The weekend with trap line and painters and our wedding anniversary

 Hi,

December is always so social. Met Iona and Maureen on Thursday as Iona got off the ferry. She was off on a weaving weekend.

Caught up with these two on Thurs

Saw Mai on Thursday

Met Juliet at Gemini for lunch. She is good. And we met Mai as worked ended because she used a meeting room for a meeting she had. So good to see her after all these years.

Caught up with Juliet and Mike on Thurs

Yvette on Thursday

Then NMK had their end of year dinner and Secret Santa. So we went out for that. So good. and coming back we bumped into Serge and had a drink with him. he lives in Melbourne now.

Serge on Thursday

Unexpected painters on Friday

We were going to go into the bush Friday - do the trapline with Callan and then stay in a tent. But the painters arrived unexpectedly so I stayed behind and Mike did the trapline with Callan.

Painters were amazing with their prep work.

Prep work

Looking good

Moxley drinks Ange's water

We woke up and they were sleeping together

Touching even!

Post park run iced latte

Mike unwraps Bruuuuce - from Ange

Ange visited me on Friday and gave us a poster of Bruce. Mike unwrapped that on Saturday and laughed. Hahah. Ta Ange.

Undercoat

For Angie's birthday

More prep

At Angie's birthday

Went to Angie's birthday on Saturday and enjoyed seeing her and her friends.  Lots of good food and drink to enjoy her special day (same day as Tyler!).

Sunday at La Cloche

I did not get a pic with everyone looking at once

Made a stand for my phone

Sunday saw us busy with things too.

We met Iona and Andrew at Bluebridge for Iona's trip back over the Strait. And took them to La Cloche and enjoyed a light, quick lunch before dropping Iona back at the ferry.

Back home to chill with some life admin tasks.

Up Monday for online gym for me and a late bus ride for Mike to town.

Toby and Tessa arrive tomorrow - exciting. Can't wait to see them. It has been a while since we saw them last.

Enjoy your week.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with seeing Mai at work

 Hi,

I took no photos! And it wasn't a work from home day. Well - I was busy so that is my excuse. The main thing that was noteworthy was a visit to our work from our friend from ages back, Mai. She was down here for work and needed an office space for a bit. So Mike booked a meeting room and we caught up with her briefly afterwards. 

She is well. John has retired. And Jack has a job in the court system somewhere. Their puppy is now an old 13 year old dog. So - time indeed passes before you realise it.

Hello Mai

I rode home and fed the cats. Mike went out to a party with Deloitte folk and caught up with a few friends that work there now.

Then he bumped into the chap that bought our MX-5. So they chatted to each other for ages. Hahah.

Slept ok and then up for a ride in for my PT session. After that I am meeting Iona. She caught the late 7.30pm sailing last night that left at 2am. I know. Crazy. She just got into town.

Better head to the gym. It is our wedding anniversary tomorrow. We are doing a trapline and then camping in the bush. Woot!

Quick update - met Iona and Maureen for brekkie.

Brekkie at Smith the Grocer this morning

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela.

The Tuesday with an excursion at work and a walk home after work

 Hi,

We have birthday milk now. I love getting bottles of birthday milk. Hahahah.

Birthday milk

Dead lifts on Tuesday

Iced latte 

Now with Mike

It's nearly Christmas time

Shane drove me to our planning site

Shane and I drove out to the terminal to check the meeting room for our planning days. He was so excited to see the awesome room that his eyes lit up and he raced around the room, planning his session as he could see it all unfolding.

I walked home with Barb via our usual Te Ahumairangi Hill tracks and we enjoyed a lovely evening out there. 

View on the walk home

Selfie time

Almost at the top

Almost out to Cecil

Mike had an after-work Secret Santa mission, so he jumped on the train to Petone K-Mart - but got on an express to Waterloo, another 5k or so up the track by mistake. So he ubered back to Queensgate mall only to find nearly all the stores shut - what, stay open past 5pm? In December? Too crazy for Lower Hutt. But The Warehouse was open and he got what he needed.

Sally then kindly dropped him home in the wee MX-5. Awwwww. Thank you.

Great evening for it

We were home fairly close in time. We ate our leftover porridge. And chatted to my mother for a while. But I was so sleepy she made us go to bed. Hahah.

