The Monday with a hectic day and a dinner out

 Hi,

Monday was a hectic day. I also forgot to tell you about the giant spider in my flannel story from the weekend. Moxley had been playing with a big one in the bath. But Mike rescued that after the second day of torment and took it outside.

But - it might be the rain, but whatever it was, another one came in. Now, NZ has the katipo spider which is a venomous spider that could make you pretty sick. I have never seen one. They live at the beach. So no spider in your house is going to cause problems - unless it is a white tail. And that is not from venom so much as bacteria that makes your bite nasty (well, that is my limited understanding).  So spiders here are basically likely to be pretty harmless.

But they grow them big! Garden types that grow huge and black and ... spidery.

That what was hiding in my flannel (face cloth for those of you not from Scotland, I guess). I didn't know. Grabbed it from the towel rail. Shoved it under the running tap in the basin, and then grabbed it to open it up to wash over my face. When the giant spider fell out of it.

I might have squealed.

Mike came down. Said it was pretty huge, to be fair. Then collected it up and took it outside.

I now shake everything.

Hahahahah.

Work iced latte

My Sweet Banana Capsicum is having a hard time

Work was busy. Got visitors from Aus (vendors) so it was in and out of meetings with them for most of the day. And they took a few of us out for drinks and tea. Including Mike. 

I rode home and Mike caught the bus. I beat him by at least 15 mins. And he did get a bus fairly quickly. 4 min wait for him.

eBike.

Mmmm.

Up to ride in. Dragon boat training tonight. Oooohhh.

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The weekend in a slightly damp Wellington

 Hi,

Good weekend with a fairly relaxed feel to it all. Was a bit damp through the bulk of the weekend. But we seemed to have missed it. Mainly by staying inside. Hahah.

Foot healing well

Arm healing well - and comparing similar excisions with work colleague

I compared my arm with Vance at work - he got an excision the day after mine. So we had pirate arms.

Friday I popped into town to catch up with Andrew at Pickle and Pie. Their creamy mushroom pie was good. So good.

Bus on a wet day

Looks like a mere scratch

Pickle and Pie lunch fun

Moxley claims me

Must be comfy

Mike headed out on Saturday to see if he could fix Janine's hot tub heater. They made some inroads. And got the porch light sorted.

Meanwhile I went to see the Black Sticks women play USA again. Much better game - 4 - 1 was the score and a win for NZ.

I went to see Black Sticks women again

Mike covered with cats

Sunday saw me and Mike laze around in the morning, then head out to QE2 park for a ride and a walk. We avoided the rain - yay.  And I checked how my bike worked with no battery and off track. Good test - and I will head there on Friday to do a decent ride.

Duck hide

Hahahah - I look like I am wearing a beret

Prof Dawkins

Back home and showered and ready for the session at the Opera House with Richard Dawkins. I saw him last time with my mother - so I was missing her for sure. She would have loved that.

Good discussion on science 

A controversial discussion Richard Dawkins took on was the Mātauranga Māori changes in the NZ school curriculum. Personally, I think the two chaps on the stage took the wrong approach to a subject that they are obviously passionate about. And it went on a bit too long.  For me, I think they should have raised it with a positive slant - at the end of their mini lecture on it, Prof Dawkins did say it was good to have it in the curriculum - just not in science.  Should have led with that.  Said what their concerns were - then ended with exhorting the audience to not just believe them but go and research it for yourself and if you agree, make yourself heard.

Anyway - always good to have science provoke the public into thinking about how we can best use scientific discovery for the betterment of us all. Globally, locally, with iwi, with everyone.

Dropped back home and into bed and slept well. Moxley had a cicada in our room - but I seriously couldn't care less.

Rode into work Monday morning. Busy week ahead. Have a good one wherever you are.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday that felt like it could have been Monday or Friday to be honest

 Hi,

Yeah - I am so confused about what day of the week it is. Seriously, it could be Monday still (okay - a really long Monday!) or it could be Friday. Or Wednesday. The only day it doesn't feel like is Tuesday.

Okay - potentially my brain is stuck somewhere because this is already rambling.

Iced latte @ Smith The Grocer

Brekkie before work was superb. Fiona, Barb and Juliet all bought me brekkie for my birthday. Best drawn out birthday celebration ever! Thank you. So good to chat to them all.

Mike went out to a leadership Meetup last night after work, so Martyn and I went to Hey Ramen and ate noodles while people watching. Great fun!

When Mike finished his session, we grabbed a drink together at The Malthouse. Got an Uber home with them all and fell into bed and slept like a sleeping thing.

Up to more rain. But it is gentle rain.

