The Thursday with dragon boat training

Hi,

I had a follow up visit to the podiatrist and now I have orthotics in my shoe.  Let's see what that does.  No more appointments and a plan in my hand on how to get back into running.  Here's hoping it won;t be too much longer.  The plan is 8 weeks long.

Other than that, we had training last night after work.  The weather wasn't quite as stunning as Tuesday night, but it was still really calm.  In fact, we've had nothing but calm seas for every training session.  If race day is fierce, a lot of people new to this will be taken by surprise.

Drove home with Mike (he had the car in town) and I packed for our weekend away.  Yay!  Apparently we're off the Gumboot Day in Taihape, mainly to see some minor celebrity from You Tube.  Don't ask me - it's all the boys' doing.  Why I am following them remains to be seen.  And why, if that is the case, am I the only one packed at this point?

I may be doing something wrong.

Anyhow, Toby had athletics day with school yesterday and made every final he was entered in.  What a wonderful effort.  I think he may have placed in an event - but my attention was divided during the story and now I can't remember what event it was.  But it was the Under 16 division of something.  To me that sounds pretty good as surely 15 year old boys are way bigger than him.

Yes, I am a proud parent right now.  Good on him!  Glad he doesn't have his wrist in a cast around about now.

Enjoy the coming weekend.  As I said, we're in Taihape.  And I do have the R6 to ride back from Palmerston North on Sunday.  I must book into a refresher course for riding.

Lots of love,
Angela

The Wednesday with summer Shakespeare

Hi,

Toby came around to my work about 4pm and we wandered around to meet the architect and sort some stuff out.  Then we ate at Mama Browns and shared some ribs.

After being super early for the play in Civic Square, we sat in the library and read comics until Mike got there from his flight back from Auckland.  It was time to head into the venue to see All's well that ends well.  A comedy wrapped in a bit of a drama.  Not sure why Helena loved Bertram - he seemed like a bit of a twit.  But, anyway - she was smarter than him and he had no chance of outwitting her.

Headed home and stupidly read too late.  Hahahah.  Up early on the 6.45am bus with Toby for his athletic day with school.  Hope he goes well.

Hope your day is great too.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with dragon boat training

Hi,

I can't believe it is the first day of March already.  Wow.  The time has flown by and my birthday month has now ended.  I have to wait another whole year.

We had the best evening in Wellington yesterday - not a breath of wind.  And it was dragon boat training night so I got to paddle around in the still, calm harbour.  If I could have been sure of getting back in the boat without tipping everyone out, I would have jumped it.  It was lovely.

I met Mike after it and we bussed home together.  Mike went to get burgers and before I knew it, it was bed time.  Mike was up early to head to Auckland for work today.  Shame he can't collect Toby's wallet while he is there!

Had a nice bus ride in with Toby this morning.  And we're off to see Shakespeare in the park (well, in Civic Square) after work tonight.  And I must see the architect to progress house plans.

Hope your day is loads of fun.

Love,
Angela

The Monday back at work

Hi,

Back to busy routine after that huge weekend.  Got home in the car after Mike drove in and cooked tea.  A fish dish with kumara and salad.  As we started eating, Mike arrived and we ate together.

Fish dinner

I went out to collect my bike after its service.  $150 later I have a bike with brakes that work.  Yay!  No random squeaks.  I dropped in to see Sally and Andrew briefly while I was in their neck of the woods and then grocery shopping.

Gorgeous morning here

This morning is stunning in Wellington.  No wind and blue skies above the still fog.  Should be lovely out dragon boating tonight after work.

Enjoy your day!

Love,
Angela

The weekend with the last of the Bruce tour and Angus pick up

Hi,

What a huge weekend!  Mike dropped Toby off at the station with Sally and Andrew to catch their Kiwi Rail train to Auckland and went to see the panel beater (someone hit our car while Mike was parked at the Tongariro crossing a weekend back).  He then got home and I jumped in and we were off.

We had lovely weather and the new expressway bypassing the Kapiti coast was open.  That filled us with awe and pleasure at our taxpayers dollars building something to make lives easier.  As we went through the Desert Road, Mike realised we were able to meet the train at National Park - and get lunch at their nice station cafe.

