The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

What a weekend. Kept myself mostly busy. Baked bread Friday. Grabbed some stuff from Mitre10 for Mike for his weekend renovation plans. Digital calipers being one of the things.

Sourdough

Moxley is so relaxed

Look at that!

Two new plants in the greenhouse to join the tomatoes

Got a rock melon plant and an eggplant plant to go in with the tomatoes. No idea if this will work or not. But I like the idea of it all.

Outside dinner

Smudge

Ride Saturday into Makara MTB park

Saturday we did not go to park run. But I did go riding with Maureen. She got to our house at 1pm and we took off to Makara MTB park. went up Koru, then Sally Alley then Three Brothers. Got to the top. Down Zacs to the Skyline. Then along that to above our house.

Yes, readers, I was riding at the edge of my abilities for a lot of this. Hahahah. Had to step off a few switchbacks. Unlocked a new fear - a switchback that curves down. Yes, it has a berm on these corners. No, I did not use them. Yes, I know I should. More practise needed.

Hey there!

On top of the world! Or, maybe, just Makara

I look stupidly happy

Was filthy when I got home

Got home to see Wally there with his mother. Wally was providing advice on the plastering. Sweet! Mike did tackle some of that. Wally's mother (Nora) looked the same as she always has. Good to see her.

Sunday I was up early to get a pick up from Christine to head out to see her horse, Tilly. She is stabled at Green something farm in Ohariu Valley. It was rainy off and on - but also really warm. Tilly is gorgeous. We walked up to where she was in the paddock with Lilly. Lilly is a palomino and followed Tilly down the hill. Christine groomed Tilly and I held her for a while. It was really lovely. Peaceful.

Sunday iced latte - post Tilly 

Left to grab an iced latte at the cafe at the Johnsonville library. That was a nice find! Then home.

Ok - I am a bit obsessed with my greenhouse

Cleaning out the sideboard

Cleaned out the sideboard to fit the hot sauces in there. Yay. They are now accessible and off the top of the sideboard.

Rockmelon

Eggplant

Monday morning tomatoes

I had a migraine around 4pm Sunday. Pants! Felt a bit washed out. But we went to visit Kara and grabbed some Indian takeaways and I felt better by the time we left at 7.30pm.

Slept well. Up for working from home. Set off RoboLux as I work. I like my RoboLux.

Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with a busy day at work

 Hi,

I am so excited (okay, also nervous) about Toby flying to Australia today to see my parents and help as Ma recovers from  her second hip surgery. He is now halfway across the Tasman Sea, heading to Melbourne. A a clearance through customs and into the domestic terminal for his flight to the Sunshine Coast. Woot! He should get to see my parents around 1.35pm Queensland time today.

Busy day at work yesterday. But the day certainly turned it on for us. Stunning.

Planning day lunch

Headed home after work on the 5.17 #13 bus and fed the cats and sorted out my dressing. Wound seems ok.

Removed my dressing for another clean and re-dress

Smudge!

That stare!

Smudge was keen for a warm lap to snuggle into in the latter part of the evening. Mike got home and also snuggled with the cats.

Slept well. Up to bus in. Will need to head home quick smart for my online PT session at 6pm!

More habaneros ripening

Enjoy your day.

Migraine for me on Wednesday. Boo!

Love,

Angela

The weekend with so much stuff going on

Angela is off down south so you've got me again for the week. Actually, she jumped on this and wrote the whole thing in the third person so I will continue to take the credit.

Angela was getting ready for bed on Friday night and heard a lot of lapping. She turned around to find Moxley hanging out of the toilet bowl, having a wee drink. Unlike when she was a kitten and Toby and I found her in this bathroom soaking wet, she can now perch halfway into the bowl and keep herself from falling in.

Moxley lapping up toilet water

Packed on Saturday

Saturday saw Angela finalise the gear on her bike for her trip. A quick ride around with the panniers packed with her stuff saw it pretty secure. So a quick trip to the local bike shop in Ngaio for some spare tubes (27.5 x 2.4) and she was set.

Nice day in Wellington

Mike finished the HWC timer at last! The solution that worked was two mounting boxes, one on top of the other to make enough space for the timer and all the wiring. 

He'd nearly finished when Adnan pinged us and said he had tickets for Wellington Phoenix women versus Perth Glory in a corporate box and did we want to come? Yes, we did. Okay, Angela did. But Mike also decided it would be a good distraction. So the timer remained finished but with the wires hanging out of the box and off we went.

Tidied up the next day. Looks ... anticlimactic.

We drove into town and parked on Thorndon Quay and walked down the concourse. As we waited for Adnan just before 5pm, a wee aerobatic jet buzzed Wellington a few times. And then we noticed a JetStar flight that was on approach to the airport power up its engines and do a go around. Obviously the wee jet had got in the way and the flight had to do a big long loop back to the north after overshooting the runway.

Naughty jet pilot!

Watching a wee jet buzz Wellington

The wee jet made the Jetstar flight do a go-around!

Waiting for the football game

And we're in! Ta Adnan

Loved the football! As we stepped into the stadium, Perth got a goal. And seriously, the Phoenix women were all over the Perth Glory for the remainder of the game. But just couldn't secure a goal to equalise. No idea how that happened!

But I loved it! Thank you Adnan (and his brother!).

Souvenir

Evidence

Back for some takeaways and off to bed. Up early for a drive to the Bluebridge for the 7.15am check-in. Mike got me sorted despite the huge queue of cars. 

