The Tuesday with work and a nice dinner out

 Hi,

Work was work. A few meetings. Chasing things. But I did get a run in and then when Karen got home, we walked the dogs.

Delicious mocktail

At Enzo's for anniversary dinner

After work, we watched some TV and then Abby arrived and we headed to Tallawong to go out for tea to Enzo's. The Italian food there is so good. I had the burrata penne. Mmmm. Our waitress was so chatty. 

Back home and off to bed. Abby and I had another gym session booked. This time it was a 5am leg class. OMG. Abby arrived at 4.30 to pick me up. And I met Brad again - and a new PT called Josh.

We did Spanish banded squats, and reverse lunge squats. Then deads and goblet squats. Then landmine squats and one legged squats.

I am now dead.

Hahahah.

Working again now. But my team here are meeting me for lunch in the burbs. A lot live out this way. How cool.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Sydney

 Hi,

Sydney is really turning on the weather. We had the smoothest flight over the Tasman - a huge high in the middle stretching over both countries made it super easy.

Flight over on Friday afternoon

At one point around halfway the plane banked to the right and I looked out the left side and saw a jet right there. By the time I fished out my phone to take a pic, it was much further away. How cool.

Close jet

Easy exit from the airport and onto the airport train. A change at Central to the Metro line (platform 26 and 27) and I was on the train heading to Tallawong. 

Karen met me at the station and it would have been 1945 by this stage. She whisked me home and we settled in. 

Up early Saturday for park run. Karen walked it (she only took 10 more mins than me). I did a good pace and would have been quite fast for 2026 if it wasn't for the slow first 400m.  There were 888 competitors. Wow.

Park run

Feet are ready

Post park run face

Almost post park run

Slightly weak iced latte

Grabbed an iced latte at Frankies. But frankly, it was a bit weak. Not burnt though. Then headed home to chill for a bit.

Hahah - awesome dog Christmas pic. See one with Toby bottom right?

At around 12, Mel picked us up. And after swapping to Noush's car at her house, we went to the netball at Ken Rosewell stadium.

I'm in Sydney

Found this awesome ring walk over an old brickpit

Brilliant green sludgey water

We had some lunch at a noodle place then went for a walk around the Olympic village complex. Found this awesome raised ring walk over an old brick pit. So cool.

Great walk

Would do again

Grace!

Okay - there is a height difference

The Swifts v the Giants was great fun. It was ANZAC day so they kicked it off with a ceremony. So good (but no NZ anthem!).

Swifts slowly pulled away from the Giants and got a handy win in the end. Good fun.

ANZAC ceremony

Next morning Karen made me a delicious brekkie. Yum!

Sunday brekkie from Karen

We took the boys for a walk. And I got to see the total debacle that is their landscaping. It is so disappointing to see ineptitude at that scale. Good luck to progressing this with another company to get it sorted. The vision Karen and Scott have is great - they just need someone that can help them with that. Not that original company, that is for sure.

View of their fence

Walks

Karen and I headed to town to enjoy the play, Cluedo, at the Royal Theatre just around the corner from Martin's Place. We went in with Scott as he had his shift starting at midday and our play started at 1pm. He showed me the cool hallway with the new art for the latest Star Wars movie coming out soon.

Karen and Scott and The Mandalorian

Me!

Yep - in Sydney for sure now

Bit of bubbles for the play

My mocktail

Karen had booked a cheese box with bubbles. I got a mojito mocktail. All lovely. And the play was such fun. Our seats had restricted views - but the set design was so good. I had never seen the movie, but the play seemed quite faithful to it, according to Karen.

A wee cheese box

The Royal theatre

Monday saw me up super early and I got picked up at 6am by Abby to head to a session at her gym at 6.30. Turns out she goes to a high altitude gym. So there I was, puffing my way through a huge cardio session. We were partners and we took turns on ERG machines and other equipment. Battle ropes. Burpees. Squats with weights. Super hard. But so happy I did it with Abby.

We got a very welcomed post session iced latte next door. Good coffee.

Post hi-brid conditioning session

Tyler's cat - this is Shaco

At around 11.30 we headed to Liverpool to meet Tyler. Her flat is so nice. 5th floor (I want to say #511) of a fairly new complex. 

She has two adorable cats. The wee girl just had been spayed so he had a beautiful sunflower on to protect her stitches.

Shaco is very handsome

This is Akali. She has stiches but is very beautiful despite the sunflower adornment

Tyler's kitchen

Tyler has also just started at an orthodontist as an assistant. We walked from her flat to her work. But being a public holiday, most things were shut. We did end up at a nice pub and had a lovely lunch.

Never been to this Liverpool

Scott St - Liverpool

Scott St

This is true, right Maureen?

Where are these snakes? In the letterboxes?

Cuddles

Back home and Karen and I watched some TV before I started feeling quite sleepy. And I had a great sleep before getting up at 5.30am Sydney time to start work.