Deadlifts with Quentin this morning. Then hack squats. My quads are not happy with me. Hahahah.

On the way to work from the gym I bumped into someone from work (ex employee) and learned his partner had a brain aneurysm and is still in recovery mode. Young and fit. You never know what is lurking around the corner. What terrible news - I am thinking of them and sending him lots of strength.

Martyn made it to work successfully. It has been lovely having him stay with us.

Time for my day to kick off. Weekend looms for me after this. Trying to sort out a decent bike ride for me. I only have a month to the day (March 23) before Alps to Ocean starts.  OMG.

Have a lovely day.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with a billet staying

 Hi,

After the gym session, I had a shower at work and my dressing fell off so I got a good look at my foot. I reckon it looks pretty good. Like always. And the scar is healing up fine too. Hahah.

Dressing came off my foot - looks good to me

Work iced latte with AJ

Busy day at work. Then Martyn who is up from Chc came home with us. Accommodation is smashed in Wellington, so he came to stay with us. We got Indian takeaways and enjoyed chatting before falling into bed.

Up to ride in - but heard we have rain. So caught the bus in with Mike instead. In really warm dry conditions. So maybe I should have just come in on my bike.

Off to brekkie now with Juliet, Barb and Fiona from work. Can't wait to catch up.

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work

 Hi,

Big day at work! Oosshh.  Seemed to go pretty well. Woot! Mike has had better days though - so hopefully his Tuesday is far better than his Monday.

Work iced latte

Spin after work

The 3 Spin punters

My Chocolate Roughy biscuits at work

I rode home after work and my movi8ng time was 11 minutes. That is totally just as fast as a car, I reckon!

Anyway. Got home. Got ready. Stomped on a huge green caterpillar trying to kill my tomatoes! And then Barb collected me for Spin. Her car is very nice. Like Maureen's  - a wee zippy VW. Anyway - collected Juliet and then had Spin. Barb got a car park easily. 

Dropped me back home. And we had something to eat. Then bed.

And up for the bus into town. Martyn is due to come home and stay with us tonight. Sweet. We tidied that room and made the bed up.

Awesome fun.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with my birthday

 Hi,

Happy birthday to Scott for today.

What an amazing birthday weekend, thanks to a lot of organising from Mike. Friday was my birthday and I headed into town with Mike for a quick iced latte together before he headed to his usual Friday brekkie. And I went to Urban to meet James, Ed and Celia.

Celia is so sweet - I got a present from her. A Lego rabbit and a giant zucchini. She always makes me feel special on my birthday. Awwww. Thank you.

Urban let us down with their customer service. Their wait staff person was new - but she did relay our order back to us. But a full hour after Celia and James were here we still did not have our food. And when it came - it was all wrong. Like - all of it! I did not order a salmon stack. Hahahah.

But they fixed it fast once they realised there had been a huge mess. And I got to my nurse appointment well ahead of the 9.30am time.

The nurse at my doctor's practice was a little bit hopeless. And when I called her out on it (why would I let anyone near me with sharp tools if they are muttering about how they do not like doing this and why would they need to do this ) she said she was just processing through what she needed to do. 

Hmmm. That should be her inside voice.

Anyway - she was also the nurse that had no clue when I went there about my ears. And I certainly hope I do not get her for anything else I need with the nursing side of the practice.

After she got a consult, she was good. And to be fair, it all went fine once she "processed". Mind you, it was also as easy as you might get. No issues with the cuts to worry about. Just - take out the stitches.

The outcome was good. My foot looks good. My arm was a little grumpy at the stitch getting taken out. But as of today (Monday) it looks super good.

This is dessert!

A corn and pickled asparagus course

Potato features here

Birthday dinner @ Hillside

Moxley wants at my puzzle

Birthday iced latte #1

Birthday iced latte #2. Thank you Celia

On our way to town

Machete birthday iced latte #3

The photos are all out of sequence. But I caught up with Mike and Andrew after the stitches were removed. For the third iced latte of the day!

Then home on the bus. Into the car at home and off to visit Maureen. She was WFH as she was getting a new couch delivered. Grabbed a toastie sandwich from Chillax on my way to hers. We ate that. Finished the last wee bit of planning for A2O. And then her couch arrived.

Back home. Then out for 6pm dinner at Hillside. Sally was meant to be late (7.30pm ish) but actually arrived at 6.30pm. So she was slotted in by the excellent staff and only missed two courses. 

So delicious and such fun. I love Hillside. Drove Sally and Andrew home afterwards and into bed. Mike got a migraine late at night. Boo! He took some meds and went to sleep.

