News from Nelson – December 2 2011

Hi everyone,

No probs for us with the storms, but quite a few Nelson and Tasman people got stickered. Most were told they were OK or not on the 23rd, so many were allowed back in to their houses for Christmas, which was great (Kel & Dunc, Ellie & Greg). I think there is still about 40 houses which are still red stickered. Horrible for their owners, but I think the councils have been appropriately cautious. The Chch experience has provided a good assessment process, and many of the Nelson & Tasman staff have helped out in Chch so are well aware of how that process should work. Logging and land clearance was the cause of a lot of the slips :-(

I am teaching summer school, and so went from finishing one course to starting another over a weekend. I started with over 100 students, but this has whittled down to 80 as they have found the course a lot more demanding than they thought. The course runs in just under half the time as a 'normal' semester (the same learning packed into seven weeks over summer as is normally delivered in 15). My new tutorial assistant is going well, and coping with the workload, so that’s all good.

In addition, I am trying to get a head-start on my Masters study, and am finding that quite hard to get onto with everything else that is going on.

Jan’s search for an Electrical Engineer continues – no bites still. In the New Year he has some different tactics to apply, and will see if they net any results. 

The house is slowly getting finished off; Jan has been terminating all the data points in the house, and has put up some more smoke alarms. We still have to seal the back of the laundry bench, then we will nearly be at the stage where we can get our CCC. However, our builder has to come back and do a couple of fixer-uppers for us early in the New Year. Then we can have the Inspector back for a final check.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve celebration with Tina & Jeremy, Otto & Lara. They have come to stay for ten days or so, On Christmas day, my folks, my brother and my sister were all here for the first time in ages. We had a very relaxing day with a BBQ and salads (and Christmas cake, of course!), except for poor Tina, who had a cold. Uncle Norman was not well enough to make it, which was pity, and Tessa couldn’t come down as she has damaged her knee.

John has escaped and headed up north to house sit for a friend for ten days. However, in a couple of days Tanja arrives with Lars and a friend of hers, Adrian (whom we haven’t met yet). So we will have a house full! 

We have caught up with Jenny L who is at her folk’s place over Christmas, and hope to see Megan, Sam & Moose and Gary & Karen whom we think are all in Nelson for the break too.

Jan & I are up in Welly for the weekend of the 10th of Feb, and yes, it would be great to catch up with anyone who is around. We will be flying over but should be able to borrow one of Tina or Jeremy's cars so will be somewhat mobile. We have a few trips to Welly planned next year.

Also a party at our place on New Year’s eve – about 6pm onwards. BBQ, BYO. All welcome :-)

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing all the party season’s birthday people a wonderful coming year: Gareth, Christél, Wayne, Christian, and Jennie.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Update on the weather

We are OK. There are five creeks between us and the highway, and four of them were up yesterday. The only one that wasn't really high was the Roses Road one (the drainage creek in our valley). There are no slips on our place, none down the valley, but lots of little ones on the Moutere Saddle. Our road is muddy and very slippery, but intact. But basically because we are a short, dead-end valley, we didn't get the volume of water to cause the damage that others did. The luck of geography.

We are pretty self-sufficient; the drains have worked as they should, all our roofs feed into water tanks, and the overflows are piped away well downhill. Plenty of clean drinking water (!) and no power outages. We haven't been generating electricity as there's been no sun for the PV cells - and we put the fire on to heat some water as the solar hot water system wasn't getting sun either, but the grid-tie system means we can pull from the grid when we aren't generating, so we were fine :-)

It also sounds like "driving" after 8am yesterday morning in Nelson was pretty near "stopping" instead; Richard Kempthorne was saying on the radio that journeys that normally take half an hour were taking three hours. Kathleen & Frits who live along Whakatu Drive said they were watching people on their way into town just sitting in their cars for ages (some apparently ran out of petrol, they were waiting so long).

Jan was up in Auckland yesterday and Wednesday, but he got home OK last night at 6. The Wairoa was still up at Appleby Bridge, but the bridge was open. Still some surface flooding.

We are just fine, but I am not travelling today; Civil Defence are asking people not to travel unless it is essential. The traffic load means that emergency services can't get through, and the bow waves from cars are damaging property. Aside from the treacherous nature of the driving itself!

And take a look at the Maitai - from 'normal' to yesterday (from Stuff at http://static2.stuff.co.nz/1323907641/157/6145157.jpg):

Thank goodness for having had the dam at the top to control the release of water is all I can say!
Cheers

Sam

Wild Weather in Tasman & Nelson

Hi all,
We are fine here, but the area has had some wild & woolly weather for the past two days. I was not able to get to John's funeral today due to flooding & road closures, but that is the only way the weather has affected us here. 

