The Tuesday with Cubs

Hi,

I rode home and stayed dry - we had a huge downpour in the afternoon but it was all over by the time I knocked off work.  Collected Toby and cooked him some tea.  I dropped him off at Cubs and picked Mike up from work.  He's busy at the moment and working late hours.  He's also coming down with a cold, so I might have to make him soup in the near future.

Andrew and I have started plans for the weekend.  We're heading to Picton with our bicycles and we're going to go... somewhere.  I confess I have no idea where Port Underwood is.  But I'll follow Andrew.  Anyway, with Andrew leading it might be blissful to be a tiny bit ignorant of how far he wants me to ride.  Hahahah.  I'm very excited.  I have never been cycle touring before.  And Aidan has tried to convince us that Picton is the most underrated tourist destination in the country.  So obviously I am mad keen to spend any time there at all!  Just what does she see in that place?  I'm going with new eyes, just to check it out.

I collected Toby at the end of Cubs and went to bed to keep reading my book.  It reached a bit of a drawn out part where I think it is meant for the hero to realise the heroine isn't necessarily helpless.  He's hopelessly old fashioned.  Happens where you're 6000 years old, I guess.  But I'm still enjoying it.  Lots of fighting at the end of last night's read.  Nice and gory.  You get that with fierce, but stupid and criminal, werewolves.

Nice ride in this morning.  Roads nice and dry.  Not too cold.  Not much wind.  I can even see some sunshine.  Today is supposed to be nice.  Tomorrow, not so much.

Have a fantastic day!
Love,
Angela

The Monday with nothing

Hi,

I drove home via the supermarket yesterday and collected Toby.  Turns out the deck builders had been at work and we have no gib on our dining room wall anymore.

Toby doing his homework and checking out the missing gib

The builders wanted to check what was under the gib.  Okay.  There you go.  Studs, dwangs and dust.  That's the limit of my building knowledge.

Cubs night tonight.  A scavenger hunt at the den.  Should be a lot of fun.

Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Angela

The weekend with tramping for the boys and lots of reading for me

Hi,

The boys left early on Saturday morning after a Friday night movie (Jurassic Park 2) and I left to get the wee green car warranted.  Oh, no.  Hold on.  I didn't.  It failed due to wonky headlights.  Yes, I know.  The same issue as the Corolla.  How many wonky headlights can our cars possibly have?  Now we have to sort out taking it in to get it fixed.

I went home and read.  Actually, I think that sums up the rest of the weekend for me.  I read a Young Adult lovey dovey story called "Slammed" which has made me swear off soppy books for a while.  I finished reading a Sookie Stackhouse book, a No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency book and started the first book in ages that I don't want to put down.  It's called Alaskan Fire (Guardians of the First Realm) and I am loving it!  Yay for fantasy.  Boo for soppy stories that make you cry.

Tried out a bath bomb from Lush in the evening.  The bubbles get quite thick in a spa bath!  It was fun and combined with reading; several hours did pass.  Our spa bath also heats water, don't you know!  Hahahah.

Up early Sunday to go to the market with Vivienne.  We had a great time wandering around with Ramble - my first time in the under cover market under the apartment buildings down near Waitangi Park.  Yummy stuff there.

Our concrete slab is all done now.  It looks great.  The deck is going to start any day now.  Yikes!

Slab from the side - Mike doing his male model impersonation

Toby back from tramping - he jumped straight in the bath (using his new carrot bubble stuff from Lush)

Andrew had an amazing weekend cycling in the top of the South Island.  Speaking of which, I have made a submission to LINZ for its official name change.  I support two official names for it.  South Island and Te Waipounamu.  I'm heading there with Andrew this coming weekend.  Cool fun!

Forgot to mention I passed the exam on Friday.  Yay!  Maybe that will put off the calls for me to do an exam for a while.  I am hopeful.  I hope they don't see that as an admission that I can pass them and I should do more.  Hahahah.

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with parent teacher interview

Hi,

I rode home to collect the car and Toby and get changed and then head to collect Mike.  But a wee change in plan saw Toby staying with Alex for the evening (his mother also had parent teacher interview).  So I collected Mike alone and we went to see Mr Wilson.  Toby is doing well and his teacher has no issues.  He needs to focus more.  Yep.

Grocery shopping while hungry wasn't a good idea.  We bought so much food!  Ouch!  Collected Toby on the way home and put away the groceries.  Had a good sleep!

This morning (Friday) is lovely.  A few more weeks into autumn and I think it would have been a good frost today.  My fingers were cold on the ride in for the first time in months.  No wind, blue skies.  Absolutely lovely here.

Mike and Toby are off tramping this weekend. The weather is supposed to deteriorate though.  But I think they'll still have a lot of fun.  I'm meeting Aidan for lunch so that makes me happy.  I do have an exam for the first time in years before that though.  I hope it goes okay.  Yuck!

We have a concrete slab!  Yes.  Look!

Slab poured

What next?  Arrghhhh.  The deck.  A bit of disruption to our lives for a while.  Never mind.  Next summer it'll be worth it.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with tramping club for Mike

Hi,

I rode home (yucky weather - strong wind and rain) and collected Toby and cooked a yummy experimental dinner.  I liked it and Mike has it for his lunch today so he'll let me know if it is yummy.  But Toby didn't eat an awful lot of it.  Looked pretty good to me.  Experiments happen when you need to go grocery shopping and you end up having to raid the pantry.