Most of my Bruce 2017 wristband collection

National Park train station

Mike having lunch at the station cafe

We surprised Sally, Toby and Andrew and chatted away to them for 5 minutes before the train headed away again.

We drove up through Huntly way for a change.  We hit Auckland traffic and crawled for 12 kms through the southern motorway before getting to the Strand train station a good 20 minutes before the train.

Bye Toby, Sally and Andrew - see you in Auckland!

We headed to the Sampson house (via a pizza place) and stayed up for hours singing with them.

Singstar!

Next morning we headed to Anne's house to pick up Angus (Anne's name for her gorgeous Yamaha R6).  Wally came with us and we dropped him at Peter's house and he collected his bike (also a Yamaha) and it was so good to have him with me for riding the bike for the first time in unfamiliar streets.

Anne's driveway as crazy for the first time on that big bike.  I tried to maneuver it around a bit in her driveway and almost dropped it (it is heavy for me!).  Eventually I had it aimed up her steep driveway - she was keeping the gates open.  But as I gunned it, a car came in!  Yikes.  Fortunately they could sidle down past me.  I tackled it again and finally got it up and away!

As I followed Wally around some suburban streets, I stalled it a bit.  It revs so high I was worried about taking off and popping an inadvertent wheelie.  We wandered around a bike shop while Mike got a new helmet - just in case.  I had a good ride out on the motorway to Whenuapai and then we ate quickly and all headed to the concert.

Parked the car 20 mins from the stadium and found our gate and met up with Sally and Andrew.  Got in and staked out our place about 15 people deep from the stage.  Good location.

Waiting for the concert to start

Toby and Wally loved Jet - the support act.  Marlon William was good too.  But Bruce was in fine form, as usual.  But it was quite different from Hunter Valley and Christchurch in nature.  No requests taken.  He did Johnny 99 which was from left field a bit.

Got home late and didn't get up and away at 6am like I was hoping.  I decided sleep was probably best.  We ended up not leaving until 10.30am!  The bike behaved well.  I put petrol in any chance I got.  First at the services at Papakura.  Then every 170km or so we stopped.

I found it very hard after the first 2 hours - I had forgotten how hard it is to ride a bike.  It isn't as passive as driving a car.  By the time I got to Bulls and got off for petrol, everything was shaking.  My shoulders got sore as I rode, but if I stopped for a while, that disappeared.  We had a late lunch at Turangi - 4pm.  I enjoyed my ride alongside lake Taupo.  Gorgeous day for it!  I lost Mike and Toby in Matamata as they circumnavigated a roundabout twice trying to find the route south.  I knew the way so I took off.  Never saw them again until Turangi.

There was a big accident on the Desert Road.  A truck was rolled over and three fire engines and an ambulance were attending.  I stopped the bike in time as I crested a hill and saw Mike's brake lights come on.  I was conscious of other traffic coming behind, so I sidled alongside Mike on the shoulder and turned off the bike.  We only waited about 10 minutes before the waved us slowly though.  They had closed the road from the Waiouru end - sending everyone via National Park.

Turangi for a refill

At Turangi we decided that we should head for Palmerston North and leave the bike there for a week with Iona and Col.  Best decision ever!  I was tuckered out by then!

And what's more - it was Col's birthday so we timed our visit perfectly!  She has a new smart phone.  Her life is about to be revolutionised.

Got home just before midnight and it made for a hard wake up call this morning.  But we're all at work/school.  Yay!

Great weekend.  But I need the hectic schedule to let up soon.  And I need a lot of sleep tonight.

Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Angela

The Bruce tour 2017

Hi,


What a wonderful week stalking Bruce and enjoying my birthday!  Mike and I left Wellington super early Thursday morning and Toby was left at home with his Nana.  Our flight to Sydney was easy and we picked up the car with no issues at the other end (although the car rental woman took a while to warm up to her customer service job - but she got there in the end).

Drove out to pick up the house key from Scott's work and met Rachelle (who knows us well - or rather, our 20 years ago selves - as she had scanned all our old negatives for us).  Went to Rouse Hill for a wander around and sushi for lunch.

Back to the house and settled in.  I met Abby and Tyler at Abby's physio appointment and learned how to tape her ankle.

Friday was my birthday and Karen had the day off.  We headed to Rouse Hill and saw Patriots Day.  Great movie but hardly romantic birthday fare.  It was full on - especially during the bomb scenes.

