The Monday with packing

Hi,

I rode home in the most lovely evening conditions.  Such a gorgeous evening.  I collected Toby and we went home and I cooked some dinner.  Mike was out celebrating a big win at work.  Sally rang and asked about the stars aligned with the moon that she was sure were planets.  I went out and had a look and discovered she was right.  Venus was under the moon shining very brightly.  Saturn was a similar distance above the moon, shining with its usual orange tint.  And below Venus was a star called Spica.  It's a bright star in our sky.  They looked spectacular, all lined up.  The earth shine on the moon was lovely too.

I finally got all my gear packed and had a relaxing evening.  Mike got home and chatted away about work a bit.  I think I fell asleep pretty fast.

I'm off to Auckland until late Friday now.  So, don't panic if you don't hear from me.  Hahahah.  I may be busy.

Have a great week.
Love,
Angela

The weekend with loads of fun

Hi,

What a wonderful weekend.  I drove to Waikanae with Toby in the wee green car.  We sat in bumper to bumper traffic all the way from the Whenua Tapu off ramp to Waikanae.  Crazy.  But I got to the Tabor house in plenty of time for a cup of tea with Aidan.  Toby was staying for the weekend.  Aidan is good to us.

Turns out Mike was held up in town a bit and negotiating traffic almost as bad.  So he was late getting to me.  I ate a sausage with everyone (barbecued sausages, nicely blackened, with grated cheese, tomato sauce (sorry, ketchup apparently - I can't tell any difference) and in a slice of bread).

When Mike eventually arrived, he also got a sausage.  And what's more, even our passenger (James, still in the car outside) got a sausage.  We were off and stopped at Levin to get more dinner and supplies for the weekend.  Then off again.  Up at the lodge around 10.30 or something.

Into bed and I had a broken sleep.  But not too bad.  Andrew was up early to ride around the entire volcanic plateau. Yes, crazy, isn't he?  And he did it too.  In 6 hours 20, and 175 km.  Wow!  Meanwhile, the rest of us went skiing.  The day was supposed to clag in, so the earlier the better.  Not much was open.  But we skied the Waterfall T and had fun.  But the queues were so long and the run so short.  But then they opened the Valley T and that was lovely.  We skied there all day.

See?  Nice conditions!

Mike was on skis for the first time in ages.  He kept muttering about how nice it would be on his board.  And he did a spectacular face plant down some sticky moguls right next to the T bar.  Choice!  I missed it all as I was negotiating the sticky moguls carefully.

More photos and videos of the weekend here...

Mike got a migraine right at the end of the day, but after some drugs and a quick nap he seemed ok if woozy.  Meanwhile I chatted to Andrew.  He was ravenous after his ride.  So we went off to the pub for dinner.  Ate a felafel burger and watched the first half of the rugby (All Blacks v Argentina) with Andrew on a couch.  We left at half time because we thought it'd be embarrassing if we both fell asleep on the couch and stayed for hours there.

Back to the lodge and I had a great sleep.  Mike came to bed late after playing the Battlestar Galactica Board Game with some others.  Sounds like it didn't end well for the humans.  But Mike welcomed his new Cylon overlords so all okay.

Up early to have breakfast and do a bit of tidying before Andrew and I headed off on our bikes.  We rode through heavy rain from Whakapapa Village to Waiouru.  I did 80 km in 3 hours.  I was slow from Ohakune to Waiouru.  I need a better breakfast on the morning of a big ride.  Andrew kept going to Taihape and in hindsight I should have too.  I sat in the Army Museum cafe for about 45 mins or more getting steadily colder.  I think it might have been better to keep riding and stay warm.  And the road from Waiouru to Taihape looked great to ride.

But it was nice to change into dry clothes when Mike got there.  Into the car and off to Taihape to collect Andrew's bike.  Then it was just me and Mike all the way home.  I was happy.  I haven't driven with him a long way for ages (he has always been driving the van).

