Hi,
After a long day at work I hopped in the wee green car and enjoyed a drive across town to Toby's school with the roof down and a bit of Pink on the stereo. Not too shabby a way to end the day at work. Perhaps not quite the same stress relief as riding up the hill to our house. But pleasant nonetheless.
I got to the school hall early and planned my sessions with each teacher on the seating plan. 5 minutes with 7 teachers. One 30 minute gap. Everything went like clockwork. No hold ups. Easy. Some were only 2 minutes (Toby is fine, doing this fine, doing that fine, nothing else to say) and some took the full 5 minutes. It was all good. Toby is doing better than last year but missed two weeks this term with his bad cough. Oh well. I was happy enough.
Mike picked up the groceries on his way home so I had no need to do it. I drove straight home and sat down to a yummy tea Mike had cooked. Mmmmm. We chatted away about the interviews and Toby said he'd try and make some changes where needed. Good.
The boys watched television for a while and I read in bed. I was comatose when Mike got into bed I think. Slept like a log. No sign of the rats. I think the bait has dealt to them.
This morning's run was lovely. Clear starry skies and no wind. I am not feeling 100% but I did an ok time. The ride in was lovely. The sun was still rising and everything was clear and still. Dry roads. Very nice.
Have a wonderful day today, whatever you are doing.
Love,
Angela
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
The weekend that was just great
Hi,
So, I rode home on Friday and found Toby all ready for his weekend. He took some money and walked down to the Wadestown shops to buy his Burger Wisconsin burger and came back to eat it. We watched Rocky II for our Friday night movie Toby declared it better than the first movie.
Mike was already off and driving up to Taupo for his colleagues who were doing the Oxfam 100km walk challenge. He was the support crew for them. It was tough even being the support person let alone the actual walkers. Crazy people. But amazing endurance. Both teams we had an interest in did well, and the third team stuck at it and made it in 32 hours. Wow! Just wow!
Meanwhile, Saturday morning Aidan came to collect me and Toby and we went to archery in Trentham. The rain hosed down as we approached the range but mysteriously it dried up completely for the thirty minutes Aidan shot her arrows. The boys stayed in the car and I watched quite a few ends. Aidan was really good. No arrows flew off anywhere they shouldn't. The pair of paradise ducks far behind the target (called a butt) were perfectly safe.
Watching Aidan was great fun. Seeing the effort she had to put into every shot was amazing. I have no idea how hard it is to draw her bow, but it must be tough.
From there we went to Upper Hutt to find a cafe. I had been to one before but had no idea where it was apart from it being in the high street. But as we walked around a corner, it happened to be right there. We all ate lunch and I got super full.
Being super full wasn't conducive to going swimming. But we did so. H2OXtreme. I like that place. Aidan and I got changed and met the boys outside the changing rooms. It's funny seeing Aidan without glasses. But she's not as blind as Mike without his, because she could recognise me across the crowded pool when she needed to.
The boys were immediately into the game of "drown the other boy" so Aidan and I left them to it and went on the water slides. Aidan plucked up courage on the easier slide before trying the blacked out one. As I went down behind her I heard a lot of screaming. But as we came out of the bottom of the pool together she tried to tell me that screaming wasn't from her. Aha. Sure, sure. I knew better. And when the lifeguard said we could go down the slide together, I knew for sure it was her screaming. We did that quite a few times before Aidan tried the super fast, steep yellow slide. But after water was forced up our noses due to our poor technique, we went back to the blacked out slide.
The boys also eventually went on the slides. But they got bored faster than us and I lost them and went on the slides for a bit by myself. Aidan was enjoying the spa pool.
Time to leave and we all got changed and Aidan dropped us off home. I went grocery shopping and then cooked tea for them, They played games and watched the first Rocky movie. I bought rat bait from the supermarket and laid that in the roof space. Mainly because the rats have been moving furniture up there over the last few days, waking me up! Didn't hear them last night! Yes!!
Next morning Aidan came over for breakfast and we chatted away before heading into Cuba St for the Love Parade. Aidan met up with some friends and Celia and Serge turned up so I chatted to them.
