News from Nelson – May 2 2011

Hi everyone,

Hopefully you are all fit & well? We trust so :-)

We have been keeping busy, though we had a fairly relaxing weekend just gone. Our architect asked us around for lunch on Sunday which lasted for three hours and was heavenly; sitting in the sun outside with good food, good wine and good conversation.

We went to Montrose Drive to see the house, and it is being so well looked after. Our tenant is actively looking for little projects to do. The spa room looks great now that they have re-roofed it.

Since I last wrote, I have caught up with Kel again with Ellie; we are trying to get our act together to meet each fortnight & have a chinwag at KaPie (the NMIT student’s ‘local’ café just down the street). So far so good!

Jan is now practicing for the next NSO concert, and for a Greenhill concert. From him being out each night at orchestra practice in the week leading up to the Beethoven concert (which went well, by the way), he is now out on Mondays at Greenhill, Tuesday at Underwater Hockey, Wednesday for NSO, and now wants to plan Thursdays for Volleyball at the Moutere Rec Centre. Hmm. I suspect he will run out of steam on Wednesdays.Jan played the Studer viola in the Beethoven concert and really enjoyed the sound.

John pulled the pin on the South Island tour because of the rain, so sadly Jan missed out on sharing the motorcycle tour. Then it fined up! 

Good sunrises out our way recently:

I have just been marking again; my research teams have submitted their final reports, and have gone a bit overboard. Nine research teams should have submitted about 85,000 words between them; I had 146,000 to mark. Reading and critiquing that lot took quite a long time, but the standard was also good and everyone passed.

Last time you may remember that I had been asked to teach an online Leadership course next semester with 140 students. I have decided to do it, as I will be working with another lecturer who is familiar with this particular programme. I have worked with Nic before, and it has gone very well. I will need restructure the assessments to reduce the assessment load though.

We think we have matched the paint for our porch, so we can paint it. Once that is done, then it is only tying off all the unfitted lights before we can apply for our Code of Compliance certification from the local council. However, aside from the paint match, we have no other progress! Photo: house from the top of Christian's hill next door

Next weekend we are volunteering at Founders for the Book Fair, going to a party at Shelley & Kevin’s and spending a day at home studying!

We have booked a Christchurch trip for the end of June (25-27). We are flying down and staying out near the Airport at the Sudima. Jan has a course there on the Monday (27), so we thought we would stay there & hopefully bludge on you Christchurch people to come & see us or pick us up. We have two days & nights to spend with you guys; if you want to organise a get-together somewhere, we would love to come :-)

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to my mother, William de Beer, my Aunty Jill & Colin Coke.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young