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.
25 July 2011
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.
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.
21 July 2011
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.
"...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.
18 July 2011
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!
"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!
12 July 2011
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
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
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