The Monday with working from home

 Hi,

Busy day at work. Mike got home and did not feel like cooking. So we ordered pizza and Elly, Mike and I enjoyed pizza. As did Katla.

We are packed for our trip - mostly.

We both got our second rabies vaccine from the GP. Yay!

Off to bed after tea. Up for a bus in. Quentin cancelled our PT session. Brekkie at Margies. Then work.

Iced latte

Quiz night tonight. Then last minute packing. Car is already at Norwich St. 

Will see you after our holiday.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

I am feeling quite nostalgic - seeing the sold sign on the house. Seeing Sally and Andrew's house all spruced up and ready for their open homes coming up. Wellington had a rainy wet day on Saturday - but it did come right by the end. And Sunday was a stunner. The sort of day that makes you fall in love with Wellington.

Houses all nestled in the hills. Harbour like glass. Sky blue. No wind. The sort of place that makes everyone glad they live here.

Yes - sold!

Well done to Mike and Chris and his team

Home made iced latte

Mike has stacked our stuff in the back room for when we get back from Nepal

All there

We did not parkrun. It was hosing down rain and super windy. But Janine said it was nice up the coast. Weird. I ran out to get us all pastries and coffees from Shelly Bay Baker in Karori. Then people got up. Tom was still sick and Mike was now sick.

Uh oh.

No trapline for us. Terrible weather and sickness. Sigh. Bit sad about that. But we did get a lot done. Mike got most of our stuff packed and stored away. Ready for us to drive it to Chc in Nov.

And he fixed the old rubber on the bench press. Looks good again now.

Then Mike replaced the rubber on the bench press

Looks good and is nice and bouncy

We got some RAT test kits for covid, flu A and B and RSV for Tom. And Mike. Both were negative but Mike now has a cough.

Quiet night before bed.

Saturday night

Sunday dawns a bit grey

While Sunday dawned a bit grey - it turned into a superb day. We got a wash out. And we went to get some t shirts off Janine for taking to Nepal. Popped in to see Sally and Andrew and Mike decided he was well enough to have tea with them and John.

Mike and Tom and Katla

Gorgeous day in the Hutt and the house looks amazing

Sun starting to go down

Back home to Elly and Tom's for a bit. Then back to 40 WLW for tea. Fish n chips. Andrew was finishing the back shed door. Good fun.

Good to chat to John. He is well. Benjamin is well. Home again and off to bed.

Monday I was up for my PT session online. Mike usually has the Monday morning one. But today it was me because Mike thought he had an appointment for his follow up rabies shot. He did not.

I did bench with Quentin online. 40kg. 3 reps x 4 sets. And Larsen 3 sets x 10. And a bit of arm raises. 10 reps x 3 sets.

Mike and I will share tomorrow's session. Me the first 30mins and Mike the last 30 mins.

After my session and a shower, I had brekkie and drove in. Got a park right outside. Strolled in (remembered to grab my prescription from last week on the way in). And as I registered for my 9am appointment, the receptionist said there was a cancellation for 9.15 for Mike if he could make it. So I called him and he jumped on a scooter and made it easily.

So now both of us are jabbed for rabies. Two shots. Saves us from future traumatic intervention should a rabid creature bite us in the wilds of Nepal. You still need treatment - but it is far less harrowing and less time pressure.

$187 today for that jab. Each.

We are at work today and tomorrow and then off on our adventure. Busy day for me today. Work through to 19:00. Waaaaahhh. I better stay alert for that! Hahah.

Have a great start to your week.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with stitches out and a lot of vaccinations

 Hi,

What a big day Monday ended up being. Mike had his vaccinations and doctor checkup and managed to secure me a 3pm appointment with our doctor for the same.

It meant I had to cancel my stitches out with the dermatologist and book into the GP nurse practice to get everything done at once. 

Mike and I both got vaccinated for: typhoid, rabies, and shingles (this one because shingles is bad, not because it was needed for Nepal).

My bill for the doctor visit was $820. Ouch. Lucky we sold the house.