At the Bluebridge terminal

Waiting for the ferry to board

I got onto the ferry with 2 other cyclists (all women around my age) and found there was nothing to secure our bikes to in there. The bike rack was an unsecured piece of metal that could take 3 bikes with no gear and skinny tyres. But we all had fat tyres. And two of us had a lot of gear.

The staff were great - agreeing that the bike facilities were terrible. And one took my bike over to a ladder and I used my bungees to lash my bike to it. They chocked the tyres. My bike wasn't going anywhere. The other women used their bike locks to secure their bikes to various metal fittings. But mine was through my panniers to try and make it harder to grab those. But always travel on the ferry with some bungees!

Lashing my bike

And coming back to see it still there!

We were first off the ferry - and the other foot passengers were directed to waiting buses for the ride back to the terminal. But they just said to us cyclists to put our helmets on and ride away. So we did. I only had my sneakers and a big backpack. So I used the throttle to ride the bike to the terminal like a wee motorbike. Hahahah.

On the ute

Best configuration sorted

Iona and Col picked me up from the terminal and we headed into Picton - which was chaos. Full of tourists. So we kept going and went to Catalyst in Blenheim for a nice lunch and excellent iced latte.

Meanwhile Mike got stuck into chores. The timer got finished and the missing hinge on the basement door got fitted. And while Angela was away and couldn't see, he scampered around the deck balustrades and up the high ladders and cleaned out the gutters. The gutter above our bedroom window will still overflow, since it's not installed right, but it shouldn't overflow quite so often now all the grass and mulch is gone.

Sunday vibe

Sunday dinner at Sally and Andrew's, along with Helen and Anthony. It was nice to catch up with Helen and Anthony and see what both are up to.

Right - time to get stuck into my Monday. Have a great day. Angela is heading working from the remote Blenheim office today, then tomorrow she's driving from Blenheim to Christchurch to collect the van. I'll post photos if I get them.

The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

Busy weekend.  Friday saw Mike drop the Focus off for its windscreen replacement after his potato cakes brekkie only to be told they could repair it instead.  So he stayed while they did that and drove home and worked from there.

HBD.

I headed out to Mitre10 Mega and bought the shelving widgets I need to finish my wardrobe off.  Sweet!

We cancelled the dinner with Sarah and her family as we have been exposed to covid and they do not want to catch it for many reasons.

Friday saw us pop into the bowling club to meet Elly and Tom - but it was pumping and they had already sold out of the vegetarian options.  I had made a vegetarian and normal sausage casserole so we all headed back to our place to eat that.  Good cold weather comfort food.

Friday iced latte

Caught a mouse

As Elly and Tom left, we checked the traps.  And found kill #12.  A wee mouse.  Disposed of that and went to bed.

Catch #12

Up for a gym session with Mike at Thorndon.  Good fun.  We did deadlifts (my first ones since late Jan) and bench.  I did 50kg on deadlifts and 30kg on bench.  5 sets x 3reps for me.

Gym session with Mike on Saturday

Made mushroom Wellington for dinner out at Celia's house Saturday night.  Headed there at 5pm and played with Bob for a bit.  He caught a tooth on my watch strap and it did pull out and cut his wee lip.  But he seemed to come right after that.  Hope there is no lasting ill effect.

Dinner was great.  Scrumptious food and good company.  Saw Ange for the first time since she left to go study in Feb.  She's settled in and acing the work.  :-)

James was out at a movie and came in to say hello and watched TV with Bob in the other room.  Which turns out might have been fortuitous.

Scrumptious dessert

We left quite late (for me).  I think I got home at 10pm.  Super late.  But I had such a good time.  

Lazy Sunday morning.  Got a ping from Celia to say James had tested positive.  I hope he gets a light touch and bounces back fast.  Celia is probably going to catch it I imagine. The rest of us will be monitoring for symptoms.  It is just part of things here now.

Moxley keeps warm

The exciting work we tackled today was my new shelves in my wardrobe.  Mike set me up with the skilsaw and took me through cutting down my melamine plank to the right lengths to fit in.  I screwed all the fittings into the space, ready for the shelves.  

They all slotted in with no problem.  I used the skilsaw 4 times to make the cuts needed.  And Mike reckons by the end of it I was much more relaxed using it.

Finished my shelves

Moxley checks out the shelves

Installed a mirror

I also installed a full length mirror in the downstairs bathroom.  Our bathrooms have tiny head high mirrors.  So it is nice to actually have one that is a bit bigger.

Mike also did some work in the garage and created hand and foot holds up to the loft instead of using the ladder.  I am unsure how that will feel.  He wants me to test it out at some stage soon.

They look a bit narrow...

I made seed crackers in the evening.  They are good with chunks of cheese as a snack.  Had a couple as we waited for dinner (simple dinner - pasta!).

Weather is still awful.  Lots of snow down south on the skifields.  We're working from home today although Mike has to nip in for a meeting.

I did wake with a migraine this morning (Monday).  Hardly ever happens to me these days.  But they are usually slightly worse when I wake with one.  Instead of going to the gym, I crept back into bed for a bit longer.  Mike made porridge for us and now I feel a bit better.  Just no head thrashing in the mosh pit for me today.

Enjoy your week ahead.  Hello to Aus - they have Queens Birthday today.  Hope they are enjoying their long weekend.

Love,

Angela