The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

In popping the weekend pics in here, I have to say, today is serving up all the content my loyal readers want. Cats, mainly. But iced lattes too. Natch!

Friday I got stuck into the big pile of mulch leftover from the gardening work Allworks did on our bottom garden. I carried it up to the side garden in two rubbish bags. Took many trips. I had to build a wee platform to get up and down the retaining wall.

Mulch pile Friday

Spread on side garden

Looks good!

But by the end, it looked pretty good on the side garden. And it meant when Mike got home from work, we did not have to do it. He could chill.

Toby had his last exam for his degree. He had a bit of a moment when he discovered he'd lost his cheat sheet (it had to be pre-approved, so he couldn't just create a new one). But he said he probably did ok. So fingers crossed for his results now. Good on you, Toby!

Friday was so productive - I also found my road bike computer

Hunted for my bike computer - and found it! In the sunglasses case with my road bike sunnies. So it made sense to put them there. But I had forgotten that. Charged it up and it seems to be working fine.

Groceries arrived

Groceries arrived. Yay!

Mike got home after work.

Off to bed.

Up Saturday to find Mike was a little washed out with a headache. Potentially he had a migraine during the night. But, Elly was ready to get picked up for Park Run. So off we went to get her. And the painkiller kicked in, so Mike did the park run with Elly. Gorgeous day for it. And Mike smashed it. Under 30 mins for his first park run in ages.

Meanwhile, I did a wee 2km run on the treadmill and did some bench work.

Saturday gym for me

Mike did a fast park run

We got some coffees and pastries and enjoyed a chat with Sally and Andrew in their backyard. Then off home to get the ladder and gutter brush thingy and off to Tetahi Bay to clean Elly's gutters. She has a broken wee finger (in 2 places! and dislocated!) so made banana muffins while we used the ladder to check her gutters.

We got iced latte from Fix Federation bakery

Enjoyed a backyard chat

Showered in petals

Zucchini plant progress pic

Mike and Elly check out the hens

After the gutter inspection

Then home to relax before joining Sally and Andrew for fish n chips on Petone beach. The wind had a wee chill to it. But it was lovely.

Fish n chips (and ginger beer) on Petone beach

Likely lot, eh?

Up Sunday (slowly) for brekkie in bed. And then Mike got a migraine! So back to bed he went. And I moved more mulch around the garden. The top garden has now been mulched.

Sunday brekkie for Mike

Moxley snoozing

So we had a busy weekend. Got lots done. Mike got his migraine. And in the evening we binged watched For All Mankind. We must have watched 4 episodes.

I sense a lot of TV in our near future in the evenings.

Monday morning as I type this - and I just noticed my throat is not sore. First time in almost 2 weeks! Yay!

Hope your weekend was good fun.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with Spin

 Hi,

Remembering Vivienne today on her birthday. xx

I finally got to Spin after work last night. 6pm session. The gym at Thorndon was quiet - there were even car spaces in their car park. And there were only 5 punters in the spin class. And 3 of them came together. Lucky they all decided they wanted spin.

Rode home. Fed the starving cats. Ate something myself. Mike got home. And we went to bed.

Spin last night

Up to a lovely morning here in Wellington. No wind. Dry roads. Fantastic ride in. Then off to the gym. 47.5kg squats. 8 reps x 5 sets. My legs will feel that later.

Then bench. What? Yes, I had an hour today (some swap with Mike - I dunno). 40kg bench. 3 reps x 5 sets. Also killed me.

Bench this morning

Is it really?

Down to accessories under the "Ability is limitless" sign. Which annoys me. Because it is patently not true. Ability has a limit. You can improve your ability. But it is not limitless. What would I change it to? Hmmmmm. Well, it can't say "ability is limited, just try harder". That is Angela's gym of hard knocks. Not sure it would be a winner. Maybe "Improve your ability". There!

Anyway. It is Thursday. My weekend starts in 8 hours. Woot! I did not get my road bike out at all last weekend. And we have a Wellington weekend this weekend. So I will try and get that sorted. Maybe Friday I can fossick around and get it ready, find all the bits. It still has my ticket from round Taupo in 2019 on it. So that might indicate how long it has been up on its hooks in the garage.

