The weekend with Mike away

Hi,


Mike headed away on Friday to the mountain and Toby and I had a good weekend relaxing at home after our previous hectic weekends.

I took photos of the building work.  Our house is our castle at the moment because we have a moat around the front door and a drawbridge (although I can't pull it up and the Jehovah Witnesses made it to the front door on Saturday morning).

Building work at our place

We have a drawbridge - that doesn't draw

I made brunch for Toby (bacon and eggs) and he declared them good.  Woot!  We watched a funny/scary movie Saturday night at home.  The Cabin in the Woods.  It was silly.  But kinda good too.

Toby woke me at 3.15am and said he couldn't sleep.  I said he could get into Mike's side of the bed and within seconds he was asleep!

Sunday morning I got up early and headed to the gym in Evans Bay.  What a view from my spin class.  Did a run after it too.

Nice view from my spin class

Grabbed Maccas for Toby for a treat on my way home.  Tidied up.  And did the laundry.  Mike got home late.  I was asleep already and yet to hear lots of details.

Parent teacher interviews tonight.  I cleverly made them for 6pm.  Should be easy to get there!

Have a fantastic week!  Hope my sister's had a good birthday.  And tomorrow is Karen's birthday!  I'll ring her when we get home tomorrow.

Oohhhhh.  Birthdays!

Love,
Angela

The Thursday with work

Hi,

Happy birthday to Shona and Sharon for tomorrow.  It might be a significant birthday.  Or they may be turning 21.  Depends how they feel on the day, I guess.  21 is also significant.

Mike texted me that our car was ready for a pickup and I needed to get there before 1730.  So I finished work and walked as fast as my wee legs could manage to Torrens St and picked it up easily.  And given its location, it was an easy drive home up through Aro.  Woot!

Cooked tea for me and Toby when I got home.  Spag bol - seemed like a good one as Toby polished off an awful lot of it.

Mike got home late and was almost immediately into bed.  He's packing for his weekend up at Ruapehu this morning.  yeah, you and I both know he will be missing something crucial, like clean undies.  Hahahahah!

Toby and I have the weekend in Wellington.  Sunday looks good so I will try to either get a ride around the bays in, or another session in the gym.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday that was a blur

Hi,

I rode home after a day that just went from crazy to manic.  The ride was good fun - the evening was still and clear.  Got home and cooked tea for me and Toby.  Mike got his put in the fridge (tramping club night).  Toby wolfed down the fish - I had made a crust with panko breadcrumbs and baked it in the oven.  Mmmmm.

The evening disappeared (bit less blurry than my day) and before I knew it, Mike was home.  He stayed up to unwind and eventually came to bed.  As he did so, I noticed the weather outside had changed for the worse.

This morning has widespread rain and a bit of wind in the capital.  Apparently there is surface flooding around.  Anyway, I caught the bus in, because I am soft.

Have a brilliant day!

Love,
Angela

The Tuesday with nothing much

Hi,

I did enjoy my ride home - but with a Spin class at midday sapping some of my energy, I did notice the ride was a little tougher than the day before.  Something about a hill that takes 8 - 10 minutes to ride up will do that to you, I guess.

I got home and cooked tea.  Home made burgers tonight.  Mike got home as we were ready and we all ate them.  Yum!  We also went over science revision for Toby's test on Thursday.  Acids and bases.  Goodness, it's like dredging up concrete from the depths.  But we got there - mostly.

Fell into a coma and had a pretty good sleep.  Enjoyed my ride back in as it is clear and calm today.  But the weather is set to clag in - a lot!  Thursday and Friday look to be awful.  Toby and I have decided to stay in Wellington and avoid another weekend away.  But Mike is headed up to the mountain.

Time for a tea and the day to start in earnest.  Enjoy yours!

Love,
Angela

The Monday back at work

Hi,

Ok - doing it tough on a Monday.  I think I was constantly remembering the wonderful weekend with Toby down south.

Lamb and roast potato smash - with mint aioli

I rode home and enjoyed that despite the late hour.  It was already dark.  Doh!  But it was my first ride home in a while and a good way to unwind after the tough day.  Perfect recipe.

It did take a while to get my head into the cooking zone.  But it was an easy recipe - lamb with roast potato smash mixed with mint aioli.  Toby wolfed it down - with seconds.  I must remember that potato recipe.  Back to our own meals tonight - I will do fish for the Tobster.

Mike got home late and ate the dinner and enjoyed it too.  Then we squeezed in a bath.  Not that we squeezed into the bath.  I mean we managed to fit time for a bath into our evening!  Hahahah.  Ok - we also squeeze physically into the bath too.  Remember we bought a two person bath just for this purpose!  It was a great way to relax.

Off to bed and I stupidly read for far too long.  The cat tucked under my knees while sitting up in bed.  She has this routine where she curls up there until Toby comes in and says goodnight.  Then she runs out and follows him down to his room for the night.

The cat may run our house.