We had lunch afterwards at a tapas place and enjoyed some scrumptious food.  Then Friday evening was spent at the athletic park to watch Tyler in javelin.  Mike helped Scott as a parent volunteer.  I saw them both narrowly avoid an errant javelin once - but Mike says they had to avoid two of them.

Saturday  saw us have fun at the local Park Run.  Scott and Mike both ran in it.  I volunteered as a marshall along with Abby and her friend Bella.  Mike did a stunning time of 35 minutes.  What a great effort.  Scott also did well with a better time from his last run.  Mike is keen to find one here and join in when we have free weekends.

After that we headed off for Hunter Valley and the Bruce concert.  After navigating Sydney freeways and arterial roads, we got to the general area and realised we'd need sunscreen.  We stopped in a town called Cessnock, which was lovely, and found ourselves in 35C heat as we walked the main street.

The Hope Estate venue for the concert was fantastic.  As we parked nice and early, Mike went to a wee unmarked tent in the car park to ask about taking food and water in.  No on both counts.  So we left everything in the car and headed up the driveway/road to the gates we could see in the distance.  We saw the GA Front Standing queue and joined that.  Slowly people left the queue in some mystifying way, and we ended up under the shade of the tent.

As we stood there, someone said we needed wristbands to enter.  And that they were only given out in the unmarked car park tent.  Nice.  So, we left the queue and headed back down to the car park.  Got two wristbands and came back.  The queue then self managed as the wristbands had a number on them.  We were 287 and 288.

We're standing in the hot sun, with no drink for quite a while now.  36C easily.  But the queue manager suddenly shouts out that the lucky number is 231.  Mike and I had no idea what that meant.  But then the chap says "I am taking everyone from 231 to 309 in first.  They won the lottery".  We ended up being in the first 50 into the concert - well before anyone else.  We got so close!

This close!  This was Hunter Valley.

Yep - that close!  See?  I could touch Bruce if I wanted to.  That's my messy hair.  And why is it so messy, you ask?  Well, let me tell you what happened before Bruce came on.  We had the extreme heat and no water issue to contend with.  Mike and I did rather better than the people being treated by paramedics around us.  Mike saw one woman wobbling like she was drunk - he suspects she was so close to heatstroke.  We saw people getting wheeled out.

Then, after we watched Diesel perform, the management came on stage and told us a lightening storm was approaching and we needed to step back from the huge, tall metal structure which was the entire stage.  Fortunately the crowd stepped back behind us and we all shuffled back 1.5m to stand on grass.

The rain then started - big, fat drops that got my jacket out pretty fast.  Mike shared his picnic blanket with the two women next to us (we knew them for hours now) and they huddled under there.  This was going ok, until the hailstones started.  Big ones too.  I got donked on the head a few times and heard a few "Ows" from people around me.  I put Mike's backpack over my head and sheltered under that.

Once the hail stopped the rain really kicked in.  It hosed down.  Felt like I was standing under a wee waterfall.  The man behind me under a huge tarp said "Excuse me - come and step back a few steps".  So I did, and amazingly the rain slowed to a near stop.  We were under a drain from the very top of the stage and all the water was funneling onto us four and no one else.

We got Mike's attention and him and the women all stepped out of the localised downpour.

Hi Bruce

We were treated to an excellent Bruce concert once the rain cleared, Jet did their thing and the stars came out in the night sky.  We even dried out - apart from my feet which stayed soaking wet the entire rest of the evening.

Got out at 10.45pm and it only took an hour to leave the car park.  Got back to Sydney at 2am and eventually fell asleep.

Sunday was a lovely day with Scott's family at the Castle hill RSL to celebrate the Feb birthdays.

Iced coffee at the Castle Hill RSL.  Under all that fake cream was a pretty good iced coffee.

I re-wrapped Abby's ankles on Sunday night during a break in another full-on movie with bodies getting mutilated during WWII.  What was that called? Hacksaw Ridge.  It was pretty good, despite the harrowing visuals.

Dressed the same!