We slept in. And Mike felt okay - but he did sleep a bit through the morning. I got the time wrong for the hockey - I thought it was 4pm. But that was for Shakespeare on Sunday. The hockey was 3pm kick off. So we rang Andrew and he jumped in the car and came in to collect us. Google sent us down back streets to the National Hockey Stadium. Good call. We got to a car park of sorts and to the fence above the ground as the national anthems rang out. Glad we got to see them.

Gorgeous day for the hockey

Selfie at the hockey

Hockey!

The weather was superb. Erin came over (with Pippa) at halftime to say hi. The hockey itself was so exciting. Fast-paced. Had no clue what was happening. But the skills on display were amazing. Turns out there are 4 quarters of 15 mins each. Good to know.

It was BlackSticks women versus USA.

USA got a goal in the first quarter against the run of play. But that changed the game and NZ was playing catch up until the last minute of play when they got an equaliser. Then to penalty shoot out. Which is actually not a static shot off a mark. But a one on one with the striker and the goalie. So exciting.

NZ women got none past the American goalie.

America got 2 by the NZ goalie.

NZ lost.

Andrew dropped us home and we went to visit Ryan for his birthday tea (19th Feb for him). Had a lovely pizza dinner outside on their new deck. Then watched Matilda the Musical.

Ryan birthday pizza

Mike and I walked home and atched the end of the movie together. Hahahah.

Up for a coffee date with Jo and Rex. Saw Juliet in with her Mum - then Greg from ANZ days came by. Good to see him. We saw all the pics from Rex and Jo's visit to Africa.

Bike t shirt iced lattes

Happy iced lattes with these guys

Back home and then a pick up from Andrew for The Tempest. Shakespeare in the dell. With a picnic. Great fun. Slightly windy. But it went from 4 - 6pm and I enjoyed it.

The Tempest - in the Dell

Chocolate roughy biscuits

Home to make biscuits for work. Off to bed.

Up for a big week at work.

Have a good week.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a cyclone and an earthquake

 Hi,

What a day. Terrible still in parts of the northern motu - deaths too. This is going to take a lot of recovery effort stretching on for months, I am sure.

We got a bit of sunshine through the day though after the morning rain. But we also ended with a fair bit of constant rain through the night overnight last night.

I did take my bandage off my arm late yesterday. It looks good. Mike snipped the stitch showing so it didn't snag on anything.

I had my first proper shower with gladwrap on my arm. Happy to get my foot clean too for the first time in almost 2 weeks.

Mole excision looks good

Earthquake at 7.38pm

I was exchanging pings with Karen when we had a big quake last night. Decent shake. I was on my bed downstairs and Mike was upstairs with the cats. It started fairly big - then stopped for a second or so before kicking in for a bit harder and longer. But I was contemplating getting to cover when it stopped. The cats scattered in panic.

But - off to bed and read my book. Which scared me (cannibals on an alien planet!). So I was awake for a while.

Anyway. Birthday for me tomorrow. Woot! And I get all my stitches out. Looking forward to that. Going out for tea tomorrow. And got a Black Sticks game on Saturday. Catch up with Sarah, Hamish and Ryan after that. And Shakespeare in the Dell (The Tempest) on Sunday.

Sweet. Awesome birthday weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with Mike getting a migraine

 Hi,

Well, it was a good decision to work from home yesterday. And work subsequently told us to work from home today too (Wednesday).

Wellington seems to have got off lightly with some downed trees and a bit soggy. I have not heard if anything more happened overnight. But up north - over in Hawkes Bay and Te Tai Raawhiti it is really serious. Lots of flooding. Roads and bridges destroyed. Some people have lost their lives. Terrible evemt.

Yeah - bit wet and wild

Manic selfie

Mike got a migraine right at the end of the working day and went to bed and fell asleep for quite a few hours. He woke just as I finished icing the biscuits.

Made biscuits that are chocolatey and have icing and a walnut after work

Took my bandage dressing off

We had some light tea and took my dressing off my foot. It looks good to me. No sign of any infection and it seems to be healing. Feels weird to have a bare foot. Hahahah.

Went to bed. Slept well. Up to see we have less wind here now - but still getting light rain. Still a mess up north - recovery mode has not kicked in up there yet.

Take care, wherever you are.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work

 Hi,

After a busy day at work, it was good to get into the car and try driving for the first time since I hurt my foot. 

Home iced latte

Jumped in and headed to Juliet's place to collect her. 5.45pm we left her place but I missed the shortcut and ended up driving through Johnsonville. And the car park at the gym was rammed. I drove around 3 times before I found a park. Fortunately Juliet had jumped into the Spin class and secured a bike for us.

