First of all, a little PSA for those of you who ever have to move into/out of a large apartment building…

There are wrong ways and right ways to move into or out of an apartment building.  To be a bit more specific, there are wrong ways and right ways to move out of a large apartment building with only 1 lift (elevator).

I’ll tell you what I think is the right way to do it.  You move a large quantity of your things either from the truck or from your apartment, place them in front of the lift (making sure that there’s still access to/from the lift if someone is using it) and when you have enough for a full load, you load it into the lift.  Simple.

On the flip side: when you’re unloading the lift, you take everything out at once, putting it in the space near the lift but again making sure that there’s still access for anyone who might need to use it.  Easy.

You do not block the lift entry.  You also do not prop the lift door open and proceed to make multiple trips to/from your apartment, carrying 1 item at a time, loading each item into the lift, keeping the door stuck open, and then going back for more.

Obviously, I’m saying this because someone was moving (the wrong way) into our building today.  This isn’t the first time that something like this has happened to me: I’m at the very bottom, basement-level, lift entry with an overloaded nappy bag, a sleeping toddler, and a pram.  I press the call button for the lift and wait.  And wait.  And waaaiiittt….  Eventually I press my ear to the lift doors and realize that there is no machinery whirring to indicate that the lift is moving, which means 1 of 2 things: the lift is broken, or someone has the lift propped open.

So, yes, today I had to carry the overloaded nappy bag, the stroller, and the sleeping toddler up to our apartment on the top floor.  The lift was being used to move someone into the second-from-the-top floor.  I had just completed a 10K circuit (some walking, some running) so I was tired, sweaty, and still coughing because of this ridiculous cold/virus/whatever it is.  When I got to the lift and saw 3 guys standing around, laughing, with another guy making single trips to get stuff from the lift and bringing items one box at a time to the apartment, I wasn’t impressed.  Which leads me to another point: if you see someone huffing and puffing up the stairs with their arms full, offer to help them carry something (which these guys did – I was only 1 floor away so I didn’t need their help at that point, but I appreciated the offer).

Okay, my rant PSA is over!  Obviously I can’t have too hard of a life if this is my big complaint for the week 🙂

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Joe and I did a walk/jog around town today.  It was another gorgeous morning and Joe was ready and raring to get outdoors.  I grabbed my camera, (over)loaded the nappy bag as per usual, and we went to the Domain for a run.

Side note: the City Mini stroller is great, but it’s not the greatest jogging stroller. Hopefully someday we can have a separate jogging stroller, but we’ll see.

We ran for a bit, past the cherry grove and up the centennial walkway, around the duck pond and around the circuit.  We ended up back at the Wintergardens and took a break to walk through there.

Cherry Grove (horribly overexposed – whoops!)

Centennial Walkway

I love the Wintergardens and yet I always seem to forget about them.  It makes seeing them a nice, big surprise, like, “Oh yeah!  I forgot about these!  Yay!”  Joe was so excited to see the water and I had grab him before he dove headfirst into the rectangular pool connecting the hot and cool houses.  I don’t think the fish would have been too pleased to have a grabby toddler in their environment, but I think that Joe would have loved it.

We went into the cool house first.  It was so gorgeous and smelled delicious.  Joe was all fingers and hands and waving arms, so I put him back in the pram before he could do any damage.

We visited the hot house next.  Joe and I were the only ones in there for awhile.  It was warm, quiet, and peaceful.

Joe was starting to tire, so we left after only a few minutes.  We walked past the Fernery on our way out and I was so tempted to go in – the smell of fresh air coming from all of those green ferns is intoxicating – but it’s a bit tricky to manage going all the way down to the lower level with a stroller.  Next time!

We headed around the circuit toward the hospital and walked home.

Playing fields with the hospital in the distance

Grafton Bridge (closed to all traffic aside from buses and motorbikes from 7a-7p daily)

Not a terribly great photo of the Auckland Harbour with Mt. Rangitoto in the distance

Looking back across the bridge as we headed home

Joe fell asleep about 15 minutes away from our apartment, and you already know what happened when we got back to our building.

I’m glad that we were outside for a good chunk of the morning.  Aside from the benefits to Joe, it was a nice shake-up from my usual treadmill run.  I decided to do a 30 day shred workout when he went down for his nap.  I hadn’t done one of those since shortly after Joe’s birth (I think when he was 8 weeks old) and it was encouraging to find that the last workout I’d done was actually a bit too easy for me.  All of that heavy lifting (i.e., carrying Joe around) has paid off!  Perhaps I should thank the guys moving in for making me cart all of that stuff up the stairs after all…

Nah!