Good morning on Friday, Mar 6

Hi,

Well, what a day that was. The release went surprisingly well after 10.5 hours of mayhem. Hmmmm. Maybe I should check it once more this morning just to be sure. Mike collected me at 1940 and we hurtled out to Island Bay to the Empire cinema to mingle with Jennie and her Oxfam walking crew and watch a private screening of Watchmen.

The movie was.... gross! Awful. Unnecessary. Pointless, mindless violence. And yet, when Mike says it was fantastic I can almost see his point of view. But it certainly wasn't pleasant or nice and I think psych evals are in order for anyone that "likes" it. Three hours of my life wasted. I don't think I have ever watched a movie where I notice my face is often screwed up in revulsion.

So, onto the weekend then! The weather doesn't look great. Toby has his last day of soccer today (I don't think they have won a game all season so I doubt they have made any sort of finals) and I'd love to go along. I might see if I can use my time-in-lieu from last night.

Swimming tomorrow. Bolt the movie afterwards with Toby and Mum. Mike has to warrant to wee green car. And we have the symphony in the park tomorrow night. Picnic stuff and maybe some books to entertain Toby. Sunday seems relatively free!

Ok. Let me just check some of the release things. Put my mind at ease.

Have a great weekend.
Love,
Angela

Good afternoon on Thurs, Mar 5

Hi,

I am still at work and facing the calm before the storm so I thought I'd write in here. We kick off in 10 minutes and it should all go well.

I had Toby drop off duty this morning because I have a late work night. I was stressed during the morning ritual (well, it isn't ritual for me I guess) and I blame it all on ironing Mike's shirts. I never do that! It's the only thing I can think of. Heheheheh.

I have been frantic all day at work and hardly spoke to Mike at all. It was one disaster after another and it just stopped 5 mins back. But he is off to take Toby to the school picnic now. That finishes at 7pm and they'll go home. Mum and Dad will be waiting to take over and put Toby to bed. Then Mike will collect me from work after the successful release and we're off to watch Watchmen for a charity event.

Ooooo. See? It is all fun and games here. We're hardly ever social and we have loads of things on at once.

Hope you had a great day!
Love,
Angela

Good afternoon!

We're both having a REALLY busy day today.

Good morning on Wed, Mar 4

Hi,

Happy birthday to Polly today! I hope Dunedin turns on the weather as Wellington is doing. What a lovely day here.

It was a movie night out on the town last night and congratulations to everyone that decided against seeing "He's just not that into you" as you made the right decision. I really knew next to nothing about the movie but I was pleased to see Ben Affleck in it as I think he's very handsome, and I like Drew Barrymore as well. But it failed to make up for the predictable, boring dialog. I heard my mother hurrumphing and groaning through the movie. And goodness knows what possessed my work colleague Joe to come along with us. I certainly hope he doesn't use this movie to judge women and how the dating game works. But we had fun eating Indian chicken tikka masala beforehand although Joe now has to figure out how to remove the fluorescent orange colour from spots on his shirt that came into contact with the food.

Mike and Toby chose not to have Maccas for dinner in my absence. So they ate leftovers (Toby had spag bol from the night before and Mike braved the week old butter chicken - ooooooo).

I made it to 50 km/h this morning as I pedalled like the wind down the hill. I enjoyed the rode in so much. There was quite a nip in the air though this morning. Autumnal weather.

Tonight might be tricky for us. Perhaps Mum can gather her courage and drive over to collect wee Toby and dress him in his karate outfit as he is having his karate lessons today. We're going to start it up again but closer to home in Northland. It starts at 1730 so I need to ride home, collect Toby, dress him and drive to the community hall in Northland. Sounds like a tight timeframe.

Have a simply marvellous day!
Love,
Angela

Good morning on Mar 3 - it's a Tuesday!

Hi,

Well, I had a short day yesterday as I got a call from Toby's school saying he was sick and I needed to come and collect him. There was no evidence of him being sick once I got him home. But he may be off-colour as he has a snotty nose.

But I got loads done. Did the washing, shopping (online - delivery coming tonight), gardening and cooked dinner. Mum and Dad came round to eat with us so that was very nice.

I took the bus in this morning as it was damp and I am off to the movies tonight. Mum will meet me at 1730 outside work and we'll walk down to the cinema. We're hoping to see The Reader (with Kate Winslet - she won best actress Oscar for this one). Actually, I just checked the listings and The Reader isn't even on. We will need to discuss during the day. Vivienne and Sally expressed interest in a movie night tonight too.

Anyhow, Mike has an appointment with the lawyer tonight at 1700 and Dad will pick up Toby until Mike arrives. Then it is a Maccas night for the boys.

Ok. I'd better get stuck in! Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

Good morning on Mon, March 2

Hi,

March already, eh? I see Vivienne has added her blog on the fantastic Napier dive trip. How cool did that sound? I can't believe autumn is kicking in and I haven't spent any time at the beach here. I must grab Toby and snorkels next fine weekend and take him out!

Our weekend was very relaxing - apart from the logistics involved on Friday night. Mike was preparing a romantic evening for us without me knowing. I was preparing an evening at Mum and Dad's house with Toby. So Toby went to soccer with Aidan and the kids (Toby got player of the week - a certificate and ribbon - he is very proud!) and then got dropped off at Grandy and Gramps' house. Meanwhile, I stayed at work while Mike collected the warranted Corolla and arranged for him to drive me home. And I waited, and waited...

Then Mike turns up and says we're off on a romantic dinner evening. Hooray. Toby had been deposited at the Sampson household for Friday night fun and games (he loves it there) and Mike and I went out to Wagamama and had a ball!

