The Thursday with aikido

 Hi,

Busy day at work.  Instead of going out and stretching my social abilities beyond the pale (I am going out after work on Friday) I headed home instead.

Mike had detected my resilience was wearing thinner than usual and sent me flowers at work.  Awwww.  He's lovely.  Thank you.  They are stunning and now they are sitting on the dining table at home, I see them often.

Flowers from the loveliest man in the world

In a vase at home

Ate too much tea and then drove out to Lower Hutt at 6.06pm.  Got the Celia's house at 6.30pm and we walked to the dojo for the second week of aikido.

Far less women there than the week before.  But great fun.  Not sure I will learn anything, really.  But I am enjoying myself, nonetheless.

Walked back home at 8.30pm and jumped in the car and headed to town to a) get fuel for the car and b) collect Mike from his fun social activity with Janine and all those mates.

He left his pub and met me at the petrol station.  We headed home and fell into bed.  With the heat pump on.  Hahahah.

Friday is stunning

The cats decide our bed is best

Up for Friday morning and it is a stunning day in the capital. Mike is off to brekkie in town.  I ate at home and took the later bus in.  Left the cats snuggled on our bed.  Hahahah.

The weekend is close now.  Sreejith's last day at Intergen.  Wow.  We will catch up with him after work.  And I have an AFL social event in town too.

As I said:  busy social life.  

Mike is off to Waerenga hut with some friends after boot camp tomorrow.  I will walk in with him and then walk out.  Sunday is AFL.  And Mike will come out of the bush some time early Sunday.  I have a movie with Andrew on Sunday night.  The Alpinist.

And that is about it.

Phew.

Have an awesome day.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a new heat pump and a coffee machine

 Hi,

We had the heat pump installers come around yesterday to get the heat pump into the big downstairs bedroom.  The outside unit is down the side of the house between us and Juliette.  That room is now toasty pie warm.

It probably took them 3 hours, I guess.  Maybe a tad more.  

The upstairs heat pump also had its motor replaced - now it is quiet as it heats upstairs.  Our house is a very pleasant place to be right now.

Moxley tries to get my attention

I jumped out to collect our new coffee machine from the Ninja Barista place in Kaiwharawhara.  meanwhile Mike had to go to bed with a migraine.  It's a shame for him.

New machine

Made Mike lunch when I got back and the tradies had all left.  Worked through to 7.30pm as I had a late meeting.  Made dinner for me and Mike before that late meeting though.  Asparagus rolls with haloumi.  That is so delicious.

Off to bed in the warm bedroom.  Hahahah.

I was so excited to get Mike a coffee this morning.  Made two as the grinder was set to coarse for plunger coffee for the first one.

He liked his coffee but I want to experiment further with the machine.  And run the drawback through when I get home so it stays in top condition.

Cheese scone and iced latte @ Legato

Into town and gym this morning (leg day - oosshh).  At work and got a cheese scone session in with Barb and Juliet.  Mmmm.  Saw Dan P there.  Hahah.

Have an awesome day.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with AFL training

 Hi,

WFH on Tuesday.  It is always nice as the cats like to hang out with us - especially Moxley.  Mike was in at work so Moxley curled up on his chair and slept beside me most of the day.

Why did you wake me up?

Sleepy

My chili plant was happy in the outdoors for exactly one day.  The storm overnight battered and hammered it.

Before the storm

After the storm

I am hopeful it might rally and get back to health.  Let's see, eh?

At least the potatoes are happy

And the kale is a triffid

Dead lift Tuesday morning

I did AFL training after work.  The rain held off for the most part - just a bit drizzly towards the end really.  Made the ball slippery.

Drove across town - left home at 1720 and got to Martin Luckie park at 1745.  So - that was ok.  Took me as long to get back - road works!

Slept well.  WFH again today and the heat pump is going into our bedroom today.  Woot!

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work where it already feels like half a week

 Hi,

I took hardly any pics yesterday.  You know what that means?  No iced lattes.  :-o

After a hard day at work, Mike drove in and we wandered over to Rosie's.  Callan joined us and Kara, Neil and Janine arrived too.  We ended up eating a few things too.

The stairwell lights make our stained glass window look amazing

Drove home and wasn't too long out of bed.  A storm got up and it was pretty windy.  But by morning, it was blue skies and calm.  It is supposed to close back in by the end of today.  But right now - that looks a million miles away.

Drove in for my session with Quentin.  Mike followed my session and I drove home again.  Mike is working in town today.  So our colleagues know he really does exist.

AFL training tonight.  Although if this hail and storm does arrive, that might be in jeopardy.

Have a lovely Tuesday.

Take care.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with stuff and AFL

 Hi,

Busy weekend - but with lots of little things really.  Did get an iced latte lunch date on Friday with a woman at work (with a unique name - so no names here!).  Good fun to catch up with her (and Mike) and Mojo.

