The Monday in Auckland

Hi,

Had a great day in Auckland yesterday - despite Toby's school ringing me and hearing he had a headache and needed to be collected from school.  Poor Mike had to sort that out.  But I heard back later, and Toby was ok and Mike had him safely at home.

My work was busy and then we met a bunch of people and we went to a lovely Indian restaurant not far from work.  It was for Karin's last week, and the conversation was good fun.  Jacqui, Celia, Janet, Ruan, Nicolette and Karin.  And the food was amazing.

Meat!

Celia and Janet enjoying the dinner

After chatting away to each other for ages, we left and Nicolette and I waited for a bus near Victoria Park.  But eventually Nicolette decided the late hour (9.45pm) and the cold (hahahah!) meant we should catch a taxi home.

Her house is perfect - 2 bedrooms.  Possibly in Birkenhead.  Suburbs in Auckland just confuse me.  I got my Rooibos and went to bed.  Read for a bit (too long) and eventually went to sleep.  Slept right through until my alarm confused me no end.  I had no idea where I was for a moment.  Thought I was in my own bed at home, but my phone was in a slightly weird place.

Anyway, Nicolette fed me breakfast and we caught her bus to town.  15 mins through the traffic due to a bus lane.  Easy peasy.

Got a busy day here and then off to hopefully see Roz for a cup of tea before my flight.  If that works out.

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Wellington

Hi,

How we never saw any snow this weekend I do not know!  In Dunedin we would have!  It was snow weather.  Freezing cold rain.

Mt Hutt has snow!

Toby and I wear the same clothes out - and Emerson photo bombs

Just Lulu photo bombs us

 I had a lazy weekend, really.  Too cold to even get out of bed.  Brrrr.  Toby went to visit Magnus - in his jandals.  With no cell phone.  Or jacket.  And when he walked back, in the hail, he was a frozen wet blob on our doorstep.  I ran  bath for him.

We had tea out at Josh's place on Saturday night.  Lasagne.  Mmmmm.  Good to catch up with him and the boys.  And Lulu.  Toby and I wore similar clothes so I made Mike take photographic evidence.  Toby is not that tall - he was on tippy toes!

Sunday was a bit lazy too.  But I met up with Christine at Le Marquis and we got inundated by old residents meeting about the bus route changes.  Big news in Wadestown.

Grocery shopping followed that and then back home for the evening.

I am in Auckland today and tomorrow.  Experiencing rain here instead of in Wellington.

Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with RPM with Sreejith

Hi,

Had a weird phone call from Mum in the middle of a meeting at work.  But when I rang back, it turns out she had clicked a button accidentally.  So we had a chat on Facebook messenger's phone app.  When she discovered that was free, she was even more overjoyed.  Hahah.

After a busy day at work, and a RPM class with Sreejith, it was good to finally get out of work and ride home.  It was good, but not too windy.  Got home and gave Toby his favourite sushi.  Mike got home not too long afterwards and he made himself tea.

After sitting with the cat for a while, Mike headed off to a mate's house to tune my skis.  Bonus!  My skis now look fantastic and the snow is deep and fluffy up there.  2.5m at Whakapapa.  Woot!  We are up there for the next two weekends (not this one coming though).  So I have my fingers crossed for continued good snow.

I went to bed and crashed.  Mike got home and also crashed.  He was tired before he left.  It's been a tough week.

Friday is upon us.  My ride in was cold, but the roads were surprisingly clear.  The rain during the night was heavy - but the cold wind is dry and the roads aren't too bad.

Hoping for a bike ride tomorrow and maybe a ski day trip Sunday.  But at the moment the weather up at the mountain looks good for snow leopards - and not much else.  Maybe some Yetis.  Yaks.  Transplanted penguins.  Oh wait.  The other creatures would also be transplanted.  Ok - the weather is only looking good for hardy organisms and that discounts me really.  Well, if I was already up there, I'd ski.  But driving for 8 hours to ski in a blizzard isn't really what I am after.

Let's see eh?  I am in AKL Monday and Tuesday so you might not get any blogs.  You might have to wait until Wednesday before you find out about my weekend adventures.  Grim, I know!

But have a wonderful weekend anyway.  My Japan trip is this month and I am getting very excited.  Woot!

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with a sprint class with Mary

Hi,

At lunch time Mary and I went to a Sprint class at the gym.  That is 30 minutes of crazy work on a bike.  I have never seen a class that full - every bike had someone on it.  And there must be 50 bikes in that room.

Anyway, as I checked in, I was told I had no more credits for the instructor classes.  And I could only pay with cash.  And of course, I had none on me.  I was off to the gym.  Why would I bring money?  I stood there contemplating my next move.  As I did, the young man, sweating buckets from his session, said he'd pay for me.  He handed over his Eftpos card and I was in.  Wow!  Floored me.  I need to pay forward now too!

