KT and Coffee: weekending

Showing posts with label weekending. Show all posts

Week Three. Park Three

Those habits just falling apart everywhere, how long will this one last I wonder. We chose a favourite on a windy Sunday. Murawai Beach is a newish addition to the the Auckland Regional Park group and has a bit of everything. Blimey was that beach busy. I was switching between being caught up in their energy and feeling terribly tired and lazy. We walked the beach, people watched, talked and had lunch. Re-energised by the sea and the breeze.

Is it one of the most places I write about the most? Just photos here, part of a long weekend, a place to walk, as part of a charity effort, when I said goodbye to night shifts with a sunset to sunrise drive, more sunset moments and as place for winter camping.

It was warmer than this looks

The surf guards paying their respects

Energy, motivation. Busy and brilliant.

It begins

Mornings. Normally an awakening and a move to work. Up, feed cats, wash, dress, check bag, out the door. With a sip of water or juice before facing the road and arriving at work to whatever it throws at me.

I've begun to change my beginnings by adding in some mindfulness (using an app of course), maybe even some stretching and a mug of green tea and slowly the days are beginning to change

Then we are gifted long weekends, two in short succession no less, bringing to our days a whole new beginning.

Waking naturally, then the cats once fed, come to the bed and stay there. We have a warm drink, the sun has been filtering through the blinds (one of the best things of 2104, loosing the curtains). So it begins.

Writing with WriteAlm

Walk 38 - Rotorua

Ahh yes, still on that weekend away which was now 2 weekends ago, but that is how I roll. Little in the way of photographic proof but my new obsession (really, I need to review a few things here) can help, if it is evidence you are after.

We started off by strolling the lush grounds of the museum and the steaming pools just dotted around. Then heading to the lake side we followed the pathway round sulphur bay and onwards. This brings you to the city lakefront, with the play park, coffee, market and boats. All you need really.

Yes, I am a fitbit fan. It has produced some interesting insights into my lifestyle. Not that I didn't know I wasn't active enough but as a visual learner seeing a graph makes it more meaningful

Enough of that chatter, time for the goodness of a weekend away, the lovely lake

A happy man feeding the birds at the end of the walk.

Walk 37 - Redwoods

A weekend away. A walk. Sunday morning we headed to Redwoods. Oh my. Many memories of the New Forest. Trees, sunlight, walking. Got out of breath, considerably. A good uphill walk for me. Good pace and a wonderful coffee at the end. Why do I always manage to find coffee. Various walks to choose from and we did't even pick the easiest walk. A map paradise, but I controlled myself, though we would definitely visit again when we are around this area.

16th

Look Down

A sort of weeks
Sadness
Newness
Learning
Firsts
Memories
and
Smiles
with the
Tears

Second breakfast
To restore the soul
Coffee
with a
Face

August Break 2014 Day 16

10th

Drink

Our usual weekending
Coffee
Journalling
List making
Talking
Drinking

Oh and trying not to think about starting a new job tomorrow.

9th

In my bag...

Today
There was Disney
There were 2 excited girls
There was an awful lot of people
And a fair amount of walking
So I made sure I had a light bag

Todays bag had my lush and wonderful crumpler camera holder
It takes my two cameras very neatly and has pockets for cards and cables
I carried the precious tickets to Disney on Ice
Some notepaper and pens
Tissues, this seems to be essential for anyone with children, but I didn't need them
My phone and my purse and that was me done

August Break 2014 Day 9

2nd

Pattern.
I paid attention today and the train station (and the train) gave me pattern galore.
But we managed so much more
Lawn mower taken for repair
Coffee and early lunch in a new place
Dropping the car and taking the train
Strolling and shopping here
An afternoon movie watched here before the train home

Friday night was not movie night

This Monday-Friday has taken a while to get used to but I have firmly embraced the great feeling of starting the weekend on Friday evening. It is one of the reasons for our Friday night being movie night. We make the weekend seem a little longer, turn on to the outside world, that is on the periphery while we are at work.
This Friday there was no movie, not even a movie at home. There was an event, a start the weekend event. We farewelled a colleague with pizza and wine (maybe a little too much wine but more on that later). This place is her usual Friday night place and we've been a few times and there is nothing wrong and everything right with the atmosphere, the service and most importantly the pizza. Thank you and farewell (see you around really)

Surprise Saturday

Our challenge through the winter months and to prevent Auckland fever that can sometimes hit, we have devised Surprise Saturday. The Saturday after each pay day - (now UK folks that is fortnightly for me, six years on I cannot imagine how I coped with monthly pay) we take it in turns to arrange a day trip

Adam was first up and was feeling the pressure, when we stepped out into a glorious day he doubted his choice but stuck with his plan. I had my suspicions as to where we were heading, but no, we are driving past the Domain and and into the city.