From there we went to Yum Cha at the Grand Century. Aidan managed to move the car closer - which was incredible because the traffic was diabolical. We ate there and then she dropped us off at home. And as we opened the front door, Mike got home from Taupo. Yay!
Had dinner and watched television while ironing and slept the sleep of the dead. What a great weekend. Such fun.
Have a great short week. My parents arrive soon. Can't wait for that!
Love,
Angela
So, I rode home on Friday and found Toby all ready for his weekend. He took some money and walked down to the Wadestown shops to buy his Burger Wisconsin burger and came back to eat it. We watched Rocky II for our Friday night movie Toby declared it better than the first movie.
Mike was already off and driving up to Taupo for his colleagues who were doing the Oxfam 100km walk challenge. He was the support crew for them. It was tough even being the support person let alone the actual walkers. Crazy people. But amazing endurance. Both teams we had an interest in did well, and the third team stuck at it and made it in 32 hours. Wow! Just wow!
Meanwhile, Saturday morning Aidan came to collect me and Toby and we went to archery in Trentham. The rain hosed down as we approached the range but mysteriously it dried up completely for the thirty minutes Aidan shot her arrows. The boys stayed in the car and I watched quite a few ends. Aidan was really good. No arrows flew off anywhere they shouldn't. The pair of paradise ducks far behind the target (called a butt) were perfectly safe.
Watching Aidan was great fun. Seeing the effort she had to put into every shot was amazing. I have no idea how hard it is to draw her bow, but it must be tough.
 |
| Aidan showing me how it's done |
From there we went to Upper Hutt to find a cafe. I had been to one before but had no idea where it was apart from it being in the high street. But as we walked around a corner, it happened to be right there. We all ate lunch and I got super full.
 |
| Good iced coffee in Upper Hutt |
Being super full wasn't conducive to going swimming. But we did so. H2OXtreme. I like that place. Aidan and I got changed and met the boys outside the changing rooms. It's funny seeing Aidan without glasses. But she's not as blind as Mike without his, because she could recognise me across the crowded pool when she needed to.
The boys were immediately into the game of "drown the other boy" so Aidan and I left them to it and went on the water slides. Aidan plucked up courage on the easier slide before trying the blacked out one. As I went down behind her I heard a lot of screaming. But as we came out of the bottom of the pool together she tried to tell me that screaming wasn't from her. Aha. Sure, sure. I knew better. And when the lifeguard said we could go down the slide together, I knew for sure it was her screaming. We did that quite a few times before Aidan tried the super fast, steep yellow slide. But after water was forced up our noses due to our poor technique, we went back to the blacked out slide.
The boys also eventually went on the slides. But they got bored faster than us and I lost them and went on the slides for a bit by myself. Aidan was enjoying the spa pool.
Time to leave and we all got changed and Aidan dropped us off home. I went grocery shopping and then cooked tea for them, They played games and watched the first Rocky movie. I bought rat bait from the supermarket and laid that in the roof space. Mainly because the rats have been moving furniture up there over the last few days, waking me up! Didn't hear them last night! Yes!!
Next morning Aidan came over for breakfast and we chatted away before heading into Cuba St for the Love Parade. Aidan met up with some friends and Celia and Serge turned up so I chatted to them.
 |
| Aidan and Celia await the start of the parade |
 |
| Toby noisily whistles the parade people |
 |
| Watching the parade before we joined on to the end |
 |
| Celia and her children were right there too |
 |
| Toby's hair looks so blonde in this photo! |
 |
| Celia and Serge in the parade |
 |
| My shadow and Aidan's shadow. She looks like she's carrying a feather in her teeth! |
From there we went to Yum Cha at the Grand Century. Aidan managed to move the car closer - which was incredible because the traffic was diabolical. We ate there and then she dropped us off at home. And as we opened the front door, Mike got home from Taupo. Yay!
Had dinner and watched television while ironing and slept the sleep of the dead. What a great weekend. Such fun.
Have a great short week. My parents arrive soon. Can't wait for that!
