The Wednesday with lawyer stuff

Hi,

Today is settlement day!  OMG.  I feel like an indentured servant again.  A huge mortgage and dwindling life expectancy years left.  A mortgage in my 30s seemed so much manageable.  I'd better work like a mad woman to get it paid off early as possible.  Hahahah.

Yippee.  Very happy and excited.

Mike and I spent an hour signing things at the lawyer's office yesterday.  Yep.

Mt Vic looked great from my office yesterday.

I went home after work and spin and cooked tea for Toby.  He wanted chicken schnitzels (his fave) but we had no chicken.  He got fish fingers, rice, tomatoes and fruit (kiwifruit and mandarins).  He seemed very appreciative even though it wasn't his preferred choice.

Mike went to a seminar on something.  Possibly leadership or motivational stuff.  Not sure.  But he learned a whole heap of things around making changes in his life to see goals come to fruition.

Nice.

Had a great sleep to make up for the Toby-surprised-Star-Wars-laser-fights-storm-interrupted sleep the night before.  Up early to walk in.  Tried my new shoes for Nepal - they seem awesome.  And my new pants for walking.  They may be a tad warm for hot, humid Nepal.  High altitude Nepal - they should be all good.

PT session this morning.  Lifted 60kg.  But poor form.  So back to 55kg to get form right.  Sigh.

And - time for brekkie soon with Mike.

Woot!

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with Toby home!!

Hi,

So excited - so confused.  Toby tricked us.  He said he was coming home today (Wednesday) and then once I was asleep last night, he and Mike hatched a plan.  Mike found out Toby was already in Wellington and coming home.  So they kept it from me until 11.30pm when Toby came into the house.

I was so confused.

Especially after dreaming that weird dream about Star Wars.  Set in an old house.  With Stormtroopers, Han Solo and Darth Vader - and me!

My night was really weird.

My lunch

Anyway, Tuesday was good.  Grabbed some lunch.  Worked.  Went to Spin after work.  Got home to a cooked tea from Mike.

Yeah!  I am #winning.

My dinner - courtesy of Mike

Reminder of past date night with Celia

Toby came home.  I am happy.

Got up and went to Spin.  Fave instructor day.  Went hard.  Feel dead now.

Seeing lawyer with Mike today.  Settlement is tomorrow.  Ooohhhh.

Big day.

Have a good one,

Love,
Angela

The Monday back at work

Hi,

Is it really only Tuesday?  I am so convinced it is already Wednesday.  Sigh.  Let's see.  What did I do yesterday when it was Monday?

Came to work.  Powered through the morning.  Hit a wall at lunchtime and never recovered.  Not a wall as in "hit the wall" and can't work anymore.  More like a wall that you keep hitting your forehead on and not really making any headway.

Happens, I guess.  Luckily not too often.

But I got to Spin after work and saw the leaderboard.  Oosshh.  In 5th spot.  But those nutters ahead of me are going to almost every Spin class.  Not sure I can reel them in.  Told Sarah (top of the board) we should make a breakaway group and bust loose from the pelaton and get out in front.  But it doesn't really work like a real bike ride.  Hahahah.

Moxley

Grooming on my lap

Funny wee thing - and so is Moxley

Went home and Mike had cooked the best dinner.  Tofu and paneer with spinach and other yummy stuff.  Coconut cream - which I think makes everything good.  And crunchy red peppers - and a bit of hit spice.  Chillies?  Dunno.  But it was good!

Off to bed while Mike cleaned the kitchen.  The pantry looks amazing now.  I woke up twice in the night as it was a fierce stormy night.  This morning as I fumbled for my Weetbix from the pantry, it looked like Mike had been a machine in there.  Wow.

[Mike here: the reason I tidied the pantry is that I needed unusual things for what I was cooking so I was exploring its deepest darkest reaches. And I found all sorts of weird, wonderful and expired things. Much of it got thrown away and lots of it got moved around to be more accessible. Fun fact: we appear to have about 10 cans of sweetened condensed milk. I have no idea why.]

Off to boxing and then spin.  As you can see, boxing makes my body work much harder.

Boxing followed by Spin - this morning

I can't believe I forgot to take a pic until I actually finished my iced latte

And got a coffee - but forgot until I was done to get a pic.  Doh!

And the day looms large.  Spin after work.  Yay!

Tomorrow we have lawyer stuff at lunch.

Enjoy your day!  Toby is in Chc and waiting to come back to WLG.  Maybe tomorrow?  His photo of the snowy Lindis Pass was wonderful.

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Wellington

Hi,

What a weekend.  Two Spin classes.  Horrible weather.  Horrible sports results (for me).

But - it started well.  Met Sally and Andrew after work at Amador (with Steph and Bronwyn) and on their advice Sally, Andrew, Mike and I all went to Highwater.  What a great suggestion.

Had such a good meal.

Drove Sally and Andrew home (subjecting them to Mike's music) and then home to bed.  Saturday saw me up early for Spin.  But as I drove in for that, Mike texted he got a migraine.

:-(

Got through laundry once I was back home.  Mike slept most of the day.

Manic Friday iced latte

Iced latte

Iced latte

Snort!

