The Wednesday with an unexpected Bin44 dinner with Sally and Andrew

 Hi,

Wednesday - you were a surprise at the end. I got a random iced latte from French Kiss cart with Juliet to kick off the day after my gym session.

Iced latte with Juliet

Iced latte at lunch with Emma and Mike

Mike and I went out with Emma for lunch to discuss ADHD kids and other stuff. Her family is from Stromboli  - just like Carolin's dad. How cool!

Dinner surprise

We were about to head home after work to do nothing when Sally pinged us to say she was at Bin44 with Andrew. So Mike and I went down there and ended up having tea with them.

A quick makeover for Sally's hair

Sally wondered if there was an app for changing your hair colour to see what it looks like. Mike did a bit of googling and research. Nothing was happening. The anticipation was killing me. So I took a pic of Sally and did it myself. Sally will rock any colour, I reckon.

Got home and baked my bread and watched a movie with Mike. Then took our blood pressure with our new device.

Sourdough

My lower number was a bit high. So I will take it regularly for a while and see what is happening with it.

This morning I checked my broccoli before I left the house. It is bigger than on Monday! Woot!

Broccoli is growing

Rode in. Headed to the gym. And got my PB in deadlifts. 110kg. It was hard! My face was very red with that exertion. And possibly I could have locked out a bit better at the top. But it was great! Yay. Thank you Quentin.

Keep going, said Quentin

Got it!

Iced latte at Smith the Grocer

Had brekkie with some work mates this morning. Busy day. Anniversary dinner with Mike tonight. 25 years. Woot!

Weekend we have a lot of mahi around the house. Polyurethane the laundry. Maybe gaze more at the top step to understand what we need to do there.

Have a great weekend. 

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Waiheke

Hi,

Friday saw me have an iced latte with Rae - good to catch up with her and hew exciting news (new job in the NY).

Enjoying iced latte with Rae

Iced latte on Friday morning

What a weekend of non-stop activities.  Started the weekend with a mad dash home after work - only to find that Toby and Tessa had tidied up already and I really only needed to re-heat the dal.  Yay!

Yep - Nepal gathering time.  The team from our Nepal trip were catching up ahead of Christmas to look at photos and share what's been happening since Sept/Oct.

Hai arrived first, with his son, Brian (who is seven this week) - Brian was a mile a minute talker.  Lucky Toby kept him fairly entertained.

Making chai tea on Friday

Bharat brought a spicy potato curry.  Tim brought strawberries and ice cream.  We had lasagne, asparagus, stollen and mountains of food.  Barb didn't make it (she was flying in from Sydney - I hope we do get to see her at some stage soon) and Anita (some clash).  But the rest of our cohort was there.

Mike is our chai wallah

People stayed and chatted for ages.  So good to hear about Bharat's Mara trip after ours.

Flowering Pohutukawa

 Anyway, we got to bed quite late, and had to get up early for our flight to Auckland.  Woot!  Drove out to the airport at 6am and on our 7.15am flight without any hassles.  Landed in Auckland and Uber to the ferry.  Got a return ticket on our phone from the accommodation person Mike spoke to during the week and we were on the water by 9.30am.

We arrived on Waiheke by 10.30am I think.  Got a normal commuter bus (502) and it rambled through the streets until we got close to our motel.

Waiheke Island Motel.  I would stay there again.  Right next to the Ostend market (Sat morning to 1pm).  We checked in (even though we were super early - so friendly there!).  Our room had a single bed in the lounge and a separate bedroom for me and Mike.  Very nice and clean.  Nice view over a valley.  Saw a kotare in the power lines outside our lounge door.

We went to the market, briefly too.  But after abandoning Toby in the room (he was shattered) Mike and I walked around to the inlet on the other side of the island.  Saw a kotare there too. 

Intense selfie effort from Mike when he was supposed to be taking my pic

What are you doing?

Another angle?

Finally - a sensible shot

OMG...  He used zoom!

Back to the room to chill ahead of a taxi ride to Onetangi Beach.  We booked dinner at Charlie Farley's and had such a nice evening meal.  I had naked burrito - and apparently they served chicken to me.  But I was so interested in watching Toby tuck into his first steak since getting his braces removed that I didn't notice.  The waiter came scurrying back, apologising and taking it away.  I got my replacement fast - I think he just picked up the wrong plate.

Gilbert selfie

After dinner we walked along Onetangi beach.  We all love this place. 

I'm too short!  Toby thinks it's hilarious.

Happy Toby!

Checking a boat on the beach

Toby jumping on the swing

Walking along the beach at Onetangi

 Caught a local bus back to Ostend.  Fell into bed.  Mike got up early Sunday for a 5.2km run.  Wow!  He is amazing.

