Hi all,
And a new
financial year rolls on around! Things are pretty busy at the moment, so this
will be short.
Karen
Trotter is down here again for a fortnight's holiday, which is wonderful. We
went with Karen & with John Fitzwater to 'MarchFest' at Founders on the
weekend. It bucketed down with rain - the first rain since Relay for Life - but
the beer was good.
Jan has
had his second results back for his management paper at nmit - and,
surprisingly 100%. Again, it is only out of 2%, but isn't he clever?!
We have
decided that we will not go any further with PureStyle (the show home
designers) as they really were VERY expensive! Instead, we have found, through
the Inwoods, an architectural draftsperson, Leigh Briars, who lives over in the
Moutere about 3k away from the land. Megs & her folks have both used Leigh
&, since we have had a meeting with him which went really well, we are
feeling very comfortable. Leigh has some really good ideas & will make use
of as much solar energy as possible. Our house layout plan is largely cribbed
from PureStyle's, but with a lot of our ideas incorporated. And a lot more
energy efficiency, sustainability and use of environmentally-friendly
materials. The current plan is to start building in spring 2009, and aim for
completion in autumn 2010.
We have
spent some time at the land to fillet our timber - and Megs was up here for
Easter so we got her to help out as well. Isn't it really great how we rope
people in! That means the timber is all sorted for now; we will need to get the
pine sleepers treated, but we have just heard about some locally-based copper
treatment - at Pangatotara - so we can avoid any process that uses arsenic,
which would be fab.
The
papers I am teaching currently are going well, and I am enjoying it. I have
been asked if I would teach three papers in the Sports & Rec school, and
another three in the Business School next semester (I am enjoying it, but not
that much!). I have trimmed it down to one paper in each school. At this stage
it looks like Intro to Marketing for Sports & Rec (a year three paper for
S&R, but equates to year 1 Business school level), and Leadership, a year 2
paper in the Business School. I also got asked if I would be interested in
Management lecturing on NMIT's joint venture in China (the paper I taught last
year that Jan is currently doing), but I don't fancy going up there for a month
at a time. Not only would that mean a problem for continuity with my clients
and the boards I am on, but it would also provide a pretty large problem for
the dogs & Jan! So that was firmly declined.
I had
breakfast out for my birthday today - I am teaching tonight, so we will have a
BBQ on Saturday and have a bit of a knees-up then.
Jan is
off in Chch tomorrow doing a course, so will catch up with whoever of you has
replied; for a couple of hours! At the Loaded Hog, I think...
We are
still planning a mid-year trip to Europe. We are still not sure of dates, but
likely to be July or maybe August.
Take
care, lots of hugs & more next time. Alles liebe :-)
Sam & Jan
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