The Monday with a sari

 Hi,

We had diwali celebrations at work yesterday.  And what better excuse do I have to wear my sari that Kaustubh's mum gave me?  None - no netter excuse.  Krishna was on hand to help me get dressed because I still have no clue.  Lots of tucking and folding and strategic pins.  

I got changed at 10.15am and attended one meeting at 10.30.  Then at 11 we had the morning tea and celebrated what diwali means to Hindus.

Stunned selfie

Bumped into Tejas on my way back from a meeting

Angie looking splendid

Krishna helped me!  Thank you.

Amazing food for diwali

Chris looking mighty fine

After lunch (I had samosas for lunch - from the morning tea) I started to feel slightly sick.  A pretend dribbly nose and a pretend scratchy throat.  Enough for me to decide to go home instead of going to Spin after work.

Mike drove in for his catch up with mates and I drove home - with Barb (she lives not far from us).  I cooked Toby's favourite tea - chicken schnitzels and mash.  And then went to bed.  Mike was home early and helped Toby apply for his student loan for next year.

Up this morning to continued rain and an online PT session with Quentin.  Headache and a dribbly nose (at least, I think so - hard to tell).  So I will work from home and monitor.  I'll get a test if it changes.  There are community cases of covid in Wellington - although I see no connection to me.  :-)

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with no boot camp or AFL

 Hi,

Friday evening saw me meeting Elly and her friend Nicole at the Gryphon theatre to see a play.  Ophelia thinks harder.  Based on Hamlet but from the perspective of Ophelia - and all about the repression of women.  It was so good.  I need to attend more plays.  It was so well done.

I ended up with a fairly lazy weekend after it all.  Saturday morning I listened to Mike when he said we could skip boot camp and go to watch the lifting comp at Viking Brothers far earlier.  My guilt remains!

Friday went like this: Meeting time

Meeting time

Growling from Smudge

Flax season - the tui love it

Intermission at "Ophelia thinks harder"

So Mike and I headed to Viking Brothers in Petone and got there just after 10am.  We saw Courtney lifting and she was amazing.  She probably barely weighs 50kg and yet she lifted 127.5 in the deadlift section.  Wow!

Quentin was on after the lunch break.  Started around 1pm in the second flight of men lifting.  He did so well despite his injury into the comp (his hip is dodgy).

Quentin's squat

Quentin's bench!

I spent a lot of time yelling encouragement to all the competitors - but especially Courtney and Quentin.  Courtney came second and Quentin was 5th place - competing against at least one NZ rep.  Though it's the sort of event that you're really competing against yourself, not each other.

So, so good.

Saw Chloe and Hayden there - as well as many of Quentin's other clients.  A PT called Amber had a few of her clients competing in Courtney's flight.  Some on a par with what I could lift.  So awesome to see women pushing for goals like this.

Went out to get some lunch at Caffiend during a break.

Caffiend iced coffee

More lifting then the final photos before Mike and I headed home for the evening.

Sunday morning it pelted down rain and it was no surprise to discover AFL was cancelled.  The ground had ponding surface water.  Yeah - not good for the bounce of the footy.  Or your footing.

So I did a little housework and Mike did some hammering in the basement.  :-p   He was fitting more underfloor insulation, and measuring out what we need to finish the job. 

Then we tidied the garage - well - Mike did.  I went boxing.

My wrapping - seemed to work

Action shot from boxing at home

B&W pic from Google deciding that was needed

Mike disappeared at one point to buy more basement insulation and then he tidied the garage a bit more and test drove Sally's motor mower on the neighbour's verge (he's trying to sell it for her).  I kept boxing. 

The southerly was well and truly here.  Tessa came over and stayed the night. Someone came and bought the mower and I got showered with banknotes (well, not very many and small denominations) as I lay on the couch reading.

Trying to read when the cat decides my chest is the best spot in the house

She's so cute!

All 3 of them went grocery shopping while I chilled out at home.  Fell into a good sleep and up for PT with Quentin.

Diwali at work today.  Let's see how that goes.  I have my sari with me - any excuse to wear it.  :-)

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The Thursday with Stephwyn

 Hi,

Had a great catch up with Steph and Bronwyn after work at the Old Bailey.  I took no photos!  Doh!  I was held up by a late running meeting, but we got there not too long after 5.15pm.

