The week in Sydney for work

 Hi,

I flew into Sydney Saturday night to find the airport trains not running. It was a shame I just missed Noush picking up Bella from her Spain sojourn. Bella had a year there and arrived an hour before me so they couldn't wait. I was late, Bella was early.

We had to squash into a normal city bus and drive by all the stations to Central. Most people's luggage could not fit anywhere so the aisle was blocked quickly and no one could sit down. I was on early and had a small suitcase.

Luggage squashed into a city bus

On the bus to Central

Got to Central and onto a Metro. Karen picked me up from Tallawong. All settled in nicely. Some dinner. Some Commonwealth Games.

York is happy

Not fitting on the spare bed then

Backyard looking so good

We went to Noush's place for lunch to welcome Bella back. Caught up with lots of people. Such fun.

Ooshie Luke Skywalker

Brekkie

More backyard

Monday I started my working week. Big Room Planning. So been busy doing that. Getting home late and getting looked after by Karen.

Hello Marcela

Meeting people

I got lunch

On the train home

Another day of it today. Woot!

Hope your day is good.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with work

 Hi,

What a cracker of a day in Wellington yesterday. Jill took a pic of me with the harbour int he background and my work iced latte and it looks like I live in paradise.

Work iced latte

Dark and blurry pic of me getting driven home

We did catch up with Vigz for lunch with a bunch of us. He is working from home as he finishes up at work. Good to chat to him and hear about his plans. Saw Madeleine and Patrick and the current bunch of data peeps. Mike also joined us. We will see Vigz off and on at the gym.

I had late meetings but my one that finished at 5pm was with Zoe. So she offered to drive me home so I was there for my 6pm meeting. That was super nice. And I added value by changing the time on her car clock as we drove through the peak hour traffic (via the library to return a boardgame). Thank you Zoe.

My pop vinyl version of me

An old pic of der Bus

Emma was home with Toby and they were enjoying some old horror film. I ate my burger in the kitchen as it looked a bit gruesome for me.

Mike and I went to bed and Emma wasn't there for lunch longer before we heard her leave. We had a good sleep. Up for garage gym for me. Squats. 50kg. 6 reps x 4 sets.  And Mike ended up missing his gym session. We are both working from home today now.

Moxley just hanging

The cats were so cute this morning - all sleeping on Toby in his bed. Hahah. They love him here.

I am off after my late meetings today to Waiterere to chill with Maureen. Some sort of exercise tomorrow is the plan. And parkrun Saturday on my way back to Wellington before my flight to Sydney for work.

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with no official quiz

 Hi,

In a huge turn up for the books, I have gone off iced lattes lately. I am hoping it is a byproduct of my recent cold and not a complete change. This is because if you know me, part of my identity is my iced latte behaviour. Who am I if not the Angela that drinks an iced latte when she is out with you?

That also means I lack photos. Hahahah.

Yesterday was busy at work (that is, I found the day rather gruelling and going in circles - happens sometimes). Toby and Tessa have come up for Tessa's grandfather's funeral on Friday. Sad reason, but it did mean they could come to the quiz at Green Man.

Barb was up for quiz so we walked from work together to Green Man at 5.30. But as we stepped in, Jon and Toby told us they cancelled the official quiz. I sent out comms to everyone, but they were all on their way.

So many of us turned up. Jon, Ange, Barb, Juliet, Lesley, Wally and Chelsea. And so good to see Toby and Tessa. Mike came with Juliet a little later. But we ate dinner. And Toby hosted the stuff quiz for us (13/15). And we did the ODT quiz (9/12).

We really enjoyed the kōrero with everyone.

Ange had her car so that was good - we got a ride home with her. Cats got fed. And we had a good sleep.

Up to bus in and run (for me) and deads (for Mike).

I have a late meeting today so I will go home after normal hours and work at home for my late meeting.

I hope your day is mighty!

Love,

Angela

The Monday with work

 Hi,

What a huge day. In some sad news, Tessa's grandfather passed away yesterday (Monday). So Toby and Tessa are headed up here for the funeral on Friday.

We saw a rental specialist and a real estate agent yesterday and have some decisions to make. Mike got home after work and we are Kara's leftovers. Nut roast was as good as it was the day before.

Leftovers courtesy of Kara

Eggs at Margies

Up for the early bus and a run on the treadmill before my session with Quentin. 3k there. Then deadlifts. 90kg 3 reps x 4 sets. We watched a woman benching 90kg next to me! Wow. Then bench for me. 40kg 3 reps x 4 sets.

Everything felt good for the first time in weeks. Might be finally over that cold.

Green Man quiz tonight. Might get some Sampson punters again if we're lucky. And I have let Toby know - I think they arrived this morning from Chc.

