Hi
everyone,
Wow - we
have been flat out still in the last three weeks (surprise, surprise). Jan went
off to Germany yesterday, but discovered the week before last that his passport
had less than six months to run. So he had a mad scramble to get a new passport
& get all his gear ready to head off in time. He had to go up to Wellington
for two days last week to get a temporary German passport and a new NZ
permanent resident's sticker. At least he also managed to apply for a full
passport while he was over there as well, so he doesn't have to stump up in
person yet again to go through the whole process as soon as he gets back. So,
Jan is in Germany, arriving in Flensburg today.
He is due
to finish in Flensburg on July 25th, and will hopefully head down to Celle to
see Ruth on his way to Svenja's baptism in Ulm on the 26th; then after spending
a couple of days with Eberhard, Uta & Oma Lieselotte in Neu Ulm, he will
head back north to Eppingen to visit Andreas, Katrin & Christian around the
29th; to Besse to see Tante Thea, to Treysa & Oma Friedel on the 30th. Then
back to Frankfurt on the 1st of August to leave for home.
We have
Bonnie staying again for six weeks while John & Jo are attending a number
of motorcycle trade shows in Europe & the US. Bonnie has once again slotted
in just like one of the pack. She & Coco play all the time, while Fliss
sleeps in front of the fire :-)
Jan has
started on his three month gym membership at that new gym, but of course his
regime has been interrupted by the trip to Germany. He has been to a stretch
class, a Swiss ball class and a resistance training class. He was very
impressed with the facilities and the range of classes; the only thing he
thinks they are missing is a lap pool.
It has
been very cold here of late - we had a dusting of snow on the hills immediately
behind the city. I have never seen snow down so low before. But a good day's
sunshine and it was all gone again. The local ski field are very happy though!
We caught
up with Sandra & Gary a couple of weeks ago, to find out that they are
heading off to Perth. Gary has a transfer with Brightwater Engineers to head up
a project over there. They are taking Archie (their dog) and renting their
house out over here while they see how it goes. So we won't be seeing them in
the next six months either!
The
business house pool challenge at the Shark Club was fun - that must be three
weeks ago now. I made a couple of really good shots and then went utterly to
pieces. In fact, I am sure one game I played must have just about taken the
record for the slowest game in the universe... mind you, that does mean that
the opposition were rubbish too :-)
We went
to the Playhouse on Friday night a couple of weeks ago with Ian & Sharon
McGuire to see "The Mystery of Irma Vep". This was a two man play
with eight characters. It was pretty amateur, but we still had a good time.
Food was good and the company even better.
Mo &
Bean's joint 40th Birthday Party was held in their garage on the same Saturday
that we had the big snow. They had good gas heaters and a brazier, but was a
freezing night! I wore a polar fleece jacket and hat, and wore leather gloves,
wool trousers, polypro socks and a merino top. Even Jan wore his thick down
jacket. But there were about 60 people there - so many old Sealord hands that
it was more of a "who didn't we know" rather than who did we know.
Jan &
I also went to see Dame Malvina Major sing in a gala performance last Friday,
which was wonderful. Nelson Pine was sponsoring the event so we got very plush
seats indeed, and were invited to drinkies afterwards. Great music!
I have
just finished the second half of my Foundation Course for the Certificate in
Adult Teaching. With that, finishing off getting lectures ready for next
semester, getting Jan organised for his trip and three dogs, it has been a
pretty full on time of late.
In the
next few weeks I am going to Sharon McGuire's farewell functions from the
Chamber of Commerce, keeping my clients happy, doing some voluntary strategic
planning work for the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary, Rotary, helping the new
Manager bed in at BDC, starting to lecture for semester two at NMIT and trying
to keep three dogs exercised. That will be enough!
Right - I
think that's it for now. Take care & more next time. Alles liebe :-)
Sam & Jan
