The weekend with the grand final

 Hi,

Happy birthday to Toby. He's 20 years old today. Wow. He's such a great young man and I can still remember cradling up in my arms after Mike passed him to me all those years ago. Love you, Toby!

Friday saw me chilling with Moxley on the couch for a bit of it. The rain came down - vertically! At 5.30pm I headed out to meet everyone at Bin44 for tea. Sally and Mike were already there. John and Bev up from Chc joined us and we enjoyed dinner together.

Moxley stretches out

One of the cats has been bad!

Saturday I made kiwi crisps - a blast from my past. Mum used to make these when we were wee. I must have nailed it as there are none left as I type on Monday.

Kiwi crisps

Our weekend was all about the AFL womens grand final. Huge day for me and it was on Saturday due to scheduling constraints.  3pm. 1.30pm we picked up Lauren from Karori and Caitlin from the train station and got out to Hutt park just after 2pm. 

A decent warm up and then the coach talked us through the team strategy and we were into the game at 3pm. Quentin, Courtney and Erin (and her daughter) joined Mike on the sidelines to support us. Andrew turned up late in the game to catch the end. And Eugen (from my old workplace) stepped up into the breach and handled a lot of the AFL grand final photography. I hope he enjoyed it - I know he has done a lot of landscape work in the past. A sports event is quite different. But here's hoping he enjoyed it and he learned a lot from doing it. Thank you, Eugen. And thank you to everyone that turned up to cheer us on.

Ready to go with Caitlin!

Bit of a rout but totally loved every minute of it

Caitlin is a winner!

Caitlin was transferred to Southern Swell and turned out to be a winner on her debut. Congrats to Swell - it was a great win and they deserved it. I loved every minute of the game. I had two kicks at goal. Missed a sitter right in front and got a behind. And fouled a banana kick on quarter time from a free kick (now I know that rule!).

We got a goal courtesy of Kate right on fulltime. The momentum was swinging back our way - but totally ran out of time. Next season is our season!

Dropped people off after a chat and some pizza after the game at the ground itself (ta Sam!) and then into cooking tea for Quentin and Courtney. They popped around to our place at 7.15pm and we enjoyed dinner with them.

Chicken schnitzels for tea with Quentin and Courtney

Hopefully the cats didn't give Quentin's allergies too much grief. I did get a lot of deep cleaning done on Saturday morning to try and give him a fighting chance. And we kept the cats downstairs during his visit.

Next day was lazier for us. I assembled the new eBike I got for Christmas. But the handlebar stem isn't quite right. Need to sort that out before I can try it out. It looks so good. I want some SPD pedals too.

Enjoying the sunshine

Bike is almost ready

Bruises coming up nicely

Chillies planted out

Got the chillies planted out. I need to keep them watered as they sit in the sun through the summer.

Busy week at work - and totally got my mind on Toby today as he celebrates turning 20.

Have a great week.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with me convinced it should already be Thursday

 Hi,

I walked home yesterday which was kinda nice. Bumped into Jan from tramping club on the way up the hill and chatted to her for ages. Got home at 1830 and fed the starving cats.

Mike got home just after 2000 and I was not long out of bed. Finished the roast veges and popped them in the fridge and off to bed.

I saw on social media that Lesley had her last day at her school - and now she's off to Wellington for induction. I will keep an eye out on the streets today. She won't know herself in her new role. Awesomeness.

Up for the early bus and gym. Bench this morning. 30kg and 8 reps. Oohhh. Tough work. Now my arms feel as noodle-like as my legs!

Waiting for my bus

Walking at the gym

Grand Final week means iced lattes and footy at work

Hoping to kick the footy around late morning in the park near work with Caitlin. Woot! Have a lovely day, everyone.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with my last AFL training and a presentation by Mike

 Hi,

Lovely weather for Tuesday - I was working from home and pretty busy. I did find rat #16 dead in the trap that sits under our deck, in the garden out the back. Mike reckons there might be an entire family of rats we can get if we're diligent.

Does this count as an iced latte pic?

In her crate - again!

