The Tuesday that felt like a Wednesday

 Hi,

I spent all of yesterday thinking it was Wednesday already.  Because surely I had worked for 3 days. But no. Just felt a bit like it.

Lovely sunrise

Tuesday was a brilliant day weather-wise.  Stunning sunrise and it stayed cloud-free all day.  Cold though.

Mike came home and we had some tea and then chilled before bed. Up for his gym session and another day at home today for me. My cold is not doing anything much. Barely dribbling - hahahahah.

Right. Still WFH today. But maybe I can finally go into work tomorrow. Woot!

Mike is walking home via the bush with Janine tonight after work. Hope it stays nice for that.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work

 Hi,

Well, my cold hasn't changed any through Monday and into Tuesday morning.  Still the same.  Bit sniffly. My throat doesn't seem to be as scratchy as it was.  I will RAT again either later today or early tomorrow.

That's a negative

Old pic of Toby when he was 10 months old - he doesn't look too happy with Bugs

Waiting for her tea

And after her tea

Mike went for a run after work with Callan and Janine.  It felt good - so yay for that. We went to bed nice and early and set the alarm for 12.25am so we could watch the Artemis launch.  But by then they had delayed it an hour.

Launch was delayed

They pulled the plug so we turned off the TV and went back to sleep. Next potential launch is this Saturday sometime. We were up for an online PT session because.... sniffles. So no gym for me. It was okay.  My shoulder is still a bit sore.  Okay in bed as it is soft. But doing some of the floor work on a hard surface was a bit tender. Hopefully in a week it will be fine.

Mike is off to work in town.  I am WFH again.

Have a lovely day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with a bit of painting

 Hi,

On Friday I caught up with Andrew in the morning and then Jo C for lunch at The Lab.  Good to see her - it has been ages.  They are all well. I hope we get to see them soon - especially as they have travel plans to visit SA.  I want to see those pics!

Iced latte at Mojo with Andrew

Smudge and Moxley are touching - sort of

Lunch at The Lab with Jo

After work, Mike got home and we ordered pizza from Hell as Sarah and Ryan came over.  We chatted to them and ate our way through a mountain of pizza.  

Off to bed and up lazily the next morning.  I did get brekkie in bed - ta Mike.

Brekkie in bed

Moxley winking at me under the duvet

Smudge claims her spot

Off to Epuni by midday to get undercoat on all the interior windows and some of the exterior ones too.  Where needed. We got hungry so Mike went off to get supplies from Mitre10 and some food.  Mmmm.

Iced latte at Epuni

Sanding

A coat on the big window

Back to Sally and Andrew's place afrter we'd finished the undercoat.  Takes a while to dry that stuff.  Watched a movie with them and got some food delivered.  :-)  Thirteen Lives - about the Thai football team of young boys stuck in the cave due to heavy monsoonal rains.

Home to bed.  And up for a rinse and repeat.  We went to Maccas for brekkie.  But my iced latte came with sugar.  So much sugar.  I couldn't drink it.  Why doesn't their menu say:  Sweet iced latte - and then I'd know to customise it and remove the sugar.  Yuck!

Maccas iced latte - 2/10 - why did they add sugar?

Ready for top coat

We got top coat on all the windows.  And a second top coat on the sun room windows.  Yay!  Home to get ready to visit Christine and John in their place in Island Bay.

Mike's Tim Tam slam

Well, hello there!

What a lovely apartment/townhouse they live in!  I would totally live there.  We had a great meal - however Christine either doesn't remember or didn't know I am vegetarian.  I may have had my first chicken meal for 6 years last night.  I didn't want to say anything.  And as Mike said, that chicken had already been fed and watered and died for that meal.  And it was delicious.  I am a vegetarian for sustainable reasons, after all.  Meat tastes great to me.  Although it is certainly no longer anything I really miss.

It was so good to chat to Christine and meet John.  She is doing well - as many of my readers will be keen to know (and by readers, I mean my mother mainly!).