Yeah - I have no idea. :-( I am just bouncing from one day to another.

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Wellington with parkrun and rugby and trapline

 Hi,

I had such a social weekend in Mike's absence. He was off down south visiting his mother with Toby and Tessa. Sounds like they had a great time. 

Mike down south, ready for Parkrun.
He says it is chillier than Singapore and they added more hills to Dunedin Parkrun

Saturday saw me up for Waitangi parkrun. I met Lisa and some of her friends. I did my fastest 5k this year - which was weird because I am still not fully over my cold and did blow my nose a few times. But yay!

We drove up to Chillax near our house for brekkie. Then back to our place to get ready to pick up Maureen and head to the rugby.

Iced latte at Chillax after parkrun

Chillax with Lisa

Parkrun

Parkrun with Lisa's friends

Parked on the street near Maidstone Park in Upper Hutt and we went into the Mitre10 for a coffee. Well, I had a hot chocolate because I was a bit cold. Thanks Maureen!

Elly joined us there and then we wandered over to the game. Which had started! Wellington Poua versus Waikato Manawa. Elly has a pass because she is a member of Poua. But she stood with us on the touchline near the 22 anyway.

At halftime Elly took Maureen to the grandstand to find a toilet. Elly was trying to convince the staff to let Maureen up to the fancy toilets (instead of the portaloos for anyone attending for free like us) and they were umming and ahhing about it. When a former Black Ferns and 7s player walked past, heard all this, and gave Maureen her pass.

And who was this player?

Ruby Tui. 

Yes, Maureen got a pass from Ruby and went and checked the facilities. And tried to hand the pass back to Ruby, and she was like: nah, you keep it.

Wow!

Anyway - this was an awesome game. Poua smashed it in the end. 47 to 33 I think. Great skills all round.

Walking to the rugby

Good day for it

Happy selfie

Sunday saw me up for trapline with Maureen. Mike was away and our other weekends are already full. So it was this weekend or never. Mind you, Andrew said he could sneak up and do it all if needs be. Maureen and I have kindly left him some work to do.  :-P

The day was stunning. Maureen picked me up at 9am and we were off up Sunny Grove nice and early. Maybe close to 10am by then?

We only got 1 rat the entire trapline. We did all of SG, half of KAT and the top of UTS. It wasn't cold or wet or windy. Super nice in the bush.

Sunday trapline

In the creek

Lunch spot

What a poser

Maureen dropped me home and I did some housework before going to Kara's place for dinner. She is back from her trip away and put on a lovely meal for me. Nut roast. Roast vegetables. Pilau rice. And some cabbage, leek mix.

Dinner with Kara

So nice to catch up with her adventures and plans. Good to hear about her mother and brother and how they are keeping. We planned a few things.

Then off to pick up Mike. I was there a while because he thought he was getting in at 9pm. But when I arrived there was no flight from Chc at that time. 9:30pm. So I tracked that flight and figured out it was the one he was on. Sat down and waited.

Mike was a little bit surprised to be so late as well when he turned up. He'd written "9pm" on his weekend plan and like me was a bit puzzled why it got in so late. No, Mike was wrong and Air NZ was right. Lucky it wasn't the departure time he got wrong!

He was tired after his weekend too. Tucked him into the car and then into bed. Hahah.

Up Monday for Mike to gym with Quentin. We have a few meetings about the house today. Let's see what they say.

Have a fabulous week.

Love,

Angela

The Thursday with Guy Williams and dinner out with new firiends

 Hi,

Okay - turns out I took no pics to prove this post title. Hahahah. I did get a few pics of Smudge eating her dinner - here you go.

Smudge eats her shredded chicken

Mike enters the tramping club room

I drove into town after work and parked outside PB tech to head to the tramping clubroom to meet Mike for Guy Williams. He's a comedian we were introduced to at Christmas in Chc at Steph and Sam's place. So we bought tickets a few weeks back and here we were - rocking up for it.

As we approached the venue, we bumped into Zoe from work and her partner (and Zoe's sister and her partner) also going to the same event.

I have not seen the chairs all laid out in that hall for any tramping event - not even Mike's awesome presentations. :-)  But it filled up completely.

The show was good - I was entertained. He was a one-man act (apart from his girlfriend greeting on the door and generally helping) and went on an hour ramble. But I found it mostly very funny. Some jokes maybe didn't land - I would like to know if the second showing right after ours got any of that material or not. His main thrust was how do we vote out this government - you do have to know your audience and Wellington comedy goers are probably exactly where Guy thinks they are. Thank you Guy for putting yourself out there and entertaining us.

Zoe and her crowd were also off to dinner afterwards (with no reservation like us) and tried Hide Out. But there was a 30 min wait there. So we wanted to Mr Go's and got a table for 6 straight away. I do like this place. 

