The Tuesday with nothing

Hi,

I rode home and escaped any rain.  Lucky for me.  Not quite so lucky this morning though, as I got a little wet riding in.  Also had a close call on The Terrace as a taxi blocked the road and I made to go around it and a car I was following made to go around it too, and decided to brake at the last minute.  Lucky I noticed and swerved.  The collision at 5km/hr would have been horrific.

Last night was a pleasant evening of cooking a yummy tea, helping Toby with homework and doing a spot of grocery shopping.  Came home and Mike helped me put away the food and we went to bed.  I chatted to Ma on Facebook chat for a while.  I am enjoying the photos from her trip to Canada and the US.  And then I slept like a log.

Have a fantastic day.  Stay dry if you're in Wellington.

Love,
Angela

The Monday with nothing

Hi,

Monday is always a struggle when you have a fabulous weekend.  But I got through it.  Got to 5pm and rode home via Ngauranga Gorge.  It was a decent headwind but I made good time.  I shaved 90 seconds of my previous best time.  Happy with that.

Mike cooked dinner and promised egg fried rice.  But we got lots of veges in it and Toby and I felt a little cheated.  Mike was mildly upset that we didn't think veges with a little bit of egg and rice was quite the same thing as egg fried rice.  Hahahah.  Toby respectfully requested no more stir fries.

It was a fairly relaxing evening - Mike and I managed a bath while Toby chilled out.  Then I put Toby to bed and read for a bit while Mike pretended to work.

This morning's ride in wasn't quite as lovely as it has been but I avoided getting soaked.  The rain last night was pretty heavy.

Have a lovely day!
Love,
Angela

The weekend with lovely weather and Toby's survivalist party

Hi,

What a great weekend.  I'm going to have to ask Mike to edit this blog and put photos up from his weekend with Toby and his mates as they celebrated Toby's birthday with a weekend camping in bivvys in the bush.  The photos I saw were amazing.  Toby was really excited by it.  And I commissioned a work colleague to make the cup cakes for his birthday, with a survivalist theme.  Look what she came up with!

Fondant huhu grubs!

Lots of huhu grubs

I work with talented people, that's for sure.  These huhu grubs are on chocolate cupcakes (Toby's favourite) with leaves and logs (flakes!).  They looked amazing - and tasted great too!  All the boys thought so.

Anyhow, while Mike and Toby were having fun in the bush, my weekend was just as much fun (well, maybe apart from the manic 4 hours of housework on Sunday morning).  Friday night I rode out to meet everyone on Petone beach for burgers.  Then I rode home.  It was a lovely evening for it.

Saturday morning I did a bit of grocery shopping for the boys before helping them pack.  Then I was off to drop off Andrew's bike gear and over the hill to Waikanae to collect Aidan.  I caught her boys doing the last bit of packing for Toby's party and then we were all off.  Aidan and I to see the Hunger Games Catching Fire, and the boys to Catchpool to find my boys.

Aidan suggested the Lighthouse at Pauatahanui and it was a lovely wee cinema.  We got there early and Aidan got a late lunch and I had an iced coffee.

Pretty good iced coffee.  Full fat milk or something, but the finish was lovely

I enjoyed the movie a lot.  Far better than most movies I have seen lately.  I think Aidan wasn't too traumatised by it all.  It went for ages!  Nearly 2 and a half hours.

After it was done we went for dinner to Duck Creek.  The weather was glorious and I got a bit of sun.  Aidan made me go get my cap on from the car.  Yeah - I was getting a bit pink.

Wearing a sensible hat

After dinner we were completely full and drove back to Waikanae.  Aidan suggested walking Lulu and it was a perfect way to feel better after such a huge meal.  Lulu loved it.  I heard all about Aidan breaking her ankle when Emerson was 6 months old and on her back in a backpack.  Made for an awkward flight home, being wheeled through the airport with two wee kids on top of her and Josh carrying car seats and backpacks through the airport.  So, to say I had a momentary panic when Aidan disappeared while talking to me, is an understatement.  Fortunately she didn't hurt herself as she fell.  Those dodgy ankles of hers.  And I think I could have got her home as we were actually almost across the road from her house by then.

Back home for a glass of water and a cup of tea.  Josh and Emerson arrived from the party (Emerson was a bit sick) and I headed home with Venus shining brightly overhead.

Sunday morning I did loads of housework and the house looks okay.  Mike and Toby got back with Duncan and Aidan came in to collect him.  Mike got to chat to Aidan finally (he's been missing her company of late).  

Jake came around to play for the afternoon.  Mike and I relaxed.  Cooked a nice dinner.  Relaxing.

Next weekend is the Taupo race.  Very excited.  Have a great week.

Love,

Angela

The Thursday with a school thing

Hi,

Wow - the days don't get much better than the run of three days of lovely weather.  Today (Friday) is a low cloud/misty day.  But Thursday was lovely - although the wind had increased.  Mike and I drove to Scots with Toby and Toby took us through recent school projects he has been involved in.  It was a lot of fun.  I also played tennis with Toby in the square.

Mike and Toby dropped me off in town afterwards and I pottered around until I called Mike and that coincided with him coming to get Burger Wisconsin.  So I got a lift home and ate burgers with the boys.

Mike is still a bit sick - it's all about the coughing.  Same as my thing back in mid to late September.  Poor Mike.  It keeps him up at night.  It also keeps me and Toby up too.  Hahah.  But we can roll over and go back to sleep.