Love,
Angela
Friday, March 27, 2015
The Thursday with a work quiz
Hi,
Caught up with Roanne and the main bunch of people for lunch at One Red Dog. Shared pizzas. Tasted pretty good but the iced coffee filled me up and I had no space for trying them all.
What a great evening yesterday. Work was work. But then, as a fund raiser for an Oxfam team at work, we had a work quiz event. It was a lot of fun. I was in a team with Jurica, Celia, Dave and Mike. We did pretty well. Coming second to a team that usually wins and only got the two points they beat us by when they used their phone during the quiz to scan a QR code on one of the answer sheets. Felt like cheating to us to get our phones out. We were chuffed. And although we didn't get the awesome Fone Team Quiz trophy, we got some cool stuff. Except perhaps for the rose wine Celia donated that we "won" back. She wasn't overly pleased about that part. Hahahah!
I took Mike home, collected Benjamin (thanks!) and caught up with his news about uni (he's enjoying it - only one class starts at 10am and he's coping with that!). Dropped him off. Dropped off Jurica somewhere in the bowels of Newlands, but fortunately it seemed easier to extricate ourselves than to find his house. And also Celia knew where she was, mostly.
Dropped her at Porirua train station where her car was parked and enjoyed my drive back home with the music on loud! Choice.
Lovely morning here. Overcast but no wind at all. My run was lovely. And the ride in had the bonus of dry roads.
Mike heads off this afternoon for Taupo because he is crewing for the Oxfam team that ran the quiz. Hope he has fun doing that!
Go Nicolette! She's in another team with some Intergen connections. Hope she does well.
Love,
Angela
Caught up with Roanne and the main bunch of people for lunch at One Red Dog. Shared pizzas. Tasted pretty good but the iced coffee filled me up and I had no space for trying them all.
 |
| Manic iced coffee face. First one at One Red Dog. It was ok. Average. 6.5 |
What a great evening yesterday. Work was work. But then, as a fund raiser for an Oxfam team at work, we had a work quiz event. It was a lot of fun. I was in a team with Jurica, Celia, Dave and Mike. We did pretty well. Coming second to a team that usually wins and only got the two points they beat us by when they used their phone during the quiz to scan a QR code on one of the answer sheets. Felt like cheating to us to get our phones out. We were chuffed. And although we didn't get the awesome Fone Team Quiz trophy, we got some cool stuff. Except perhaps for the rose wine Celia donated that we "won" back. She wasn't overly pleased about that part. Hahahah!
 |
| Team with unpronounceable Croatian name |
 |
| Team with unpronounceable name |
I took Mike home, collected Benjamin (thanks!) and caught up with his news about uni (he's enjoying it - only one class starts at 10am and he's coping with that!). Dropped him off. Dropped off Jurica somewhere in the bowels of Newlands, but fortunately it seemed easier to extricate ourselves than to find his house. And also Celia knew where she was, mostly.
Dropped her at Porirua train station where her car was parked and enjoyed my drive back home with the music on loud! Choice.
Lovely morning here. Overcast but no wind at all. My run was lovely. And the ride in had the bonus of dry roads.
Mike heads off this afternoon for Taupo because he is crewing for the Oxfam team that ran the quiz. Hope he has fun doing that!
Go Nicolette! She's in another team with some Intergen connections. Hope she does well.
Love,
Angela
Thursday, March 26, 2015
And Mike bought a shiny new iPhone 6
It must have been the last straw the day before when his old iPhone 4 went flat and he had to walk home. He bought it from the 2degrees shop in the same building as Intergen.
The screen will last about two weeks when he cracks it at Lake Waikaremoana. Much less durable then the iPhone 4!
The Wednesday with nothing but more maths
Hi,
Well, I managed to grab the car off Mike and I drove home. Found Toby already getting stuck into his maths homework. Another 2 hours of it. I hope he now realises that 5 hours in two days is far worse than 5 hours spread over 5 weeks! But, somehow, I doubt it.