Of course the dogs keep expecting me to be able to open a door into summer, but they keep being sadly disappointed with the rain each time I open one :-)

You can check out photos of the floods at http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/photogallery-nelson-tasman-weather-4641156 or http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_objectid=10773423&gallery_id=123105#8402984 and some updates at http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/93780/roads-gridlocked-in-nelson

Sad News - death of John Hannah

Hi Everyone,

I didn't post this news yesterday, as I was still trying to get my head around it. A long-time friend of mine, John Hannah, was killed on Friday night in a tramping accident. I haven't managed to catch up with Hetta yet, but have left messages.

The Nelson Mail's Anna Pearson (10 December 2011) had this to say at http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/6120333/Another-tramping-trip-ends-in-death:

A 63-year-old Nelson man with a love of cricket, family and the New Zealand seafood industry has died in a fall while tramping in Kahurangi National Park.

John Leo Hannah was negotiating difficult terrain with friends in the Adelaide Tarn area when he fell 20 metres to his death about 7pm yesterday.

He was tramping with two others, after a fourth member of their party was airlifted from near Lonely Lake by the Summit rescue helicopter earlier in the day with a suspected broken ankle.

Mr Hannah joined Sealord in 1988 as a business development manager, and was said to be responsible for the company's successful move into aquaculture.

He went on to take the helm at the New Zealand School of Fisheries, as the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology's marine studies chief.

His friend and long-time neighbour Alan Winwood said the pair had been Rotary members together for more than 20 years.

He said Mr Hannah was one of the "leading knights" [sic] in Rotary cricket circles, with a trip to India with the New Zealand cricket team planned for next year. "He was a family man and community-minded." He said Mr Hannah was an experienced tramper, and was on a five-day trip with "three of his closest mates".

Nelson Tramping Club president Lawrie Halkett said he had been tramping in the Adelaide Tarn area in the Douglas Range twice, and it was "very steep".

"There is a tramp that you can do from the Cobb Valley through the Aorere Valley. It definitely is only a route for very experienced trampers," he said.

Senior Sergeant Stu Koefoed of Nelson said police were speaking with the other members of the tramping party to ascertain the full circumstances relating to Mr Hannah's death, and the matter would be referred to the coroner.

He will be sadly missed. I will post when the funeral is, once I know, for those of you who want to attend.

Sam

Season's Greetings Everyone!

Hi all,
Attached is our summer greetings card to all of you. Enjoy a wonderful summer, and we hope you are all fully recharged for a fantastic 2012 :-)

xxx

Jan & Sam
(and Fliss & Coco ...& Bonnie)

News from Nelson – December 2011

Hi everyone,

Another short one!  Where has the year gone?!

We had a great weekend this last up in Wellington – and have another five weekends planned for the Capital next year. We caught up with Jeremy, Tina, Otto, and Lara; Hui-Ping, Guy & Sonia, Doug & Morv and Birthe and Mike (who hosted us out at Whitby) and Hartmut. A fantastic, relaxing weekend with good catch-ups! We didn’t get to see Wendy & Gerry and their little one, or Uta, but next time we hope. A flying visit, but completely unpressured.

Magda came and dog- and house-sat for us (Yay!). John is away on tour, so she looked after Bonnie as well. I think she survived OK!

We are also planning on having a week or so away at Easter; somewhere a bit luxurious as both of us have had a really busy year. We will see what we can come up with!

The inspector has been and given us a list of works to do for the CoC. Our builder is coming out this week to organise a couple of small jobs, then we can get the inspector back out to check everything off. And we will at last be legal!

Jan’s search for an Electrical Engineer continues – no bites still.

My students for Semester 2 are all done and dusted; and I have just started teaching summer school with 91 students! At least I have a graduate that I am hiring as a tutorial assistant to help with the marking. I am seeing her tomorrow – an ex-student who has been overseas and is just returning at the right time! – and that will take a load off. Phew.

We had a great time at the Business Awards, Jan’s concert went really well, and he and my mother went to a choral performance of Handel’s Messiah last week with the choir that Frits sings in.

Speaking of Frits, he has not been so good lately – a few problems with blood pressure, and getting his medication right has been a real problem (boy, do I understand that!).

Also a party at our place on New Year’s eve – about 6pm onwards. BBQ, BYO. All welcome :-)

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing all the party season’s birthday people a wonderful coming year: Jamal, Tina, Murray, Karl, Cherry and Gareth.