Saturday was swimming in the morning - Mum came to watch. Toby did very well. We popped into see the bathroom demolition at 40 WLW and Sally and Andrew decided to join us for Yum Cha. So off we went into town. It was raining cats and dogs so we hightailed it back home after Yum Cha. The Terracotta Warriors are still waiting...

We went out to Maharajahs for dinner on Saturday night with Lesley, Wally and the kids and it was great fun! We must do that again!

Then we rushed home and Will came over for a sleepover (and his mother Kylie and her partner, Grant - Grant is our friend from ANZ days) while we watched BSG.

Sunday was a late start and then off to Sally and Andrew's for a lovely lunch. I got water purification from Vivienne, John and Benjamin for some deserving third world family (or maybe Dunedin if they still have dodgy water supplies!) and John got some coffee plants from us (for another deserving third world farmer somewhere). I also got some spring bulbs that I must plant out. I can't wait to see them pop up! Must get more of the same idea.

Oh - and Vivienne - we need to have that Sunday morning garden shop drive!

Have a marvellous week. I need tea and Weetbix.

Love,
Angela

Diving in Napier, 21 - 22 Feb'09

Most of us had a great weekend: we came back our dive trip with all our digits and extremities but sadly no photos. Claire - the instructor – took this great shot on the boat of the two of us, and we're hoping she has a few more to send us. Fingers crossed there maybe the odd one on our cheapo, underwater camera once we finish the film (yes, that's Real Film) but we're not hopeful: 1) new camera and 2) neophyte divers are not a good combination!

John coped well being the token bloke amongst a bunch of seven women (5 in the cabin). We were all of Mature Years (Claire at 38 was the youngest on the trip!) and so it was all very comradely.

First dive in the aquarium was just getting used to the environment and swimming around with the fish. The idea is to remain still and calm, and wait for things to come up, which they did: got bumped by a few of the reef sharks, but the big ones and the rays kept their distance. As did we (Steve Irwin has a lot to answer for!). When we came to feeding time, the fish were very active and quite aggressive, however the sharks were really shy and not at all interested in being fed. Even when I tried to follow one around with a nice tasty bit of fish in my hand they still stayed away, though I must admit I wasn't too assertive with Big Girl.

On Sunday, we had a two reef dives off a boat. Initially I had difficulty getting down in my new, air filled wet suit, then soon as it compressed at around 3 metres, the over-weighting took over and I plummeted to the bottom. NOT good for equalising the ears, and (a week later) they're still not back to normal. Our first dive was a total disaster: no visibility to speak of (we were lucky if it was 2 meters), and all my navigation lessons went straight out that one cell I call a brain. I had the compass, and John followed me... The dive boat captain told us to swim south west on a heading of 270 to the reef, so what did I do but carefully set a course north-east, 60deg, in totally the wrong direction. In the end we surfaced down wind and tide to the boat, and had a slow swim back on the surface.

After the boat was moved, the second dive was fantastic: great visibility, we were right on the reef and saw loads of fish and one enormous starfish (that I thought - when John pointed it out - was an octopus it was so large).The Pania reef is in ridges running north and south, with sandy bottoms at the bottom of the canyons at about 11 metres, and it's virtually impossible to get lost. It was really cool riding the surge up and over the ridge into the next valley! Though hurtling up from 11 to 6 metres and back down again no doubt played havoc with my ears...

The reef is closed to commercial fishing, but open to the public to collect their quota. It's covered in mussels and kina and if you know where to go, lots of crayfish. One of the experienced divers brought up more mussels than she wanted, so gave me the excess. Boiled them up soon as we got home, and yum. I think: I am not used to harvesting and cooking and eating something seen on the reef 4 hours before; getting the same from the supermarket, all clean and farmed is different. But the flavour was amazingly sweet and delicate, and they were very tender. Our fussy boys wouldn't touch the things: John never gave it a thought, Ramble sniffed at the strange object on the floor but didn't recognise it as Food, and Benj - initially prepared to try - when faced with the article, was put off by the look of the things, and gave it back. I also tried kina: delicious but again, I'm not going to be plucking the animals off the reef and dissecting out the roe myself. Yuck, gross. Back in Wellington, our dive shop has promised a scallop dive when the weather is suitable, with a barbecue to follow! That will be a major YUMMM! John wants to come for the experience and oh dear what a shame: he hates anything fishy so guess who will just have to eat his quota! Maybe this time Benj might be convinced to try one. Or not: what happens if he likes them? I'll have to share!

I am not sure poor Ramble had the same wonderful weekend: he had his first experience of being in a kennel! He is very nervous around strange men: understandable I guess as he doesn't have a lot to do with deep voiced, older blokes as all his regular carers are women, and John is the only man he has daily contact with. Consequently he gave the kennel man a very wide berth, and kept returning to cower behind me. I felt dreadful leaving him but I'm sure he'll be fine once he gets used to it. It won't be the last time he'll be in kennels.

We arrived home around 1830 on Sunday to a rapturous welcome from both our boys. A VERY big thank you to Angela for picking Ramble up. The kennel man (I must find out his name!) assured her that although initially nervous, Ramble soon relaxed and had a ball once he out frolicking with the other dogs. Which sounds just like our puppy: he loves all dogs and small children.

However we were all pretty tired that night: most of us were in bed at 2130, and asleep by 2200. But I do need to repeat my navigation skills and we both need to sort out our buoyancy for the new suits. It wasn't nice not knowing where I was and uncontrolled descents is not good for the ears.