Rat #16

I drove into work at lunch time and sat outside waiting for Anne - she is down from Auckland and I rarely get a chance to chat face to face to her. As I waited, Mike came by. He was out in a short window to grab some lunch for himself. I saw his face light up when he saw me parked there - so he came over and we chatted for a short while. I was so happy to see him.

La Cloche iced latte

Then Anne and I drove out to Kaiwharawhara and enjoyed a lunch at La Cloche.  Anne bought it for me! Awwwww. Lovely to chat to her. She's had a good few days down here in Wellington.

Hey there Anne - thanks for lunch

Then home again to finish work for the afternoon. And at 5.40 I headed to the park for the last night of AFL training. Lovely evening - we could have had a picnic, it was that pleasant. Skills all honed now for the Grand Final this Saturday.  3pm, Hutt Park.

Last AFL training for the season

Mike at his presentation last night - ta Stacey

Meanwhile, Mike was the The George with Stacey as support, telling the tramping club all about the two Great Walks we did. Stacey said Mike nailed it. By the time I was finished training and collected Mike, Stacey had gone. But she said such nice things in our group chat about the presentation. Awwww. Thank you for being there, Stacey. I wish I could have been there too.

Mike was fizzing - so it did go well, I reckon. I had Gabby from AFL with me as she lives in Waterloo. So we also collected Andrew from the end of his drinks and we all headed to the Hutt. Dropped off Andrew then Gabby and Mike and I headed back to town - and home - via New World.

Into bed (after putting away the groceries) and a deep sleep. I walked in this morning - trying to keep up my walking ahead of Kepler in the NY. Mike was at the gym with Quentin. In the 20m I was in the underground walkway at the train station, I bumped into Andrew who usually never goes that way. Funny. Such a coincidence. Good to see him for 30 secs before he rushed off to his thing at the Beehive.

And... I came to work without a warm top layer. I have my t-shirt I walked into work on. And my rain jacket. And nothing in-between. If I get cold at work (and I will - the aircon is fierce) I will be the one wearing my jacket. Hahahah.

Right. Have a fantastic day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work and our wedding anniversary

 Hi,

Lovely day yesterday. I did escape to the park for a run and a kick/bounce session. Yay for getting out of the "office".

Lunch time footy run

Hmm - not quite Tayla Harris form

Moxley chilling in her crate

After work I drove in to meet Mike for our anniversary dinner. 30 years together yesterday - 23 married yesterday. Ooohhh.

Anniversary dinner

Food

We went to Spice Traders and it was okay. Lovely eager staff - cavernous space for patrons. Food was okay. Lovely company.  :-)  Thank you Mike.

Back home to watch a movie together:  Wild.  Mike thinks I should walk the Pacific Crest Trail - or maybe Te Araroa.  I watched the movie and I am not convinced.

Squat racks for the first time in forever

Up for PT session. Squat rack for the first time in well over a year. Painfree knee will let me get back to it. Killed my legs. They are like jelly now.

Have a wonderful day.

Love,

Angela

The weekend with so much on

 Hi,

What a huge weekend - got so much done. And it was Tyler's birthday yesterday. She turned 19.  Awwww. Abby was also trialling out for netball teams yesterday so I hope she played well and got selected.

Let's see - what did we get up to this weekend so I can tell you it all?  Friday saw me catch up with Andrew at Machete like old times. And then I did some shopping for Christmas and posted away presents to Karen's place for Ma and Da. Turns out I had missed the cut off date but I am hopeful. :-o

Friday iced latte at Machete

Like old times

Tui in the harakeke

I had sprayed mould killer on a bench on the deck last weekend, so I brushed it off, sanded it and stained it. It came out well.  So I got stuck into the other bench and the table too.

Start my project off

One done

Our strawberry plants finally produced their first fruit. It was delicious. Tiny in size, mighty in taste.

First strawberry of the season

Mike decided to check our traps after ages of neglect. And he found a long dead mouse in one of our traps and a fresh wee rat in another. I have lost track of the number now. I checked our other posts. This is 14 and 15. Yay!

They are all now reset, rebaited with peanut butter and ready for more guests. 

Moxley checks out the mouse in our trap #14

Rat in the other one #15

Mike had Moxley out on her leash out the front and he and I were looking out over the back garden when leash-less Moxley came trotting along. So Mike ducked down to get her, she happily played with him and let herself be picked up. He cuddled her for a bit on the downstairs deck. They looked so cute.

Moxley gets cuddles

Park run Saturday. Andrew came, as well as Janine. And James also made it. And other James. Hahahah. Celia came to watch the end with Bob. It was quite the social event. Celia also joined me, Mike and Andrew for brekkie after it.

Post Park Run brekkie

I got my haircut at 4pm at Buoy. Good job, ta Jolene.

My haircut

Saturday evening saw me at home while Mike went to a potluck tea for his Nepal buddies. And I found puked up Fancy Feast just as Mike left. So I was cleaning that up - opened the front door with pukey mess in my hands to chuck in the rubbish and Moxley raced out of the door, after a tui in the harakeke she sighted. 

The tui flew off but Moxley was not interested in coming back inside. She shot away from me whenever I approached her.  So I left her out there for a while. But every time I went out to get her - she ran off. Under the house. Off to the neighbour's garden. 

Cheeky monkey. Eventually I got Fancy Feast out. Lucky she had puked and was hungry.

Moxley hiding from me after racing outside

Kale chips, bro

Lazy Sunday morning

Up on Sunday to make brekkie, then off to AFL. Mike came too. Had a good game. Played for the first half. We were light on numbers but got 6 a side with 1 sub. Lots of running. Then I umpired the second half with Frank! It was great fun.

Pic of me playing AFL

Dropped Lauren back home, collected our saw and went Christmas tree hunting at Te Ahumairangi. Found the perfect tree.

Christmas tree hunting

Got The One!

Tree all sorted

Finished my furniture off Sunday afternoon. Looks way better now and ready for the summer. Might do one more coat this week on the tops.

And finished the project

All ready for summer

Slight miscalculation for family tea

Went out to family tea - and got the wrong memo. Went to 40WLW and discovered that everyone was at Tawa.  Hahah. Lucky we were early so it meant we were not too late with the change in venue.

Anthony was in town, midway through his Te Araroa walk. He's almost done the North Island. Whanganui River to go here (the river was too high before). Then he's off down south. He had two mates - Sam from Aus and Ludi from Sweden - with him. Great fun to talk to them all. Helen is well - she was busy with getting dinner sorted along with Andrew and Sally.

Then home and I was so tired I fell into bed.

Working week has started. And today is our wedding anniversary. And handily our anniversary for being together also. Given I can barely remember one date - I am glad it is the same date for both. 30 years today we have been together. Wow!

Yeah - I forgot. Karen texted me yesterday and said:  Ange - it is your anniversary tomorrow.

And I texted back:  OMG, is it?

And told Mike.  And he laughed. He had booked a restaurant for tonight already.

Woot!

Glad I married him.

Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with a random drive home from work

 Hi,

Work had no ice when I wandered around to get my iced latte and scone with Barb. But Puni made me one with lots of cold milk. And it was a bit alright. :-)

Work iced latte - but with no ice

Work BBQ lunch

We had a work BBQ for our wee team. Lovely day for it. AJ helped me buy the food with work money and we seemed to exactly get the food quantities correct. Good to see Mitchell - he came for it as he had left while Callan and I were away.

I was going to walk home with Barb after work but Mike was driving in for his catch up with Mark from work - so Barb and I drove home. Hahah.

Chilli plants are growing like mad

I made gingernuts

I made gingernuts - but I didn't get them to the hard. crisp stage in the oven as Mike likes his biscuits a bit soft. And I am not a huge fan of gingernuts, tbh.

He got home just as I was heading to bed - and he tried the biscuits and declared them good.

Up early for me - 5.45am. It has been a while since this was my routine. Onto the bus and into the gym. Bench. Low weights (27.5) but high reps (10!!) and 4 sets.

Bench this morning. Down...

...then up. Hahah.

Into work and a shower there. Long day of meetings ahead. And then hopefully a nice walk home. Let's see how that pans out.

Hope your day is a good one.

Love,

Angela