Hi
everyone,
Wow,
October rolled around very quickly, and we have now been in the house for six
very pleasant months.
Jan is
now practicing for his next Nelson Symphony concert, 'Scottish Connections' in
November, just after he has finished his Applied Management paper. Check out
the programme at http://www.nso.org.nz/. He was considering enrolling in a
Shostakovich Pro Am concert for February, but has decided not to, so that he
can concentrate on getting the electrical work finished around the house.
I have
the possibility of gaining some funding for getting my case studies published,
so need to look into that. I am not sure it will come to anything, as it is a
contestable fund, but it is definitely worth investigating.
As I
mentioned last time, our garage still needs another day's work of emptying out
tools into the workshop to fit my car into it. However, Jan's highest priority
has been his paper, and rightly so. I thought about moving the arm-load sized
things myself, but there are a couple of barriers to that; there is a lot of
stuff that needs to be moved around inside his workshop - or stored in the back
of the garage, like the double-bed base - before the armloads can be delivered
into it; and as this is Jan's workshop, I am a bit reluctant to make decisions
on where things need to go. It will happen soon enough, I am sure.
Our
inside house worklist remains much the same, but we have created a master list
of things which need to be done outside as well. Cool, if you can't get your
job list done, just add to it! However, we have drafted a very rough plan
of how we will plant around the house. Jan & I have diametrically opposed
philosophies about planting - he wants everything a long way away so no debris
gets into the gutters, I want some trees and shrubs close by to frame the view
and create pools of shade. So we have compromised, in that he gets nothing
planted close by the house (!) but the view is framed by planting. Although our
result is not exciting, I think it will do for now. We also didn't want any
lawns, but we have a great material available here, made of crushed shell,
which is in shades of cream, fawn and gold, will pack to form a firm base, and
will mulch down over time.
Justine
has been here in New Zealand for a short holiday, and came to Nelson for five
days, leaving last Wednesday. Betty & Peter came down for the first few
days as well, and we had lunch and dinner with them on Saturday. Justine should
be meeting Gareth in Shanghai today. While she was here we visited Mapua,
Motueka and Nelson and went to as many of the art and craft places as are open
for the summer already. We met up with John F at the Golden Bear in Mapua for
some beers and a burrito, had a roast dinner here - and Yorkshire pudding -
with Julie & Murray, went shopping for shoes at Whitwells, had lunch at the
Suter and went to the World of Wearable Arts Museum.
Our next
confirmed trip away will be to Wellington for Christmas. We are however
planning something for our wedding anniversary, but haven't decided what that
something is yet. And I still have to get down to Christchurch to see a man about
my brain.
Speaking
of my brain, I went to see my local 'neurologist' and told him I wanted to try
taking one aspirin tablet daily to see if that made a difference to the number
of migraines I had. Once I started them I had no migraines for six weeks and
two days. I will have to see if the pattern continues to be that good, or if
this is an aberration. I had four migraines in August, and prior to going away
to Europe on holiday, I had 6 on average a month. I was doing some reading that
women who had more than two migraines a month were four times more likely to
have a stroke, so anything that can reduce the occurrence would be good. It
would also be nice if the magic bullet could be something with as few side
effects as aspirin.
And if
you want to see what the weather is like from our place, go to
http://www.takeabreak.co.nz/accommodation/nelson.asp?cam=4 and click on the
Neudorf Vineyards webcam. Our house is almost EXACTLY dead centre in that
image, between the poplars and the willow, just over the first ridge. You can
see Lynn Redden's patchy pine trees on our boundary. Drag your mouse from left
to right to see how the day went in our neck of the woods :-)
Happy
birthday to Barb, who hits the big 4-0 today :-)
Take care
& alles liebe!
Sam & Jan
Sam
& Jan
Sam
& Jan
