The weekend with so much happening where do I even start?

 Hi,

Big weekend. I will probably forget all the things in relaying the details. Let's see...

Friday saw me walk into town - and I avoided any rain so that was good. I went to Spin and enjoyed a R30 class there at lunch time.

Smudge moustache

Walk to Spin

At lunch Spin

This is where I made a big mistake. I shazamed a song on the spin playlist. It did not find it. So I checked google with a lyric line. Found it. Checked it was correct on Spotify.  

So far, all good. Right?  Walked to the library after spin.  In the rain. Phone screen was wet. Tried to ping Mike to see if he was around. Gibberish went through to him.

Stuff phone into my pocket.  Get to the library. It is packed. I find a good book and a spare seat and sit down. Only to hear some obnoxious person playing music softly but loud enough to hear it. Weird. Terrible taste too. Dance music. What even is that?  An older woman sat opposite me. Surely she would be cross with the person playing music?  My watch pings me. Message from Mike. I check my phone.

OMG!! It is me playing music. Spotify must have decided I needed to listen to music like the Shazam song from Spin. So I did not recognise the songs. And it was me. I was the obnoxious person. 

I stayed to read and slowly the people around me changed so no one left there knew I was a goose.

Little did I know it was not the only dork moment of the weekend.

From there I went to get a haircut and enjoyed some pampering. I was going to meet Mike after his presentation at work and possibly go out for a bit. But he got a migraine 7 mins before his presentation. So he postponed it and came and waited for me at St Pierres where a miso soup did him a lot of good.  Caught the bus home and we were in bed by 1730.

Moxley snuggles

Garage session with Mike

Up late Saturday for a garage gym session. Mike helped me try 50 kg on bench. Did not make it. But I am so close!

Maureen came at 2pm and we cooked some late lunch or early dinner.  Oh. Wait. This is where I explain my second dork moment. So.  Friday night in bed, I was wondering why Elly was keen to organise a shared trip to the rugby. I had recently bought two tickets for me and Maureen. Something was niggling at the back of my mind. I checked my inbox.  No - only had tickets for me and Maureen.

Wait. Was there a chat with Elly?  I checked that. Yes.  In April Elly asked if I wanted to go. And I said get me 2 tickets. Someone will come with me.

And I forgot.

So... I asked around. Mike was keen. And Andrew was keen. So yay!  I got punters for the tickets.  Glad the tickets with Elly were a lot cheaper than my recent tickets. She paid $43 for each of hers. And I paid $183.

:-o

Waiting for the bus

Here we go!

Wrapped up in Row Y.  

The rugby was superb. Black Ferns v Aus. FOllowed later by a bonus All Blacks v France game. Bus got us in at 4pm and it was 4.15pm by the time we got there. Gates had opened at 3.45. There was quite the queue. So we missed the anthem and haka.  But saw the first kick when Elly pulled us into the stadium at the first gate.

Watched the first half there. Then we split up to sit in our assigned seats. Maureen and I had a great view - up in the second last row. Wow!

Black ferns won handily. But not as easy as they should have.  Ruby Tui was called into the squad late to cover injury and got a try. Yay!

All Blacks were much more convincing against France. So - also yay!

Tom kindly came to pick us up from the New World after the rugby - thank you Tom. And thanks everyone for a great night and rescuing me from my ticket fiasco.

Sunday brekkie

Up Sunday for trap line day. We had brekkie on our way to get Andrew. And then met Callan at the Sunny Gr road end. Nice and early too.  Away by 9am. Mike and Callan set off to do UTS 11 - 7 and KAT 4 to 6 and I did SG1 - 8, UTS 1 to 6 and KAT 3 to 1. Andrew also set off with Mike and Callan - but to clear track on McKerrow.  

I take a photo of Mike's UTS points

View from the top

It took me a while going up Sunny Grove doing the traps by myself. 1 hour 40 to the top. I got about 4 rats here maybe? Misty at times - but no rain to speak of.

Saw Andrew clearing track on McKerrow and he suggested I got back and do UTS 1 to 6 and then come up KAT to find him. So I did just that.

Found UTS1 without much bother. Then followed pink tape and found all the others. It was wet underfoot and the stream was a little high. I got into knee deep water a few times. Bit of a log jam here and there that meant I had to climb a bit.

Found all the traps. Found a lot of rats. From UTS6 I checked my screen shot of Mike's UTS points. They did not show KAT but I could see the spur I had to climb. Started up directly from UTS6 - but it is about 15m downstream from UTS that KAT starts. I saw the pink tape off to my left as I tackled some steep wee bits. Yay!