But Mike had yet another mad adventure in store, when some students jumped on an epic bus ride to pick up a fake Christmas tree he was selling cheap. He was running about the suburb late into the evening making sure they could make their bus home again. He ended up giving it away as he was too emotionally invested in their bus riding efforts to charge them any money. Well, that's the Christmas spirit I guess.

Good sleep. Up to bus in. The rain started and it is quite heavy. Maybe some thunder too. PT session was good. Shoulder rehab.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with working from home and a lot of bird activity

 Hi,

What an eventful day working from home on that particular Monday.

First up, Toby got his uni results and they are amazing. Straight A's. The exam he thought he'd failed, he got 'just' an A- for. So proud. 

When I got home Sunday night Mike said there was a bird that had fallen down the wall space and he could hear it chirping and flapping. He asked if he was allowed to make a hole in the gib. I said yes. But then he decided to take the co-axial box out of the wall low down to see if that would let the bird out. No. No it did not. And we didn't hear it. So we thought it might have died. 

Mike left to go to work Monday morning and as I ate brekkie I could hear it flapping. I put my ear on the wall and determined it was actually halfway up the wall. I got the gib saw and cut a wee 3x3 hole. I could hear it then chirping its wee head off. But I was too scared to put my hand in to find it. The wall space did not look inviting.

 I went to make lunch. Scrambled eggs and asparagus. Looking forward to that, I was. 

Halfway through cooking I hear a commotion. The bird had got out - - and Moxley had caught it! I rushed back to turn off the hob and hurtled back to try and rein in the chaos. The chaos was only starting. Moxley was strutting her way downstairs with it in her mouth.  I chased her and picked her up and as I carried her back up the stairs, she dropped the bird. We are renovating the stairs and there are gaps to the wall space there and the wee bird was trying to get in the wall. Again! OMG.  I put the cats in a room and then got a tea towel and grabbed the wee bird. I then put it on the deck. 

It sat there for a while, obviously traumatised by the whole series of events. And when I came with a saucer of water - it FLEW AWAY! Not well. But it flew.  I am calling it a successful rescue of a baby boy sparrow.

Cats can hear the baby bird in the wall

Rescued baby sparrow

Well, after I went back to finish cooking my lunch and went back to work, I decided it was all rather too exciting for a lunch break. Went into our bedroom mid afternoon and squealed when I found an adult female blackbird on our floor. I have NO IDEA how that happened or what cat had decided I was too useless to hunt the baby bird and I needed a bigger bird to learn how to hunt better.

The bird was quite dead and did not fly well when I threw it out the bedroom door.

Dead adult blackbird

Moxley is still keen

Anyway - fed the cats after work and drove to town to go to Spin with Juliet. I need more Spin classes in my life. Good to see Juliet.

I gave her the sourdough Mike baked on Sunday. We had too much.

After Spin

Mike got home when I was at Spin and tidied up. Then I got home and Elly and Tom arrived. We got burgers and planned a MTB trip to Great Barrier Island. Woot!

Yummy dessert courtesy of Elly. And then they headed away and we went to bed.

Up to ride in and PT session with Quentin. Deads 92.5kg 2 reps x 4 sets. Then bench 35kg 6 reps x 4 sets.

I am exhausted.

Hahah

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with a Christmas party and Blenheim fun

 Mike here again. Angela is under the pump and won't get her blog out by 10am. So let's see if I can fill in some details.

I had the work Christmas party on Friday night - Las Vegas theme, I went as crass tourist.

The muscles t-shirt got another outing

Angela and Maureen and Iona and Col had some fun adventures in Blenheim. Biking off the ferry down to Picton. Finding various decomposing animals in traps. Sorting out how her partner broke her gear changes.  I'll let Angela fill in those details tomorrow!

The Thursday with a Migraine and an epic commute

 It's Mike here, subbing in for Angela while she has South Island adventures. 

My day started as normal, and my squats session was going well - until I realised that I couldn't read the signage properly and people had bits missing from their faces. So time to pop neurophen and go home. I actually felt relatively okay and did a bit of work, getting some low stress admin tasks knocked off.

That meant I was home when Angela set off on her Blenheim adventure. It starts with biking to the ferry - and then biking from Picton to Blenheim! Lots of fun. 

Waiting in the ferry terminal with Maureen

Feet. Truck anchor. It's art.