Mike was supposed to call me at 7pm and ask to be collected. But 7pm came and went. I texted him. But nothing. At 8.30 he comes in and his phone had gone flat. So he had to get home on his own. Poor guy. But he helped with the last tricky parts of Toby's homework.
Slept really well again. Woke before the alarm but that's ok. Mike and I have a late night tonight. Work has a quiz night. Benjamin will go and look after Toby. We'll be home late.
Right. Time for a tea I think. Have a wonderful day. I caught the bus in so we can drive home together tonight. But it is dry out there. Dark when I leave the house at 7am now though.
Love,
Angela
Well, I managed to grab the car off Mike and I drove home. Found Toby already getting stuck into his maths homework. Another 2 hours of it. I hope he now realises that 5 hours in two days is far worse than 5 hours spread over 5 weeks! But, somehow, I doubt it.
Mike was supposed to call me at 7pm and ask to be collected. But 7pm came and went. I texted him. But nothing. At 8.30 he comes in and his phone had gone flat. So he had to get home on his own. Poor guy. But he helped with the last tricky parts of Toby's homework.
Slept really well again. Woke before the alarm but that's ok. Mike and I have a late night tonight. Work has a quiz night. Benjamin will go and look after Toby. We'll be home late.
Right. Time for a tea I think. Have a wonderful day. I caught the bus in so we can drive home together tonight. But it is dry out there. Dark when I leave the house at 7am now though.
Love,
Angela
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
The Tuesday with lunch with Aidan and Mike in Chch
Hi,
Well, I was a bit grumpy all through the day. No reason. Just grumpy. Work, I guess. But at least I had lunch with Aidan and although I wasn't the best company, she at least made me temporarily happy. We ate at a wee place tacked on to the Backbencher, Basically sells coffee with a sideline of food. Greg (her colleague) joined us. My sandwich was good. My cookie wasn't quite so good. I tasted Aidan's soup and possibly for tomato and capsicum soup it was pretty good. But it tasted far too healthy for me - like tomatoes and capsicum blended together.
I rode home and made some dinner for Toby as he started his maths homework. We worked on it for 3 hours. The most amazing things was, no one shouted. Three hours of torture, but we had a few laughs and Toby has realised if he hugs me at the right moment, it stops me from getting too cross. So I got hugs, and we got 80% of his maths done. We get to finish it tonight. Oh yay! I mean: Yay! Yay! I should be enthusiastic. Anyhow, I left the hardest 20% for Mike to do with him, but it turns out Mike is busy. So it is me for that last hard 20%. Joy! I was texting Aidan during the maths arduous marathon and of course she had her marathon x 2! I really felt for her at that moment. I was in bed almost asleep at 2100 and she was still going.
New Zealand won the cricket. I was sure they wouldn't so I never followed it. Followed the first few overs and then scared myself silly so I went to sleep. It was a huge surprise to hear they had won when I woke up. Wow.
My ride in was superb. The rain had stopped and the roads were dry. I hurtled down the hill, stopping to take a photo of the harbour with its multitude of shades of grey and cruise ship coming in and container ship leaving. It looked amazing with the sun coming up behind the clouds.
Right. Time for a tea. My computer wants a reboot and it doesn't take no for an answer.
Have a marvellous day!
Love,
Angela
Well, I was a bit grumpy all through the day. No reason. Just grumpy. Work, I guess. But at least I had lunch with Aidan and although I wasn't the best company, she at least made me temporarily happy. We ate at a wee place tacked on to the Backbencher, Basically sells coffee with a sideline of food. Greg (her colleague) joined us. My sandwich was good. My cookie wasn't quite so good. I tasted Aidan's soup and possibly for tomato and capsicum soup it was pretty good. But it tasted far too healthy for me - like tomatoes and capsicum blended together.
