden centre and bought seedlings and seeds and a wool sack as Steph and Sam's house has a lot of gardening work needed.

Ponytail

Spring blossoms

Steph and Sam's house is amazing.  Views of southern alps and the snow capped Kaikoura range to the north.  A massive garden.  So Mike and I headed to Bunnings to buy a few tools to get stuck in.  We bought a drill for Toby and saws and hammers and what not.

Got back and got stuck in to cutting some firewood. 

Kaikoura range in the distance

Steph and Sam's garden

Lovely flowers

Yummy iced latte

Movie and Uber Eats for Sunday night.  We watched Rams - a Sam Neil movie.  Really nice food from Burger Burger.  Totally choose that again.  Yum!

Mike and I left and went to the B&B for a sleep.

B&B lced latte

Mike got me an iced latte and had his brekkie while I had my online session with Quentin.  Then he left to get the van WoF'd as a passenger van instead of a goods van now it has a back seat again.

The van was WoF'd much faster than we expected and Mike collected Toby and Tessa and we had brekkie again.

Little Poms brekkie

Then back to Steph and Sam's place to pack up Toby's gear and take him back to uni.  I was sad to say goodbye to him there.  I miss him.

We took Tessa back home as she had a test that night and needed to study.  We parked the van downt he road from their house and Steph kindly drove us towards the airport.  Thank you.

Packing up in Tessa's room

Caught up with my workmate in the Chc office for an iced latte.  Thank you Martyn.  Then we went to the airport.

Iced latte with work mates

Flight home

Easy flight home - bumpy into Wellington with a storm.  But all good.  Drove home via New World.  Cats happy to see us.  Mike fed them.  We ate salad and fell into bed not long after.

Up for the 6.16am bus - it wasn't busy.  Gym session - bench.  Oosshh.

I have my second covid jab today.  Oohhh.

Mike is working from home and said he will pick me up after work.  Yay!  Thank you.

Have an awesome day.

Love,

Angela