I hope your short week is a good one.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with date night

 Hi,

For some reason Mike pinged our chat in WhatsApp (I never use that to chat to him) and I saw my last message from him asking for a photo of Toby in Las Vegas. I probably replied in messenger, but there was no reply in WhatsApp. So I found the cutest pic of Toby from our trip there and sent it. Hahah. So here it is - randomly.

Old pic of Toby from our Las Vegas trip 

After work, Mike headed home and we got changed into warm clothes for our date night. Drove into town expecting it to be deserted after the terrible weather. But it was hard finding a park!

Parked on Mercer St and walked to Float Well for our 7pm float session. It must be our 4th or 5th one now so we knew what to do.

Enjoyed an hour of floating in warm water with no sound or light. I reckon I might have dozed off too.

Finished at 8pm and showered and changed and walked to Lucky 8 on the corner of Courtney and Blair. For a Wednesday night the place was pumping. We had a very nice meal. Lots of wee plates. Fusion Asian I guess. I got fried eggplant in teriyaki sauce, edamame beans, fried tofu and Mike got sliced steak and bao buns with different meats.

Dinner

I enjoyed it. Good food and lovely company. Thank you Mike.

Walked back to the car and got home and fell into bed. Had a good sleep. Up for Mike to head to town for gym with Quentin followed by his hospital check up (also got an appointment tomorrow to follow up the follow up). I did garage gym with Quentin. Deads. 70kg 6 reps x 4 sets. I might be a tad tuckered out now.

Mike has trapline this weekend with Callan, Andrew and Maureen. They are going to do them all in a huge loop! Wow. Wish I was there to try that. But I am off to Sydney and will be at the Anzac game at that time with Karen to see Swifts v Giants. Mike and Janine arrive the following week for the Sydney half.

Have a great weekend. Les we forget.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with also working from home

 Hi,

With the dire weather we were asked to work from home on Tuesday too. So Mike and I hunkered down in the office and worked from there. The weather to us seemed like a typical cold southerly blast. We are always protected from storms from that direction. But obviously it made itself felt on the southern suburban hills. Wow.

Smudge sleeping on my bag

We had some dinner after work and Mike went back to work for a bit before bed. We both had an excellent sleep. Yay.

Up for Mike to bus to town for a gym session with Quentin. And I will work from home again. We do have date night tonight. Yippee! Off to Float and then dinner at Lucky 8. I think that is what it is called.

Can't wait now for the end of the day and the fun to begin. :-)

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The Monday with crazy weather

 Hi,

Well, the weather was mad. So much flooding in Wellington. My friend Erin said she had some neighbours affected by it. Lucky she was fine. We were fine here and Sally and Andrew only got their usual ponding by the end of the day.

Smudge sleeps next to my desk

Gif of Toby

Cats were happy we were home. I made a gif of Toby's photos when Tessa threw a bunch of leaves over him. That was cute. Autumn in Chc was lovely.

We dried Sally and Andrew's curtains so whenever the weather comes right, they can go back to their place for an iron and get put back up.

Sally and Andrew's curtains - washed, dried and now airing

Mike and I had tea after work. And we were in bed fairly early. Good sleep. Then I had garage gym with Quentin and heard all about their move into their new house. Did 40kg bench (4 x 4) and 55kg squats (4 x 4).

We've been asked to work from home again. So doing that. But so far today looks a little bit nicer than yesterday. Yay. Hopefully people can start to clean up.

Have a good day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend back in Wellington

 Hi,

I got home early Saturday morning after Mike dropped me off at 6am at Chc airport. Had an easy flight to Wellington and so lovely to see Sally at the airport to whisk me home.

I managed to snaffle a 5pm New World grocery delivery which meant I had no need to venture out into the stormy weather.

I did a lot of washing and tidying.

French toast brekkie Sunday morning

Finding the paint

Sunday I made a nice brekkie for myself. Then got the paints ready for doing the fake stairs stringers. Spent almost 2 hours doing that. Another top coat on the true right and first coat of primer on true left. 

Tackling the stairs

Two coats on that left side and one primer on the right

Iced latte with Maureen

Went to Karori Park to meet Maureen for a coffee and enjoyed catching up with her. The rain finally eased off and I got out for a run afterwards.

Cats happy

New sink cover from Mum and Dad

I installed the sink rack that my parents gave me. It was in my checked luggage from Chch and I found a note in my suitcase saying an item had pinged their sensors. I guess steel rods like that must have looked very odd.

Mike flew home and Sally and Andrew picked him up and we ate haloumi and egg pie and sticky date pudding (courtesy of Sally). We dried some curtains from 40WLW and watched some Deadloch.

Off to bed. Wellington got hammered by rain and there has been flash flooding and slips all over the place. Phew. Hope everyone is ok.

Take care.

Love,

Angela