Our tetanus was still good. My last one was 2019 - so it is getting towards the end of its effective life. But only if I get a particularly bad gash do I need to do anything.

Hep A and B are good. 

I need a follow up rabies one next Monday (booked appointment for 9am). And a follow up shingles one in 2 - 6 months.

Stitches got taken out. The nurse said it looked good. One was firmly stitched and the other was loosely stitched. No idea what that really means. But I have a plaster over each one on my back. Don't really need them she said. So next shower I will take them off.

Got home and back to work. And then went to make tea. Mike made quorn spag bol and afterwards, Tom fed the two dogs a piece of spaghetti. The visiting dog is a cocker spaniel, so Tom re-enacted that famous scene from The Lady and the Tramp.

The first time was the best but we never got a pic of that one.

Lady and the Tramp re-enacted

Spaghetti

There we go!

The jabs must have battered me around because I was in bed and asleep by 21:00. Up for bus ride in the rain to the gym. PT session. Leg day. Leg press and leg extensions. Then glutes. And finished with core.

Wet morning at the bus stop

Margies iced latte

Mike's coffee

Had brekkie at Margies. Mike joined me for a coffee. Then off to work. Big day (end of sprint) and then quiz night at Green Man.

Bring it on.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with working from the Chc office

 Hi,

Mike and I were at work all day - and it was so busy. But we got away at lunch time to the Spitfire shopping centre and got our jabs from Unichem. 

Covid and flu.

And we also measured ourselves while Andrew (the chemist) was sorting out the vaccines.

Mike's height

Toby at Scoundrel in his new shirt

After work we got back to the motel and headed to dinner at Scoundrel. Good fun. I drove us all home to Ashford Motor Lodge in the wee Jazz.

Good sleep. I like having Mike back!

Up this morning to head back to work. Lovely day. Did a run at CityFitness. Will finish early today and hope to take photos with Toby and his regalia today. Wander around key locations in Chc and take his pic.

Tomorrow is the big day. So excited. And proud.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday busy with planning

 Hi,

Busy day - planning for the coming quarter. Sigh.

Mike and the cats

Thank you Shane!

Work lunch

But Shane did provide a LOT of sustenance. Caffeine and energy drinks. Hahah. And good fruit snacks. 

We got through a lot of the mahi on day 1. Day 2 is coming up.

Mike went for a run after work and notched up 100k for September. With a day to go! Awesome effort. Then a bunch of us went out for dinner and drinks. And Brian from Auckland joined us as he was down for the planning.

Ubered home. Sorted out the cats. And went to bed.

Shane 3D printed us a strange cat-banana

We gave it to Moxley to check out

Yep, Moxley, we don't understand either

Up for a bus ride for me. Gym session with Quentin. Squats.  50kg 6 reps x 4 sets. Then bench. 37.5 kg 5 reps x 2 sets. Then Juliet arrived and we shared bench. So I did 40kg 3 reps and 42.5kg 2 reps.

Squats

Sad faces at the gym because Juliet's bus was late

Mike got me an iced coffee for my morning from the French Kiss cart.  Mmmm.

Showered Angela is happy to find an iced latte on her desk

And now the day starts. So busy.  But a lot of people are here from out of town so it is nice to see them.

I got a covid booster jab today and Mike got his yesterday. Just in time for peak immunity for Malaysia and Singapore.

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with family dinner

 Hi,

I got my flu vaccination at lunch time today. Yay. Work has a voucher for it and it was easy. Rocked up to the pharmacy and waited 5 mins and got it all done.

Mike and I bussed home after work and fed the cats and drove out to Petone to meet everyone for family dinner. Polly is up this week and it was so good to see everyone. Andrew is fresh out of the bush and John and Benjamin were there to update us with their latest news.

Bella Italia dinner

Home after a lovely dinner and straight to bed. Up for a bus ride in - my driver was steady and sure. But slow. So I ran from the bus stop to the gym and was only 1 min late. Phew!