Otherwise, park run for Mike. Gym for me (and hopefully Sally). And things around the house. Oohh - tonight when I get home I need to plant out the zucchini plant Celia gave me. I can't wait! I hope it is as successful as Celia's plant.

Have an awesome day and a better weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with quiz night

 Hi,

I believe I failed to write a blog yesterday. Wow. How odd. But it was a different morning routine at work to usual. We had a mihi whakatau for a new person starting and it was such a great way to start this new chapter in my work's direction, internally. Goosebump stuff. Especially when I heard Myra do the karanga. Wow.

PT time Tuesday morning

I show off my guns!

Work iced latte with Helen

I had a busy day after that at work. Had an urgent piece of work surface up. So it is all hands to that. Shaping it up to see if we can nail it!

And it was Melbourne Cup. Work had a sweep so I bought two horses for me and Mike for $2 a horse. No idea of the horses. Pulled out #2 and #15. So assumed 15 was a donkey and gave it to Mike. Hahah. Both of them were far from the winning post. I could see the jockey on my horse had the experience not to push his animal when it was obvious it would have no hope of a finish. So that is good.

Work shows the Melbourne Cup for me. My horse is still running

At Mean Doses quiz

Walked to Mean Doses after Mike and Janine's run. Andrew and Kara joined us. And the combo was a winning one.

And we won!

Our joker round was the last round - Geography. And we were a few points adrift of the leaders when we hit the penultimate round. But the leaders had played their joker already. And when we got a good score in a tricky geography round, it was going to be close. 3 teams had this round as their joker.

But it was tricky. And we actually did the best in that round. We got 9 right. Which, to be honest, I did not pick because it was tough. And not really geography, really.

The scores came out, with added drama for tension from Dave, and we were in front by 4. Woot! Bar tab for us for next time.

Got an Uber home with a very nice chap. And home to bed.

Up for a bike ride in and Spin after work I hope.

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with around the vines

 Hi,

Welcome back to Wellington, Sally! Woot! Hope Samoa was fruitful with lots of good mahi done. I note Wellington is turning on the weather for your return. Or not. Yeah - today is a high of 12C and rainy and windy. Hmmmm.

We had a great weekend in Martinborough. I was unsure if I should go with a scratchy throat on Friday. Was it going to get worse and I would be spluttering over people? Snotty nose? Well... no. I did get a wee bit of a cough in bed, and my throat was sore in the mornings. But really, it seems to be just staying like that. So I guess that is good. But I will keep myself at home as much as I can until I see what is happening with it.

Made date loaf Friday

We left on Friday afternoon after Mike's work finished. Talk about a crawl up SH2. The new bike paths from the Hutt to Wellington can't come soon enough. I reckon a lot of punters will start using it. And some of that traffic snarl might ease. Maybe.

Got to our accommodation in the Top10 at Martinborough very fast once we cleared the Hutt traffic. Callan and Stacey had arrived too. Mike got me some food from the 4 square and I settled into our cabin happily to eat that and read.

Smudge relaxes in the sun

Moxley loves the sunshine too

Mike was very relaxed about walking 21 km and slept like a baby. I had a terrible sleep with a little bit of coughing. But luckily I was not racing in anything the next day!

Village Cafe iced latte - very milky

We walked into town early for brekkie and coffees. Village Cafe is still going strong. Lovely customer service too. Thank you. My iced latte was very milky though - which on another day might have been nice. But I didn't finish it.

Lolly allocation

My milky iced latte 

We met Callan and Stacey in the square and they had their 9am briefing. Then 9.15 came and they were off. The drizzly rain meant Mike grabbed my jacket just before they left. Probably a good thing as it was showery off and on for a while yet.

Callan winders why Mike is posing

And he looks away!

They are ready for it

So ready!

Approaching start line - Mike now in my green jacket

And go!

Off into the 21 km walk

Mike's Glympse was not working at all. So I had to guess when they might be close to the Top10 and I walked over to the school to spot them. Turns out Mike was sampling all the wine so they were a tad slower than I calculated.

Stacey made sure the second loop was much faster!