Some  photos of quail on the car park & the Richmond Ranges :-)

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – November 2011

Hi everyone,

A short one this time. Wow, spring is hustling along, and we are nearly heading into summer! It has been quite changeable though – this month we have had to pay $13 for power, as we haven’t had enough consistently fine weather to net off our usage; and of course we have used a bit more power than usual, as John has been staying with us too.

And double-wow, we have applied for an inspector to come and sign off the CoC. We are expecting someone to come out in the next couple of weeks, with our builder, so it can all get ticked off formally. That will be good.

Jan’s still looking for the Electrical Engineer – at least the HR firm they have engaged is at last going to contact IPENZ and the Alumni organisations.

Last weekend I went to Wellington for a Career Development Association national executive meeting and AGM, staying overnight with Tina & Jeremy. The meetings weren’t too bad, and it was great to see Otto & Lara (they have both grown so much!). Tina & Jeremy put on a BBQ on Sunday night, and Brigitte & John came along, so we managed to catch up before they head over to Europe for three months. All good.

Jan & I have both been so busy that we haven’t really had a chance to draw breath. Days seem to be whistling past in a slip stream, and we are a bit dazed and confused about exactly where we are. I have been marking like a mad thing, and Jan has been trying to be himself and three others. He also has the added complication this month of having two of his electrical guys away on a commissioning job in Vietnam.

A couple of sad bits of news to relate this time: Jan’s step father, John, had his mother die. She had been unwell for some time, but it is still hard to lose a parent. In addition, a close friend and work colleague of my Father’s, August Vavasovsky, died last Thursday. He had a major stroke.

This Friday we have the Business Awards to go to, so we are staying in Nelson overnight at Trailways. We can leave the Trafalgar Centre, where the shindig is being held, and potter across the footbridge across the Maitai straight to our room. I like that!

Jan & I will be up in Welly on 3, 4 & 5 December. We will be busy with family on Saturday and Monday, but if any of you Hutties etc are around on Sunday, we would love to catch up. Let us know.

Also a party on New Year’s eve – about 6pm onwards. BBQ, BYO. All welcome :-)

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing all the party season’s birthday people a wonderful coming year: Lara, Jeremy, Donna, Neil, Janet, Jamal, Tina, Murray & Carl.

Eberhard – good luck with your new apartment.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Would you like that with Sauce?

Huddersfield-based James Bamforth was an early English film-maker, photographer and artist. But he is best known for his saucy postcards, often featuring very buxom ladies with ...double entendres. The cards he created were largely sold as seaside postcards.

Often pushing right  to the boundaries of British censors, the Bamforth postcards started in 1910 but became incredibly popular in the 1930s, selling up to 16 million cards per annum.

The Bamforth business folded in 1988, and was purchased printing firm Dennis, which later also collapsed. In 2001, Ian Wallace, businessman, bought what remained for Bamforth and the rights to over 50,000 postcards images. 

Now in 2010, a century since Bamforth's cards first started titillating senders and receivers, the Bamforth images are set to make a comeback. Firmly entrenched in the Benny Hill and Carry On vein, Mr Wallace is hoping that these classic cheeky cartoons, featuring kilt-wearing Scotsmen, topless sunbathers, hen-pecked husbands and Junoesque women are likely to soon be appearing on mugs, mouse mats and boxer shorts. 

Read the Yorkshire Post's original story at http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/around-yorkshire/local-stories/let_s_smile_again_as_famous_postcards_are_revived_1_2596857

News from Nelson - October 2 2011

Hi everyone,

Seeing as I haven’t heard anything to the contrary, I will assume that everyone is keeping fit and happy. Both of us have managed to avoid having winter colds (as it is now spring, I can say that with all confidence!).

Well, we are managing to get some jobs ticked off our work list for the CoC. We have ghastly batten-holder lights up in the lounge to tie off the electrical cables (Jan still needs to order the lights we want, so this gives him time to do that – but I have given him a twelve month deadline!), smoke detectors installed, we are currently making a storage box for our gas cooker bottle, our porch is painted and our outside lights are up. We still have some work to do on putting our cables underground for the water tank pump, and a couple of other things, but we are well on track.

Jan’s new Mechanical Engineer seems to be pretty good but he still hasn’t filled the Electrical Engineer’s role. I have suggested a few strategies which he is studiously ignoring at the moment.

We have planted a lovely Kowhai and some flaxes alongside the garage, but have yet to find a suitable Pohutukawa. However, we have planted some beetroot, potatoes, tomatoes and lettuces, so we are getting our summer food on track. We have had a couple of rhubarb harvests already, and it is growing fantastically.

Frits came out last weekend and  stayed overnight (Kathleen is in North America at a couple of conferences). Tessa came to visit over the weekend (she is enjoying her study in Auckland, but misses the South Island). John is still with us, and cooking up a storm.

