The weekend with Eurovision

 Hi,

What a big weekend. And I could not put up a lot of the pics from Friday as they were a bit gruesome - Juliet's injury is still spectacular.

Thursday night I made sourdough for the weekend. And Friday saw me up early to do track clearing work up Sunny Grove with Andrew.

Sourdough for us

Track clearing with Andrew

Cute fungus

We left the car at about 9.15 and carried up loppers, spade, grubber and saws to the first high junction and then wandered back down, clearing away overgrowth on the side of the track. And overhead. Wow. It was exhausting business. And when Andrew finally said that I needed to get away, I was surprised to see almost 3 hours had gone by.  11:53am. Where did that time go? It was very satisfying.

Andrew dropped me back at their place and I jumped in the car and headed to Chillax for coffee and cheese scones and went around to visit Juliet. Met Dan properly too.

Chillax iced latte

I chatted to Juliet at her place then we went into her GP for her wound dressing. They took one look at it - conferred with a GP - and sent Juliet to ED. Oh dear. We went to get a few things from her home, said goodbye to Dan who was going to work, look after the girls and then come into ED later. I dropped Juliet off at ED and then heard back that they were pumped her full of antibiotics and keeping her for a few days to observe. Not good. But obviously she is in the best place for the nest outcome. Her injury is still very nasty looking. I hope she responds well to the treatment and gets home today.

Friday night relaxing

Waitangi park run

We were up Saturday morning for Park Run. And I pushed myself and ended up almost puking at the end. Hahah.  8 seconds outside my previous PB. But it was slow to start and windy as! Saw Simon and Becky and then Felix and Fiona from work. Very social. Mike went for another run while I sat in Joe's Garage.

Hey Felix!

Joe's Garage after our run

We had a very nice brekkie then Mike went to see about cakes in Arobake and I went to Shut up and Dance with Jessie. New instructor today. Spice Girls was the theme. Hahah. Good fun.

With Jessie after Shut Up and Dance

At Swimsuit post dancing!

Quick coffee at Swimsuit on Dixon. Mike met us and then off home. Got the house tidy for Eurovision the next morning.

Up for Eurovision nice and early after a noisy, windy night. Little did I know then why it was so noisy in the night!  Got the food all ready. And around 7am when it kicked off, the punters arrived.

Brekkie laid out

And it starts

Keen as

Iced latte

Some of the punters

Ange and Danita were first on the scene. Sarah turned up not too long after the start. Grant came! Yay! Maarten and Irina. Kara. Christine had been put to see Tilly and arrived halfway through the songs.

We all did not enjoy Austria this year and sure enough.... they were contenders through the jury judging. Australia didn't make the final. Milkshake Man got the heave ho in the semis. But when Israel got the top spot and only one vote was left, we were all rooting for Austria. And they came in clutch! Snatched the victory. And yes, the guy can sing. But it is opera. Sigh. Okay. More evidence I do not understand European tastes.

When Mike was saying goodbye to people, he glanced down the side of the house and saw the greenhouse had been destroyed by the winds overnight.

Fixing the mess the weather caused

Last harvest

So we braved the pouring rain and tidied up best we could. The plastic looks almost intact. The main thing will be if we've lost poles over the edge into the bush. We tidied it up, Mike got the last of the chillies, and we went back inside.

We did also tidy the garage so I can actually use the gym up there again. Will do that today in my lunch break.

Great weekend. So busy. And so cold and wet.

Have a great week ahead.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with aurora everywhere and Iona up here and Eurovision on and this is not unconnected

 Hi,

Friday was the most stunning day here in Wellington. I was up early ish to get the bikes ready for a ride with Iona. Spring Challenge training. Except, it was 10am by the time I left here. And we needed a coffee so when we got to Paekakariki, we went to a cafe and enjoyed a pastry and a delicious coffee.