I rode home and made some dinner for Toby as he started his maths homework. We worked on it for 3 hours. The most amazing things was, no one shouted. Three hours of torture, but we had a few laughs and Toby has realised if he hugs me at the right moment, it stops me from getting too cross. So I got hugs, and we got 80% of his maths done. We get to finish it tonight. Oh yay! I mean: Yay! Yay! I should be enthusiastic. Anyhow, I left the hardest 20% for Mike to do with him, but it turns out Mike is busy. So it is me for that last hard 20%. Joy! I was texting Aidan during the maths arduous marathon and of course she had her marathon x 2! I really felt for her at that moment. I was in bed almost asleep at 2100 and she was still going.
New Zealand won the cricket. I was sure they wouldn't so I never followed it. Followed the first few overs and then scared myself silly so I went to sleep. It was a huge surprise to hear they had won when I woke up. Wow.
 |
| Harbour this morning as I rode in |
My ride in was superb. The rain had stopped and the roads were dry. I hurtled down the hill, stopping to take a photo of the harbour with its multitude of shades of grey and cruise ship coming in and container ship leaving. It looked amazing with the sun coming up behind the clouds.
Right. Time for a tea. My computer wants a reboot and it doesn't take no for an answer.
Have a marvellous day!
Love,
Angela
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
The Monday with nothing
Hi,
Monday came and Monday went. Although Mike tells me it was quite exciting catching the school bus in the morning. They were running late and chased the bus down the hill. At the bottom, Toby jumped out but his bus pulled away from the stop as he ran there. However the traffic lights just ahead turned red so Toby ran to the bus at the intersection and the bus driver let him on and Mike breathed a sigh of relief at not having to drive Toby across town to school.
Today is a wee bit different. Mike is in Christchurch so he drives to the airport. And given Toby's school is close by, they go together. Fun!
Last night I rode home and chatted away to Toby as he did his homework. He enjoyed his English writing course a lot. He was ten minutes late for it at the start and they nearly didn't let him join in. But he managed to convince them to allow him in. And he got a lot out of it. I wish I could find him a creative writing course to do in Wellington.
I made dinner and Mike got home nice and early. After tea the boys went out for a run. Sounds like it went well. Then we all went to bed. And I thought we all went to sleep because I certainly did. But Mike tells me he got up and started working downstairs. Had a problem with network drives, Drove into work. Did something there and came back and still failed with some network issue and then went to bed.
Ummmm. I never noticed a thing. I must have been absolutely comatose. I know I was asleep in minutes because Aidan texted at 8.50pm and I was almost asleep then. Read her text, responded (gee, I hope it made sense!) and was probably well asleep by 9pm.
Got up for my run and did an ok time (not as fast as Sunday morning - my fastest time yet). My ride in was lovely. Dry roads. Fast ride.
Have a brilliant day!
Love,
Angela
Monday came and Monday went. Although Mike tells me it was quite exciting catching the school bus in the morning. They were running late and chased the bus down the hill. At the bottom, Toby jumped out but his bus pulled away from the stop as he ran there. However the traffic lights just ahead turned red so Toby ran to the bus at the intersection and the bus driver let him on and Mike breathed a sigh of relief at not having to drive Toby across town to school.
Today is a wee bit different. Mike is in Christchurch so he drives to the airport. And given Toby's school is close by, they go together. Fun!
Last night I rode home and chatted away to Toby as he did his homework. He enjoyed his English writing course a lot. He was ten minutes late for it at the start and they nearly didn't let him join in. But he managed to convince them to allow him in. And he got a lot out of it. I wish I could find him a creative writing course to do in Wellington.
I made dinner and Mike got home nice and early. After tea the boys went out for a run. Sounds like it went well. Then we all went to bed. And I thought we all went to sleep because I certainly did. But Mike tells me he got up and started working downstairs. Had a problem with network drives, Drove into work. Did something there and came back and still failed with some network issue and then went to bed.
Ummmm. I never noticed a thing. I must have been absolutely comatose. I know I was asleep in minutes because Aidan texted at 8.50pm and I was almost asleep then. Read her text, responded (gee, I hope it made sense!) and was probably well asleep by 9pm.
Got up for my run and did an ok time (not as fast as Sunday morning - my fastest time yet). My ride in was lovely. Dry roads. Fast ride.
Have a brilliant day!
Love,
Angela
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