We went to the Sprig & Fern in Motueka to see all the All Blacks games for the World Cup – the beers are fabulous, and the pub has a great atmosphere. My favourite tipple is a ½ pint of Fern Dark. It used to have a much nicer name though: Wobbly Boot! For the life of me, I have no idea why they would have changed such an iconic name!

Over the weekend we went to the Ngatimoti Fair. The fair is out in the middle of the wop-wops and it was PACKED. We saw Bill there with one of his antique bikes. He & Cornish are almost ready to start building. We also saw Robbie & Janet (and Mac & Fergus), and a number of other acquaintances from Nelson.

We have just had the study break – I spent most of the time writing exams for the papers I am teaching, and getting organised to teach summer school.

My last assignment for the Diploma in Career Guidance has been marked, so I am now officially finished. Yay. My first Exec meetings for the National Executive of the Career Development Association is coming up in a couple of weeks, on the on 13 & 14 November. Jan is staying in Nelson.

I have taken in my supervisor’s amendments for my Masters pre-proposal, which has now been approved. Now I just need to get my registration done, and I can get on with it. Since I wrote last, I have also written a case study on 42 Below Vodka, and a chance buy at the Ngatimoti Fair has landed me with a copy of Mark Todd’s autobiography, so I feel an equestrian Olympic team captain case study coming on. Again, if anyone has any info on Mark or the 1988 NZ Equestrian Olympic Team (Seoul), please flick it through.

Christmas plans are firming up – Tina has got us well organised now. We should have a great time. Jan & I are also coming up to Welly on Dec 3, 4 & 5, so if anyone is around, please let us know; we would love to see you.

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing all of October’s birthday people a wonderful coming year: Hartmut; Morv, Marjie, Uncle Norman, Dawnie, Lara & Justine.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – October 2011

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is fit and well? We are keeping in good shape.

After raking the gravel on the building site and losing my pedometer, I bought a new one. Some days I get to 10,000 daily steps, but only a couple of days a week on average. However, I have certainly noticed that the very fact of having it is increasing my walking; and my average is increasing.

Jan’s new role as Engineering Manager is just starting to look a bit better; he had a new Mechanical Engineer starting yesterday, and has an ad out at present for a new Electrical Engineer. The applicants thus far for the Electrical position haven’t been that crash hot though.

Jan also had a concert last weekend, a Children’s Concert of the Nutcracker. He got really tired with rehearsal three nights last week, and then playing all day Saturday (three performances). However, he found that the music was quite easy to play, and the children really enjoyed it.

We had some compost delivered last week, which we were hoping to spread north of the garage to plant a pohutukawa and some flaxes in, and to fill some raised garden beds that we will create out of sleepers. However, it rained on us on Sunday when we were about to get started, so it will have to wait until next weekend now. We definitely needed the rain though.

Jan & I haven’t been anywhere much but we have had a few visitors here since I wrote last; Kathleen & Frits came out last weekend; Bill & Cornish came out to see what we have done with our house as they are about to start building; Hui-Ping was down for a weekend and we caught up with her for a lunch with Murray & Julie and again with Bill & Cornish; and Robbie & Janet called in with Mac & Fergus on their way home a couple of weekends ago. John has been staying for a couple of weeks since his return from Europe, so we still have Bon dog with us.

My students are going well too - the projects are coming through well. I am currently working on adapting a course to the online environment, which is really interesting. I had a TALO – teaching and learning observation – done a couple of weeks ago by another lecturer at NMIT. I was very pleased with the feedback; basically my observer thinks my teaching is pretty spot on. I whizzed that feedback onto the Head of School!

And – whoohoo! – I have finally finished my last Diploma in Career Guidance assignment. The whole thing is finally done, dusted and sent. I just need to wait now in case there are any marker queries. It is WONDERFUL to have it done. However, as a by-product of having completed the DiCG, and some of the flags that I have raised about it, I have been asked to step onto the National Executive of the Career Development Association. I am up in Wellington for my first Exec meeting on 13 & 14 November. All good.

My Masters’ supervisor has sent through some amendments for my one page pre-proposal already, which I was hoping to get done this weekend just gone. Unfortunately I ended up doing other things like GST and bookwork instead. However, it is on my list, so will get done before this weekend.

My Adidas’s perfect PR storm case study is nearly complete. Once done, I will also write another version from a leadership point of view. I am also thinking about doing a case study on Ruth Aitken, now that she is retiring (so if anyone has any info on Ruth, I would love to see it).

Tina has had a plagued recovery from her surgery; she ended up back in hospital with an infection. That made me feel very lucky about my recovery. I am still getting tired at the end of each week, but it is no longer the total collapse that I was feeling on a Friday night.