Sunday - the weather was awful.  I drove in for Spin and texted my manager's manager to see if I could use his car park.  He said yes, and I avoided $12 and getting soaked.  Win!

The bike ride was postponed.  :-(

Monday morning iced latte

Okay then

Monday morning saw me slightly upset at the sporting results.  Cricket?  Don't talk to me about cricket.  Hate cricket.

Sigh.

NZ Black Caps tied with England in the World Cup final.  Went to Super Over.  And we tied that too. Which meant that NZ lost on countback of number of boundaries during the game.

Stupid cricket.

Meanwhile, at the exact same time, Federer lost in a tie breaker in the Wimbledon's singles final to Djokovic.

Double sigh.

Come on Silver Ferns (in the Netball World Cup).  And All Blacks in the coming Rugby World Cup.  We need some redemption.

And this morning the Black Ferns play.  Maybe that will cheer me up?

Phew.

Enjoy your week.

Toby is in Alexandra and enjoying himself with Tessa and her family.

Love,
Angela

The Thursday working from home

Hi,

It all went very well, working from home.  It happened because the gardener was due to come at 10am to discuss the plantings for the newly landscaped back yard.  Outside Toby's room.

I headed in for my PT session and parked (sneakily) at work as I figured no one would be there at 6.15am!  Hahah.  And that was ok.  Drove back and got stuck into work.

Brooke arrived from AllWorks at 10am and we spent a bit of time wandering around the back yard, discussing options.  Without me trying to sway her to my way of thinking.  Honest!

Convinced her she needed a cup of tea.  But I didn't find the English Breakfast she was after.  So she drank some weirdo concoction I reckon Jase has left behind.  Hahahah.  Sounded more like a fruit cocktail.

Work kicked in again once Brooke left and it was full on until the end of the day.  Phew!  Lucky the fridge was so close and I could make myself toast to eat quickly between meetings.

Mike got home after meeting some tramper people after work.  And I wasn't long out of bed.  :-)

Weekend beckons.  Got house tasks.  And a bike ride with some Spin class people for Sunday at 1pm.  Yay!!!

Have an awesome weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with quiz night

Hi,

Working from home today so I can meet the gardener and discuss the new backyard landscaping - we need some nice planting ideas.

I met up with my boxing instructor for lunch yesterday - which was nice.  We went to Qilin Tea House.  Quite like that place.  I was a bit absorbed in the conversation (she is a draftsperson - so knows stuff about how buildings are built) - probably because I am a bit geeky.  Oh well.

Went to Spin after work, and then raced through a shower then power walked to the Cambridge to meet colleagues for quiz night.  I totally owned the riddle questions.  Oosshh!  Radon.  Yes.  Hahahah.  Mike turned up and enjoyed himself too.

Toby is now in Christchurch for the week.  He flew down late last night with Tessa.  I hope they have a good time.

Hoping to get a bit more Spin in this week.  We have a Tour de France competition going on at my gym - Habit.  Points for every spin class.  I was 4th equal yesterday morning.  Got two more in, so I hope that keeps me in the hunt before tomorrow's spin.

Have a marvellous day.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with birthday dinner

Hi,

 What a day!  Google did remind me of a ski trip with Toby in 2012 to Mt Hutt.  He looks so cute!

2012 ski trip to Mt Hutt

I did get an iced latte in the day though - usually if I am early enough I can get the time.  Yes!

Mmmm, Machete

We had a farewell lunch for Anooj - and Khemry's lunch was rice with meat.   The antithesis of my lunch.  She's funny!

Khemry's meaty lunch

My veggie one

I learned a new word yesterday.  "Prepone".  It's the opposite of "postpone".  If we have a meeting scheduled, and we want to bring it forward in time, we can prepone the meeting.  It's a word in Indian English and fully deserves a place in British, Australian and New Zealand English.  Not sure about American English - they have little idea of a fortnight.  Maybe they have a whole heap of other useful words to add into their lexicon before we get to "prepone"?  Queue.  Handbrake (ok, so apparently Americans call a handbrake the "emergency brake" - which must be why no one ever uses it in movies!!  When you stop the car and park, it isn't exactly an emergency.).

So, if you ever have a meeting with me, and you or I need to bring it forward in time, I will totally prepone that meeting.  Boom!

Met up with Mike after work at Little Beer Quarter and as I sat with him at his table, I looked around the place.  And saw Sally sitting at another table, with her wine, waiting for everyone.  Hahahah.

We eventually secured a table for all of us and did sit together.  Aidan and Janne arrived and we took a look at the Victoria Lane Apartment showroom before going to WBC for dinner.

Nice food - but not a lot of vegetarian options.  I enjoyed what I ate.  Mmmm.  Good chips.  :-)  The mushroom puree and glazed turnip was surprisingly good.

Grabbed the car from the carpark and drove back a bit closer to the restaurant, picking up my backpack from work on the way.  Some of us ate dessert and then we were off home.

I had the best sleep!  After two nights of little sleep, it was great to hit the pillow.  Toby is packed for his trip down south with Tessa.  I said goodbye to him.  He has a haircut and looks very nice.

Right.  Quiz tonight.  Oosshh!

Have a great day!

Love,
Angela