The Thursday with bottling beer

 Hi,

Mike had to bottle the batch of beer he made two weeks ago, and Andrew is still snowed under with work.  So I said I would bottle their hazy IPA with Mike.

We decided (okay - why we did this I do not know) to use Google to direct us to the Occasional Brewer through the 5pm traffic.  It took us possibly the worst way ever.  We sat in traffic for so long.  Through Thorndon, down Bowen, down the quays and up by the Basin.  Took over 40 mins.

Mike gave feedback.  Hahahah.

Anyway.  We got stuck in.  The bottles needed to get washed and sterilised.  So I did the bottling part as Mike cleaned the bottles.

There is a sign up to say you need clean bottles and need to remove cigarette stubs and weta.  Turns out this is true because Mike came up to me with a huge weta from one of our bottles.  He rushed it outside and left it in a bush.  It will be very surprised to find itself there, no doubt.

Draining the beer from one tub to the next

The dregs - literally

After 2 hours we were out of there.  With all our bottled beers.  They will stay stored here at our house for two weeks and then they should (hopefully) be good to go.

Waiting at The Botanist for our takeaway fish n chips

With the nice evening, I asked Mike if we could go to The Botanist and buy their vegan fish n chips takeaways and eat at the beach.  I had noticed the option on their menu last week when we visited.  We sat inside waiting for the food and Mike enjoyed a beer.  Got our food and poor Mike endured a bit of a cold southerly coming straight onshore as we tucked into the food.

Quite a nice view for tea

Banana blossom for fish is pretty good

I looked up what banana blossom is.  It is the fruit that hangs from a bunch of bananas - and a vegetarian substitute for fish as it is white and flakes away.  It was pretty good - if super oily.  Ate it quickly and walked back to the car and headed home to wash the bottles and store them away.

Pic of me from Elly from the weekend.

Tyler did so well last year.  What an inspiration.

Karen sent me a link to Tyler's old high school showing her achievements last year in her final year of high school.  She is now at uni and going to be successful - I am sure.

Caught the cats pretending to like each other this morning

This morning I went upstairs after Mike had left for his potato cakes brekkie and found the cats lying next to each other on the bed upstairs.  All the house to themselves and they chose to be that close to each other.  Yeah - they actually don't mind each other sometimes.

The weekend is coming.  Not as exciting as a canoe trip this weekend.  Mike has survivor night.  Bwhahahahah.  Boot camp tomorrow morning then he is off and I will tidy the house and pine for his return.

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Angela