The weekend in Sydney with Abby's birthday

 Hi,

What an awesome weekend. After work we headed to Tallawong and went to Enzos. Great fun like usual. We did order 3 burrata dishes - and the puffbread also came with 3 burratas. So we ate a lot of burrata.

It was Tessa's birthday so she got some presents. Thank you Karen for making her day special.

Birthday dinner at Enzo's for Tessa

Excited

Jamaican coffee

Desserts

Up the next morning for burrata fuelled parkrun. It was hot even at 8am. And I was 500th across the line out of 960 punters. What? How are that many people even possible in suburban parkruns? I was only a few seconds shy of my best 2026 parkrun time. Which, given the slow funnels caused by so many people, is not too bad.

Post parkrun pics

Corner cafe iced latte

Back for a quick coffee and Karen made us all eggs for brekkie. Then all changed and ready for Abby's brunch that was at 1pm. And officially called a Long Lunch.

The parkrun fun

At Bella Vista hotel

Toby and Tessa

This is what we're getting

Abby is the birthday girl

I enjoyed the long lunch. Huge venue and they looked after us. Good food - they even gave me my own courses. So - awesome!

Secured a karaoke place for 1.5 hours. $500 later. There was a wind storm on our way to Castle Hill and Karen's Uber got to the carpark as a tree fell over onto a parked car. Wow.

Storm knocked this tree over in Castle Hill

Me and big Mic

Karaoke

Then we all sung up our own storm. Huge effort on the karaoke mic. Everyone had a great time! So good.

Back home to watch some footy. Saw the chap with MND run out for his 100th game and there was not a dry eye in the house or stadium. Watched the Swans demolish their game and further into the finals.

Off to bed. Up for Fathers Day and a nice brekkie over the road.

Father's Day brekkie

At my gate

At 2.30pm we got dropped off at Quakers Hill train station and caught the 3:04pm train to Central. Switched to the airport line and Mike, Toby and Tessa got off at Green Square for their stay overnight ahead of their flights early Monday. And I stayed on and got to the airport for my flight to Wellington.

My fave snack

Easy flight home for me. It was late taking off - 1 hour late. But it made up time and we were only 30 mins late into Wellington. 12:40am arrival instead of the 12:10am. I was nodding off on my flight. Uber reservation worked and I was home by 1:15am.  Straight into bed.

Up to rain and cold this morning. Thinking about Mike's uncle and their family this morning. Robert passed away late last week. The funeral is today. No flight could get me to Dunedin early enough. Sending them all the strength to get through this hard time.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday meeting parents off their cruise ship

 Hi,

What a huge day walking around the harbour. I got there around 9.30am and got myself an iced latte and croissant and sat not far from the Crown Princess to eat it while I waited.

Crown Princess is in the house

Huge

Karen, Toby and Tessa were coming in from Blacktown and the parents were having brekkie on the ship and negotiating customs.

I finally spotted them among the other punters all leaving the ship. And we walked to Circular Quay station to wait for Karen and Toby and Tessa and enjoyed a coffee.

Found them

Iced latte

Once we caught up with Karen, Toby and Tessa and got another coffee, we walked to a lunch spot out towards the Opera House. Italian place. Nice food.

Posing with the ship as backdrop

Toby and Tessa

Toby and me

Looking at the view

Got a pic or two at the Opera House, then back to the bakery for a pastry. But on the way back there, I saw Malcolm, Marion and Anthony. Just walking along the dock. How crazy is that? 2 mins either way and we would not have seen each other.

Opera House

Here we are

Glorious view

Walking

Met these people

Oh hello - or goodbye

Back at their cabin

Had pastries and a drink at the pub then saw Mum and Dad back onto the ship. What a great day. We climbed some steps and a round structure and got very close to their balcony.

Said goodbye and we all caught trains back to our respective homes.

Mike got home and we walked for something to eat. Then watched Bridgeton. First time watching that. Seems ok.

Up to a glorious day here. Back to work. Huge day. Then off to Quakers to work from home there tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with Toby and Tessa arriving

 Hi,

Mike and I went for a long walk after work. Out to a park called Moore Park. It looked like an old golf course with bunkers still dotted around. It was dark though so we just walked back to Green Square.

Found some tea at Bashan - but it was a 20 min delay. Mike also talked to the movers in NZ as I grabbed some tissues and a delicious mango from Woollies.

Toby and Tessa landed and were going to be at Green Sq at 7:41pm. So Mike left me eating our dinner and went and found them.

Then we all went to Zetland pub for a drink before taking them to Central and onto the Metro. Karen was kindly collecting them from Tallawong.

At Central station - seeing Toby and Tessa onto the Metro

There they go

Mike and I got up for a run to a local park. And then back for shower and brekkie before work.