We stayed there for ages - but eventually I was starting to get sleepy.  We headed home - and I am so keen to see her again soon.  I reckon Kara would enjoy her company.  Must sort that out.

At home - got ready for bed.  Slept well - I can finally sleep on my right hand side for a short while.  Yay for getting better.  It is nowhere near as sore as it was.

Woke with a scratchy throat and a slightly runny nose.  RAT was negative.  Let me keep an eye on that.

I read the very sad news this morning that Mike's Aunty Claire has passed away - Sunday morning.  She was almost 96. She was always so gracious and welcoming, whenever we met up. All the memories become precious.

Take care.  

Love,

Angela

The Thursday with Bingo and the Friday with a Breakfast Burger

Your guest blogger is back because Angela has Fridays off. And I have to continue the burger theme until WOAP is over.

Thursday for me was an hour of gym. I cracked 130kg in my multi-rep deadlifts which made me quite chuffed and quite tired. Then Quentin my PT got me smashing out all sorts of machines that completely wore out my legs from bottom to top.

I'm still hobbling. 

I actually think they delivered this machine to the wrong dungeon

There was a work function after work - midwinter Christmas with dressing up and playing Bingo. I drove down for it after working from home for the day. Just before I left I scrambled up into the loft to find a Santa Hat and Toby's ugly Christmas jumper. Luckily, "January Mike" had put away the Christmas stuff somewhere convenient and easy to find.

I'm glad I did! I won a prize for the Jersey.

I won prizes for Toby's Christmas/Bacon ugly jumper

Friday morning is "Potato Cakes" breakfast morning with some friends. We have it at The Old Bailey - and their WOAP burger was on the menu. I foolishly said yes.

But for breakfast?!

It was pretty good, and a bit different - not chicken, not beef but mutton in the middle of the burger. It had to me a quite gamey flavour. My Thursday Jersey may contradict this but possibly the bacon was a step too far - one too many flavours in the burger. Overall I'm going with a 7/10.

The last day of the week beckons. Pizza with Sarah and family tonight, and painting jobs in the weekend. Woot!

The Wednesday with working from home

 Hi,

Enjoyed catching up with Juliet before work at Smith the Grocer. Nice brekkie and a good chat.  Headed home after that.

Iced latte at Smith the Grocer

Moxley waiting for her tea

Smudge snuggles after her tea

Is it dinner time yet?

Booked a GP appointment for Friday - my left ear is blocked and it is hard to hear. Not sure why - never had this happen.  Started last Sunday.  

Mike got home fairly early after work and we had a nice dinner - roasted potatoes and the leftover stew. Yummy.

Sat on the couch and watched YouTube.  We saw a few videos by Alice Roberts on anatomy.  She used this software that lets you examine bones and muscles etc.  Great fun.

Off to bed.  Slept well. Up with Mike for gym.  I am working from my real workplace, instead of our spare room.  Wow.  Other humans.

Have a great day.  It's my Friday.  Catching up with Andrew, Jo and the doctor tomorrow on my day off.  And this weekend is all about painting at Mike's mother's unit.  Woot.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with my only WoaP so far

 Hi,

After a long busy day at work (but WFH - so there is that), Mike and I got ready to go out and meet Janine at The Library for their take on a dessert burger for Wellington on a Plate.

At The Library for their ice-burger

Dutch angle selfie

Looks hot!

It was quiet when we got there at around 1730.  Janine wasn't too much behind us.  We ordered some snacks and drinks before ordering the main event.

The dessert ice-burger (geddit? Iceberg-er haha) came out covered in meringue and the wait staff poured alcohol over it and lit it.  Looked very pretty.  Bit like a penny stove.  :-p  But it was not my sort of dessert.  I got through half of it.  It was filled with a chocolate hard ice cream, a raspberry lamington on the base and a shortbread style biscuit.  It maybe tried a bit too hard.  Out of 5 stars, for me it was a 2.  Lovely presentation.  But just too much going on.  At least there were no raisins involved!  :-)

Dropped Janine at Barb's place so she could collect her bike and then we headed home.  Watched some YouTube then read and then bed.  Slept much better.

