The weekend in Masterton for Oktoberfest

 Hi,

So much has happened since my last blog. Thursday night we went out to Petone for tea with Kara and Janine at Gear St Union and then onto Epuni Hall for a community theatre show. Wedding Singer the musical. And it was actually really good fun. I was doubtful - but they all came through in a great rendition of the story. Bold performances. Solid performances. Just how you hope.

The Wedding Singer - the musical

Spoilers: it all worked out in the end

Buried by cats

Friday I ended up staying at home. No chance to ride my bike with Kara in town or by myself in the Wairarapa. Too windy and rainy. I did bake bread.

Sourdough

Picked up Mike and headed over the hill. Checked into Solway Copthorne and relaxed ahead of dinner out for us. We went to The Good Spot Eatery, a lovely Asian fusion cafe/restaurant. Had some delicious food in a great atmosphere with attentive staff. Then back to our room.

Up for parkrun.  Henley Lake was the parkrun venue - and only the 5th event for them. What a lovely run. Mike enjoyed it so much he went for a second loop. I got my #25 parkrun. Yay.

Masterton parkrun

Running ...

And done

Brekkie in Masterton

What sort of energy drink is that?

We went to Reduced to Clear but found no bargains this time. Checked out Cycle Tom cafe and enjoyed their bike shop too.

Judder bar sign

Oktoberfest set up

They are ready

Janine came over and off they went to Oktoberfest.  Maybe 30 - 40 punters. They had a lot of fun.

Sunday was more rainy and windy weather. We checked out and drove home and played with the cats. hahah.

Katla (the RAV4) got dinged - someone drove into it while Toby was at a cafe. But they left a note - what good people! So we're sorting that out. Front bumper and bonnet are a bit dented.

Enjoy your week. More windy and rainy weather here.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with working from home with Mike

 Hi,

The day wasn't too bad yesterday. Sunny enough. Mike decided to work from home too. We got a lunch run in. Well - he did. My right calf is tender so I just walked.

Lunch time run

Young Toby

Mike from a few years back for another Oktoberfest

We were in bed fairly early. And up for a bus ride in and my PT session. Incline bench. 30kg. 8 reps x 4 sets. Then calf work. Because - you know.

Thursday morning PT session

Iced latte time

Caught up with Shane for brekkie. And now at work.

I will ride home furiously at 4.30. Get changed and drive to Petone to meet Mike (he is running there) and Kara and Janine. Dinner at Gear St Union something cafe something. Then off to see The Wedding Singer (the musical). Umm - yeah.

I will let you know.

Then we're off Friday to Masterton for a random Oktoberfest at the Solway. Ok. Secret pizza Friday night.

Good stuff. I will go cycling.

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with a wonderful catch up after work

 Hi,

One thing I do not understand is why my 2 days at work feel more like 4. This week is quite the adventure. 

My incredulous face at the lovely weather

The day was wet when I rode in but calm. And then the morning was beautiful. Clear skies. Lovely. Then at 2pm it hosed down with truck loads of rain. And when we met up in Rosies with everyone, sunshine again.

It was so good to see Joycie, Steph and Sally. What a great bunch of people. So good to hear news - Steph's new job, Joycie is starting a new role next week and Sally has had such great travel holidays recently.

Made our lives look pedestrian.

Mike and I ubered home and fed the cats. We noticed the moon on our way home - huge, full.  It looked so stunning. Turns out it was a supermoon. The Harvest moon.  All I knew then was it looked so gorgeous. 

Moxley has a grass pad from a work colleague and she loves it. Hahah. Mike popped it down and within seconds she was on it. Nibbling. And a few mins later - puking up grass.

Right. WFH today. Just had garage gym with Quentin. Squats. Tough day at the gym for me. Ended up doing 40kg 4 reps x 4 sets.

Have a fabulous day, everyone.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work

 Hi,

Lucky it was a WFH day yesterday because the day was chaos from the start. I was home when Mike's new passport was delivered so I signed for that. And mine turned up on Friday when we were in Chc. So I headed out to Johnsonville NZ Post to collect it.  All with no bother at all.

Courier delivered Mike's passport

Car apparently read a 130km/hr sign somewhere

On the way back I took the motorway and somewhere the car read I could do 130km/hr.  Hahahah. No. No, I could not. Not anywhere in NZ on a legal road.

Mike got home after work and we had some tea and watched some YouTube and went to bed. We were still a bit tired from the weekend.

Up to ride in and the day was so lovely. Wet road. But now we have no wind and clear skies. Went to my PT session. Deads. 80kg 5 reps x 4 sets and then wrapped bench press. 40kg. 5 reps x 2 sets. Then a dodgy set with only 2 reps. Then a 4th set with 5 reps. Not sure what happened in that 3rd set.

Anyways. The day stretches out before me. Meeting Steph, Sally and Joyce from our last work after work today. Yay.

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Christchurch helping Toby shift flats

 Hi,

What a huge weekend. I need a rest after all that.  I did see Ed on Thursday though in my lunch break. So good to catch up with him. He is almost fully recovered from his broken ankle and settled into his new role (9 months now I think he said). Yay! Can't wait for the next catch up. Maybe after our trip to the MotoGP.

Ed and iced latte

Sourdough for Christchurch

My Jane Goodall Barbie from Karen

Early Friday morning saw Mike and I driving the Forester to the airport (it may's well be the one that sits in the salty air for a few days). We had enough time for a quick brekkie before a fast flight to Chc.