Um, that's on the ferry

And breakfast in Blenheim

Have a great time, Angela! And have a great weekend whereever you are.

The Tuesday at work

 Hi,

Busy day at work. I did see Mike briefly before work for an iced latte. And he got me a sandwich for lunch. But other than that - never saw him. Despite only 2 rows of desks between us.

Morning iced latte

Dinner at 40

I rode home after work and fed the cats then headed out to Petone to wait for Mike. He ran from work to Petone. I passed him on the motorway about halfway. He looked strong as he got to the car.

Had fish n chips with John at Sally and Andrew's house. Good catch up. Then home and into bed.

Up to ride in. Only got 1 bar on my bike. Might be a tricky ride home. Hahah.

Have a great week. I am off to Blenheim tomorrow.

Love,

Angela

The Monday at home

 Hi,

Working from home means you can get things done in your lunch break. And I got my wee pumpkin seedling and tomato seedling planted out in the greenhouse in the drizzly rain.

Moxley stretched out and asleep

Sourdough

By the time I finished work it was sunny! Weird.

I baked a sourdough loaf. And set up my new Zwift enabled bike trainer. Yay. Took me a while. Maybe an hour. It was lucky Mike got home when he did because I could not get the rear wheel quick release off my road bike. That was holding me up.

Going to try that now with the app the trainer comes with. And then try the free trial of Swift in January after the break.

Mike got home from Rebecca's house (checking her presentation) and then went into a meeting for some ADHD group. AGM for them.

Then off to bed not long after.

Up for my ride in and PT session.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela.

The weekend with tramps and work around the house

 Hi,

After a chill Friday where I packed for our overnight tramp, I headed into town to pick up Kara. She was waiting in a perfect spot for me to pull in and have her jump in. Then we were off to Catchpool, via Kathmandu to buy some gas.

Away tramping by 15:25. Pretty good timing. And the conditions were lovely. The river level was 0.2cu (last time I crossed with Maureen is was 4cu - so I was keen to see the river today).

And we're off

Kara passes under Toby tree

Coming down the diversion we were passed by a group of women and a man that looked to be a wee bit older than us. One of the women took a tumble on the steep downhill, but managed to land on her backpack and do a fabulous roll and come to no harm at all.

Hump bridge at 2 hours 10.

Evening light

Kara and I got to the single channel of water and I had a good look at it. At its very deepest, it might have come up mid shin. But you could choose more shallow areas to cross. With boots and gaiters you would probably stay dry.

We decided to use our Crocs and Tevas and keep our feet dry. I carried Kara's pack over and she tackled the stream and had no issues at all.

Just as we had crossed the wee stream we saw Janine and Andrew with Bruno on his lead coming over. So we waited a bit to watch them cross before heading up the shingle fan to Waerenga Hut.

After dinner in the hut

The river was a stream

We chatted away before we got dinner on. And around 21:00 we all hit our beds. I thought I had a restless sleep with being awake a lot. But apparently the dog was snuffly and people got up for a wee all through the night. And I never heard a single thing. So - there you go. I had a great sleep.

Overnight oats

Brekkie was good. We tidied the hut and we were away by 9:30am. Good easy walk out. Slightly overcast with a hint of drizzle in the early morning that faded.

Heading home

Nice walk out

Janine headed away from Catchpool with Bruno to get washing done.

We went to the pie shop in Whites Line East for lunch and enjoyed a catch up with Sally and Mike. Mike had stayed the night with Sally so someone was around should he feel a bit off. He didn't feel bad. And was only 10 seconds slower in Park Run than his PB!

Got the sledgehammer from Andrew for Kara and dropped her home. Mike and I went to Scorch-o-rama for a coffee and shared a meal. Then home.

Saturday night BBQ

Mike and I had the first BBQ of the season. And a kaka came to inspect our dinner.

We had a guest

Cheeky kaka

Skink sunbathing on Sunday

Sunday saw us to a bit around the house. Mike got the pit door sanded and primed so it can open easily now.

We popped in to see Sally and Andrew again (and took the sander back). That was so we could go to Bunnings and Mitre10. And do some shopping.

Back to assemble the new plastic greenhouse. Yay! 

All jobs well done! Ta Mike for a great weekend.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Love,

Angela