Iced latte lunch with JL

We met Manisha, Saurabh and Sarthak for dinner at Higher Taste and really enjoyed ourselves.  Wee Sarthak is just over 2 and a half and is so talkative and engaging.  Manisha and Saurabh must be very proud.

Off home afterwards and into bed.  Up for boot camp on Saturday and it was a gorgeous morning.  Frank Kitts park was the place to be at 8.30am.

Boot camp

Garden

Headed to Mitre10 to get some Expol (finally).  Met Sally and Andrew and walked with Sally to Zany Zeus to pick up coffees and a few things.

Zany Zeus cafe stop

Tea time

Andrew joined us at Epuni and between him and Mike they got all the plastic wrapped and taped.  I nipped out to town for my spa appointment and back - they were still down there.  The rain came down too.  But all good.

In the basement area

Plastic all taped up

We had dinner with Sally and Andrew (deliver Easy - Turkish - yummy).  Headed home.  Slept well.  Up for AFL on Sunday morning.

The Saints lost by 3 points to the Tigers.  We have new kit and new names from next week.  Took home the guernseys for the washing duties.  :-)

Home in the afternoon and planted out the chillie plant and fingers crossed that survives.  :-)

In the garden

AFL washing!

Sarah, Hamish and Ryan came over and we had pizza for dinner with them.  The evening was stunning and we ate on the deck.

Pizza on the deck

Gorgeous evening

Moxley looking contemplative

I am in this pic - with a 7 on my back

Fell asleep and up for PT session.  Bench this morning.  37.5kg.  It was ok.

Enjoy your week ahead.

Love,

Angela

The Thursday with aikido and what was I thinking?

 Hi,

Mike and I both worked from home yesterday.  The cats like it when that happens.

Curled in the tightest of tight balls

Sleeping next to us as we work 

The solar panel salesperson came to talk us through installing solar panels.  We got a lot of material and a quote by the end of the day.  $12k (and another $18k for a battery tower).  We will definitely think hard on this.

Artist's impression

After work I headed to Celia's place at 6.30pm to pick her up for a women's course in beginners aikido.  She showed off her bathroom.  I took a picture of her linen cupboard because it is aspirational.

Celia's linen cupboard is amazing

Celia and James are propagating triffids

Celia and I drove to the aikido dojo.  We parked in a street where we could seethe dojo across the park.  Turns out we probably were closer from Celia's house.  Hahahah

The aikido course was such fun.  It's in a dojo in York Park ( behind some houses across the road from Zany Zeus).  There would have been about 20 women, from early 20s to maybe my age.  The woman running it would be 10 years older, maybe.  Not sure.  But it was hilarious and fun.

We learned a few steps and moves and tried some rolls.  Turns out I am really quite hopeless at this.  But I might have finally got the hang of a few things.

Dropped Celia home and popped in for a cup of tea at Sally and Andrew's place.

After aikido cup of tea

When I got home, Mike was staring proudly at the new downlights in the stairwell.  They haven't worked for about 5 years.  They were really bright.

You need sunglasses in our stairwell now

I need to take the carpet up now I can see how yucky it is.  Hahah.

Weekend is coming fast.  Boot camp.  Epuni plastic work.  My eyebrows.  Then Sunday is AFL day.  Woot!

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a work dinner

 Hi,

Busy times.  This post is not a "good morning" post at all.  It's a "good afternoon" post.  And yesterday I seem to have only taken photos of Moxley.  Hahahah.

Moxley!

She's looking like her kitten self here

Mike and I went to Espresso Ninja after work and dropped off our Gaggia basket.  And in late breaking news today (Thursday) it looks like we are in the market for a new coffee machine.  Boo!  That Gaggia has seen us right since about 2005 when we bought it in Melbourne.  I guess it doesn't owe us much after such sterling service.  But now the decision is:  what do we replace it with?

Sigh.

I like my coffee machine.  And by that I mean I like using it to make Mike his coffee.  I hardly use it for myself.  I want one that is compact and makes a delicious crema as the Gaggia did.

Oh well.

We popped into Master Kong and waited outside on the harbour, enjoying the last of the sun before we went in for dinner.

Had dinner with Laura and Arnold from work.  Ate lots.  Phew.  Then the three of us went back to work while Mike went grocery shopping.

Mike kindly came to collect me when I was done.  Finished putting away groceries when we got back home and fell into bed.  Had a good sleep.  Up for online PT session.  Mike went in for his.

Thursday morning was busy.  Work.  Plus solar panel sales person came to talk to us.  Left us with pamphlets and other things to consider.

And now it is lunch time on Thursday.  So enjoy the rest of your day.  Take care.

Love,

Angela