We were going to put Montrose Drive back on the market, but our tenants told us that they would like to stay for another year. With the housing market being so flat, we were VERY happy to keep such great tenants for another year, and to put the sale back another year.

Christmas should be a great affair this year, with Tina, Jeremy, Lara, Otto, Tanja, Lars and Tanja’s friend Adrian coming down to our place. My folks will come out on the day for a lunchtime barbecue along with Uncle Norman, my brother Mike and his fiancé Donna. We have also put the offer out to Donna’s family, if they would like to join us for a very low key afternoon. Lara has already put in her request for a real Christmas tree, so Jan & I will have to go and select a good wilding pine to bring the smell of Christmas tradition into the house.

Magda has just bought a new car, a Nissan Wingroad, after fifteen years of driving her old Sentra. She is so excited about it! Ooo, electric windows – whizz –whizz – whizz –whizz! Ooo. Central locking – click – click – click – click.

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing all of October’s birthday people a wonderful coming year: Bertie, Guy, Barb, Kell, Erica, Julie T, Trace and Hartmut.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – September 2011

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is fit and well; Jan & I are fine here… and no spring colds as yet!

We went to a bonfire at Jimu’s place at the head of Roses Road on Saturday night, and were told that, according to Alan B, the last time it snowed in our area was 1963. So our snowfall was a once in 50-ish years event. Speaking of the bonfire though, we had a good catch up with some of our neighbours, and met Hugh and Jackie, who have taken over Alan and Dawn’s place. Kev & Suzie had some great roasted goat (Jan suspects that he may have nearly snaffled the lot as it was just to his taste).

All the gravel that had been in a pile on the north corner of the garage since the house was built from left-over back fill and drainage needed to be moved. We decided to spread it around the building platform to metal the surface. So Jan hired a digger from Ken R around in Sunrise Valley and moved it all into little piles which I raked out. Now there are hardly no patches of bare clay anywhere, and which removes the treacherous slipping risk in the rain. And just in time too – it rained on Sunday (which I think was our first rain since the snow fell in July).

My health seems to be cruising along; I am trying to walk every day with the dogs. I got all enthusiastic and got a pedometer to try to hit 10,000 steps per day, but after wearing it for a couple of weeks, on the weekend I lost the damn thing as I was raking gravel over the building site. I will have to go and buy another one!

Magda came to visit us on Saturday – and took away a little chest of drawers which had been languishing in the cellar. I would like to get a couple of old kitchen benches with cupboards underneath them at some stage to go around the cellar walls; but we need to get rid of another couple of old bits of furniture and the telly, all of which are still taking up space. Then the cellar will be functional at last.

Jan has had a promotion: he is now the Engineering Manager for Nelson Pine, looking after both electrical and mechanical engineering. He is getting a mechanical engineer and an electrical engineer to help him out, which will be a big relief. His mechanical engineer is due to start shortly, but he needs to start the selection process for his electrical person.

I have lots of marking coming up in the next couple of weeks – but my students appear to be working well and getting their projects completed to a good standard.

And here I am, STILL with half a Diploma in Career Guidance assignment to finish! I really need to get it done this week because I am getting edgier and edgier about it. I pre-empted the ghastly avoided assignment by sending off my one pager to my Master’s supervisor already. Of those two new case studies I told you about last time, one about Ray Anderson from Interface Inc is complete, and the other on Adidas’s perfect PR storm is half done. And I have some more in mind.

The ‘new’ laptop has a new battery from http://www.laptopbattery.co.nz – all for a very reasonable price and overnight delivery!

Our best wishes to Tina on her speedy recovery from surgery!!!

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing the birthday people a wonderful year ahead: Bob, Warren, Doug, Helen, Andreas, Leigh, Max & Karen, DJ, KT, Uta S, Robert dB, Jenny L & Bertie.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – August 2 2011

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is fit and well; Jan & I are fine here. I have just realised that neither of us has had a cold all winter – so we are bound to catch a spring one!

Fascinating weather pattern over Kiwiland in the past ten days – a massive cold snap came up from the Antarctic and hit every area of the country with snow, ice, road closures and accidents; except Nelson. We had a week’s worth of perfect weather, and hardly any frosts (light breezes through the nights kept the frost off). Blowed if I know how that worked when you see the photos & hear the stories coming in from the chaos elsewhere in the country.

My recovery slowed up; I stopped taking my iron tablets after I went back for my specialist’s follow-up appointment & got the all clear. Over the next couple of weeks, my energy levels started to drop & I got more tired. So I have gone back on them again & my energy has increased; so I guess I should stay on them for a bit longer!