Spin at Newlands with Juliet

My foot was good. I had my bike shoes on - but when I stood up and the pressure went onto the ball of my foot, it was a little bit too much. So my left foot went into the strap and my right one went into the cleat clip. That worked!

Back home after dropping Juliet off - and got a call from Mike who was walking home from town. The rain was just starting, so I drove down to get him. Got back to the house and made tea (mmm - delicious tofu scramble in a wrap).

We brought in the plants from the front yard to the cover of the porch. And went to bed. Slept well. Woke when my alarm went off. Had an online session with Quentin.

Waiting for the cyclone to hit here after it has wreaked quite a bit of destruction up north. So far here it is like a normal windy, wet, Wellington day. But Mike says by 10am it should deteriorate here. The weather map certainly looks scary.

Cyclone Gabrielle

We're getting the weather from the south now here. Which is protected for us by the higher street level. So maybe we will hardly notice this.

I hope you take care, no matter where you are. Stay safe.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with my mole excision and watching some dragon boating and enjoying the atmosphere

 Hi,

It has been quite the eventful weekend. Started with a sick day for me on Thursday as I had to get a mole excised.  8.30am. But they were late starting because something had broken on their steriliser.

But I was out of there by 9am. So all good. They will do a biopsy on the bit they took out. 3 stitches. Pah!  After my foot incident, that was barely worth getting out of bed for. Two deep dissolvable ones and one on top. Getting them all out on my birthday!

Thursday morning ready for the excision

Numbed now!

And done!

Mike jumped in the car and collected me from Kelburn. He overshot as I tried to wave him down. A wee truck going by in the opposite direction saw all this and tried to toot at him. Once he did collect me, I mentioned the tooting and he had heard it! Hahaha.

Birthday milk

Rest was the order of the day. And a lovely young woman from work visited us at lunch time. Gokila Ubered here and back and brought me some home cooked vegetable kadai. Delicious. She made me feel very special and looked after. Thank you. What a beautiful thing to do.

Delicious lunch from Gokila

Selfie time

V afternoon pick-me-up

Hokey pokey biscuits

I made biscuits during the afternoon. And also re-did the jigsaw puzzle when Smudge decided to do a pirouette on it and scattered probably half my work to the four corners of the room. Sigh. I was upset and looking back it was probably due to needing lots of stitches in the past week.  I do have 10 all up now, after all.

Anyway - Mike also changed my dressing on my foot. And it did look pretty good. And after that I got the jigsaw back to pretty much where I was before Smudge danced across it. So I went to bed much happier.

Changed the dressing

Moxley chills on me

So cute

Red light to allow me to look for the comet

Friday saw me chill out a lot. And Moxley was happy - using me to lounge around on. I also tried to spot the comet Friday night - but might have been a day early for optimal viewing.  However I did the same thing Saturday night - and got Mike out of bed as I think we saw it. Just off to the top right of Mars. A saw a smudge and if I squinted, I could believe it had a greenish tinge. Well, it wasn't a white star - that is for sure. Mike is calling it! Hahahah.

Joe's Garage for brekkie

We parked the car not far from Joe's Garage and enjoyed brekkie there. It was my local stomping ground for a long time when I was at a client site for 12 months or more. And remembered how it was an informal meeting place for us.

When we walked back to the car (and harbour), we bumped into Mark from that workplace. So we chatted with him and his partner. And now I will catch up with him this week for a coffee.

Walked (slowly) to Fank Kitts park to watch the dragon boat fun day while Mike went to PBTech. I met James, Eva and Charlie - with wee Bob. I enjoyed a few races - 2 from my workplace. I did a lot of shouting. And I had FOMO!

Finish line!

Best harbour fun day!

Waving at my workmates

Back home to get ready for a BBQ tea at our place with Sally and Andrew joining us. I was exchanging pings with my mother and she mentioned bacon and egg pie. So I made one - but switched out haloumi for the bacon. Turns out it was delicious!

Bacon and egg pie - but with haloumi!

Rodent #17

Sunday saw us catch rodent #17 - a mouse. In the trap not far from the front door. I also staked the chilli plants that were heavy with their fruit. Hopefully that works for the gale winds we're getting later today.

Gorgeous evening

Tied the washing up

Kiwi crisps

Auckland and Northland and Coromandel are getting hammered again - this time by Cyclone Gabrielle. The Sampson clan seem to be ready for it. Hope you are all okay up that way. Thinking of you. We're supposed to get 120km/h wind tomorrow. I reckon that is windy - even for her - but not the worst we've seen. Except it is an easterly. Totally not the prevailing wind. So some trees may not withstand this.

Hope everyone is ok.

Take care. It's birthday week for me! Woot!

Love,

Angela