Loved the sunlight coming through the windows

Bikes ready

Paekakariki iced latte

Oh - Kapiti! You look gorgeous

Then we were off to explore. From Queen Elizabeth park, we went up to the north, but trying to get off onto gravel and farm roads when we could. I used no electrons! We had such fun.

Love this view

Where are you?

Bridge to somewhere

Selfie

Here I am!

Let's go!

Dropped Iona back at Tawa and headed home at 2pm. Put the bikes away and changed my shoes and then went into East Day Spa to use my Christmas voucher.

Feet pampered

Looking good

A very nice hour-long foot session. Mmmm. Thank you Mike. And thank you spa person. My feet look amazing. And she even found my left littlest toenail was there. Grown back after the tramping punishment. So I did not need a discount for only having 9 toenails. Hahahah.

Mike collected me from the spa after his work finished. And we drove home. And Sarah, Hamish and Ryan turned up for pizza night.

Moxley loves me

Saturday night saw us sleep in. I got French toast from Mike. Wow. And then we had Sally and Andrew visit for lunch. Choice!

French toast from Mike

Moxley is so asleep

Brunch!

Iona came over and we dragged her grocery shopping for Eurovision on Sunday. Before bundling her in the car for aurora hunting. The aurora alerts I often watch had predicted a huge solar storm. And just before it kicked in to epic levels, the cloud came over. Gah!

I saw a bz of -38 and a kp of 8! Those are huge numbers. We got to the car park just 200m west of Owhiro Bay and parked up. It was fairly full. The sky looked a little unusual. So I took a pic using my Raw camera app. And I was astonished to see it showed a fully red sky. To the naked eye, it looked like the clouds had a hint of a red blush. Nothing like my camera showed.

South Coast aurora

I could see this with my naked eye

Surf and aurora

I absolutely loved it. We stood watching for about 1.5 hours. Then drove up to Woodridge to see if that was above the cloud cover. But the light pollution from there was not much good. Off home and off to bed.

Aurora over Toby's bedroom

Toby got to see the aurora from his house! He looked out above his room - and there it was!

It was Eurovision the next morning, after all. So we got a good sleep in. Up at 6am to get the food ready. And we were on!

Sunday morning is Eurovision

And it starts!

Brekkie disappearing

Punters

We had Wally, Brennan and Jason turn up to experience the Eurovision spectacular. Sarah was a tad late - but not too much. And Maarten and Irina arrived just as we got halfway through the countries. They caught up pretty quick.

All entranced

Iona was up after a good sleep. And Ange was knocking on the door early. We had 10 of us. And it was an amazing Eurovision. The Netherlands was disqualified 2 hours before it - controversy. I heard the Swiss one and after 2 bars, said it was terrible. It won! Finland had no pants on for theirs.

What am I even watching? Finland has no pants on!

Went out to Hillside Kitchen for a degustation lunch at 1pm. So good. Sally, Andrew, me, Mike and Iona. Delicious. We chatted away. Every course was delicious. Best one - maybe the onion and lime soup. I know! Sounds weird, right? So, so good.

We took Iona to the airport for her flight and then Mike and I sat in the back of the car at the beach to see if we could spot the aurora again.

Sunday aurora hunting - relaxed style

We ate chippes and read books. Toby rang and we saw for ourselves how bad his hand, foot and mouth virus was. His wee face is covered in sores. His feet look terrible! OMG. He is still quite miserable. But he chatted away to us for about 30 mins as we lay in the car. Wished me a happy mother's day. Awww. I wish I could help him as he recovers from this.

We saw nothing of the aurors this time! But I loved just being there with Mike and absorbing the atmosphere. It was full of people keen to see this amazing natural phenomenon.  Eventually we gave up with the low kp and Bz numbers and went home and off to bed. I had the best, long sleep in ages!

Such an awesome weekend. Eurovision. Aurora. Iona. Cycling. Eating. Loved every minute of it. Thank you.