At Waikanae we stayed for tea.  Pizzas.  I collected them (and some groceries) with Aidan.  Toby had a great time with Emerson and Duncan.  Emerson was sick, as was Aidan.  And Josh was busy in their bedroom getting it ready for the carpet getting laid today.  I picked grapefruit for Vivienne.  I must try and pop over to see her tonight.

I am away Tues to Fri for work.  In Auckland.  At a conference.  Filling my brain with Microsoft loveliness and schmoozing with clients.  And friends.  Heheheh.  Who may or may not work for the competition.  Right, Roz?

Have a fantastic week!  If you're in Wellington this week, keep an eye on Mike and Toby for me.
Love,
Angela

The Thursday with nothing

Hi,

I rode home and Mike had a nice dinner cooked for us.  Yum.  Then I packed for our ski weekend and Toby's stay with the Tabors.  Aidan kindly volunteered to look after him when he complained a work ski weekend with no other kids was a bit boring and could he miss it.

Yesterday I had another iced coffee at Thunderbird Cafe.  Mainly because I met Josh and Aidan there for lunch.  I also wanted to check it wasn't a fluke yesterday.  The service was soooooo slow.  Josh missed his lunch.  Aidan and I ate our lunch and then shared his.  It was good though.

No - it really is a different shirt.  The light just makes it look the same as yesterday.

We have a mountain of gear because I am going to ride my bike on Sunday instead of skiing.  Crazy notion.  Andrew will ride with me as well.

Today is the most gorgeous day here.  Makes me forget (almost) about the weird morning with Mike and Toby showering and causing temperature fluctuations in the water.  Toby decided the best tactic to deal with this was to scream "Muuuuummmm!" every time.  Nice.  What could I do about it?  I ate my muesli.

Have a wonderful weekend.  I hear the Kittos are off to California on Sunday for a Disneyland visit.  Wow!  How cool.  Toby is very jealous I think.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with tramping club for Mike

Hi,

There is a definite theme to my post titles.  Mike has made me a tramping club widow.  Far too young too.  Hahahah.

Happy birthday today to wee Abby.  8 years old.  Wow!

Yesterday I caught up with Helen in town and I had an iced coffee with her at Thunderbird Cafe.  It was a really good iced coffee.  I'd go back just for that!

Helen getting to grips with my phone's camera.  No, you have to point it at me!

That's it!  Iced coffee, front and centre.  With a bit of background.  Perfect shot.

We bought a portable backup hard drive for Helen's computing needs and I left her rummaging around in her backpack for her camera so she could capture some nice urban reflective shots.

My ride home was dry, would you believe.  When I nipped inside to get out of my bike cleat shoes, and jumped back in the car, it had started raining.  Lucky, eh?

We had another decent quake last night - apparently!  It didn't wake any of us at midnight.  Zzzzzzz.  But they have certainly tapered off.

Time for a cup of tea.  Busy at work.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with nothing for me and a tramping club meeting for Mike

Hi,

Toby got dropped off at work by Akash's mother and I was horrified to see he had been to the movies at Queensgate in his Ugg boots.  He told me he hadn't garnered any strange looks.  Riiiight.  Good, Toby.

We drove home via the supermarket and I cooked a nice dinner for him.  I got to eat all of the tomato/basil,mozzarella salad by myself as Mike was still out at his meeting.

It was as yummy as it looks

We had a lazy evening and eventually went to bed.  Mike got home from his meeting and came to bed.  I was asleep quite quickly after finding out all about his evening.  Slept well.

My ride in this morning was fantastic!  The roads were so dry with a fierce northerly.  The day is supposed to turn to custard at midday with a galeforce southerly and freezing temperatures.  Ooooo.  It should blow me home, right?  Hahahah.

September 4th.  The day we moved from Dunedin to Melbourne back in 1980.  Wow.  And tomorrow is wee Abby's birthday.

Have a marvellous day.
Love,
Angela

The Monday with no Toby

Hi,

Toby was having a sleepover with Isaac Sunday night and there was a handover where Mike saw him for about 15 minutes before another parent took Toby for another sleepover.  He slept last night at Akash's house.  There is yet another handover today from Akash's Dad to Akash's Mum before we collect him at 5pm today.  After all that, I am going to attempt to lure him back into the family fold with his favourite dinner tonight.

