The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

What a busy weekend. Friday saw me go to townf or my dental hygienist appointment and then to Ngaio with Barb to meet Juliet for lunch. Sarah was there too! 

Moxley claims my bag

Smudge gets a pat

Really owning it  now

Smudge claims my lap

Concrete step is falling apart

Friday iced latte and lunch

Very good to catch up with them all. We will do this more often too.

Saturday saw Mike head away for Lower Hutt park run and I was lucky I checked my emails because I got into the waitlisted 9.45am class for Shut up and dance. Figured Jessie probably got into it too. But when I turned up, she wasn't there.

I did have fun dancing to Katy Perry for 50 mins. And I spotted Jessie arriving at the 10.45am class. Oh well. Next time I will co-ordinate far better.

Shut up and dance - on my own

Perfect Christmas present

Iced latte

Getting the Forester ready for a test drive

Mike got the Forester ready to sell. Popped it on Trade Me and Marketplace. And a young couple said they were super keen and drove down immediately from Palmerston North. Before we knew it, the Subaru was sold. Boom. Well done, Mike. And I hope they are very happy with their car.

We then worked to get all Christine's stuff in the loft above the garage. And we got it all done. Yay. Found some old stuff and kept some and flogged some on marketplace.

Toby's old blanket

Installing a toilet roll holder

Went to Bunnings and got a toilet roll holder and got that installed. Yay! And then off to meet Sally and Andrew off the ferry at Bin44 for tea. Their Corolla died in Nelson - clutch finally gave up the ghost.

Dropped them home and then home to bed for us.

Up for porridge then work for me and gym for Mike. Mihi whakatau at work for the interns this morning. Busy.

Enjoy your week ahead.

Love,

Angela

The weekend picking up the new car in Chc and driving back

 Hi,

When we worked from home on Thursday, Moxley was outside and got bailed up by Tenzing and ended up with a scratch on her nose. It looks ok but we're just checking. This is her first encounter with a cat that is not just telling her to back off and give her space (Smudge's MO).

Nose is scratched courtesy of Tenzing

I found 2 tomatoes that have actually changed colour. So I have taken them off the plants to ripen. But the plants have wilt now. Waaaah. So sad.

Not sure how many will survive to ripen.

First tomatoes

Friday saw me get an Uber at 6.30am to the airport. Got on my Jetstar flight at 7.45am (it was actually a bit later than that - maybe more like 8am). But it made up time and I was only about 5 mins late.

Friday morning Jetstar flight to Chc

Toby and Tessa picked me up in Tessa's car and with lectures cancelled we went to Little Poms for brekkie.

At Little Poms

Picked up Mike's cap

Walk to uni

Then back to Toby and Tessa's place before walking to uni for a lecture with Toby. Identity one. Māori one - this lecture was about early Chinese history as a marginalised (very!) part of the society here. Great stuff to learn about.

Then Toby and I caught a bus to the dealer and picked up the car. Will handed over the keys and I drove off, trying to learn about the car as we went.

Picked up the car

There it is!

Keys from Will

Back to check in at The Coachman. Dropped Toby home. Went for a run and to meet Tessa at the UC gym. But I overshot the crucial road and ended up a bit far away. Oops. Got to the gym and did a session with Tessa. She is really strong! A bit of PT work and she would be smashing it!

Back to change and then meet at the South Garden chinese restaurant in Brake St, just over the road from Toby's work at Woolies.

Steph, Sam, Angus and Hayden joined us. That place was delicious. Would recommend. And we could all walk to it. Well, the Ilam people could.

Back to a good sleep at The Coachman. Then up to Park Run. Except the rain meant I just stayed in bed. Oops.

Checked out and picked up Toby and Tessa. Went to Oddfellows but it was Scone Saturday. So we had a scone and coffee. Then went to another cafe for eggs.  Moment Cafe. Very nice.

Saturday iced latte at Oddfellows

Work of art

Yep

Second one at cafe in town. What was it called?

Moment cafe. That is what it was called. Very nice. I had the French Toast. Would go there again.

Then Toby and I dropped Tessa off and then headed north. I was getting used to the car as we went. The Adaptive Cruise Control is pretty amazing.

As we went over the 80km zone north of Cheviot, I got pulled over for speeding. The cruise control was not handling the 80km zone and uphill curves. It dropped my speed to 40 for one of them. So I put my foot on the accelerator. Came over the hill onto a flat bit - and was doing over 80 before I even noticed. But I noticed the police car lights immediately. Oops.

We started from Chc with almost a full charge. Except for the drive to The Coachman and our brekkie places. By the time we got to Kaikōura, we had about 10% left. 30k range. Got to the ChargeNet charger on Westend - but it was busy. So found the New World one. As it charged, Toby and I went to the pub over the road. Enjoyed some drinks and chips.

Pub across from New World in Kaikōura

Looking staunch

Picked up the car with 85% charge and dropped Toby off to wait for his bus at 4.30. I left about 4pm from there.

Got to Blenheim just after 5pm. Maybe around 5.20. Checked the garage progress at Iona and Col's house. Then headed to Vicky and Alistair's place for dinner there. So good to see everyone and catch up with their news. Alistair's dad is quite sick so that might be a sad thing soon. Sending lots of hugs their way. Vicky told me about enjoying meeting my mother especially. Hahah.

Our old laundry tub is a feature in the lounge - hello Twigg

Stitch extracted

It was so painless

When we got back after tea, Iona decided to operate and take my stitch out. Col watched on but I found it too scary. I softened up the site by soaking in warm water. Then there was a lot of squeezing at the end where the stitch was trying to escape. But once it poked out, Iona got it and easily took it out. I felt absolutely nothing. I was so surprised.