The semester is going well. I have just over 150 students, and am managing OK thus far. I have a tutorial assistant to help with the marking on the big course, but hopefully will be able to manage the rest. Thank goodness for that month off and all the planning I managed to get done – it set me up for the rest of the semester.

Jan is really busy at work – he has lots of things on, and is feeling like he isn’t getting anywhere, which is hard for him. He is short staffed as he is trying to promote from within and his team are being slow to make the step-up decisions, so he is delayed in hiring the new people he needs. But some decisions were made last week, so I think he is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

We have managed to watch the Kiwi movie Stickmen twice in two weekends – we have been trying to get two sets of friends from here in the Moutere together for ages (Glenys & Kevin, Ziggy & Lib) to have a Kiwi movie night, and when we succeeded, one set weren’t able to make it, so we ended up with two sessions! Good nights, both of them, though. I could hear Jan reciting bits of the film the second time through.

Fliss turned eleven last weekend. She is so grey around the face now that she looks like she is wearing loads of black eyeliner. Even her eyelashes are white now – they look very fetching :-)

Bonnie & Coco are full of beans. I take them out for walks together every day, and Fliss walks by my side, while Bons & Coco hoon off, plaiting around each other, play fighting, leaping, running, racing, jumping. They both must do eat least three times the distance that Fliss & I do.

The view from the top of Christian's ridge from the top of Mt Arthur showing behind the Moutere Highway foothills to the start of the Southern Alps stretching away to the left below:

We have had internet problems here – for the past couple of weeks I have spent pretty much three days each week in Nelson as we have had no connectivity at home. I would get a minute or two’s connection, then it would drop off again. I didn’t realise just how much of my work is done using the internet as well as the PC; probably 1/3 is PC only, 2/3 is PC & internet. To fix the problem Jan has felled a corridor of the wilding pines in the satellite’s path, and that seems to have boosted our signal strength a bit. Then Jan took out a signal dampener & we seem to be staying on line OK now. Long may it last!

I still have half an assignment to finish – half of it is already complete, but the other half is an interview that has to be recorded, evaluated, reflected on & emailed. I have absolutely no interest in doing it! I felt that morally there was no way I was going to record a client interview; I wouldn’t even ask a client if they would be willing for me to do so. It just feels wrong. So I am stuck with doing a ‘simulated’ interview, and to record an hour’s worth of interview is going to take a lot longer than an hour. It is a big commitment to ask someone to bear with you while you sort out the technology, they will want briefing on why you are doing things, they will probably be nervous, we will need to test to make sure the recording is happening at the right levels, etc. So I am stuck with asking Jan to do it. And because neither of us really want to do it, I have been avoiding it for a month, dragging out finishing the Diploma.

I have started writing two new case studies though; one on leadership about Ray Anderson from Interface Inc, and the other on PR crisis management about Adidas’s perfect storm about the AB’s rugby jersey.

I now have a spec for my new PC – once I have some contract payments coming in, I will put my order in. Jan’s PC (my old one) has started mysteriously and unexpectedly shutting down, so Jan is looking forward to getting my current PC instead. Nothing like hand-me-downs!

The ‘new’ laptop is going well, though the battery doesn’t work at all. I have been looking on the web for a battery, and hopefully will find one for a reasonable price soon.

Jan & I went to see Mrs Carey's Concert at the Gecko Cinema in Motueka yesterday - a special screening for the NSO. What a cute little theatre the Gecko is, and what a fascinating film. Catch both when you have the time!

Right – I think that his all for now, aside from birthdays: Uta K, Oma Lieselotte, Jan, Hui-Ping, Rae T-H, Otto, Bob, Warren & Doug.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Energy Generation

Wow - today, when almost the whole of Kiwiland is in the grip of snow and ice, here in Nelson we have had one of our biggest PV generation days of the whole winter. Amazing.

I hope you are all keeping warm: Jeremy & Tina have even had snow in Karori!

Shame, Adidas!

Gouging, anyone? Adidas, sponsors of the All Blacks, has been supplying facsimile All Black jerseys to NZ retail chains; at a cost price higher than the shirt is being sold at retail elsewhere in the world. Adidas claims that this is to "recoup R&D on the All Black jersey"... but they don't sell real player jerseys. While the cut is the same, the fabric is different, so as to keep the technological advantage.

Further, why should Adidas penalise Kiwi rugby fans for the R&D that is part of Adidas' commercial sponsorship contract with the ABs? Why should Americans be able to buy the shirts for under half the NZ retail price ($90 vs $220)? 