Love,

Angela

Mike's weekend with running and Eurovision

 I'll start - I'm feeling sore but very happy with my 21k Personal Best* of 2 hours 15 minutes and 20 seconds.

The placings don't look so good, but I don't care. I beat all those people on the couch.

*OK it may not be a PB but I'm not really sure. I'll look up my past times if I can find them, and post them at the bottom.

Janine was aiming for 7 hours and smashed that. Benchmark for Queenstown in November.

We were on the road bright and early after I dropped Angela off at the airport for her Brisbane flight. Not too an eventful trip. Traffic was ... fun ... including dodging a fishtailing trailer. But we made it to Napier in good time for lunch.

We checked out the view from Bluff hill, with panoramic views of the logging port and a small fuel terminal. And apparently Mt Ruapehu, buried in the haze behind the Kawekas. Then checked into our cute little cabins, a short wander from town.

A tiny house each

We filled in the afternoon by going to, not just the Napier aquarium, but the New Zealand National Aquarium. I was prepared to be underwhelmed, but it was pretty good actually, with a Kiwi enclosure, enormous turtles, and Little Blue Penguins. Four stars would aquare again.

I'm SURE I've been here before.
Maybe somewhere else with penguins and feeding?

Glass roof - but WITH A TRAVELATOR. Fancy.
No need for strenuous walking here!

Yup they've got one of these too

This is art. To create awareness of the dangers of pollution and overuse of fossil fuels, school children have tied 12 km of nylon rope into shapes with thousands of plastic zip ties.
Yeah, I don't get it either.

After a hearty and filling 18" pizza from Vinci's just down the road, it was time for an early night. I set my alarm for 5:15am.

And we finished it all up

My half marathon bus left earlier than Janine's marathon bus, so I was out of the house and on my way without her. A quick walk down the hill led me straight to a highly efficient bus system and I was soon at the start line.

Gorgeous sunrise on the way to the bus

Before shot (anxious)

During shot 

After shot (exhausted - but happy. Honest. Can't you see the joy in my face?)

9 out of 10 nutritionists recommend a greasy kebab after a half marathon

The finish area was much better set up this year - they'd moved all the food and drink stalls to the field with the band and that made everything so much less congested. I got food and liquid into me and slowly came right.

GO JANINE!

I'm so photogenic that I made the marathon facebook page

I spent some time watching the marathon runners finish, inspiring stuff. Then Janine crossed the line over an hour faster than she was talking about. GOOD WORK JANINE. 

After Janine had recovered we bussed back to Napier and wandered back to our cabins. We were tired and not hungry, so we veged out to terrible reality TV on Bravo ("Botched - after my breast surgery they put my nipples back on too high") and ate cheese and crackers before crashing very early.

Sunday was EUROVISION and I was up early banging on Janine's door since she had the TV in her room.

IT'S HAPPENING

And much earlier in Sunshine Coast

Toast and Ugg Boots

The songs all seemed much more pared down and less over the top this year, although the Scandinavians didn't disappoint. Ukraine won with a good song and the UK actually entered something that wasn't terrible this year, and got 2nd!

Angela got captions which made it just that much better

We wandered up to Ahuriri, where the marathon started from, for a coffee at the Thirsty Whale before hitting the road. The weather got steadily worse and the drive was tedious but we were home in good time.

Monday morning and I don't feel too bad! Time to get stuck into my day. One day working from home then back into the office for me.

Looks gorgeous there

Happy cats here

PS: here are my half marathon times. OK so I smashed it in March 2021. That's my time to beat, though it's an unofficial 'fun run'.

Round the bays 21 Feb 2021 -- 2:16:02

Round the vines 20 Mar 2021 -- 2:10:09

Hawkes Bay 15 May 2021 -- 2:24:13

Kāpiti 14 Nov 2021 -- 2:18:42

Hawkes Bay 14 May 2022 -- 2:15:20