It was great to talk to Zoe and her friends. What great conversations we had. Awesome. I almost didn't want to go home as soon as we finished eating. In fact - I was not the first to make a move. 

We walked back to the car and headed home. Lucky I had fed the cats before I left. Mike packed for his trip down south and we tucked into bed.

He was up at 4:45am. Uber came at 5.15am and I know now he has landed in Chc and Toby and Tessa have safely picked him up.

Meanwhile, I have work. Shocking still for a Friday. Will try a run at lunch time. It is a nice looking day here. Parkrun tomorrow. Rugby with Elly in Upper Hutt again - Maureen and Lisa have expressed an interest in coming. Trap line Sunday. And dinner with Kara Sunday night. Busy.

My parents are having fun exploring the east coast of Canada now. Their pics look amazing. Good on them.

Have a great weekend. Go Spain!

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with work

 Hi,

Mike and I walked home from work yesterday - nice and clear with a warmish wind. Took me ages - longer than usual. Not a happy camper this week really.

Had leftovers for tea. And ate the durian chocolate that Roanne brought back from Singapore. I was a bit unsure about this - but it was quite nice. Crunchy - and chocolatey. No idea what the actual fruit is like still. Hahahah.

Courtesy of Roanne

Data brekkie iced latte

Bed - didn't sleep that well though. Up early to run on the treadmill. Got to 3km - but my right calf, and right hip flexor are not happy.

Sigh.

PT session with Quentin but on machines so I could watch the football. Saw first 30 mins. Then watching the score on the Stuff feed.

Data brekkie morning. Saw John, Michelle and Kris. Good chat. Then rushed home in the car to find Mike still here. And England lost in the final few minutes to Argentina in the semi final. Grumpy. Come on Spain!

Have a wonderful day.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with quiz night

 Hi,

Busy day at work on Tuesday. Met Erin for lunch at Gemini and Mike joined us. She is off on Fri to rep NZ in the Hockey Masters. Go Erin. And her daughter just got picked for the Floorball NZ team. Wow.

Waiting for quiz

The team assembled

We came third

After work, Mike went to Rosies with workmates and I met Madeleine at Green Man and waited for our ring in quizlers to arrive en-masse. Thank you Sampson family.

The first round would have sunk us with lyrics but with all of us, we smashed that round. Mostly. And in the end we came third. Mike joined for the last few rounds.

Good fun! Ubered home and fed the cats and went to bed.

Up for a walk in for me. Nice.

Another big day at work.

Have a fantastic day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday working from home

 Hi,

Well, I had my yoghurt with my muesli yesterday morning and by 10am I was puking it up. I think maybe the yoghurt was not good. It was the batch that stayed out all day turning into yoghurt [Mike: it was me, I did not understand the brief!] so maybe it didn't have as long a fridge life as usual.

Busy at work. Then Mike got home after his run after work and we had some tea. I was still a little hesitant to eat lots. I made spag bol sauce (using quorn mince) and then wrapped it and egg and spinach in a rice paper roll and crumbed and fried it. Mike said it tasted like chicken parmigiana. [Mike: it was SO GOOD! All the yummy flavours of parmigiana and crumbed chicken, with a layer of rice paper for extra texture.] So there you go.

We watched some TV after dinner and Moxley entertained us with her antics.

First, she crawled into Mike's smelly gym bag and slept there for ages

Then sprawled over me

And finally joed out on Mike

Off to bed fairly early - but Mike had to do the rubbish so he was a little later than me to bed. Then he suddenly sat bolt upright and remembered that Moxley had escaped about an hour earlier! She came in mewing and telling him off for having the temerity to leave her out in the cold. 

Still, I had a good enough sleep but I did feel a bit yuck this morning nonetheless. A yoghurt hangover!

On the later bus for a relaxed session with Quentin. Bench 35kg 10 reps x 3 sets. Then one last set that I managed 6 reps before Quentin had to help me on the last 4 reps. Some accessories and then I was done. Arms like spaghetti.

Off to meet Mike at Margies and I got eggs. I couldn't hardly drink my iced latte so obviously my tummy is still not super happy.

Iced latte at Margies - with eggs

Quiz after work today. Woot! Mike has work drinks as the project people he was visiting last week are returning the favour and meeting all the locals here.

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The weekend that was Matariki and in Chc for me

 Hi,

What a huge weekend over Matariki. After work went late Thursday, Toby and Tessa picked me up after Tessa had changed our reservation to be a bit later. They did have to sit in the car park at work and keep warm for a bit.

But Lillies was really good. A big open space. Good pizzas from a big oven. Unusual combos. We had buttered cabbage and speck (bacon) and cheese. Gouda I think. Speck just on one side. And what was the other pizza? Can't remember.