Off to bed around 11pm. Up at 5.30. Groan. I am sorry to do that to them! Into the ferry queue at 6.30am. And onto the boat and away on time at 7.45am.

Ferry queue

Lovely smooth sailing. Bit of a wee swell in the strait. An older woman fell in front of us - where I was sitting next to some young travellers. But she was ok. Sat for a bit then wandered off. Lucky. Could have been worse.

Mike was away running with Janine so I had the house and cats to myself. Found more tomatoes that were ready.

Tomatoes have ripened

Scratch still visible

When Mike got home we drove up to Waikanae. I tried a wee run while Mike used the fast charger at Waikanae Beach.

Kapiti

Kapiti

Love this view

Meanwhile, just behind the dunes, the car charges up

Then back for the trickle charge at home. Then to bed.

Monday morning at 2am Mike woke with a migraine. So he is tucked up in bed. I took his PT session at the last minute in the garage. Deadlifts.  70kg. 4 x 4. Very nice start  to my day.

Lovely day here in the capital. The big project went live at work. Go grab a coffee when you refuel your car.

Enjoy your week.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Chc and a new car

 Hi,

What a huge weekend. Thank you, Ange, for the pics of Moxley and Smudge (okay - mainly Moxley) and for looking after them.

Thursday riding home I got stung by a wasp. It crawled into my helmet up by my left hairline. I felt it start to sting me as I rode up the steep part of Pitt St. Stopped and pulled my helmet off and tried to get rid of it. I never saw it. But wow - did it hurt a lot. It is now just a red spot and a little itchy. Mike got me antihistamine so that was good.

We headed away Friday morning to catch a flight to Chc. Dramfest weekend. That meant Sunday was busy for Mike. :-p

Friday morning flight down

I have my iced latte and Mike does not

This was the first time Toby has picked us up in the car at the airport. I was so proud. He was in the pick up zone with Tessa and we walked out and jumped in. He took us to work and we order brekkie at Strange Bandit and caught up with Martyn.

Hey Martyn

But Toby had a lecture at 10am. So he and I left before brekkie arrived and Ubered to uni. Toby bought us a notebook and pen each and we walked into the lecture hall separate.

Off to uni with Toby

I took notes in the lecture

Turns out that despite 200 odd people in the theatre, a student deduced Toby and I were related.  I was in the second row and I didn't even know where Toby was.  So I was not looking around.

Yet, during the lecture, Toby was snapchatted by someone saying they could tell his mother was in the lecture too. Apparently our hair looks the same from the back.

2 hours of forensic psychology. It was good fun. I loved it.

We picked Mike up after work and went into town. Riverside area. And had some dinner at an upstairs place before going to Rollickin.

Back to the motel and Toby dropped us off and they went home. Good sleep for us. Then up for a bus ride in. $4 each for a 2 hour ticket. The #5 bus left from our motel and we got off at the hospital and walked through the gardens.

Hagley Parkrun was fast and hot - and so many people! 787 finishers with a chaotic 'yeah just go everyone!' start. They ran their alternate route, out and back around the perimeter of Hagley Park. I did it in 33 mins thanks to Mike. And I sat for a bit while he did another 5k. But by then Toby and Tessa had picked a cafe for brekkie. So I walked over to The Quad Eatery. Such a lovely old building. Mike got there soon enough and we had a great brekkie.

Peace bell on the way to park Run

Flowers in the botanic gardens

Dahlia

Stairs

Post park run

Triple spotto

Fountain

Quad eatery

Handsome

Gorgeous

Pre parkrun

On the Parkrun

Post parkrun

Post postparkrunrun

Found an old Routemaster bus as we walked around. It had a few signs up - and one was the 159 route.  We used to use this one a lot - and the 59.  So I took a pic or two.

The 159 - I used to carry Toby onto this bus

Like old times

Our new car

 Back to shower and then out to test drives some cars. Except we picked our first one - a MG ZS EV. And took it on the motorway and up to Sign of the Kiwi. And decided there was no other better option.

And bought the car!  OMG!

Went out for some lunch after that at the gardens. A lovely wee cafe.  

Curator at the gardens

Scoundrel - Moko and Maru

Then in the evening, met Ana and Daniel and the dogs at Scoundrel. So good to catch up on their news. And play with their gorgeous dogs.

Sunday saw me and Mike up and heading to Poms for a run in the Red Zone area along the Avon river.  I did 3k and Mike did 5k. They've done a lot of work to landscape the area since we were here last. They've done a great job and all this parkland along the river is a great asset to the city.

Run in the red zone area

Hot work

Tessa got to Little Poms and we had brekkie. Then back for a shower. And off to Riccarton market at the old racecourse there. So lovely.

Iced latte at Little Poms

Riccarton market

Dropped Mike at his Dramfest, Then Toby got home and we headed to Lyttleton and the ferry over to Diamond Harbour after grabbing some drinks and fruit from the greengrocer and Toby's work.

Lyttleton harbour

Diamond Harbour

Waiting for our ferry

Views from Diamond Harbour

Picnic

We scoffed the fruit in the shade (such a hot day - 29C).  And decided to go for a walk. Then saw that Mike was now at Poms. So we rushed to the ferry and managed to jump on at the last min. Headed back and found Mike at the pub. Had some drinks and nibbles before going home.

Good sleep. Up to work from the office here. Flight home tonight.  

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela