The Wednesday with Football Ferns playing at the stadium

 Hi,

What a day - and more of the awesome weather too. I caught up with Khemry before work and Mike joined us. Good to hear about her huge break (2 months!).

The Lab iced latte

Iced latte with Khemry

We all pose!

Work iced latte

And you can't see any evidence, but I caught up with Sally from my last work and we enjoyed chatting at Higher Taste for lunch.  Wonderful to chat to her.  She also did some super sleuthing and figured out from her Facebook friend and my blog entries that we have a person in common!  Helen - courtesy of her new Tesla that Helen posted about and I blogged.

Random selfie when trying to take a pic of work diagrams

Mike and I finished early and we headed to the stadium not long after 3pm. Got to our seats easily and waited for the kick off.  Good national anthems. Callan and Stacey arrived just as NZ started their anthem.  Perfectly timed.

Walk to the stadium

Game about to kick off

We are in our seat 15 mins before the kick off

The weather was lovely - we were in shadow until 10 mins from the end. But the people baking in the sun had all moved to the other side of the stadium to sit in the shade.  Maybe close to half the punters did that.

The game was great.  NZ were competitive for the first half. But for 30 mins in the second half the USA found a gear that NZ didn't have. 4 goals were scored in pretty quick succession. Then NZ dug deep and competed again for the last 10 mins. So some good signs with an understrength NZ side as the World Cup beckons. Less than 180 days to go.

Spotto

Back to have some tea at One Red Dog. I had a delicious raw salad. Yummo! And a virgin mojito. Seems like everyone enjoyed their meal. We also had human and animal drama on display as we ate. A chap was shouting at people as he pushed his bike. Not sure what was happening there but 3 police cars came. And they took him and his bike away in a van.

Then as that finished, a huge gull just seemed to pluck from other type of bird out of the air and peck it around.  Then it dropped the other bird on the road by us and then strutted around before picking it up and flying away with its dinner.  :-o

One Red Dog - nice salad!

Moxley plays a new game - shred the toilet paper

Home to pack for our weekend in Auckland. And Mike played a game with Moxley. He poked toilet paper under the door and she excitedly shredded it. Hahahah.

Good sleep. Up for PT session with Quentin. Mike followed me. And back home to work here so we can get away early. Looking forward to the road trip and chilling with the clan up in Auckland. As well as maybe the Meatloaf Musical (oohhh - the what?  Hahahahah.  Review next week!).

Have a great weekend. Long one here for Wellington.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with work and not much else

 Hi,

Had a busy day at work. But it was good to grab an iced latte from the shop here to get me through my morning. My first meeting people did complain about my caffeine intake and how exuberant it seemed to make me. hahah. 

Work iced latte goodness

At the end of the day I went home on my eBike. And the moving time according to Strava was 12 minutes. Yes - I was faster riding home than riding in.

Info from my eBike ride home

I started the puzzle

Mike had tea waiting for me - and it was delicious. I also started the jigsaw Mike got for Christmas. I have two thirds of the sides done.

Into bed. I may have read a tad too long - but my book was good and almost finished. Such a trap! Hahah.

Lunch today with Sally from my old work. Woot! It has been ages.

And after work, we are off to the stadium to watch the Football Ferns take on USA.  OMG.  Huge! I am very excited.

Got my Football Ferns shirt for the big game

The Football Ferns are unfortunately a little under-resourced as many of the top players have not been released from club games. But it will be amazing to see them - big crowd hopefully. And the USA is not short of some star players.

Bring it on!

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The Monday at work with spin afterwards

 Hi,

Long day at work - especially when I could see out the window and it was glorious weather. But at the end of the day, I drove down to Thorndon gym and met Juliet for 1 hour of Spin.

Me (very hot) and Juliet after spin

It was so good. But now they are renovating the gym and classes are reduced to 12 punters again. That was like covid times and it was too hard to get a slot.

So - we will try - and if it isn't easy to get in, we will go to Newlands.

There!

Meanwhile Mike went for a run and Rosies for drinks.

Mike raced to the gym to get a ride home - and we dropped Juliet off home. Then home for a quick tea and a bath and bed.

Moxley makes our clean clothes hairy

Up early to ride in with my new bike. And it worked a treat. Still need to tweak a few things. But overall - great fun.

Off to gym with Quentin. Hard session.  Deads. Rows. Pulldowns. Core.

Working in town today. I might need to find an iced latte though.

Have a wonderful day!

Love,

Angela

The weekend in Wellington

 Hi,

What lovely weather - more of this, please! Friday was good - got a few things done. Got a bike rack affixed to my new bike - ready for commuting. Roasted vegetables for meals. Got the tomatoes (and strawberries) some extra food from Mitre10. And planted out some spinach in the garden.

Smudge cuddles

Saturday saw Mike go for a run in Izard Park. And misplace his ring from his pinkie (not his wedding ring). He packed up for Survivor night and headed off around 2pm. He had good fun - and the weather was fantastic.