Got some "non-pizza" food too. Bitter leaves salad was one. Nothing bitter I could taste. And two desserts.

Phew.

Thursday evening at Lillies

Friday morning we met at Table for Monks. Had a lovely brekkie there. Toby watched Obsession (creepy movie from Quentin's recommendations) the night before and told me about. Yuck.

Table at Monks for brekkie

Outside so needed puffer jackets

View from my room

Matariki iced latte at Table at Monks

Confused daffodils

Toby at Table at Monks

We walked back to Worcester St and then drove out to Kaiapoi for the market there. Oh - that was a cute wee market. Lovely stalls. Chai to dai for (or something like that - Tessa loved it). We also bumped into Steph! How funny.

Snow on the mountains

Kaiapoi  market - we bumped into Steph

Wee bush walk by the market

Sunny!

Did you get the pic?

Keep modelling, Toby!

I am done now

We went to Toy Story 5 at Slinky Otter in the afternoon. Good movie - I liked it. Then to the gastropub next door for some light food.

Movie time - Toy Story 5

Kaiapoi fireworks

Back to Kaiapoi for fireworks and a light show. Great fun! We walked a lot and the place was packed. Huge traffic jams when the fireworks finished. But we avoided all that - the light show took up some time and it took us a while to walk back to the car.

Light show

Awwwww

My feet

Me looking at the spacewoman

Some planets not to scale

Awwww

Selfie time

Toby and the trees

Toby and me

Is that a mushroom?

Tessa takes a closer pic

I got dropped off back at my accommodation. And I was asleep very quickly. Up early for parkrun. It was cold. I walked to Worcester and Tessa kindly got up and dropped me and Toby off at Riverlution for our run.

She went to Little Poms to secure a table for us. And timed our coffee order perfectly so it was waiting for us as we got to her.

Walking to Worcester for Parkrun

Start of parkrun

Crispy morning. Toby did just a few seconds over 30 mins. And I did better than last week. But still not good enough to make me happy. Just under 36 mins for me. I am still a bit chesty from my cold.

A volunteer had his electric guitar

Post parkrun

Someone took our pic for us

Beautiful light walking back to Little Poms

Iced latte at Little Poms

Back for brekkie with Tessa at Little Poms. Great, as ever. Got me a special badge from Garmin for running with temps below zero. Hahahah.

Frosty badge

Concrete breeze blocks does not a mansion make

How to get this old lock off?

We got Tessa's old bike from Steph and Sam's garage and bought stuff to get it back up and running. Gears are mostly ok. Back brake is a bit sticky. We got lights and a new helmet. New tubes. Changed out the old presta tube from the front as we had to pump for that.

Tessa rides her bike

We had a late brunch at C4. I like that place.

C4 for brekkie

At the ice hockey - women's match

We found out the women were playing ice hockey, so we went to that. Queenstown were up to play 2 games back to back over the weekend.

The other 2 teams in the league are Auckland based.

Inferno lost to Wakatipu Wild. 3 to 1.

But it was so good! I loved it. Bought a jersey to support them!

At the night market in Ferrymead

You have no idea how cold I am in this pic

We went to a night market at Ferrymead for dinner after the hockey. I was full on shivering and could barely work my phone. Luckily some dumplings warmed me up enough. The night market was so cute. Lots of stalls. An indoor bit with a huge bouncy castle for kids. Very nice.

C4 earlier

Sunday I was up early to go to CityFitness - about 100m from the Break Free hotel. Toby walked over and we did some running and weights. Bench 40kg. I did 3 reps and Toby did 6 reps.  3 sets of that. Tried out deadlift form. Toby's form was good. And did some woodchoppers.

Sunday morning gym

Woodchoppers with Toby

Back to the hotel to shower and check out. Then down to Black Betty for brekkie. A great brekkie place.

Black betty for brekkie

Over to The Tannery for a poke around.

The tannery

Tūranga  - Toby tries a Penny-farthing

Then back to Worcester where I fell asleep watching YouTube. Story of my life with YouTube. Up for a walk to the Antarctic exhibition in a refurbished brick building by the Avon in town. But they had packed up and the building was empty. So we checked out the library and walked to Poms for some dinner.

He's on it

Toby and Tessa dropped me at the airport and I figured out the ticket with staff at AirNZ (Mike booked it but wasn't travelling).

Got to Wellington at 21:00 and met Mike. Yay! He whisked me home and I was not long out of bed. 

Thank you to Sally for feeding the cats while we were gone. Mike was back Saturday after his work trip away. So the cats would have been very happy.

Up for work this morning. Me from home, Mike from town.

Hope your week is a good one.

Love,

Angela