This weekend is the most awesome Toby party ever.  Mike is taking Toby and some mates into the bush and they are going to make bivvys and eat weird things.  They will have a few challenges to try and achieve and generally have fun!

Hope you all have a great weekend.
Love,
Angela

Toby's sculpture - it looks pretty cool!

The Wednesday with nothing much

Hi,

After a complicated scenario from Mike involving many permutations to allow me to ride the long way and him to work late and Toby to get collected, I decided the Gilbert plan was far too hard and the Emmerson plan of "I'll go home and collect Toby" was far superior.  So that's what we did.  Mike worked hard and went to tramping club and worked hard pushing his agenda there.

I rode home the short way and got dinner ready.  Toby and I had another pleasant evening.  Homework done.  Doors open.  The wind has got up now though and I have found a new way to avoid luxing.  Open the doors to the deck when the wind is up.  It does create havoc with our loose papers.  But the dust is magically pushed into places you never see again!  The doors to our deck might just mean we have to tidy up more often.  Could be a boon in more ways than one.  Or we might just lose papers.

Tonight we're leaving work early to go to Toby's school for a student led conference.  Not terribly sure what that means.  But it should be fun!  Then home - I might even ride home if I'm feeling super keen.

Mike had a coughing fit in the middle of the night.  So much so that it made him physically sick.  Like happened to me about 6 weeks back with my bad cold.  So I think in a roundabout way, Mike has caught what I had back then.  He woke everyone up.  Toby was funny.  "Mum! he shouted.  "Dad's vomiting".  As if I couldn't tell for some reason.

Mind you, he also woke in the night and went to the toilet.  From his room he came into ours and went into the ensuite.  And turned all the lights on.  Even the one in our room.  People that know our house will realise that Toby has his own door to the ensuite from his room.

I think both my boys are a bit mad.

Anyhow, another lovely day here.  Enjoyed my ride in again.  All over the back of a car coming down the hill.  So much so that I had to pull the anchors on when they unexpectedly stopped for another car.  Hmmm.  Best watch my following distance.

Have a marvellous day!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with Mike sick, but at work

Hi,

Yesterday was absolutely glorious in the weather department.  When I rode home (and had the best ride ever - and that was only up the short way!) I threw all the doors open to the deck and started dinner.  Toby got home and we ate tea and he did homework and we had so much time that he did his own thing, and I read in the sun on the deck.

The evening from our deck - just as stunning as the morning

Iced coffee at Gasoline

I did get two iced coffees yesterday.  One at Gasoline with Sophie and one at Joe's Garage with Mark (client).  I was zinging all afternoon.  Maybe that's why I had such a great ride home.

Mike eventually got home after working late.  Apparently he has had a miraculous reaction to the medicine and felt much better.  Right.  He should have stayed home.  But he had loads on.  He woke me up at midnight when he went to bed and he fell asleep soon enough, leaving me awake and wondering what on earth had happened.  I never have any bother going to sleep.  Didn't at 10pm.  But 1am was a different story.  I admired the moonlight bathing me in full moonshine.  I noticed Jupiter rising over the punga at 2.30am.  Eventually, I think I fell asleep again at 3.30.  As a consequence, don't ask me anything hard today.  Hahahahah.

Going to ride home the long way around the bays this evening.  Tag team Mike with Toby so he can go to tramping club.

I might need more iced coffees today.  What a hardship that would be!

There is a cruise ship in and another stunning day here.  I suspect a boat load of people might be beating a path to the door of the immigration office after today!

Have a wonderful day.

Love,
Angela

The Monday with Mike sick

Hi,

Well, I did have plans for riding home the super long way and I was pretty excited about it.  I thought a ride along the bays and up into Brooklyn and home via Aro would be such fun.  But at 5pm Mike texted me.  And even through the text I could hear the pitiful tone of a man that was beaten.  He wanted me to come straight home to help him out.  He'd been to the doctor during the day and had medicines galore from her.

Mike's haul of medication from the doctor

So, home I went the short way.  Got home and Toby was doing his homework and Mike was lying in bed.  I made dinner.  Mike said he didn't want any.  But oddly enough, when he saw the awesome food I had cooked, he ate loads!

Spinach and feta enchiladas

Don't  tell anyone but I needed guidance on how to cook them.  Over a year ago Aidan had come to our place and cooked up a storm.  She made a Mexican feast on that day.  And chicken enchiladas were one of the things she cooked.  So I determined today was the day I was going to try it.  I admit, she had to text me the basic recipe idea.  But, once I had that, I was in flow and the enchiladas were scrumptious.  I did some chicken ones and vegetarian ones.

This morning is glorious in Wellington.  The sort of day that makes you want to live here.  Oh.  Look!  I do live here!

The view from our dining room this morning

By the time I sat down to breakfast the beautiful hanging clouds in the valley had gone.  My ride in was such fun!  I pedalled for all I was worth down the hill and I may have got to a new maximum speed.  But I couldn't tell, because the wind blurred my eyes.  I started to slow down, but by the time I could blink the tears away, I saw 61 km/hr.  So presumably I was much faster than that.

Mike was going to stay home again today but he is so busy at work with meetings and deadlines that he can't.  So I am going to ride home the short way again and do the Toby evening shift while he works late.  Groan!  He's such a trooper but I hope he doesn't get worse because of it.  He needs to start riding his bike again.  I figure if we take turns riding home the long way over summer, he'd get super fit.

Have a lovely day.  Try not to be jealous of the day we have here in Wellington today!
Love,
Angela