Friday Wlg iced latte at the airport

Couple of hours later, Chc iced latte at strange Bandit

Iced latte

Iced latte

We left Mike at work and headed to Toby's old Brodie St flat to continue the work to box up all the things. There was a lot of stuff but Tessa had a plan and Toby and I just tried to execute the plan. 

It did mean Toby and Tessa were by far the most organised out of the flatmates. Lucy had no one to help her so we all pitched in as we could. Mitchell had work so was out of action.

Rolandbrau bottle

Going to try and save the sticker for Katla

Cleaning old room

Toby driving us

Poms for tea Friday night. Steph and Sam joined us too.  Calm before the storm.

Mike in the shower in the Accor room

For this weekend, we stayed in the Breakfree Accor backpacker hotel. It was nice - but not sure I would stay there again. Tiny. Clean. The bathroom was just obscured from the main room by curved frosted glass.

The bed was somehow too soft.

Rain outside

Wide angle of our tiny room

Their new place in Worcester St ("Wooster St" as Google Maps pronounces it) is lovely. Fairly new. Heat pump. Toby and Tessa have 2 rooms in the 4 bedroom place. Mitchell has the master with ensuite. And Lucy is in the only downstairs bedroom. Toby, Tessa and Lucy share a bathroom/shower upstairs but there is a single toilet next to Lucy's room.

Mike had got up early in the pouring rain to collect a covered trailer that Duncan (from work) had available. It was 30km north west of Chc. But it was so worth it to have a huge, covered trailer.

New flat kitchen

New flat lounge

The whole day was spent ferrying and carrying stuff from Brodie to Worcester. It was a lot. Plus a full trailerload of bin bags full of rubbish to the dump. A bunch of people turned up to help. I was happy to get Toby and Tessa's bed set up so they finally sleep in their new place. Especially with Tessa having work on Sunday.

More stuff arrives at the new flat

Steph and Mike

Toby and Tessa have a bed to sleep in

Old room all cleared

Old place at Brodie St

They say goodbye

3 years here

In the evening the four of us drove the trailer home to Duncan's place out on a farm. We then stopped off at Platform - some pub in the middle of nowhere - and had some nice pizza.

Sunday saw brekkie/brunch for me, Mike and Toby at Little Poms with a quick trip to Brodie to get that last rubbish collected. Yay!

New desk built for Tessa

We found and built a desk for Tessa to replace her old, falling-apart one that wasn't worth trying to reassemble.

And managed to squeeze in a trip to Silky Otter to see Prime Minister. All 3 of us really enjoyed the documentary - a real good look at a crazy amount of history shoved into 5 years.

Prime Minister at Silky otter

Little Poms iced latte

Tessa got home after work and we ran out of time to eat somewhere. They dropped us off at the airport. We caught a wee plane home. Drove home and fed the cats and went to bed.

Mike was up for gym with Quentin and he is tuckered out. No wonder. He did a lot of driving and lifting.

Week looms. Grey and cold here. Let's see what happens. Thank you Ange for checking the cats.  xx

Smudge warmly greets Ange on her visit

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday working from home

 Hi,

We got news of the restructure and my position is fine. A change in reporting line as suspected. I will be the only NZ-based person in my new team. So let's see how that goes.

There was a big shock for my friend with no role in the new structure. That makes me really sad and I am not sure if they realise what they are losing in that space. 

Yesterday was sad too. Vivienne's passing anniversary. I wasn't really in the right mood to catch up with people, but Mike went after work to John's place and caught up with them all - Sally and Andrew were there too.

Then this morning, news came in that Jane Goodall has passed away. She was on a tour of the US and died of natural causes. This is the passing of one of my heroes. Up there with Sir Ed. And David. I know there are others coming through that can take on the work that Jane has done for raising the public awareness of the role we play in shaping our environment and the future impact. But for now, I am really saddened by this loss that surely will be felt around the world.

Cats hanging out with me

Toby at karate aged 4 or so

Mike found a pic of wee Toby yesterday where he looks so cute at karate. It was Dad's birthday yesterday and I sent him this as I know he enjoyed seeing Toby at karate.

So yes. A mixed bag of emotions as October kicks off this year. But we are off to Chc tomorrow to see Toby and Tessa as they move into their new flat. That will brighten up my sombre mood.

Take care of each other.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with planning

 Hi,

You know it is planning day when blogs are not forthcoming. Hahah.

We did get news early yesterday of a restructure announcement coming today (Wed) - so that is some excitement today. Let's see what they propose. My bet is for around 5.5 years here I will get my 6th manager. I hope it says something about the way people restructure than how anyone wants to manage me.

Hot potato, hot potato...

V beautifully presented by Shane

Walked home with Barb

Mike suggested walking home after work and it turns out Barb was planning on that anyway. So we had a great catch up as we walked through the bush. We split off at the top to our respective homes.

Stunning view of the best wee capital

Throwback to Doubtful Sound from Iona

Cooked tea and fed the cats. And watched YouTube before bed and little more YouTube.  Honestly I was asleep in minutes.

Woke up and Mike hared off to town for his PT session. And I an WFH today. Awaiting the announcement.

Will catch up with Ed tomorrow. That is something I am looking forward to.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela