Stratties Adventures: January 2008

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Weekends Whizz Past!

Well the long weekend (Wellington Anniversary) came and went like lightening - and that was a week ago now!

The Friday was a busy day, gym, shopping, appointments finished the day having a "quiet one" at the club then came home and spent the evening out on the deck with the dogs having a few more "quiet ones"! :D

Then Saturday we jumped on our bikes and headed up to Dannevirke. The longest ride Leenie has had to date! Took us about 2 and a quarter hours to get there. We stopped out the back of Masterton for a stretch and then for lunch at Boot's n Braces pub in Woodville for lunch (fantastic burgers and nachos there!) hospitality was very friendly too! Got to Grandad's about 2:30 and had a catch up with the family, a cuppa and a nice piece of 90th bday cake. The thing that struck us was how little grandad is now. He has definately aged, as you would expect when someone reaches that ripe old age, but hes not the imposing figure that he used to be. He still has his loud twittering voice and his memory is pretty good too.

The Stratties with Grandad Stratford - 90th Birthday

The highlight was coaxing him into having a ride on Craig's Harley.

Actually ... we didnt need to coax him too much - he was quite revved up about the whole idea and we had him dressed and on the back within minutes really. It was hillarious getting his helmet on. Leenie was yelling "push your head up Grandad" and he was yelling back about his "lugs" getting caught - quite funny.

Grandad all kitted up

And they're off!

They seemed to be gone ages!

As you can see from the photos Grandad is quite little now ... he'd only be about 5ft tall and probably about 50kgs ... Craig had to keep checking that he hadnt fallen off the back! The Harley ride will be something that Grandad will talk about for a long time to come thats for sure.

It took us a good couple of hours to get home from Dannevirke again - it was really windy. Leenie definately felt the wind when she was on full throttle and only managing to make it to 95kms per hour! Bless Trude our wee 250! However, it got her there and back in one piece and thats all that matters.

Sunday was a chill out day with mates round for a spitroast bbq - Craig is becoming quite the spit roast king now - the pork just melted in your mouth YUMMO!

Monday was so stinking hot that we thought we'd melt so basically we parked up on the couch for the day in front of the fan. The Silverstream Weather station clocked a high of 31.9 degrees at about 1:00pm!

We are getting very accustomed to four day weeks! Thankfully this weekend was pretty relaxing - although Craig scared the living bejeesus outta Leenie on Saturday night when he announced at 8:00pm he was bored and decided to go out for a pushbike ride and hoofed it up the Hutt Riverbank and back again in about 40 minutes flat. We'll make an athlete out of him yet!

Craig started repainting the colour trim on the house today. First coat on the garage door is lookin good - watch this space for update pics ;)

Just for the record, Leenie really does clean her own bike!

This week will be our first five day week this year ARGHHHHHHHH - fingers crossed we make it through to the other side!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

We're BACKKKKKKKKKK

Yeah ok, so its been almost a year since we last updated *oopsie* ... well we'll be updating a little more regularly again.

Although last year started off really relaxed and cruisey it turned into a very hectic and stressful year. However, we are now over the "worst" and we are back into enjoying life to the fullest and starting to think about our future and how we are going to go about living our dreams!

We started this year off on holiday also! Makes us feel like we are starting thing right somehow. We were in Brisbane for Christmas/New Year, with Helena's family. Although it was warm in Brissie, it pissed down with rain 90% of the time, so unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you talk to) we spent alot of time indoors - pubs and shopping malls! Now we are paying for it financially and physical - the visa bill and on the gym scales YUCKKKK

Guess some things just dont change eh? So yep once again we are getting back into the working year by getting to the gym three days a week and doing everything in "moderation" during the week and being a little more relaxed over the weekends. Helena has been talking about teatotalling again for a while (she did 8 months last year) but at the moment its proving a little bit out of her reach! Focus Leenie, focus.

We've just had a fabulous three day weekend, Helena who is going for her full motorcycle licence in about a months time spent the day over the Wairarapa on Trude (her Suzuki) and Craig spent Saturday over the Wairapara on his Harley riding about 350kms with four of his mates. Today was supposed to be a gorgeous day in the Capital and Leenie and her sister Dot had organised to take their mum out for a picnic, but the weather caved so instead it was picnic fare at the dining table followed by a quick trip round the new shopping centre (Briscoes/Mitre 10 Mega) in Upper Hutt. The day kinda temporarily turned to custard at dinner time when Leenie thought Craig and taken meat out for dinner and Craig had thought Leenie had taken meat out for dinner and we had a very quick improvised dinner of cold chicken salad. Thankfully its summer!

This week is going to be a busy, but thankfully short week - our Tweetie car goes to the panelbeaters and on Friday we have the day off again (gotta love summer and lots of annual leave) - got a few things to organise for the long weekend - its Wellington Anniversary weekend. Friday will be chores around the house, Saturday we are heading to Dannevirke for Craigs Grandad's 90th birthday party, Sunday we are having a few friends around for a new years barbie and Monday will be our chillout day - maybe a bike ride?

Will leave you with a few photos of our holiday in Brissie.