Got up super early and said goodbye to Karen and Scott and headed to the airport.  Made good time and we were in the departure lounge waiting to board our A380 Emirates flight to Christchurch with two hours to spare.  We paid to get upgraded to business class as it was offered for fairly cheap to us via email.  It was all on Mike's bucket list (the A380 part) so we decided to try it.  The flat beds are fantastic.  Very nice.  They must fly fast because the flight to Chch seemed very short.  I may have slept a lot and missed patches of the movie I watched.


In Chch we caught the local normal bus from the airport into the bus depot and walked the 900m to our hotel.  Checked in and recovered from the early start and then walked around central Christchurch for the first time since the 2011 earthquakes (we had driven briefly through it late in 2011 - but it was an eye opener to see it by foot).  The buildings are still needing demolition in many places but the rebuilds look great!  Roads are still closed in places, but the city functions again now.

Looking at the place we first kissed!

We checked out the cathedral closely as this is where Mike and I kissed for the first time.  Up in the tower balcony.  I could comment about a near heavenly experience, but you all know how I feel so no need to go into rapturous detail on that!  Hahahah.  But it was sad to see it in ruins and not much chance of it getting rebuilt at this point.

We went to have dinner at a Japanese place next to our hotel and a couple of women were reading the menu outside as we stopped to read it before entering.  One turned to us to tell us about the good food they had just eaten there.  And when the other one heard us talking, she turned around and gave me a hug!  It was Issy from our Nepal trip!  How cool is that?

Wall of masks

I saw a wall of pictures of masks in a doorway for Toby to see.  He loves masks.  We slept well that first night and I went to work from the Chch office on Tuesday.  Had an iced coffee at the local cafe.

Iced coffee at Passengers

Got through the day and then Ubered to the Speights Ale house near the AMI stadium and met Sally and Mike for the concert.

Happy Bruce customers

We are ready!

Good location

It was a great concert.  Bruce was petitioned to come here after the earthquake and he finally made it.  It was a good memorial on the eve of the deadly earthquake.  We had a good spot, in the rear standing GA area.  Lovely weather.  Perfect evening.  We walked to Hagley Park afterwards and got an uber back to our accommodation.

I stupidly read until 2am so my alarm at 5.45am was a rude shock.  Got myself sorted and left Mike snoring as I Ubered to work.  Got through a good day there and then Ubered with a colleague to the airport at 3.40pm.  He got me into Koru (thanks Craig!) and I met Sally and Mike there.  They had worked from Koru the whole day.

Caught an easy short flight home and loved seeing Toby (and the cat - note the order I place that in!!) and the house and garden were lovely and tidy after Mike's mother lent a big hand to us looking after Toby (and obviously our surroundings too!).

Back to routine today in Wellington, but tomorrow we're all off work/school and heading to Auckland for the last concert.  Toby is catching the train up with Sally and Andrew, and Mike and I are driving the new car up.  It's going to be huge!

Take care!  Love you lots.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with quiz night fun

Hi,

What a lovely Valentines Day!  After seeing Mike unexpectedly due to me forgetting my work shirt, it started the day off well.

Iced coffee with Mike while in my cycle shirt

I did try to go to the gym on the way home.  Rode my bike down there, locked it up outside, ran in and discovered the 5pm session on Tuesdays is an instructor led class.  You have to pay for them.  So I left.  Hahah.  Rode home and chatted to Toby.

Toby's dinner he cooked

He decided not to come out with us and cooked his dinner himself.  While it does look like a bowl of grated cheese from the photo above, it does actually contain pasta with basil pesto.  It is one of his favourites and now he knows how to cook it.  He was pretty chuffed with himself.

I put the bike on the car and collected Mike from town and we headed to Lower Hutt.  I dropped my bike at Gary the bike mechanic's house and he told us the story of woe.  His wife of umpteen years had cleared the house out that day and left him.  He was reeling a bit!

Then we went to the Speights Ale House in Petone and met everyone for a scrumptious dinner and quiz night.  Ooosshh!  A solid middle of the table performance from our end of the table.

Headed home and got stuck in crazy traffic.  It look 40 minutes to get home, crawling along the motorway in first gear.  Down to one lane for roadworks.  Nightmare.  But it did mean I got to sing loudly for ages!  Poor Mike.

Fell into a coma in bed.  Up today for our last day at work before Bruce fun and games over the next week.

Have a brilliant day!

Love,
Angela