Mike and I had a lazy evening watching some television (I finally watched First Crossings - a re-enactment programme.  This one was playing out Ed Hillary's first ascent of a decent mountain in the Kaikouras.  It was rather good.).  I did fall asleep on the couch though.  Woke up and went to bed.

I drove into today with Mike because of the Toby handover that occurs this evening somewhere in Ngaio.

Have a wonderful day!
Love,
Angela

The weekend that was unexpectedly wonderful

Hi,

Happy birthday to Jamie and Cameron.  Wow - the year is flying by.  And Happy Fathers Day to the Dads I know for yesterday.  That snuck up on me.

Friday night Toby got off the bus in town and we met Aunty Sally and went to the Steer n Beer at the Reading cinema.  Andrew joined us after a wee while (our waiter was concerned about his steak getting cold).  Toby and I went to see Wolverine.

Then Toby and I picked up Mike from his session with work.  A colleague was leaving and it was a big night.  Mike woke a homeless woman sleeping on a bus stop bench on Willis St demonstrating how he shouted at the band to play a Hunters and Collectors song.  She was a bit disturbed and expecting some massive fight or something.  I could see her fight or flee instinct had kicked in.  But she determined Mike was harmless and went back to sleep.  Toby giggled at this.  "Dad, you woke a hobo woman".

Back home and to bed.  The boys slept well in the morning because it was midnight before we got to sleep.  Aidan texted and asked if I could bring the movie forward to the afternoon and come for lunch.  Certainly could.  Asked Mike and he said yes.  So I was out of the house quite early because I wanted to buy a Fathers Day present for Sunday.  Having it on Sunday 1st is not conducive to a lot of planning.

I popped into Harvey Normal in Paraparaumu and found out the Dyson turbo lux head was not an option (we have to order it).  But I did find another present there.  Choice.  Then went to collect Aidan from home.  Her boys had a Scouts session, so she was free all day.

Front Room iced coffee

We stopped off at Bunnings to get a voucher for Fathers Day for Josh.  I missed the turn and Aidan's brain was still trying to figure out the best way to get me back to the store when I put the car in reverse and hurtled back to the intersection to turn left.  She only squealed a little bit.  There was no traffic behind me.  Well, about 100m behind me and closing fast if I didn't do something.

We went to the Front Room for lunch and I had a yummy breakfast for lunch.  And an iced coffee.  Why not have breakfast for any meal you can?  I love breakfasts!

Then we went to Paraparaumu shopping mall and I got distracted in the bookshop by a Bruce Springsteen book and Aidan thought I'd done a runner.  Oops.  Off to the movie.  Mortal Instruments - City of Bones.  Don't bother!  Read the book.  The book isn't bad at all.  The movie?  Yeah.  Not so much fun.  It made me laugh with derision at one point.

Back to New World to get Fathers Day breakfast stuff and dropped Aidan off after getting some grapefruit.

Next morning was Fathers Day and I got a yummy breakfast ready for Mike.  I had put bread on so that was the starter.  Yum!  And bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese (and freshly squeezed lemons from the Tabor citrus market!).

The morning was spent tidying.  As was the afternoon.  Mike went to handover the tramping club website to a volunteer!  Choice!  And then we went out to Sally and Andrew's place for tea.  Had a great catch up with everyone.  They are all well.  Then we went to drop Toby off at Isaac's house for a sleepover with him and some mates from school.  We chatted to Sally and Tim for ages.  Well past my bedtime.

Up for work this morning and in my bike gear to find I was the one that had left their bike at work on Friday.  So we caught the bus in!  With all the grapefruit.  So not too bad!

Sally and Andrew's back yard looked stunning

The plums might be good this summer!

Have a wonderful week.  Happy birthday week for Abby too later this week.  Hope I don't forget that!

Love,
Angela