The Wednesday with windows going in

 Hi,

What a day Wednesday was.  Work was full on the entire day.  Blog taking a back seat to work.  Tsk, tsk.  

Part of the logistics meant Mike had to come into the office for work in the afternoon.  Someone needed to be home to look out for the cats while the windows came out in various rooms of the house.  Easy escape routes for Moxley.

This was perfect as it gave me a chance to load up the car with the ply that Mike rescued from a skip at work and finally get it home.  Nick was leaving for a gym session as I contemplated how to get 5 small sheets of ply down the back stairs at work to wait for Mike.  He helped with 3 at once!  I took the other 2 down one by one.

Mike arrived in the car.  We swapped and I went home, with ply and with Tim Tams for the builders after a quick stop at New World.  I may have also got some iced coffee.  #notaddicted

Kitchen during

Dining during

OMG - wild venison has arrived

Upstairs bedroom is just a hole

Tacked in new window

Worked from home until the builders left.  They are coming early Thurs with another person to try and get it all done.  They have a fair bit to do still.

I packed for our weekend away.  And also put all the meat I ordered into the freezer.  I found a place that gets hunted meat (so, sustainable) and sells it.  We have a lot of meat now.  My first taste of meat in 6 years was...  sausages.  But they were good ones.  Except - I found them really salty.  Hahahah.

I may not look forward to more sausages.  But I see a lot of venison stew through the winter months.  Mmmm.  Not sure I will make this a thing or not.  Let's see.

First time eating meat in 6 years!

Mike and I had a bath - and it did wonders for a good sleep, I reckon.  Slept way better than the night before.

Up to get on the bus with my weekend gear.  Early meeting.  And await a collection for the airport after work.

Enjoy Matariki in NZ.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday at work

 Hi,

Busy days - sorry for the blog disruptions.  Gah!  I have bene able to get out for a run after work around the waterfront.  In the dark.  And rain.  And wind.  Brrrr.  New jacket seems to be working ok.  Bit sweaty on the inside.  But I expected that, really.

Mike brought me an iced latte at work

Bruce and I enjoy a coffee and a scone at Pravda

Did get to Pravda for a scone date yesterday with people from work.  That was good.

When we got home after the run (me and Callan - Mike and Janine did some core work on the grass and got filthy dirty!) we had dinner and got the windows all cleared for the work on Wednesday.

We have builders coming!  Today.  To get all the windows done.  Oohhh.  Our house will be cosy.

Moxley thinks the rug protecting the sideboard from the window work is for her

Hey there Phil - good to see you

Kitchen window before

Dining room window before

Upstairs bedroom before

Small upstairs bedroom before

And there are two more windows downstairs that are slated for an update today.

Had a hopeless sleep last night.  As did Mike.  But I was on the bus and met Phil from my old work at Mojo.  So good to catch up with him.  He is well.  

Today?  So busy.  Again.  End of quarter madness.  I am swapping work locations at lunchtime with Mike.  He will drive in and I will drive home and work from there for the afternoon.

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Wellington for me and Ruapehu for Mike

Hi,

Had a sad Thursday with Rex's last day at work.  I know I will see him, but it won't be the same.  Thank you for all the friendship at work.

Thursday iced coffee date with Rex and Jo - goodbye Rex

Friday was crazy - but I did get away with Joycie to enjoy Machete.  Mmmmm. 

Crazy Dutch angles from Joycie on Friday!  While I read her phone.

 And then I met Carl, finally.  He is over for work from Melbourne and I love to catch up with him.  Check in on how his life is tracking.

Ok - I miss him too.  :-)

Everyone should just come back.

Iced coffee with Carl!

Cheers Carl!

Saturday saw me up early to head out on a bike ride with Andrew.  It had been a while since we had been on bikes together.  It was windy!  Hahahah.

Andrew collected me at 9am from home in the silver bullet and we headed over the hill to Featherston.  Yep - windy there too.

Started around 10.15/10.30am.  Headed south down the road towards the beach.  The side wind was fierce and at one stage I did end up on the shoulder.  Oops.  Stayed upright.  All good.

Hey Jo - look what I have!  Bike ride with Andrew

We stopped at a weir and checked it out.  I had a Time Out just for Jo.  But after 5 or 10 mins poking around there, we hopped on our bikes again, only for Andrew to get a puncture straight away.

