The Wednesday with Toby sick

Hi,

Mike stayed at home with Toby but I tag teamed him at 3.30pm to take Toby to the doctor.  Toby has a bit of a cold and has another day off school today.  I am working from home today.  Listening to the sounds of the neighbours mowing their lawn.  Weirdly like a weekend, really.

Anyhow, I got home with Toby yesterday evening and we successfully bought a costume for Halloween this Friday.

Looking sinister

Toby likes his costume

After we sorted out his costume, I made dinner.  Despite Mike not being available, I cooked up the lamb for Southern Man Lamb Salad (it's from Mike's recipe book for Southern Men - apparently this meal goes well with Speights - who'd have guessed???).

Looks quite a lot like the recipe picture

And dished up on my plate

So, it was a yummy meal - Toby said he liked it.  After that we went to bed and I was virtually asleep by the time Mike got home.

He was busy with the new members night at the tramping club.

Right.  Lovely day here in Wellington.  Maybe later I can sit in the lounge and open the doors to the deck.  That'll make working from home quite pleasant.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday that felt like a Monday

Hi,

Wow - work was saving up a few crises from the Monday holiday for me yesterday.  I was busy all day fixing things.  Madness.  Hahahah.  But it turned out okay - I rode home and was all relaxed and jelly-like by the time I fought the headwind home.  Toby got home and after a bit of commotion we settled into our evening.  He did a lot of homework and I cooked tea.  Macaroni cheese - just like my mother makes.  :-)

Toby loved it and ate every last morsel on his plate.  I may have had seconds myself.  Love macaroni cheese.

Mike got back from Christchurch (he was there for the day) quite late and landed into the howling gale winds and driving rain.   Christchurch, apparently, was quite nice.

Mike was all keyed up still, but I was comatose.  I fell asleep pretty quickly, after rolling over and thinking I'd never get to sleep with Mike awake and reading.  Zzzzzzz.  It must have been seconds.

I went for my run this morning in a strong northerly.  So strong it was actually blowing me along.  And when I turned back for home, it was a tough slog into the wind.  My bike ride into work was less hassle than I thought.  Maybe the wind was more nor'wester than northerly and the hill protected me for a lot of my ride.

Toby is getting sick and having a day off school today.  Mike is working from home with a few meetings in town to attend.  Poor Mike.  Poor Toby.

Right.  Time to kick off the day.  My day is frantic.

Love,
Angela

The weekend with an awesome Labour weekend

Hi,

What an amazing weekend.  It had huge highs, but it also had some low, slightly worrying moments.  But that's what makes life so exciting, right?

Friday night I left work and rode up to Aidan and Josh's house to look after all three boys while Aidan got back from work and Mike picked up Burger Wisconsin for everyone.  It worked out well.  Any night where I don't need to cook is a great night.  Aidan and I organised plans for the bike ride to Pencarrow lighthouse the next morning and then we left them to it for the night.  Well, quite late (9.30pm - I was so sleepy).

Aidan before breakfast at Chocolate Dayz

I made breakfast for the boys and waited for Aidan to arrive after her exercise class.  She'd also held off eating breakfast so we were both famished.  I had both bikes already on the car and ready for her arrival.  Said goodbye to my boys, and her boys settled in for the day.  Mike had a massive list of tasks to do (and got through a lot of them - good on him!).  Then we were off.  First stop - breakfast at Days Bay.  Yummy it was too.  I washed it down with an iced coffee.

I give it a solid 8.  Quite good.

Then we drove to the end of the road and unpacked the bikes and headed off.  Aidan used Toby's bike and it worked well for her, once we adjusted the seat height.  Large knobbly tyres made the ride much easier for her.  We had a good system at gates too - Aidan would go over, and I'd lift each bike over to her.  Aidan got a bit miffed with some young fellow who asked us twice if we needed help at one gate.  I think Aidan would have lifted 10 bikes over at that point, just to prove the point.  I thought he was lovely asking again.  But, we didn't need him.