So, shame, Adidas. You are sponsors entrusted with stewardship of a huge Kiwi icon. Don't give us bumpf about Kiwis needing to share your R&D cost for the jersey unless you want to sell us the real one (Yeah, right). Stop gouging, and remember that the ABs fans are part of the package that you sponsor; without the fans, the AB brand value will erode. 

 

Dogs - happy at home

Hi all,
A couple of photos of the dogs - they have such a TERRIBLE life of it, really :-)

News from Nelson – August 2011

Hi everyone,

Well, we have had snow since I talked to you all last – it only hung about for three days, but it was pretty surprising none-the-less. See photos below this posting for how pretty it was (nothing like knowing you won’t have to cope with it for long, it won’t be a mucky thaw and it won’t refreeze!).

I am recovering well from my surgery. I am back lecturing today, so the month off seemed to go pretty quickly. I go to see my specialist for my follow-up appointment tomorrow. Should be all OK – I feel good. Jan’s finger is slower to heal, but I think it is also doing as well as it should be. He keeps complaining about not being able to go to volleyball :-)

Over the past month I consumed about 15 books and 6 talking books. It was wonderful. I also got my papers for this semester pre-planned, all the materials printed and everything ready to start tomorrow. I have been in touch with a number of students, and will start to meet them all tomorrow too. I am ready to get back into it. However, I will make sure that my students carry all my printing for me.

Jan managed to get an old laptop through work that had died, and we swapped my crapped-out-laptop memory and hard drive into it, so I now have a laptop again. The next project is to get a new home PC, as this is one is four years old. Time for something newer & speedier; and I didn’t want to have to replace a PC and a laptop in the same year, really.

We missed Fleur & Neil’s party (significant birthday) because I didn’t think I would be able to do two hours over Takaka Hill to get there, then a few hours at the party, then two hours back again. Hopefully they all had a GREAT time. But we caught up with Kevin & Sandra for a LOVELY dinner at their place on the weekend. Jan was most impressed as he got to watch the Rugby (which he had completely forgotten about). All good all round.

Jan went with Kathleen, Frits & my Mum to the NSO a couple of weeks ago; they al really enjoyed the music.

Bonnie is great – all the dogs had baths and toenail-trims on Sunday, and she was so good. Fliss would have liked to have unscrewed her feet and have hidden them somewhere if at all possible, while Coco shrieked with every toenail we cut (wus). 

I am now on my last assignment for the DiCG. At last. So I have been taking a little break and doing some research for my Masters instead.

Speaking of Jan not being very motivated for his Certificate in Horticulture; he has decided to withdraw. He thought there would be a lot more practical show & tell stuff in it; he is not very interested in the theory. So he has gone to see the Programme Leader to explain. His brassicas seeds nearly all germinated though!

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Merrill, Moose, Julie C, Paul T, Mike W, Tessa W, Erik & Neil L.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Snow at Roses Road

Hi all,
We had a bit of snow overnight!
Despite the somewhat crisp aspect to the day, we are all good here. The dogs are finding the crunchy cold wet stuff underfoot a little puzzling though.

Another pearl

Ah, reading. It makes you laugh sometimes:

"...and the wife starts bleating about unconditional love. What's that supposed to mean, eh?"
"It's American for putting up with crap from your children".

Walters, Minette (2007). The Chameleon's Shadow. UK: Macmillan (p. 144).

The book is fairly pedestrian (see, I am being good & having some rest), but that was a bit of humour.

Delicious Quote from "Plumb" by Maurice Gee

"He might have been too upset" I said.
"Nonsense. He's a Tory"

Gee, Maurice (1983). The Plumb Trilogy, book 3: Sole Survivor. NZ: Faber and Faber. p. 198

That made me laugh today!

News from Nelson – July 2011

Hi everyone,

We have had lots of rain! It really feels like winter now with thunderstorms and snow. We certainly aren’t collecting lots of energy from the solar arrays at the moment, and the dogs are clustered around the fireplace!

Well, things have moved quickly since I updated you last. Jan’s dislocated finger is healing slowly; it is still a bit swollen and sore. Jan is very impatient with the speed of his recovery, but I think that he has forgotten that it is going to take six weeks to come right after the last time he played volleyball – so he needs to give it another four weeks yet before it will be largely better…. and the fact that he played after two weeks from the injury may have slowed his recovery even more.

I went to see my specialist at lunchtime on Friday 24th June, once he got back from his holiday (and after bludgeoning my way into an appointment through his receptionist – I did buy her a box of chocolates as a thank you) and got a surgery date; for the following Tuesday morning. We were going to Christchurch on Saturday, back Monday night.