I guess it took about 25 mins out of our ride.  It was an old tube - and the tyres are a bit flaky too.  But it held up for the remainder of the ride.  Except his left hand gear shifter exploded and meant he was stuck in one cog at the front.

Excitement.

Heart rate around Lake Wairarapa

Got back to Featherston - I guessed about 65km.  So quite relaxed, really.  We went to the Everest bakery cafe.  The iced coffee was ok.  Andrew wasn't overly impressed.  But I drank mine without any issues around taste.  Hahahah.  6/10 maybe?

The cauliflower pizza was "cauliflowery".  Yep - tasted like cauli.  Andrew's roasted mushrooms were way better.

What are you actually doing with my phone?  Is it on selfie mode?

Ok - let me try and pose

Nope - just manic.

Feet at the cafe

Got back to Whites Line and chatted to Sally while Andrew got ready for his social evening.  Then he dropped me home where I showed him the earthworks.

Awesome earthworks by Allworks!  Back yard is looking good.

Next day was lazy.  Laundry.  Toby had mates around.  Mike got home around 5.30pm and we headed out to watch the Matariki fireworks.

Matariki fireworks.  From Wadestown hill.

Slept like the dead.  Seriously.

Hope your week is a good one.

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with stuff and stuff

Hi,

Ok - I found all these pics of me having iced lattes at Machete.  Theoretically it is from Thursday.  But I really don't remember having that many coffees yesterday.

Mind you, yesterday is a bit of a blur.  Hahahah.

I think one of these is from the previous day.  Honest!

I met Mike (I think) in the morning (number 12 with scone - I will title that pic).  Andrew joined us.

Machete

Ok - this one below I have no clue.  No number so probably not Andrew.  I missed Celia all day - so not her.  But I do look rather happy with my lot in life so obviously I was happy to have an iced latte in my hand.

Machete 2

I did go out with Davy (new to work this week), Yosan and Khemry.  Woot!

Aha!  Pic above is from that!  Khemry took my pic on my own before we did the group selfie stuff.  Hahahah.  Phew.  Glad I am not going mad.

Blurry Machete 3

Machete 4

The painter is making our house look amazing!  Look!  Well, ok - it was dark.  But, I hope you get the gist.

House getting painted!

Time to get stuck in for the day.  Friday.  Whoop, whoop!  Lesley and Wally arrive tonight for a weekend getaway.  Triple whoop!  Hoping to get a brekkie date (or more) in there.

Have the best Friday ever.  And a jolly good weekend too.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with spin after work with Sreejith

Hi,

I did get a coffee with Andrew and we have a plan to do some spot heights in behind Otaki Forks at some point very soon.  We just need to find a free weekend in common.  Yeah - good luck with that.  hahah.  Nah - it should be fine.

Went to Spin after work with Sreejith - and I like that class.  Hard work.  Sreejith's first one in ages - and he owned it!  Oosshh!

Got home fairly quickly - the bus came just as I got to the bus stop.  Lucky because I thought it was still 10 mins away. 

Mike had tea sorted - mostly.  And then he and Toby went to take the dryer to its new owner.  And buy a hose.  Because...  we are decluttering and we already have two. 

Ok - this made our conversation really weird when he got back.  Andrew and I were talking during our coffee catch up about Mike's tendency to buy something when he already has 2 of them.  So I was explaining how this just shows it exactly.  And Mike was saying that we really needed this extra hose.  So we don't have to move it from one tap to another.

Hence the pics of Mike laughing - because I think he was mainly laughing at me and my observations of his behaviour.

Mike was laughing at me

And the perspective was odd from my side of the bed

Iced latte with Andrew

Vlad is making changes!  Woot!

Partial selfie was easier to capture the under-the-stairs work

Today is weird.  Early Spin.  A run at lunch.  And after work I hope to meet Toby and take him for tea before he goes home and Mike and I go sailing.  Yes, sailing.

Well, we are never boring for long, are we?

Have an incredibly great day!

Love,
Angela

The weekend with Wellington stuff

Hi,

The weather was stunning over the weekend - wow!  Obviously it will be the same next weekend because that is.... BIRTHDAY weekend!  Woot, woot!

The weekend was good.  Mike is still on the decluttering horse, riding it to my exhaustion.  :-p  I got out Saturday and washed the house on the outside with the window washer.  Nice day to get wet with a hose.  Mike continued getting rid of stuff.