Absolutely got caught up on all the news.  Heard about their house buying plans for Greytown.  And I just hope it isn't as long before we see them again.

Mike had other engagements on (yeah - I still have no clue what) so he left after a while and I stayed chatting for a bit before we all headed home.

I called into the New World in Thorndon to get chocolates for Toby.  Thursday was his last day ever of high school.  Wow!  So he wanted some boxes of chocolates for teachers for Friday.

After ending up with more groceries than I anticipated, I caught an Uber home.  Phew.  And as I stepped onto the top of our steps, I saw a stunning double rainbow.  It stretched right across the sky.

Double rainbow Thurs night

We got Toby and Tessa Uber Eats (I used my account for the first time - so it gave me $30 off as an enticement).  Mama Browns.  Ribs, a burger and their legendary shakes.

I was in bed and Mike was home as the food arrived so he wasn't far away from bed too.  Slept well - I was up for 6.30am Spin.

Early morning Spin Friday

Weekend looms.  Just have to get through 8 hours of work yet.  Toby and Tessa have assembly at 11am and then they are done.  Forever.  With high school.

Exams for them the week after next.

I have boot camp tomorrow.  Mike has survivor night.  I have AFL on Sunday.  The forecast is for gale southerlies.  Oh joy.

Sally and Andrew start their mega adventure today.  I'd tell you all about it - but it is so varied and long that it is hard to keep up.  Possibly Alp to Ocean in the next week or two.  

Have an awesome weekend.  Take care.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with Kaustubh in town

 Hi,

I caught up with a few people on Wednesday.  Very social day for me.  Zaheer was working on this side of town so we caught up for an iced latte.  He is moving flats this weekend - and renewed his contract.  So he's in a good space.

Iced latte @ Thunderbird with Zaheer

3 Angelas having lunch

Went to Spin after work - woot!  Back to work for a shower ahead of meeting Kaustubh, Mark and Arthur at Pop for a drink.  Kaustubh is in town for work.  Great excuse to catch up.  And Wellington turned on the weather.  Felt tropical with humidity in the air.

Mike drove in to get me and we all said hi to him before he took me home.  I actually dropped him at the bottom of Te Ahumairangi and he walked home.

Had an awesome sleep.  Up for PT session and loads of knee exercises.  

Meeting Bronwyn and Steph after work today.  Mike has three things on after work! Making up for his week away sick.

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with AFL training

 Hi,

Hello, hello.  Busy week this week.  Tuesday was good - busy.  But I did have a break for lunch and managed to convince Andrew he needed an Ugly Bagel.  I suspect he needed a break from his crazy work too - which helped.

Ugly bagel for lunch

The Lab for brekkie.  Note to people that don't know me:  the danish is not mine

I decided to head home after work to grab the car for the AFL training instead of bussing there direct from work and asking Mike to collect me.

When I got home at 1715 (after grabbing two boxes of chicken katsu for Toby while I waited for the bus) I stuffed some food down me, found a chipper Mike (box of birds, really) and changed and drove to the park for training.

Fortunately, the hour we trained was the hour that the rain let up!  Woot.  And it turns out there is a difference between picking this up in your 50s versus your 20s.  The sprint drills were a revelation to me.  How do they all run that fast?

I have an uphill battle on my hands to maintain my position on the subs bench.  :-p

Back home and showered and into bed.  Mike is working from home again today - but he is so much better.

Into work this morning and brekkie with Andrew.  Probably the last time before he heads down south with Sally for the first leg of Sally's Exciting Summer.

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday in November already

 Hi,

Mike is not covid positive - woot!  However, he is still not 100% well.  And Toby was sick yesterday and today.  

In other news - I feel fine.  :-p

Does that mean I am the spreader of pestilence at home?  Hahahahah.

Too many bags to take into town

Day working from home yesterday - but headed off to Spin for 6pm at Thorndon.  Did that.  My knees feel a bit shot.  Either from the AFL game or boot camp - don't know for sure.

Back home and ate dinner and fell into bed.