Once on KAT it was easy going. Except I had 2 rats on these 3 traps. What!!!  And KAT2 has no grab piece. Just an eye. You have to grab the trap to set it.

A lot of dead rats

In UTS

KAT

Crown fern

Back to Andrew and I ate lunch while he chatted to a hunter and cleared more track. It looks like a different track where he has cleared. So good.

Walked back down with him. Admired the channels he has engineered too.

Mike and Callan were 20 mins behind us.  Said goodbye to Callan and dropped Andrew off and then went to charge the car at Z Vivian St.  Had my first F'real. Coffee one. Very nice.

Mike and Callan finish

My first F'Real

Monday morning wash did not work

Home to clean up. Wash clothes. Wash ourselves.  Into bed.  Mike was up Monday for gym. And checked the washing. So dirty! I took the pants out to soak. Will try again soon.

I will walk and run at lunch time. Then head to Spin after work. Yay!

Enjoy your week ahead.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with not much

 Hi,

I rode into work at lunch time from home and it wasn't too bad for traffic. Settled into my desk. And continued working. Main thing was for a coffee catch up with Barb before she goes to France for 6 weeks. Juliet and Kirsty joined in - great to hear what everyone has been doing.

Moxley enjoyed my working from home in the morning to sleep in the crate

Rode home and fed the cats and myself.  Watched a series on Amazon Prime with Alice Roberts.  Decided I may as well be in bed as on the couch. So tucked myself into bed to watch it. And fell so asleep that I only caught about 5 mins of a few episodes. Woke up - she was in a different town in a different time period. So yeah. Got to start those episodes again.

Up to drive in Thursday morning for my 7.30 - 8.30 hour session - taking Mike's spot really. Wrapped squats. 72.5kg.  3 reps x 4 sets. Then some narrow grip bench - 32.5kg.  5 reps x 4 sets.

Thursday morning PT

Post PT iced latte at home

Drove home. Cats are happy I am back. Cleaners should be here today so I thought I would WFH to watch out for them. I do not really like it when we keep them downstairs all day for when the cleaners come. They probably don't care too much. Hahah.

Mike gets home tonight. Yay! Looking forward to seeing him. 

Weekend is coming. Haircut for me. Bit of rugby! Go Black Ferns! Go All Blacks. Trap line. yep - busy weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with dinner in Lower Hutt

 Hi,

Yesterday I bussed in for gym. Did my hour PT session with Quentin. Dead lifts.  92.5kg 2 reps x 4 sets.

Early bus ride

Iced latte with Hope

I got an iced latte with Hope - so that was good to catch up with her. She is just back from an awesome holiday in Europe.

I was supposed to ride home. But at the end of the day I just wanted to get home. So I bussed back home. Fed the cats. And jumped in the car to head to 40WLW for dinner.

Wallaby stew.  Well - I have to say it was pretty good. Would eat again. Thank you for the invitation. Any wallaby in a stew in NZ is a good use of a wallaby. Sorry to the strict vegetarians out there.

Wouldn't wanna be a wallaby

Sourdough

I got home and got the oven ready to bake. So it was a long night for me. It turned out ok. And I set it to cool and went straight to bed. Zzzzz.

Black fronted dotterel this morning

Up to ride in. And decided with all the things on the go, I would work from home this morning. Get my washing hung out. Be at home for my perishable delivery (I hope). And get my PT session done with Quentin in the garage. Bench. 40kg.  5 reps x 4 sets. Oosshh.

I do have a coffee date in the afternoon with Barb before she heads away next week to France for her hols. Hence the need to ride in.

I am wondering if I can squeeze in a Spin class at 17.30.  Hmmm. Let's see.

Have a lovely day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with working from home and spin finally

 Hi,

It was good to work from home yesterday. The cats were happy. I went upstairs to find it was only 15C so I turned on all the heaters and we were all pleased to be in 20C before too long.

Cats on the blanket on the couch

Cold upstairs

Grocery drop came

Sunrise

Spin

I decided to go to Spin after work. The training weekend has scared me into action. When it got to 5pm and I fed the cats, it was hard to drag myself out of the house. But I was glad I did it. Parked on Thorndon Quay and headed in for 6:05pm Spin. It was the same instructor we used to have. And another one was in the class as a punter (she has gone to Les Mills as an instructor though!). They have just split the 1 hour group ride Monday session into 2 30 mins classes. So we have options.

The gym at Thorndon was heaving with people at 6pm. But it had emptied out a tad when we finished. I reckon I can go to Spin and then find a treadmill upstairs and go for a run. That is now my new Monday evening routine.

Cats together

Got home and had dinner. Buddha bowl. Cats were happy and sat together on a blanket directly under the heat pump. I made dough for bread.