Steak, butternut/carrot mash and mushroom/silverbeet sauce

I rode home and got tea ready for me and Toby.  Mike got home later and ate his dinner then.  It was ok.  Nice sauce.  The mash I can live without.

The cat slept on our bed last night - not sure why.  Maybe because Mike still smelled like his fish lunch!  Hahah.  But she was on my side, so I got up around 11pm and moved to Mike's side of the bed.  Then, during the night, she moved between us again.  That cat is so cheeky.  I hope she decides Toby's bed is a far better option, otherwise I might never sleep well again.

Nice ride in this morning, despite the wet roads.  The rain was hardly noticeable.  But it is a cold southerly.  Brrrr.

Time for tea and the day to start!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with fish for tea

Hi,

I rode home in lovely conditions yesterday after work.  Went for a good lunch time run too.  So not too bad a day for getting some exercise in.

When I got home (a little late as I had a late meeting), I started tea.  Toby and I were happy to try the fish dish this week.

Fish with crispy potatoes and beetroot and orange salad

Toby scoffed down the fish, but did say it wasn't as tasty as other fish dishes we've had.  That might be because he didn't use the capers and mayo sauce that complemented the fish quite nicely.

We'd just finished (a bit late for tea, I know) when Mike texted and I volunteered to collect him and take Andrew home.  They'd been out with Meetup planning trips.  We caught up well with Andrew on our way out to Lower Hutt.

Back home and I was straight to bed, really.  Read a bit and then crashed.  Woke lots during the night but rolled over and went back to sleep.

Time for tea now I reckon.  Have a wonderful day.

Love,
Angela

The Monday back at work and with my wee sisters birthday

Hi,

What a funny day, weather wise here.  I reckon it was colder inside work than outside.  I froze at my desk for about half the day before I warmed up enough to be able to type effectively.  I hope Karen had a good day for her birthday.  I am sure she did.

We had parent teacher interviews and I met Mike not far from his work in the car.  We drove to Toby's school and sat in the car as we were super early.  Well, you can never tell with the traffic.  That's my excuse.

We attended our well scheduled interviews - all one after the other.  Boom, boom, boom!  Boom!  (We had 4 of them).  Toby is doing much better at this school.  He is happy and relaxed.  He excels in PE (huh??) and Spanish.  And even his Science teacher (that was his worst mark) says he is doing well and just aced his last test.  Ask Toby what you like about the food chain in the Antarctic.  Apparently Toby understands that ecosystem quite well.  I read his test and I agree.  Well thought out answers linking ideas together well.

Back home and Mike collected burgers so I didn't have to cook.  I had had a headache all day so I went straight to bed.  And I slept really early.  I must have been asleep by 8.30pm I reckon.  I woke a few times in the night.  Thought my sleep was over when Mike came to bed, but it was only 9pm.  And then I woke at 11pm thinking it must be around 4am.  Nope.  Still lots of sleep to be had.  Weird night.  Hahahah.

Took the bus in with Mike this morning.  My bike is still in town after the parent teacher evening.  Hopefully I get to ride it home after work today.

Have a brilliant day!

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Wellington

Hi,

We had another weekend in Wellington.  The weather up at Ruapehu was so bad that no day trip for my first skiing of the season was possible.  And now they have 2 m of snow up there!  Crazy weather!

We had a fairly quiet weekend in town.  Toby's old bed finally got picked up by someone so we have a bit of space in the garage now and can probably get the car back in there.

Wee Smudge is getting a bit more bold.  She roams around a bit more - but still dives off under the couch when someone walks in.  She has realised we eat around the dining table and that has become very interesting to her.  We spend a bit of time growling at her now.

Lamb with honeyed kumara mash and stuffing balls

Toby caught up with his mate Will.  They planned to meet at the local school.  We got there early and sat in the sun watching a family group play tennis.  I thought the woman watching with her back to us sounded like Yingjie.  And when I heard one of the boys was called Alex, I really thought it might be our friends.  But that Alex was so different, I discounted it.  Toby and I wandered around looking for Pokemon.  Then Yingjie and Alex came over to chat!  I couldn't believe it!  We swapped numbers and then Will arrived and I left Toby and Will to hang out.

Saturday night saw Mike off to the pub to watch the rugby and I watched a movie with Toby on Netflix.  We saw the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.  With Megan Fox.  It was actually better than  I thought it would be.

Not a lot else happened over the weekend.  Weather was diabolical on Saturday and surprisingly good on Sunday.

Parent teacher interviews after work today.  That should be interesting.

Right.  Time for tea and the week to start.  Have an awesome week.

Love,
Angela