Cafe for brekkie

Big day at work. Then off to Crows Nest to meet Marcela and Ian and their son, Santi. Karen, Toby and Tessa will meet us there. Dinner out. I will tell you all about it.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Auckland not meeting my parents and then flying to Sydney

 Hi,

We flew to Auckland to meet my parents off their long cruise. First cruise ship of the season into Auckland. But when we got to Auckland we got a message from them that they were both so sick. Stomach bugs. They were hot up for leaving their cabins.

Mike and I found a cafe not far from their ship and could see through the incessant rain to the port side of the ship. Amano cafe - we went here before the Meat Loaf show we went to with the Sampsons a few years back. 

We decided to find our hotel and hopefully either get into the room early or leave our luggage there. We stood in reception in our dripping clothes and decided that for $20 we could pay and get into our room early.

Wellington airport

Waiting for our AirNZ flight to Auckland

On board

We see my parents' cruise ship through the rain

Iced latte at Amano

After a bit of settling in, we decided to try and spot my parents on the ship. Turns out they were not port side at all. But that was good because on the port side we could walk right alongside the ship. We spotted Mum high up on the ship.

Huge when up close

I see my Mum

We called each other and chatted for a bit. Dad was sleeping off his bug. But I could tell Mum really was not well.

Mike and I left her to go shopping. Grabbed a few things. And back to the room. We stayed mostly dry as we wandered around town. I watched a Farah Palmer Cup game. Good fun.  I also got up at 3am to watch the All Blacks v Springboks. Then showered and ready for our Uber to Auckland Airport at 6.30am.

Waiting for the Uber to Auckland airport

Iced latte at Auckland Airport

Easy flight over to Sydney. We left around 9.30am. I watched The Mandalorian and Grogu. I enjoyed that.

Dropped our bag at the hotel and then caught the Metro to Tallawong and met everyone there. Even Tyler was there. Awwww. Went for a walk with the boys. Watched some TV. Ate a lot of food.

Iced latte at the Corner Cafe

Walking the boys

Late train back to town

Walking to the front of the train

Caught the train back to Waterloo and walked to the hotel. Good sleep. Up for a run on the treadmill and showered and then off to work.

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Sydney with Karen's birthday

 Hi,

I managed to get up Saturday morning to go to parkrun. My sister left the car keys out on the bench in case she couldn't get up after late netball games on TV (Commonwealth Games!). I got up and got dressed. Then looked outside to discover it was raining. Decided it couldn't possibly be too bad. Drove to The Ponds in slight rain. But my actual run was fine. Getting faster most of the time now. Yay!

Pre parkrun feet

It was also Karen's birthday so after parkrun we went to the Two By Four Cafe in the back of Blacktown, on the site of an old golf course that has being redeveloped into housing. The cafe building was really ... functional. But they did great food, I have to say. Some of Karen's friends were there so it was a lovely catch up.

Birthday brunch

Local cafe 

My brekkie

Karen's brekkie

Hello everyone

Spectacular French toast

The Silver Ferns were playing in the Commonwealth Games semi-final at 6pm - just when birthday dinner was scheduled to start at Enzo's (a really nice Italian place opposite Tallawong Metro station), so Karen and I might have watched the game on her phone during dinner. Hahah. Tyler came too and we had a great time. Karen got lots of good presents. Well done whānau.

My birthday dinner mocktail

All of us at Enzo's

Sunday was misty at the start and we took the dogs for a wee walk. Good to get out and about. We had brekkie across the road at the Corner Cafe. Then I packed up.

York!

Bit misty Sunday

Quakers Hill Cafe

We went out shopping for Abby's birthday present to Harvey Norman, but now we're not sure if that is what we should get. So we are going to mull it over.

We saw Tyler briefly before she headed home and wee Abby took me and Karen to the airport for my flight home. The flight was smooth as - and I was home nice and quick. Mike was waiting for me as I stepped out at 12:40am. Oohh - so late wee Mike. Sorry.

Mike taking me home

The gold medal netball game final was on as I landed. Karen was updating me but I found it streaming on TV3 here. So on the way home I watched it. And as I got into bed, I watched the final quarter. How NZ held on, I do not know. Jamaica was mighty yesterday, toppling the Aussies and I think it might have gassed them. Gold! Woot!

I think I got to sleep around 2am after all the excitement.

Mike left his phone in the car, which wasn't a problem until he missed his phone alarm and was eventually woken up by Moxley sitting on him and gently tapping on his face at 6:45am, far too late for his gym session. Breakfast in bed appeared around 8:00am. So a slow start to a WFH day today. It's a public holiday in Sydney so the Ampol folks will leave us alone for the day.

Have a great week!

Love,

Angela