We checked out and bussed to Oneroa.  Had brunch at Oneroa Beach Club.  Walked down to the beach.  Decided to walk to the ferry via a track (great idea, Mike) and hopped back on at 12.30pm or so to head back to Auckland.

Ubered to the Sampson's new house.  Wow!  They are now enjoying inner city living in an old villa (4 bedrooms) and look to be settling in nicely.  So good to see them all (Chelsea is in Sydney visiting Hannah).

Lesley and Wally dropped us at the airport nice and early and we chilled there, eating dinner and waiting at the gate for our (delayed) flight.

Wild weather in the rest of NZ had caused a delay to our inbound plane.  We got on at 9.30pm (an hour late) and had an easy flight to WLG.  Picked up the car and drove home.

What a great weekend!

Have a good week.  It's Toby's birthday week!

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with our 19th wedding anniversary

Hi,

The day was so busy.  But I did squash in an early iced coffee with Becks and Kate @ Little Peckish.  And maybe a second brekkie.  Shucks.

Iced coffee @ little Peckish

Day was manic.  Met Toby at 4pm at work and went shopping with him.  Didn't get anything.  So disappointing.  But armed with more knowledge for future shopping.

Went to the New World in Waitangi Park and looked for kitten kibble.  Didn't find our brand of choice.  But Moxley is not fussy so we bought Kitten Chow.  Hahah.

Walked up to The Warehouse and bought stuff for Christmas.  Wandered back to Mama Brown's and met Mike for Wedding Anniversary dinner.  Yum.  19 years!  I am a lucky woman.

Toby ate the ribs and a KitKat milkshake.  He was sick afterwards.  Oops.  Ubered home, did laundry.  Mike weedeatered (ok - making up words now) and came to bed satisfied with his lot in life.  Maybe not so much the 19 years as the satisfaction of chewing up the back lawn with a petrol driven power tool.

Hahahah!

Have an awesome day.  Sorry I was late.  I got distracted.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with our wedding aniversary

Hi,

Well, since I was last here, I seemed to have packed an awful lot in.  Monday evening Toby came to my work and did some Christmas shopping for his mates before we met Mike at the car.  We both got changed into suitable walking gear and joined the car park that is the motorway out of Wellington.

Oh - I did get an iced coffee out of the day though - it was good to catch up with Ed and hear about his Peruvian adventures on the Inca trail. 

Iced latte at Machete

And Ed took a selfie.  He's just like Toby!

Anyway, we may have driven through Maccas on our way out to Paekakariki.  Fortified with food, we started out with quite a few of the punters that joined Janine's evening walk.  Toby hadn't been keen at all - but once he was walking, he loved it so much.

Start of the Paekakariki escarpment track

Dramatic water drinking from Toby

I think we started walking at 6.30pm, and finished by 9pm.  The sun had only just got down by the end of it.  It was such a lot of fun.

Next day was our anniversary day.  25 years together today - and 18 of them married.  Woot!  Worth celebrating.  I had the day off, but Mike could only get a half day off.  I popped into the supermarket to get picnic things and collected Mike from work and headed around to Pencarrow.  We walked in about 1 - 2 km and found a shady patch of beach next to a huge rock. 

Feet on feet!

Reading on the beach - my spot is in the shadow of the huge rock

Tried a selfie on timer, but I just look really awkward

We must have sat there for a few hours, enjoying the lovely weather and peacefulness of it all.  At 4.30pm we decided on a whim to pick up the vanity for the bathroom.  Apparently we weren't getting it delivered when we expected it, as someone came in after Mike ordered it, and said "I am here for my brother Mike, to collect his vanity" and took the one my Mike ordered in.  Hahahah.

We hurtled around the bays at Eastbourne and made it to Plumbing World in time to catch the manager of the store.  He was happy to sell us more stuff - such a nice man. 

From there we hurtled home, dropped off the vanity, towel rail and whatever else was in that other box and then drove back into town.  Mike had made reservations at Hillside in Tinakori Road.

Tiny meringue

OMG - what an amazing place.  I would totally go back there in a second.  I got a vegetarian menu and Mike got their usual one.  And everything I ate was so good.  Eggplant with dried labneh.  Roasted cauliflower with whatever that crunchy stuff was.  It was just incredible.

Mike definitely chose well for our evening meal.

Back home and hauled myself into bed before exhaustion won.

What do you think I will be recording in 25 years time as we celebrate that milestone?  Hahahah.  Fun!

Enjoy your day.

Love,
Angela