I pottered around the house - but I did plan a bike ride with Andrew up Te Whiti riser for Sunday morning. Got up super early Sunday - and found my bike had not charged. So switched ideas and threw Toby's bike into the Focus and headed out for a ride with Andrew to Eastbourne and back.

No charging has happened

Okay - sad face as my bike did not charge

View of harbour

Happy place!

Harbour is like a millpond

Wow!

Yep - living my best life with an iced latte while out riding my bike

Compass cafe does a good iced latte

I also visited Monaco quickly

Some pipeworks

Mike got to Sally and Andrew's place not long after us and we headed home in convoy. I figured out the charger on my bike and kicked it off. Yeah - the plug wasn't seated properly. And it turns out you get a charging light on the unit when it is properly plugged in. Oohhhhh.

Okay - green light is good

Focus gets a wash - and the Subaru too

We washed both cars because they were really grotty. Now they both look nice - except I would like to lux them out too.

Collected Andrew on our way to Janine's and Mike and Andrew sorted out her spa bath - it is now running. We wait to find out if the heater will work or not.

Drilled holes in the paving concrete to drain puddles when it rains. And fixed the outdoor light over the front door to be a security one that switches on. But - it didn't work. So that is now WIP.

Sally grew roses with a lovely colour and perfume

Janine grew sunflowers

Spa looks good

BBQ at Janine's

Espresso martinis

Back home after we dropped Andrew off and into bed. Good sleep. Another nice day. Mike off for his first session with Quentin for 2023. And he will work from home.

Monday morning pint of iced latte

I made a huge iced latte!

And I have spin with Juliet after work today. Woot!

Toby also did an oil change on the van - with Angus to provide some guidance. Good skills! Well done to them for doing that. 

Have a great day!

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday back at work

 Hi,

Tuesday that was like a Monday. Hahahah.  First day back. Mike still has a cough so he's at home again. But today (Wednesday) I have ventured into the office. Oohhhh. I can see real people in the flesh.

Moxley hangs on the washing

Why are you watching me?

Smudge chills on the balcony

I have tomatoes!

And chillies

While I was away, my plants sprouted fruit. Two tomatoes and about 6 or 7 chillies on the "Sweet banana capsicum" plants. And the other chilli plants have flowers. Very excited. The upside-down coke bottle full of water with pin pricks in the lid oozing water slowly into the soil worked a treat.

Mike had a tramping presentation after work at The George, so I dropped him off for that and continued to the supermarket. We needed lots of fresh food. I would have bought two thirds of my groceries from the fruit and vege section. One packet of steak for Mike. And it cost $500. I cannot understand how anyone can survive on a basic income. You have to be pretty canny with your coins.

Got home and put things away. Had some tea. Went to bed. Mike got home and also came to bed.

We're slowly getting through the laundry and putting things away. Mike is away this weekend on Survivor weekend. Although with the rain they may pull the plug.  You know - in case they can't survive a bit of rain.

Up this morning to a bit of damp. But way better than the hammering further north from Cyclone Hale. Parts of NZ are flooded. I hope things are okay for everyone once the rain and wind pass.

Big day tomorrow for work. Planning day. Need to get the ducks aligned.

Have a brilliant day!

Love,

Angela

The last day of our summer holidays

 Hi,

Happy New Year 2023. Wow! Still not used to that.

Monday saw us in Christchurch. Mike got the van WoF'd finally. Phew! I went to Little Poms with Tessa as Toby had to work.

Little Poms with Tessa

Lovely

Driving to VTNZ to see Mike

The van WoF is always an adventure

We had a lovely brekkie and then headed to the VTNZ to catch up with Mike. The van got its clean bill of health. After about $2300 of work in Queenstown. :-o  A brief scare when the licence plate lights weren't working - the tester slapped the back of the van hard a couple of times and they started going, that was good enough for him.

The guy doing the test seemed to love the van. Hahah.

Proud mother moment

Tessa headed home and we headed to Countdown to buy picnic stuff for us and Tessa. It just happened to be where Toby was working. So we spied on him doing his thing. :-)

Turns out as we left, Toby knocked off for the day with all the orders fulfilled. So we went back to his flat and collected him for our picnic.

We have Coco with us

Picnic spot

We walked up behind Steph and Sam's place - well - up behind the winery above them. Had a lovely picnic in the lee of some rocks.

Pomeroys pub for early tea

Then out to Pomeroys for an early tea. We left Toby and Tessa there as Steph was going to join after her work. And we dropped the van at Toby's flat and Ubered to the airport. We were the last regional flight out of Chc and the airport was nice and quiet.

Sally collected us in WLG and dropped us home - thank you. :-)

Cats were happy and well. And sorted out washing and airing out stuff. Then into bed. Phew.

Happy Moxley and her left eye has come right

It was hard to wake up this morning. Goodness. Mike has a cold - but not covid according to his RAT. Yay for that!

Working from home today. Busy week at work.

Have a great day.

Love,

Angela