Hi
everyone,
Amazingly,
we have been back from holiday for nearly a month. The time has gone by so
fast! The weather is crisp & cool in the mornings, with lovely fine days.
It rained on the weekend, but we seemed to miss the cold snap that the rest of
the country got. Nice to have a micro-climate :-)
Jan turns
in the first of his assignments tomorrow, and is feeling a bit under pressure.
However, he is at the Symphony Orchestra practice tonight, and was at the
Greenhill rehearsal on Monday night, so he is not under so much pressure that he
feels he has to pull out of other things, which is good. I have finished my
last CAT assessment for my second to last unit and am now working on my
management case studies. So it is all study-study-study around here at the
moment.
Jan's
next concert is on 18 September with the NSO supporting the young soloists
(Solo Spotlight), then at the end of September a Greenhill concert, largely
repeating pieces they played last year (a bit of info at
http://www.nsom.ac.nz/classes.html), then again in November the NSO play
'Scottish Connections' (http://www.nso.org.nz/). He will be busy with that lot,
and study.
We still
aren't much closer to getting organised for our CoC from the council, and our
mutual study won't get that done much faster either (but equally, there's no
rush). It keeps raining a bit on the weekends, so we can't seal our
plasterwork. Until we have sealed our plasterwork, Jan doesn't want to install
the outside lights. We still have yet to permanently fix the gas bottle
outside, finish all the exterior lighting and hook up the other 23,000 litre
water tank. Our builder has ducted in the range hood, but hasn't yet installed
the stainless steel backing for kitchen hob or completed the cowling for the
range hood. However, my louvres are installed in my office.
In some
ways the water tank is probably the most important thing for us to get done now
- so we have the space on-stream to store an extra 23,000 litres before the
rain stops in September/early November.
However,
this weekend won't be all study, as we have Michael Bender coming to install
our big bookshelf. At the moment our living area looks like a furniture shop
with all the bookshelf components in pieces everywhere... and the spare room is
full of drawers. I am really looking forward to taking some photos this weekend
of the whole thing being assembled. It will be really great to finally unpack
all our books - and get rid of another 20 cartons from the cellar.
Work is
carrying on as normal for both of us at present, nothing out of the ordinary,
so that's all good.
This
Saturday night we have our friends Gary & Nick over for dinner, with their
two teenagers. It will be great to see them as we haven't really caught up of
late. Kathleen & Frits are off on their European journey at the moment, and
John Fitzwater is still in the US. On 25 August we are going to listen to the
NZ String Quartet performing Schumann and Shostakovich, which will be
fantastic, and one day next week we are getting taken out to dinner as a thank
you for some voluntary work I did for a fellow Rotarian - the President of the
NZ chapter of the International Fellowship of Cricketing Rotarians; yes, there
really is such a beast. It is an international organisation with loads of
international trips for cricket-bunnies to play cricket, talk cricket, watch
cricket and critique cricket. There is truly something for everyone out there,
and now they have a lovely newsletter entitled "Extra Innings" :-)
Speaking
of Rotary, I have just had one of my past students come along to our Rotary
club with a view to joining. She is really keen to do some community work that
is aligned with youth projects. Our club's focus is youth, sport &
literacy, so she will fit right in. I am hoping that her involvement will bring
in of her colleagues and contacts, so we start getting some more younger people
joining. I am very conscious that, while our club is younger than almost all NZ
clubs, unless we keep attracting younger people each year, as time ticks
inexorably onwards we too will grow too old to be relevant.
Right,
that's all for now. I had better get back to the study.
Jan & Sam
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