Right.  Time for a cuppa.  I think my day yesterday was so hectic I never got to have a cup of tea.  That was probably why it was a tough one!

Better sort that out right now.

Enjoy your day.

Love,
Angela

The weekend in Methven

Hi,

Toby and I had a great weekend, although it ended up with no skiing involved whatsoever.  We left late on Thursday - our flight was delayed an hour.  Mike happily sat with us until we got on our flight.

Thrifty were fast and we were negotiating Christchurch airport in our Nissan xtrail within 20 minutes of landing.  It did make for a late arrival at Pudding Hill Lodge.  I appreciate the manager staying up to greet us at midnight and show us to our room.

Same room as last time.  And we got to stay there as the accommodation had (unfortunately for them) had 75 people cancel a conference at short notice.  Ouch!

Cold morning on Sunday

At midnight, the storm hit.  And what a storm.  We had solid rain for two days with no let up.  Any driving involved a lot of floodwaters and roads were closed around the province.

But we got to Primo for brunch on Friday.  Enjoyed our meal there (although we had a long wait and Toby's poached eggs were hard) - my iced coffee was good, despite the wait.  Not too sweet.

Iced coffee at 130

Our usual driving conditions on Fri and Sat

We got some new ski pants for Toby and some gloves that work.  Bonus!  Still optimistic we'd get to use them at this stage.

Bought some groceries to keep us going for a bit and headed back to our room.  However, dinner wasn't put on and Toby got hungry around 8pm.  Weetbix weren't good enough - and neither was an entire (small) round of brie.

We got in the car and attempted to get to Methven.  Our usual route got flooded and in the dark we couldn't see the other side - nor the sides of the road.  We turned around and tried another way.  We hit more flooding and Toby decided then he'd rather gnaw off his arm than drive through floods.

Primo iced coffee

Toby checks out The Ambassadors 

Saturday morning saw us head into Methven late for another brunch.  The floods had dropped a bit and we got there ok through several flooded roads.  Good car!  Went to Cafe 130 and had a nice brunch.

Rental car leaving Pudding Hill

Got more groceries - enough to keep us going through the night.  But once back at Pudding Hill, we heard dinner was on.  Doh!  We said no and stayed in our room eating bread.

We packed up and paid - ready for the 2.5m of snow and a sunny day forecast for Sunday.  And yes, the day dawned with stunning weather.  But the huge dump of snow meant the access road had 8m snow drifts and the crew were so busy trying to get access sorted, that delays meant we were looking at a midday opening.

Toby and I headed to the access road at 11am.  We were in a queue along the bottom road about halfway back to SH73.  And soon had other cars banked up to the highway.

We put our chains on, in anticipation of a drive up the hill once it opened.  Or, I did one.  And then three lovely men asked if I needed help.  So they took over and were very nice.  Although the chap putting the driver side one on said he'd never done this before.  And it showed.  But brute strength works wonders and the chain got on and looked tight.

He did say we should check with chain staff further up the hill.  Hahah.

But, after waiting for 2 hours, we got the word from Mt Hutt staff that it was a 1.30pm opening.  And after I did the maths on the hours, I realised we'd be lucky to be skiing by 3pm.

Toby and I took the chains off (much faster than putting them on) and headed to Chch.  We wanted to see a movie, but once we got to Riccarton Westfield and queued up, the session was full.  We then went to the airport and dropped off the car and checked in.  Our flight was overbooked, but because we were super early, they checked us onto an earlier flight.

Yay for Mike collecting us early.

Great weekend.  Still 0 for 2 in the ski stakes though.  Better luck next time.

Love,
Angela

The Wednesday with a haircut

Hi,

After the stunning morning, the forecast was entirely accurate when it said it would cloud over and rain by midday.  That is exactly what happened.  As I stepped out for my Spin class at 12.25pm, the road had some rain falling on it.

I caught up with Steph about some work stuff before heading to my haircut appointment.  Sat there and enjoyed the pampering that comes with a haircut (well, someone is sort of playing with your hair and you kind of have an excuse to close your eyes for a lot of the time - so I find it relaxing, so long as not much conversation is expected).

I caught the bus home, as I didn't want a helmet to muck up my new hair style (such as it is).  I texted Mike what bus I got on, but because he'd told me work was having an issue, I didn't really expect him.  Anyway, I was engrossed in my book on my phone.  As I do when I catch the bus.  And eventually I get a text.  From Mike.  And it says "Look to your left".

Mike was sitting on my bus.  And given we were now at the university, he'd been there quite a while.  I laughed.  The poor man sitting next to me probably wondered what I was doing.  Mad!

We got home and I cooked tea.  Basically a shepherd's pie.  With kumara mash and beef/venison mince.  It was pretty tasty.

Toby and I are off to Christchurch this evening.  But a storm coming through will likely mean we just spend our time eating in cafes for the first two days.  But should the ski field open, the snow will be fantastic!

Back late Sunday!  Woot!

Have a fantastic time.  We will!  Skimming stones on the river is always on our agenda too.

Love,
Angela