Tonight I will ride home on the old pedal power bike. Yikes. Not looking forward to that slog up the hill. Jump in the car and head to Lower Hutt for wallaby stew. Hahahah. How funny. I think Alistair and Vicky sent a meat pack of wild meat to Sally and Andrew for Andrew's retirement. So we get to taste wallaby now.

I will let you all know.

Have an awesome day. Lovely winter day here in Wellington. No wind. Crisp.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Blenheim and Mike in Sydney

 Hi,

What a big weekend. Mike is now in Sydney. HE flew out super early Saturday morning and spent the weekend with Karen and Scott and the dogs.  :-)   Now he is at work in the Sydney office after spending last night in a very fancy looking hotel.

Meanwhile, I was up super early Friday morning to drive our car to the airport. It had a date with the overnight undercover car parking until I got back Sunday evening. 

Car parked at the airport

Waiting at the SoundsAir gate

On the 7am flight.  It left a little late as they needed extra fuel. The weather meant a low cloud ceiling in Blenheim so they wanted fuel to circle until it cleared, if needs be.

It did not need it.

I see my bag on the trolley

Iona picked me up and took me home to see Col, Twigg and have brekkie.  Brought over a sourdough that Mike made for us. Mmmmm.

My sourdough

Friday weather was a bit terrible. So we only went for a short walk with Twigg around the river.

Is it Spring?

Waterways back to close to normal

Spring water meets Taylor River water

Walking with Twigg

Iona and Col had messages.  Twigg to the vet (she might need some toes taken off - and she need s her teeth cleaned - all under general - but separately). The garage door people came to sort that out. The heat pump people came to sort that out. Col had to go to work.

Goodness. Frantic.

Watched some TV with Iona.  And then bed.

Up for some fun Saturday. We drove to Wither Hills car park and met Nicola there at 8.30am. But the wee footbridge was gone after the recent floods. The creek wasn't too high so we jumped over and hauled the bikes across.  A woman helped me first from the other side after we had said other people were crossing ok there. So she and her partner and dog went over.  Aww - people are nice.

The bridge is washed out at Wither Hills

Had to jump this and haul bikes over

From here we rode along Mapp Track a bit - then down Dry Hills road to Whale Trail. Then up to the top of Redwood pass - just to the south of Blenheim. Bit of a climb. The weather was ok.  Kept my jacket on with a merino layer. But - it was ok. Iona and Nicola were much better on the climb than me.

I have work to do.

Rode back the short way and said goodbye to Nicola and off home.

Finished

Warm and dry

Col had to work! Short notice on Friday night. And was she cross. There was so much rugby to watch. Waaaaah. But Iona and I made sure to watch as much as possible. I enjoyed the Back Ferns versus the Black Ferns XV team. Wow. Great game. Shows the depth in the country that we can field two teams and have a cracker of a game.

Then we watched Scotland v Māori All Blacks. Wow. Another amazing game. Go Scotland! They won! It was a thriller.

Then, we turned off the tablet casting the Sky rugby to the TV. And could not get it working. So we watched a movie until the delayed broadcast on free to air. The all Blacks v France in Dunedin. Also a great game. And the All Blacks were both lucky and unlucky. 3 tries disallowed. And really...?  Should they have been? You need to rewatched the replay on super slow motion to figure it out.  I am not sure that sort of thing was the reason TMO exists. But - guess  it is hard to draw the line.

Col got home to watch the last half with us.

Sunday training

Up more leisurely Sunday morning. Iona made oaty pancakes. Mmmmm. Then Nicola got there at 10am and we rode off to the Wither Hills Farm Park. Tackled a wee hill. Then locked up the bikes and did a rogaine course in the low hills above the MTB park.

Spring challenge account featured us from last year

Back home to do a few things around the house. The bed had arrived since the last time I was there and was "recovering" from its ordeal in the cardboard box.  I did try the shower out a few times. Very good.

Putting up the peg board

Cold Chisel

We put up the peg board in the garage. I held a cold chisel and sent non cryptic clues to Mike on the chat. Hahah.

The new bed

Then we relaxed in the house before my flight. Got Uber Eats delivered for tea - The Tamarind. Delicious food.

Peg flax weaving

Country Calendar

At the airport

Car wash time

Iona dropped me at the airport. I was very early for my 8.40pm flight home. But the flight was super fast. Got into the car at the airport and used our car wash voucher that was not far off expiry and had to be at the Z at the airport. Car is now clean.

Got home. Fed the cats. And went to bed!

Awesome weekend. So busy. Good fun. Thank you.

Missing Mike though.  I hope he has a great work week in Sydney.

Enjoy your week ahead.

Love,

Angela