Moxley was excited by the cat videos and climbed up on the chair to watch

Up for brekkie with Juliet at Smith The Grocer.  Nice.  Now back WFH for the rest of my busy day.

Have a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work

 Hi,

Busy day getting back into the working week yesterday.  But I did WFH so it made a few things easier.  

Moxley snuggles

The sneaking 2:30am figure on Saturday morning

Above is the picture from our door bell from Saturday morning where I showed Kara that it looked awfully like Toby.  Hahah.  He was sneaking.

We had tea after work.  And then got a few things done before relaxing on the couch.  We also spoke to Andrew for a bit and heard about how his day went with his mother.  Hopefully she will make a full recovery soon.

Slept poorly.  Up for gym with Quentin.  But my chest/shoulder made everything pretty hard work.  Did a lot of leg stuff.

Back home to work from here for today.  The Library after work for a WoaP burger.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Sunday with one more burger

OK one more guest post to celebrate the Wellington Airport burger that Toby and I had just before Angela arrived. 

Gorilla Burger cunningly set up a WOAP burger that you could only buy at the airport. So we arranged to have one when Angela and Kara got off the plane. And sneakily Toby too. However, the burger place closed at 7pm which was 30 min too early. But this burger is definitely not vegetarian friendly so it was kinda lucky.

Gorilla Burger at the airport.
You've seen this trolling photo before.
But I had to post it again because it was our finest effort

It's beef, inside chicken!

Mighty.

I'm giving this burger 9.5 out of ten and the best yet. A bun made of buttermilk fried chicken in the best Double Down style. A delicious beef burger patty and a crescendo of flavours that all worked well together.

I've never recommended a trip to the airport before (other than to get on or off a plane!) but this one is worth the journey.

And late breaking news! Peleton restaurant, above Mojo at the airport also have a WOAP burger! The Gorilla burger was so good though, I'd struggle to go elsewhere.

OK we have a dessert burger at The Library tomorrow night and I think that's us burgered out. It's been an adventure! 

The weekend with a great ski day a road trip and a return to Wellington with surprises

 Hi,

I am back in Wellington.  I'd like to thank my guest blogger from last week.  :-)  Thanks Mike.  For always being there for me.  Virtually - and in reality too.

Saturday I was surprised to see both skifields open for business after heavy, warmish rain overnight in Wanaka.  We decided my body would prefer to tackle the fresh 15 cms of powder at Cardrona rather than the steeper terrain at Treble.  So we checked out and headed up. Left Wanaka at 7.30am - so a nice early get away.

Got to the base of the mountain and 2WD cars needed chains due to mud.  But the van is mighty.  And all wheel drive.  So up we went.  Got to the Valley View car park road - and drove right by the sign saying 4WD only.  The van made short work of the steep, muddy, rutted road.  Found a car park spot on really soft looking mud, not far from the chairlift.

We sat around in the van, keeping warm. It was only 8am.  And the lift didn't open until 8.30am.  Eventually we got out, and got ready.  Saw the first punters go up - and we were not long behind them.

Cardona magic on Saturday

Look at that snow behind me

What a superb day.  The powder up top was pretty skied up by the time we got there.  But still found plenty of pockets of goodness on our first few runs.  We did about 4 runs (busy queues) before a toilet and hot chocolate break.  My Strava decided to stop then - and I didn't realise for a few hours.  So most of my runs from 10 - 1pm weren't recorded.  Sigh!

Blue sky

Mountains between us and Queenstown in the background

Queenstown Return trail

I was still pretty tentative with my skiing.  Skiing well within my limits as I did not want to fall over.  Had such fun.  Went down some cool runs with Kara.  Loved it.