I call it:  Chicken rice cheesy thingy - with broccoli

I chatted on the phone to Mike and then his Dad rang.  So it was a while before I went downstairs and found Toby enjoying the Minecraft videos on YouTube (and hardly touched his dinner).  Toby and I had a bath (not together!) and went to bed.  Mike got home late because it was a special tramping night - the photo competition!  Vivienne joined him there.

A bit rainy again today but I avoided getting wet (just) on the way in.  We have parent teacher interviews tonight.  Lucky I remembered and booked it in yesterday.  Yikes.  Aidan and I were thinking we need a Mary Poppins to keep our lives organised.  The position is open.  Happy to accept all applicants.  Feel free to supply a trial run.

Have a wonderful day!  I have lunch with Roz today (she's down from Auckland), so my social life is going great guns.  And maybe lunch with Aidan tomorrow.  Ooosssshhhh!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with dinner in Waikanae

Hi,

We collected Josh at 5pm and drove up to Waikanae.  It was a race against Josh's normal train and despite a slight clogging of traffic below Pukerua Bay, we beat the train easily.  Mike and Josh chatted about all manner of things while I listened.  In fact, that proved to be the tenor for the night.  People talking, me listening.

Toby had a great day with Duncan and Emerson at the holiday programme.  I heard about Lazer Tag and playing arcade games.  Cool fun!

Aidan cooked up a great meal of tacos, corn and salad and I took Lulu for a walk.  The drive back was great too.

Today looks like a spot of rain!  Oooooo.  Hahahah. It is certainly threatening enough.  I'll ride home and cook tea with Toby.  Mike has to work late.

Have a fantastic day!
Love,
Angela

The Easter at home

Hi,

Happy birthday to Mike's Dad today!  Woo hoo!

I'll never remember what we got up to.  But here goes.  Good Friday was a pleasant relaxing day at home.  We mucked around - I did some half-hearted cleaning.  Well, actually, all my cleaning is half-hearted, so I'm not sure it was any different to normal.  Then I finally gathered enough energy to hop on my bike and ride to Sally and Andrew's place via the bottom of Haywards.  Mike and Toby drove there with the tent.  I rode 35 kms and got to their house in time for a good chat with others.  Iona and Col were there because they were heading to the airport bright and early for their Tasmanian holiday!

Vivienne, John and Benjamin came too, as did Helen and Ron.  So it was a good family affair.  Great BBQ outside and yummy food (as usual).  We eventually pitched the tent and fell into a coma.

I was up early-ish and rode my bike from there to Waikanae over the Akatarawa Road (through Upper Hutt).  I got a little lost riding to Upper Hutt - I meant to get on SH2 and ride up there, but I missed a bridge and ended up riding up the river trail and through the centre of Upper Hutt.  Anyhow, it took me 3.5 hours to do the 60 kms to Waikanae.  I need to get faster - and I might be addicted to it!

I relaxed at the Tabor house on my own,m chilling out in their porch.  Aidan rang and gave me permission to use their key and go inside.  I made a nice cup of tea.  Eventually everyone got home and Mike and Toby drove up.  Aidan even kindly fed me a yummy lunch (her tuna mayo is spectacular!).  We went for a ride in the afternoon with them.

Then Mike and Toby and I bundled into the car and went to the beach for fish n chips.  William was playing at the park so he caught up with Toby briefly.  After chippies, we drove home and crashed into bed.

Easter Sunday we were up eventually and pulled on some clothes so we could roll eggs down the hill before scoffing them.

Egg rolling done right

Toby bowling his egg

Mike's egg is a bunny and in a bucket so it can roll - sort of

Toby got to go swimming with his friend Akash in the afternoon.  When they got home, they had an Easter Egg hunt inside because the weather was quite yucky.  A bit of rain finally.  Sunday evening we spent at Vivienne and John's house and had a cracking roast pork dinner.  The starter soup was very spicy broccoli soup but Toby ate it just fine.  I think he is getting a great tolerance for spice.  Time to up the levels on our food!  Sally popped in to join us and we all had a great chat into the evening.  Until I fell into a coma on the couch!

Monday we were up early and away for breakfast at Maccas at Paraparaumu.  Mike and Toby ate breakfast and when they went back for seconds, it was normal menu so they ate burgers for follow ups.  Toby ate a bacon and egg muffin, pancakes, and two chicken cheese burgers.  He has holes in his legs at the moment.

We arrived at the Tabor house to find Aidan chatting to her father (a quick hello/goodbye from us) and then we dropped Mike and Toby at the Scout den and Aidan and I raced off to see The Host.  Aidan snacked on sushi before the movie.  She was so funny - she hid the sushi in her jersey to get i in.  And then wouldn't start it until the lights went out for fear of discovery.  Turns out the sushi wasn't great - but eating in the dark might not have been the best option.  Made me laugh.  I enjoyed the movie - thought it did quite well trying to capture the book.  Aidan loves the book to bits and the movie didn't quite live up to her expectations.  But she thought it was okay.

Back to her house and off to Otaki for sneakers for the kids.  On the way back, Aidan and the boys and I stopped off at the apple Pick Your Own place and we had a ball.  Got loads of apples and chillies.

Toby loved picking apples

Down the jalapeno row

Back home and an awesome dinner.  Huge yummy burgers (thanks Josh) and an awesome apple crumble (thanks Aidan).

Mike and I left Toby in their capable hands and drove back home.  Mike had enjoyed his conversation with Aidan immensely.  He was buzzing and singing loudly on the way home.

We're going to see them tonight when we collect Toby.

Have a great week!
Love,
Angela