Iced latte @ Machete with Mary

No scaffolding!

A step outside the spare room

Steps where we put the bins!  And now Moxley can't hide under the porch.

The builder (Vlad) has made more progress in two days than the previous builders did in three months.  So nice.

The cat was surprised when we let her out to explore the steps off the porch.  She used to run out and go under there because we couldn't reach her.  But it is blocked off and she was grumpy to find it no longer accessible.  Her tail swished back and forth, expressing her displeasure.

Cats chilling

Bruise is getting better

Summer fruits!

Sunday saw the boys taking the trailer to the tip.  With complicated Gilbert plans, obvs.  Janine's bed was going to Elly's house for her to use.  Elly's bed was going on the trailer to go to the tip.  But a neighbour at Elly's place saw this, and asked for the old bed for their place.

Mike has emptied the pit and it looks great.  He left my old skis for me because I told him if he threw them away, this winter we'd get snow on our street.  Again - like back in 2009.  I really want to ski down our street in them!

Hope your week is a good one.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday that should have been Thursday

Hi,

I cannot believe it is not Friday yet - so confused.  At least I got a haircut last night and now I can see much better.

Unfortunately for you, my pics are from yesterday before the haircut.  You will need to wait for a bit before you see if you can discern any difference.  Pretty sure the answer will be no.  Because Mike never said anything when he saw me last night.  And my hair was at its peak of difference then.  Pretty much back to normal now I have squashed a bike helmet on it and whooshed down the hill to work.

Happy iced coffee at Cafe Neo with Vanessa

The planting people have added soil to the bottom layer of retaining wall in preparation for the plants.  It looks so good.

Soil

Concrete scoured and honed and looking mighty fine

Right.  Time for the madness and chaos of the day to start.  I am so tempted to see if Sally will let me do some remedial washing tonight if I turn up with a basket of washing.  Save a long visit at the weekend.

And I have asked Mike if he can leave me a working car.  Here's hoping.

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with normal working things except for the washing machine which stopped working

Hi,

Yesterday turned into a brilliant weather day - and I thought it was going to tip down rain.  I have no idea.  I'm not sure the weather forecasters do either.  Hahahah.

Work was steady and mad.  You get that.  I did get away with Joycie for an iced latte at Machete.  And I managed a later one with Bronwyn (but that photo hasn't synced - I am still mystified by the syncing delay).

With Joycie - and her new keepa cup

She said do something silly

Throwback to 4 years ago at Australia Zoo - Toby is so cute!

I also borrowed the eBike work won for Bike Employer of the Year (thanks to Switched on Bikes!) - we have it for a week to play with.  I played with Celia in the garage at work a bit to get used to it.  Then I rode it home.  It took me about 15 minutes to get home.  I whizzed up the hill at 15/16 km/h instead of my usual 6 or 7.  I loved it!  The battery hardly changed - maybe from 95% to 75%.  And my ride back in this morning was so much fun!

Had a ring-in instructor for the early Spin class too - someone that used to take a class last year and changed jobs and left.  Just filling in.  But it was a good class as a change.

Plasterer gets Tim Tams for doing his job so well

Happy plastering

Anyway, the plastering is fair coming along. 

Toby was home already as he had been sick at school and ended up heading home.  Poor kid.  But he ate well enough so hopefully it is all good now.

While I cooked tea, I put a wash on.  And the washing machine decided to break.  During the spin cycle.  As in - no spinning at all.  Mike got home and after tea we looked at it.  He decided to siphon the water out.  He opened the front door, gave me the end of the hose and started sucking the other end to get the water flowing.

As I poked the end of the hose into the tub of water, I could feel Mike's sucks working through the hose; so I shouted out the door:  "I can feel you sucking!"  And "Suck harder" - just because I am an encouraging wife.  After a few of those shouts, I decided that out of context (say, by a neighbour, innocently wandering around their house or something) it could be a bit dubious about what activity we were actually performing.  So I decided silence was best.  Mike got it all working and we emptied the tub.

I am now going to visit Sally this weekend with washing.  She might only know that when she reads this.  Surprise!!!   :-P

Mike says we need a new washing machine now.

Anyway, there you go.  The adventures of the Gilbert household.  Startling stuff.  Have an awesome day!

Love,
Angela