Deadlifts.  80kg. 4 reps x 4 sets. Not too bad.

Then into Smith the Grocer to meet workmates for brekkie.

At brekkie

Iced latte at Smith the Grocer

Had a good catch up with them, then into work to start the day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with a heap of Wellington things

 Hi,

We had such a chill weekend. Did not do park run. But, we did fill up the day anyway. And I spotted the first hard, green balls of fruit on my tomato plants. Woot!

Tomatoes have early fruit!

Goodbye my lovely bike

We took my oldest, first New Zealand bike out to Lower Hutt as Freeride was set up at a festival there. In Waiwhetu park.  The festival was T e ra o te raukura and it was fabulous.

The crew made me feel so much better

The Freeride crew were happy to take my bike. I felt quite sad to see it go. Bought it in Dunedin from the bike shop on Lower Stuart St in 1993. It does not owe me a thing. I rode it for years as my commuting bike. Until 2011 or so when I bought my white commuting bike.

We wandered around the festival. Mike was due his covid jab and got one done for nothing. And I checked mine and I was due too. So both sorted. Next to the covid stand was a blood type stand. So we got that done too.

Mike is A+ and I am O-.

Blood type

Bread

My blood type

Listening to the tunes

We did get a run in. 3k. I found it hard work. Down by Seaview. 

Back to do some renovation work. Then out to dinner at Ortega Fish Shack to celebrate Ange submitting her Masters thesis. What a mighty effort.  35k words of goodness. 112 pages or so. There were a bunch of us there. A lot from old Intergen days. And funnily enough Brendan (also old Intergen - and now new CapGemini) was at another table with his wife and friends.

Well done, Ange!

Back yard

Sunday was a slow start for me. Going to bed at midnight is not normal. Got bread into the fridge ready to bake in the evening.

Sourdough

Went for a run in Karori park. Each lap is 1km. That 3k felt a lot better. Got an iced latte after we finished. Mike did 5km and was amazing! Then popped into Shelley Bay Baker after wards to get some yummy lunch.

Mike did a lot of renovation work. Plastered. Got undercoat on and a coat of white behind the laundry. There is a green strip that is not done because it will be behind a cupboard.

Laundry plastering done and first coat on

Good sleep Sunday. Up for Mike to head to town for PT. And I went out to Resene to pick up paint to finish the laundry off.

Might be a painting evening today!

Have a great week. Short one for a lot of us. Waitangi Day is this Thursday. Last year we went up for the dawn service and I think it is safe to say, that changed my life. Similar to how the dawn service at Anzac cove also changed me. And by "changed" I just mean an even deeper connection. Both things have always been something I have embraced as a culturally significant thing in our calendar. But after attending and getting a deeper understanding, something did change.

Enough of that emotional stuff.  There is no Lewis Road iced coffee in the supermarkets again. I think after the shortage when they changed packaging recently, there has been a run on it.

On that note, let me leave you to find your own channels of caffeination!

Love,

Angela

The Monday and Tuesday at noho marae

 Hi,

After the excitement of coming back from Aus, it was straight into a stay at the marae in Porirua. Maraeroa marae hosted about 20 of us from work to dive deep into the new framework we've got. And it worked well. I can totally tell someone about it if we meet in the elevator!

Monday work iced latte

With Alastair

Mike at noho marae

Tuesday morning wordle

Tuesday morning feet

It was such a lovely marae - the matua welcomed us with the usual manaakitanga - and impressed us with the history of this marae. Built for many different iwi and pasifika people in mind. It is so inclusive. The kai was delicious - thank you to everyone that made it all possible. Such a great opportunity to immerse in te ao Māori.

Tuesday night face

Dropped home by Diarne at 4.30pm to feed the cats and myself. Then bath and bed. Mike was at work and then meeting his workmates for after work discussion.

He got home and I woke up and then fell back asleep. Up for a ride into work. A quick brekkie with Dave. Then my mammogram. Oh yay.

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

PS: Got my covid booster today.