Hi all,
I
hope this finds you all in good health!
Well, we
are soooo looking forward to daylight savings starting this weekend... just
when we feel that we are waking up naturally, they go and make us change our
wake up time to an hour earlier.
Never
mind, at least it is getting warmer.
We have
finally finished UWH coaching/managing last week and heaved a large sigh of
relief. And as we promised to use the time for house plans, last night we
started fighting about house designs instead :-)
Last
weekend was Nelson's Home & Garden Show, and we went along and collected
lots of information on businesses that we think we might want to deal with on
our build (such as alternative power suppliers, double-glazing suppliers, gas
appliances etc etc). We came away with quite a pile of brochures and
contacts... and some new ideas, which was great. Oh, that and a new coffee
machine!
Tessa is
back here from Chch for a couple of weeks holiday. She seems well and is aiming
to apply for some early childhood care training next year. I hope that works
out for her and she completes the course.
We went
to the movies recently to see the Bourne Ultimatum with Nicki, Gary &
Richard, and went to the Suter Theatre to see a local production of Dangerous
Liaisons with John & Jo; both of which were quite entertaining. We have
been out twice to a local restaurant, the Indian Café, which has moved and over
doubled their seating capacity. Seeing as I am not supposed to be having curry
with these damned braces, I was reduced to sagwala (curries will not only stain
my teeth but apparently will also stain the plastic, the rubber bands and the
cement on my teeth - so all around, not a good thing if you can't scrub the
curry off again afterwards!!). Still, they do such a very, very nice sagwala,
it almost makes me forget a curry. But only almost!
We had a
nice drinks party at Frits & Kathleen's the weekend before last, and then
found out from Frits on Monday this week that Kathleen had had to shoot off to
Australia on Sunday because her father has died. We knew he had Alzheimers, but
didn't realise that he was so ill. Luckily Kathleen had just been over for a
holiday a month ago, so had spent some quality time with both her parents. She
is due back again next week.
Uncle
Norman was having a hard time with his heart, but he seems to be a little
better now. Perhaps the warmer weather is helping him. However, my Aunt Anne in
Australia is not very well either. I am getting regular updates from my Uncle
Lindsay & he seems to have enough drive and focus for them both at the
moment; things appear to be slowly becoming a little more positive. I still
haven't heard how my cousin Susan is doing in the UK, but I have written to her
& and will hope to hear the old fashioned way instead. Everyone else seems
to be keeping well, anyway.
Last
weekend Simon & Erin were back in Nelson, on their way to Simon's father's
60th in Dunedin. We managed to catch up twice with them. We had plans of
showing them the land, but the weather refused to co-operate and it bucketed
down. A café was a much-to-be-preferred alternative meeting place! They are
both well and are starting to think about making the move back to Kiwiland...
no rush, but the thoughts are turning this way more. We have also caught up
with Jenny (who was up for another mistletoe monitoring trip) and with Trish
(ex-Pegasus UWH in Chch) for dinner one night at the Tides. Though when I say
"caught up" with Trish, we couldn't keep up with her. We felt like a
couple of nanas. Our lives are definitely much slower than hers!
Speaking
of slow, I have been going through all the stuff we own and currently have 40
auctions running on TradeMe. I aim to go through the whole house and get rid of
stuff that we don't use, don't need or have two of. It must be spring.. I feel
a spring-clean coming on.
We have
looked after Bonnie once more for a few days while John & Jo were away
making a documentary with some friends of theirs (and we hope to hear more how
that trip went over this weekend), and we managed to see Andrew & Jennie on
the weekend just gone - thanks to the rain! - before Jennie has baby number
two, which is - was - due yesterday. Fleur & Neil and their three called in
for a visit yesterday on their way south to visit Fleur's family.
This
weekend, aside from checking on auctions, we will spend Saturday catching up
with people and Sunday out at the land, dealing to the gorse.
Our next
trip away is to Sydney for our wedding anniversary in November. We have put our
Wellington trip back to the first week in December, and will make that a good
family catch up.
Take
care, everyone. Alles liebe :-)
Sam & Jan