Approaching halfway

Off they stride to the 9km mark

And 2 km left to walk

Approaching the finish line - Mike determined to overtake that kid!

And done!

Happy to drink some water

Awww - a lovely pic under the tree

After the event, we went back to our respective accommodation places to shower. Then Mike went out to fins Callan and Stacey. They enjoyed cocktails and desserts at Tonic.

Then they got BBQ stuff and came back to the Top10 for a dinner cooked there. Very pleasant sitting out at the picnic BBQ area.

The women's rugby started (Black Ferns v England in the WXV decider) and I watched it on my phone. Callan and Stacey were very accommodating of my intention to watch it all. Second half we adjourned to our cabin to watch the rest of it.

Stacey wanted to see some fireworks in the park next to the Top10, so they left. The rugby was a foregone conclusion by then anyway. England were far too strong and clean with their skills for the Black Ferns. Showed the coach has a lot of work to do to make them competitive.

Off to bed not long after that and a far better sleep for me. Up to pack up and leave and Cafe Medici for brekkie. Callan and Stacey joined us. 8am was empty there - but by 8.45am it was full and very busy.

Brekkie at Cafe Medici

It was bright inside!

Lovely delicious brekkie. Mmmm.  Said goodbye to Callan and Stacey and headed home. After giving the cats some love, we went up to try and dismantle the dashboard to get to the evaporator. It has got a leak and we were quoted $2k to replace it. But the bulk of that work was removing and replacing the dashboard. So Mike wondered if he could do that bit.

Back home and the dashboard work

A lot of fiddling

He is so clever. We got stuck - but he could almost get into the evaporator. So he put it all back and then did more research. Now he thinks he can do it. Maybe we can try next weekend!

Moxley looking cute

We watched a movie on Netflix. A lost city. Silly film with Sandras Bullock and Channing Tatum. But it made me laugh a bit. So - all good.

Good sleep. Up to WFH today.

Week stretches out ahead of us. Hope your week is a good one.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with normal stuff

 Hi,

What happened on Wednesday then? Mike had a tramping thing at a pub after work. So I rode home and ate leftover stir fry and enjoyed that. Mike wasn't too far behind me. I am not sure he got any punters coming.

We were not long out of bed. Watched some YouTube videos. Okay - that is not accurate. Mike put on a queue of YouTube videos he loves. I read. Mike slept. Hahahah.

Gym session Thursday morning

Up to drive in because I am WFH today. Cleaners come today so I am cat sitting. Hahahah. And I hate to admit it, but I seem to have a scratchy throat. Again. I hope it goes away and it is not the Mike cold he just had.

My weekend starts at the end of today. Woot! If I am not getting sick, we're off to Martinborough. It was Mike's half marathon, but he will switch to a walk because he has been too sick to run in recent times. We have accommodation booked. And Mike will do the walk race - which involves wine-tasting, I believe.

Hope your day is a good one. And your weekend is fun!

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with a walk at lunch time with Barb and Halloween

 Hi,

Mike got sent home yesterday. The pharmacist said his cough was asthmatic in origin. But it did not sound good.

And that was good because it meant he was home to decorate for Halloween. Woot!

But I am ahead of myself.

Gym with Quentin was good yesterday. Deads. 82.5kg 3 reps x 4 sets.

Gym fun Tuesday

Desperate iced latte with Hope

Then a lunch time walk with Barb and Elicia. So good to see Barb after a few aborted attempts when I was sick. But, wow, do these two walk like machines.

We did 4.9km in the 50 mins we had. And when I checked Strava, I had a new PB for one of the segments of my run! Yes, I walked faster with them for a bit than I usually walk that bit. OMG.

Trick or treat?

More

My walk gave me a run PB for a segment

Rode home and Mike had set up the Halloween decorations really well. He says they are getting old now. But it did the trick (hahahah).

We only had 2 or 3 groups through. Maybe it is a school night?

Toby was set up in his flat too. He got a few more than us, I think.

Then we were watching some YouTube and off to bed. Sticky night. And my ride in was sticky. And my gym this morning was sticky. Squats.  45kg 6 reps x 4 sets.

Gah!

Hope your day is a fantastic one.

Love,

Angela