The Eggs Benedict worked wonders and we only stopped for a bit of chocolate once.  Drank plenty of water though.  The weather was lovely - Aidan wore a t-shirt.  That is a good indication of the warmth in that sun and the absence of any wind of note.


We rode past the lighthouse to some lakes behind.  I'd never been there before and enjoyed the swans with cygnets and a heron fishing.

Aidan enjoying the view

 On the way back we stopped and took our shoes off to enjoy the sun on our feet.  Wow - my feet looked good against that backdrop.

The feet look good!

Are you sure there's a lighthouse behind me?

And Aidan asked someone to take one too

The timer worked great to let us take photos of ourselves

 We left the car park and drove past one of Aidan's favourite second hand clothing stores so we stopped so she could check it out.  Nothing grabbed her attention much this time.  Back home and relieved Mike of boy duties and Aidan took hers home.

Sunday night was dinner at our place and so during the day I went grocery shopping and bumped into Aidan shopping for the dessert.  Mmmmmm.  Went back home and cooked tea and then relaxed until Aidan turned up.  Mike took Aidan through his photos of Nepal and they had a long chat before I put dinner on.

But at about 5.30pm Aidan got a call that Josh's tramping party had pulled their emergency beacon.  We knew nothing else for the rest of the night.  The Masterton police asked Aidan about texts she had received from the party (last one was the previous morning at 11.20am).

This was the start of a long wait for Aidan to find out what had happened to Josh and his companions.  She did remarkably well.  Duncan and Emerson stayed the night at our place (that was the plan all along) and the next morning I took them to H20Xtream.  Got back home for home-made pizzas and then Aidan called with word that Josh was fine and evacuated out to Masterton.  So she drove over to collect him.

Selfie time - I see Duncan peeking over the seat too

We all went to see James Cameron's Deepsea Challenger movie in 3D playing at the Embassy.  It was the most amazing movie!  We all loved it.  Then there was a Skype session with James Cameron after it projected onto the big screen.  Emerson and Duncan jumped up and asked him a question.  Emerson was the first in the queue!

James Cameron on the big screen

Kaka visitor

Toby at the formal dinner

He looks gorgeous

We dropped the boys back home and caught up with Josh, to see he was all in one piece for ourselves.  Thank goodness he was fine - and he said he'll talk to the tramping club about his experience.  It is why he prepares as well as he does - for circumstances just like that!  Good on him.

Mike sprayed weed killer when he got home and a kaka came down to the deck to watch him carefully.  I was standing watching Mike too and got some awesome photos of the curious wee thing.

And I have added some photos of Toby from the other night.  Turns out I have sorted out my phone and the photos and now available to my blog once more.  Yay!

Have a wonderful week.  Mike and I are off to Queenstown this weekend with a work function.  Woot!  Haven't been there for years.

Love,

Angela

The Thursday with nothing much

Hi,

I rode home and found no Toby.  I tried to ring him, but his phone was next to me on the couch so that was no good at all.  Mike said he'd come home via the library (he had the car in town) so I settled down to make dinner.  But Toby must have got the memo (that is, no one turning up to collect him at the library) because he came in not long after that.

We had a nice dinner and then I coerced Mike into the bath with me.  Not!  I found my last bath bomb (I need another trip to Lush with Aidan) and we soaked in something that made the bath water bright red.  Mike thought it looked a wee bit gory.  Hahahah.

I was so tired I don't think I was awake for very long.  I think Mike and Toby had an exchange of words later in the evening but it seemed to be resolved and I fell back to sleep.

This morning I had a good run.  Apparently I was faster than normal.  Really?  Didn't feel like it at the time.  And my ride in started off in nice dry conditions.  But about 800m down the road, it started a light rain.  I went faster, hoping to get down the hill part while the roads were still dry.  I managed that!  Woot.  I am a bit damp now though - my bike shorts are drying on my pannier.  Hopefully they won't be too soggy by the time I pull them on at the other end of the day.

