The weekend with around the vines

 Hi,

Welcome back to Wellington, Sally! Woot! Hope Samoa was fruitful with lots of good mahi done. I note Wellington is turning on the weather for your return. Or not. Yeah - today is a high of 12C and rainy and windy. Hmmmm.

We had a great weekend in Martinborough. I was unsure if I should go with a scratchy throat on Friday. Was it going to get worse and I would be spluttering over people? Snotty nose? Well... no. I did get a wee bit of a cough in bed, and my throat was sore in the mornings. But really, it seems to be just staying like that. So I guess that is good. But I will keep myself at home as much as I can until I see what is happening with it.

Made date loaf Friday

We left on Friday afternoon after Mike's work finished. Talk about a crawl up SH2. The new bike paths from the Hutt to Wellington can't come soon enough. I reckon a lot of punters will start using it. And some of that traffic snarl might ease. Maybe.

Got to our accommodation in the Top10 at Martinborough very fast once we cleared the Hutt traffic. Callan and Stacey had arrived too. Mike got me some food from the 4 square and I settled into our cabin happily to eat that and read.

Smudge relaxes in the sun

Moxley loves the sunshine too

Mike was very relaxed about walking 21 km and slept like a baby. I had a terrible sleep with a little bit of coughing. But luckily I was not racing in anything the next day!

Village Cafe iced latte - very milky

We walked into town early for brekkie and coffees. Village Cafe is still going strong. Lovely customer service too. Thank you. My iced latte was very milky though - which on another day might have been nice. But I didn't finish it.

Lolly allocation

My milky iced latte 

We met Callan and Stacey in the square and they had their 9am briefing. Then 9.15 came and they were off. The drizzly rain meant Mike grabbed my jacket just before they left. Probably a good thing as it was showery off and on for a while yet.

Callan winders why Mike is posing

And he looks away!

They are ready for it

So ready!

Approaching start line - Mike now in my green jacket

And go!

Off into the 21 km walk

Mike's Glympse was not working at all. So I had to guess when they might be close to the Top10 and I walked over to the school to spot them. Turns out Mike was sampling all the wine so they were a tad slower than I calculated.

Stacey made sure the second loop was much faster!

Approaching halfway

Off they stride to the 9km mark

And 2 km left to walk

Approaching the finish line - Mike determined to overtake that kid!

And done!

Happy to drink some water

Awww - a lovely pic under the tree

After the event, we went back to our respective accommodation places to shower. Then Mike went out to fins Callan and Stacey. They enjoyed cocktails and desserts at Tonic.

Then they got BBQ stuff and came back to the Top10 for a dinner cooked there. Very pleasant sitting out at the picnic BBQ area.

The women's rugby started (Black Ferns v England in the WXV decider) and I watched it on my phone. Callan and Stacey were very accommodating of my intention to watch it all. Second half we adjourned to our cabin to watch the rest of it.

Stacey wanted to see some fireworks in the park next to the Top10, so they left. The rugby was a foregone conclusion by then anyway. England were far too strong and clean with their skills for the Black Ferns. Showed the coach has a lot of work to do to make them competitive.

Off to bed not long after that and a far better sleep for me. Up to pack up and leave and Cafe Medici for brekkie. Callan and Stacey joined us. 8am was empty there - but by 8.45am it was full and very busy.

Brekkie at Cafe Medici

It was bright inside!

Lovely delicious brekkie. Mmmm.  Said goodbye to Callan and Stacey and headed home. After giving the cats some love, we went up to try and dismantle the dashboard to get to the evaporator. It has got a leak and we were quoted $2k to replace it. But the bulk of that work was removing and replacing the dashboard. So Mike wondered if he could do that bit.

Back home and the dashboard work

A lot of fiddling

He is so clever. We got stuck - but he could almost get into the evaporator. So he put it all back and then did more research. Now he thinks he can do it. Maybe we can try next weekend!

Moxley looking cute

We watched a movie on Netflix. A lost city. Silly film with Sandras Bullock and Channing Tatum. But it made me laugh a bit. So - all good.

Good sleep. Up to WFH today.

Week stretches out ahead of us. Hope your week is a good one.

Love,

Angela