We haven't been to the Maritime Museum for years and I have long said it is a favorite of mine. True, it's the immigration stories rather than the boat 'stuff' that mean the most to me.....I wonder why.

The question of 'why' is as pertinent now as it was then. The people and the stories are real. My own story is easy when you look at the bunks the people slept in for weeks at a time, the time the journey took is incredible when we now just hop on a plane and wish we were closer than 24hours to our family and friends.

This trip I was also engrossed in the navigation details (all my Antarctic reading perhaps) and the new exhibition on Sir Peter Blake, an iconic kiwi who until Saturday I knew very little about.

The highlight of the surprise, as the sun glistened on the water was a journey out onto the waters on the Ted Asbhy.

Ted Ashby is a ketch-rigged deck scow, typical of the fleet of scows that once operated in northern New Zealand waters.

Thank you Maritime Museum but I have no idea what those words mean. To me it was a boat with lots of sails, that looked very flash in the sun.

Time in or on the water is restorative and when you add in a lively crew, the opportunity to help hoist the sails (seven of them) you are onto a winner. The logistics and the ropes fascinated me, mesmerised I almost missed the bungee jumpers as we sailed under the harbor bridge.

We ended our Saturday with this movie to keep to our maritime theme and in a fortnights time it's my turn to find the surprise.

A long long weekend

Having decided to stay local for our leave, that is what the holiday felt like. A long, long weekend.

Porridge in bed
Soaked up the wisdom at the Auckland Writers Festival
Feeding the ducks at Western Springs
Exploring here
Cat time
Made some cookies
Using this site to make a photo book
Lots of gardening
Getting a WOF on the car
Cleaning house and enjoying the new sofa
Dinner with friends and discovering a word game I might actually like
Camping in the van for two nights here
Painting the bathroom bright yellow
Acted like tourists here
Swimming in the sea (yes, in May, in New Zealand)
Falling asleep in the sun
Sitting on the beach watching the the sky changing to dark
Signed up for this course
Walked here

Weekending in extreme over 14 days.

Walk 34 - Brick Bay

OK, a little backtracking, this was our Easter Sunday outing. The autumn call to Brick Bay Sculpture Trail was answered. The rain held off until the end of the trail so we could concentrate on taking photos. I seemed to more interested in leaves than sculpture. There you go.

View to the Glass House

No, not sculpture. Enjoying the leaves

The pond, no still not sculpture

The path.

Ah, trees. oh yes and one of the sculpture pieces.

the light on the bark was fascinating

Adam doing his Shrek impression at the listening post

These bells were fascinating. There was a whole series of them as you walked through the Kauri trail. I loved it.

Back to enjoying the leaves

Leaves attached to sculpture, even better

Standing in rain

Four days

four days. I used to take four days off for granted. a normal part of 12 hour shift working. now it is a delightful bag of joyousness. I made a list

four days off ::restful:reading:relaxing:sunshine:rain:wind:waves:car:beach:soup:tiles:starwars:cleaning:gardening:photography:chocolate:wine:coffee:tea: sculpture:ducks:burn:sleep

A beautiful bowel of italian tomato soup at the Morris and James Pottery

The baseball section of our bat/ball/gun moment

Ticket for spur of the moment activity

The wonder of the west coast.
Muriwai Beach

The dog I think was winning. Though I worry about dogs so close to the mental waves

Happy Day Photo number 90 something

Halfway

Two days into the long weekend and it's feeling wonderful, despite a little hiccup.

A book started and finished

The hiccup. A little accident with the lawnmower. I was so enjoying the mowing that I grabbed hold of the engine. First aid completed we had to bandage the fingers and hand. Tricky. Not attractive bandaging and potentially embarrassing for a pair of nurses, but it did the job and my hand this morning is in fine form. Feeling proud (and relieved as it really really hurt yesterday).

Saturday morning at Kelly Tarltons and the new walk through area to see the Penguins

It had taken a while to reach the penguins as first you walk through the Scott base exhibition. I am currently obsessed with Antarctica and in particular the early expeditions to reach the South Pole. So after that we are treated to the wonderful penguins.