Wet again this morning.  Loads of bags to work for I could have my PT session this morning and then AFL training after work.  But I think I will head home at 5pm and grab the car and go to training.  It's too much to ask Mike to come out if he's still sick.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with my first aussie rules game

 Hi,

The weekend was quite the mixed bag, really.  The big news is that Mike was still sick and spoke to Healthline on Sunday morning and ended up getting a covid test!  But more on that later.

Saturday saw Mike staying in bed after trying to get up.  He tidied the kitchen and was exhausted by that (to be fair, there was a lot of mess!) and went back to bed.  I went to boot camp.  

Moxley sleeping next to me at work on Friday

Around midday Elly and Andrew arrived at our place and we headed to Vogeltown to pick up Elly's new oven off TradeMe.  It fitted into the back of the Subaru with tonnes of room to spare.  Drove it back to Titahi Bay and delivered to her kitchen.

At Automat for a late lunch

Hahah - my manic selfie attempt

Andrew and I dropped into Automat on our way home as Andrew hadn't eaten anything all day!  We had some vege burgers (good hemp pattie) and chips.  

Back home to find Mike was still a bit under the weather.  But Toby was right into Halloween with Tessa.  They were baking biscuits and carving pumpkins.  We also watched some scary movies.  I think Andrew left just after the 1931 Bela Lugosi Dracula classic.

Halloween biscuits

Happy with his carving

Ready to scare wee kids at the door

We get a T-Rex coming to the door

Awesome

Witchy greetings

Less scary witchy greetings

Sunday saw me up and cooking brekkie for me and Mike.  He wasn't well still so he chatted to Healthline and after 2 nurses spoke to him, he booked in for a covid test at 10.20am.

I headed off to Hutt Park for my 10.30am meeting ahead of the 11am kick off for the AFL game between the Saints (my team) and the Tigers.  The game is 8 a side, and the field is reduced by about a third.  Imagine how far you'd need to run if you only had 8 players on the full sized pitch!

We lost 8 points to 41.

I started on the bench as both teams had 9 players.  But within 2 minutes I was on.  I had no clue but it was such fun!  I kicked for goal once and maybe touched the ball two more times in the entire game.  I had a go playing forward, back and midfield.

They wouldn't let me on without a mouthguard so I took one from Shane (coach) that he swears had been boiled.   But on my way home I stopped at Rebel Sport and bought my own.

One woman was hilarious.  She full on tackled another player and then hung onto her leg until the woman finally dropped to the ground.  Her rugby heritage was showing up there!  I laughed to see that.

My experience?  Well, besides absolutely loving it, it turns out I am a bit hopeless at team sports and have hardly any spatial awareness.  :-p  The team was amazing.  The youngest on our team was 13 years old (and she is way taller than me!).  So there was a 40 year age spread.  That's pretty cool.

Popped into Sally and Andrew's place at about 12.30pm after the match and they were just having lunch.  I got poached eggs on smashed avo.  Mmmmmm.

Also heard from Mike.  He had to postpone his 10.20am covid test as he got a migraine!  Poor guy.  But by the time I got home he was actually out getting his test.

Mike gets a covid test

He drove into a car park somewhere on Taranaki St and they had it all ready for him.  He was the only one there.

We went to the park when he got home so I could try out bouncing a footy.  I can do it 9 times out of 10, if I concentrate.  Needs more practise.

I popped out to see Fran.  Her cat Gizmo is so cute.  She looks like Smudge and is friendly.  Like Smudge's alter ego.

Evidence of our game.  We lost 8 to 41.  Ouch!

Hey Gizmo!  You are so cute!

She's so friendly

She has shaved patches of fur after a run in with the neighbourhood terrier.  Bite puncture wounds got infected and she needs surgery to remove dead flesh.  Poor wee cat.  But she is right as rain now.  If a little wary of the fenceline with the neighbours.

Back home and up briefly before bed.  Had a good sleep.  Must be all that running around after an oval ball.  :-)

Up for PT session with Quentin.  32.5 kg 3 second pause bench!  OMG.  Tough work.

And working from home.  Hopefully with Spin after work though.

Sally has started her 3 month holiday.  Wow.  Her itinerary looks amazing.  They head off this weekend for the South Island.

Have an awesome day!

Love,

Angela