Did Valley View a few times and then called it at 3pm.  Jumped in the van and headed north for our road trip back to Chc. As I backed out of the soft park where we'd sat all day, I used low gear.  And I took the easiest path to the road through the parked cars that remained. As we approached thge steep downhill, a sign said to use low gear. And Kara said:  use low gear.  Hahah.  I could not have got to this point in the usual Drive gear and said I was already in low gear.  The ruts in the slippery mud loomed below us and Kara said at this point that she was very glad I was driving and not her. Game face on, I grunted assent. And we went down the hill like a boss. No worries.  We bottomed out a bit on the ruts.  But nothing slid anywhere. Car behind me didn't seem to back off.  Hahah.

Geraldine Motels - here we come!  I sang a lot on the way - some awesome playlist on Spotify.  Might have been one of my playlists.  :-p 

What a great wee place that was Geraldine Motors. We got there around 8pm. I had accidentally booked a double but the people at the motels jumped into action and split the bed into two singles before our very eyes.  Wow!  Thank you.

Geraldine Motels - would recommend!

Had a good sleep.  My body was even better - and I could sleep on my back for a short period of time.  Progress!

Up early - 5am!  The ski week has programmed me well.  Read for a bit until Kara woke just after 6.  Got ready - checked out.  And found a cafe called The Running Duck for some brekkie.

The flowers go on a road trip

Ready to check out Sunday morning

The Running Duck iced latte #1

The Running Duck iced latte #2

Left Geraldine around 11am ish and popped into Rakaia Gorge to see it.  I do like that river.  I used to go there with Toby a lot on our ski week trips to Mt Hutt.  It was wide, brown and fast.  And we could see it had been higher not too long ago.

The road by Rakaia was really washed out.  They had one way systems in the middle of the road where water had taken half the uphill lane away.

Rakaia Gorge

Down with the kids at the "gorge-ous" gorge

I was disappointed last night to get a text from Toby saying he couldn't meet me in Chc on Sunday.  But we got to Chc and filled in a bit of time shopping.  And checking out C1 cafe.

C1 iced latte in Chc

Left the van outside Toby's flat - along with our food leftovers.  We tried for an earlier flight, but just missed the 4.30pm one.  And the 5.30pm one was full.

So, 6.30pm it was.  Landed just after 7 at Wellington, and as I spotted Mike in the distance and told Kara, she said:  he has someone with him.

Chc departure gate

Guess who was in Wellington and that was why I couldn't see him in Chc?  That Toby!  I was so happy to see him.

Surprise in Wellington

Mum - I can whistle really well now!

I recognised the tune he whistled!

Look what the cheeky two of them sent me from Wellington airport before I got on my flight in Chc!

Mike sent a selfie of him at the burger place in Wellington.  And that is Toby, hiding in plain sight behind him!  Hahahah.

I had seen a 2.30am doorbell video of someone walking very weirdly to our front door on Saturday morning. In fact, I showed Kara as I said it looks awfully like Toby.  I asked Mike, and he said he was prancing to the door.  So I just left it.  But now I know it was Toby!  Hahahah.

Happy to see Mike too.  Toby's flight back to Chc was at 8.30pm - so we said goodbye to Kara.  She trotted out to find Neil.  And we all sat in the terminal, chatting before Toby's flight boarded.

Saw him off.  And Mike took me home.  He pampered me with clean sheets and lots of iced coffee in the fridge.  Mmmmm.

Went to bed and was asleep super fast.  Possibly my best sleep all week - I think my body is much better and I do not have to always sleep on my left.  I don't wake myself when I move.  :-)  Yay!

Caught up with some news here in Wellington.  Helen is not well - she caught covid down south.  She's okay for now and Andrew is there to check on her.  We've had landslips all over the place here too.  Cars squashed.  Houses evacuated.  It is all happening.

I hope you have a great week ahead.  Take care.

Love,

Angela