Right. So in the carpark outside, I rang our Health Insurer and got an approval number, filled out the surgery forms and dropped them off at the hospital straight afterward. Then I realised that perhaps I had best go & stock up on library books and various other things that I might need for the following month that I would be out of action! So Friday afternoon was spent shopping and planning – and letting my Heads of School know at NMIT. At least I had finished all my marking & compiled my results in case the surgery was able to be done quite quickly (just wasn’t expecting it to be quite that quick!).

Christchurch was great – we caught up with Jenny, Trace & Erica, Bertie, Pat & Marjie and their brood (can’t believe how much they have all grown!) and Gary and Karen. Jenny, Bertie and Trace drove us around to do various things; we got to see Warren & Trace’s new place (which we hadn’t seen before), Bertie took us on a tour of the city, which was scary but interesting, and Jen drove us around on a tour of nurseries for a seed and plant pot search. It was lovely to catch up with everyone, and there was only one aftershock that we felt (a wee one on Saturday lunchtime – about a 4). Jan got to watch rugby on Sky :-)

Jan’s course on Monday was deadly boring, and my laptop crapped out at 10am, so all the work that I was planning to do that day while Jan was at the course was kaput (we later found out that the motherboard was fried – apparently a problem with that model… and only 3 years old. Pah!). Never mind, at least I had brought three books with me. So I read them all!

Monday night we got home, I did washing and organised everything ready for the next day going into hospital. Surgery went well, no complications, other than the usual vast amounts of anti-emetics they have to give me. I had a full abdominal hysterectomy, but they have left an ovary so I won’t need HRT (they tried to leave both, but one was damaged by the fibroid crushing it, so they decided to take it out as well).

However, 20 hours after surgery I was even more dizzy and sick, so they gave me a “scopaderm” anti-nausea patch, which I proved to be allergic to. My eyes swelled up, my throat closed and I got sores and blisters. Very exciting. Needless to say, they have made a note on my file not to use these patches!

Once that was removed I got better by leaps and bounds. I had taken 11 books and four talking books to hospital, reading 10 of the books before I came home (couldn’t listen to the talking books as the laptop crapped out). I got two newspapers every day and read those too (and did the code cracker and the word builder – but I was slow to begin with). I had lots of visitors, bringing good wishes, cards and flowers. Jan came every day, which was great – and in the opposite direction to home so added to the complexity of his life.

On Saturday I came home, and have been very quiet at home since. I have no trouble working quietly at my computer, and my WorkPace software makes sure I take regular breaks. I have had two lots of cautionary tales – one of infections and one of a prolapse – to ensure that I take care and convalesce slowly. Magda, who had a hysterectomy three years ago, came to stay for a few days last week, helped out and kept me company.

In the last week of July I plan on returning to light work, and will start lecturing again on 1 August. I have everything ready to go for that, and will organise some students to pick up the printing as I am allowed to do NO heavy lifting for six weeks. And boxes of student resources are very heavy!

So for now it is just pottering about. I have done lots of admin things and have even started tidying up some old filing. Until this week, I didn’t really feel yet like tackling anything new, so have been doing routine things in the office that take little brain power.

On the weekend I got some kind of mild gastric attack, which had me in bed for a couple of days, but by Sunday night I was feeling OK again. All good.

Jan has been doing the cooking and so on, but this week I am feeling a bit more up to things, so am starting to take things on again. I will definitely be careful about the lifting, and having lots of rests though.

Kathleen has been out to visit, and Nik is threatening to come out with Ash too. Jan & John went to see Jennifer Ward-Lealand in concert at the gala opening of the Winter Festival (I couldn’t sit for two hours). Jan is also going with my Mum to the NSO performance this Saturday – as a spectator, as he decided that the rehearsal schedule would be too hard to fit in along with my recovery. Again, I won’t go - sit ting for two hours, along with the hour and a half in the car to get both ways wouldn’t be wise (see? I am being careful).

John has headed off overseas again, and we have Bonnie with us now until September. Coco is very happy to have her running mate back again. I went for a walk halfway down the driveway between rain showers with them all yesterday, and they were mightily confused about why we had to go home already!

This week I hope to get back to doing some study - I have only three assignments to complete now, then I am completely finished. I would like to get those done before the end of July, and I see no reason why I shouldn’t be able to manage that – one assignment a week for the next three weeks sounds reasonable. In August I need to put in a one page proposal to my supervisor for my Masters; we have already discussed some ideas, but I just need to start fleshing it out so I can get approval to start.

Jan is currently germinating brassicas seeds as his first Certificate in Horticulture assignment. He keeps complaining about not being very motivated; I wonder if he would have been more motivated if I had done it with him.

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Thomas S, Fleur, Kelly M, Moose, Merrill & Julie C.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young