Long weekend for us.  Yippee.  I am going for a bike ride with Aidan tomorrow.  We're hoping to ride out to the lighthouse south of Eastbourne.  Possibly more of a picnic on bikes than a ride with some snacks.  But, if that is what it takes to get out on a bike ride with Aidan, I am all for that!  I am looking forward to it.

Mike and Toby have got plans for tramping Saturday night and coming back late Sunday.  And Emerson and Duncan are coming around on Monday.  So the weekend looks like fun.

Have a marvellous weekend.  I need a cup of tea.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with a school dinner

Hi,

Toby got off the school bus in town and came to see us there.  He finished his homework and then we got changed and headed to Scots.  Unfortunately all of Wellington was driving in their car at that stage and a normal 20 minute drive took 45 minutes.  Traffic jam, Wellington style.

We weren't late.  In fact, we were some of the first sitting at any table.  The food was good - nice meat and weirdly, a shrimp concoction of sorts that you ended up having to lie on top of your salad and roast meat.  But it was good.

The evening went quite late, with toasts and speeches and prize givings.  I enjoyed one teacher's speech in particular - she was the only one to speak in Maori.  And the only one not from New Zealand.  Interesting, eh?  But the small choir was the highlight.  Four boys, singing Money,Money, Money from Abba.  They did ok but when it came time to the bit where you sing "Aaahhhhhiiiiiii" the boy trying it could not hit any of the notes and he cracked up - as did the entire hall.  Good naturedly.

We snuck out at 9.15pm when there can't have been too much more to go.

I had to ride a bus to work this morning.  Never mind.  Hahahah.  Roll on 5pm Friday!  Long weekend for us this weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with nothing

Hi,

Tuesday was redeemed by its glorious weather.  The sort of day in Wellington that almost makes up for the other days in the year that are pants.  Hahahah.  It was a "fish n chips on Petone beach" evening.  But we had the next best thing.  Mike fired up the BBQ for the first time this season and we ate scrumptious hamburgers.  Thanks Mike!  I went grocery shopping after tea - and went to stupid Countdown because they stock the big boxes of Rooibos I like.  But the big boxes were on special and all gone.  I also noticed they no longer stock canned pumpkin.  Oh - I was hoping Aidan would make me a pumpkin pie one day.  Stink for me.  So I went to Countdown for no reason in the end.  But I bought a small box of Rooibos to see me through.

Mike and I had an appointment in Khandallah at 2pm, so we drove there, attended that and then I dropped Mike home for a 3pm meeting.  I went back into town to get some work done.  I also caught up with Ange for a decent chat.  We're plotting to go to the Auckland office together soon.  She has a new starter there, and we want the staff to buddy up.

Driving home was amazing - the weather was absolutely beautiful.  And this morning, for my run, I couldn't believe it.  There was not a breath of wind and the birds were all chirping as loudly as I have ever heard them.  Happy birds.  It was such a nice run.  I ran well.

Busy day today.  And it is a formal dinner at Toby's school after work today.  Toby has a shirt and tie to wear.

Have the most amazing day ever!  The weather here makes it really easy to have a great day.  And I remembered my Rooibos tea so I can drink tea and make everything even better!

Love,
Angela

The Monday with quiz night

Hi,

What a busy day.  Work was flat out (well, that is hardly different to normal).  I left at the normal time and went to Future In Tech training.  That went really well.  I quite enjoy the sessions I have done and I hope I can make my presentations a little more interesting for them after this session.

After the training, I walked to the Green Man pub quiz and joined up with Mike, Ange, Sharron and Pete (from tramping club) and we came second!  Woot!  After we crashed and burned in our joker round and another round (5/10 for both).  Amazing feat!  Best answer of the night from me?  I knew Santa Fe was the state capital of New Mexico.

Ange dropped us at the car and we went home.  I dropped Benjamin off at home and then went back into town to collect my bike.  It meant I had an awesome ride into work this morning instead of a boring bus ride.  I also bumped into Aidan on her way to work, so it was doubly good.

Right.  Time to get stuck in.

Have a fabulous day.

Love,
Angela