News from Nelson - March 2012

Hi all,
Whew, and we gallop on through the year!
Jan’s grandmother, Oma Lieselotte, is quite ill in Germany. She may have had a stroke, as her legs were paralysed, but we have not had an update, so are unsure if this will be permanent or temporary. Jan’s dad, Hartmut, left for Ulm on Monday, so will hopefully be able to update us on how she is doing shortly. Brigitte continues her recovery in Germany, and Jörg is getting the help he needs at last. No other illness in the family, thank goodness.
Jan & I are both well, but both still flat out. Jan is still trying to hire a new Electrical Engineer and I am STILL trying to commission my new PC. I have hit all sorts of “you can’t get there from here” Microsoft messages in trying to put the damn thing together (mainly permissions and key codes for XP).  However, summer school has all been finalised, and I have finished marking my first round of assessments for Semester 1 already. I keep thinking that perhaps I should just hand the thing over to a shop and say “make it so”!
The Nelson Symphony Orchestra is continuing to take up quite a bit of both Jan’s & my free time, but we are hoping that once we have built a big list of everything that needs to be done, we will be better able to plan everything.
We are about to Skype with the people who drove the Rotary International exchange teenagers around the North Island last Easter, to pick up all the goss. We are both looking forward to going at Easter.  Frits & Kathleen went into the Abel Tasman for Frits’ birthday a few weeks ago, and we took Camila with us. Photos: Camila above Anchorage, leaving Marahau on the water taxi, Pitt Head coming into Anchorage, Te Puketea Bay, Camila on the beach at Te Puketea Bay.

We will be up in Wellington again on 31 March for Jan’s Mum’s 70^th birthday (just after she gets back from Germany). Hopefully Joerg will be OK to fly; he has booked his flights, so should be all good. Then I am up again on 27 to 29 April for my second CDANZ Exec meeting.
However, we will also be in Australia from 16-18 March; yes, in eight days. We went to the Suter Gallery’s Degustation dinner a couple of weeks ago, and bid on, and won, the last auction item of the night; a trip for two to Sydney. We fly AirNZ, stay at the Sebel Pier One Hotel, get a guided tour of the Picasso Exhibition which is at the Art Galley of NSW, and get a dinner for two at Est. We will have lots of fun. We fly up to Auckland on Thursday the 15^th, and nice and early to Sydney on Friday morning (my students get to play hookey for the day!).
We also had the Roses Road BBQ a few weeks ago, and caught up with just about everyone the Valley, except Christian (he was away in Blenheim), but including Lyn Redden, who is back living in his house. Zig & Lib’s house is coming along slowly, but no wonder it has taken them so long to get organised with it; it is a pretty big place. Lib is planning on having another get-together at Orinoco Winery later this month or early April, so we will have seen everyone on the road three times already this year! (Photo: Kath, Jackie, Linda & Ian obscured behind Jackie, Hugh, Daniel, Diana, Christine, Kevin).

Jan and I also helped out a the Weet-bix Tryathlon last weekend, as cycle marshals on the cycle course.  Whakatu Rotary did this last year as well, so we were all keen to help again; though the 5.40am briefing was a bit grim when it meant that Jan & I had to get up at 4 to leave home at 5 to be there by 20 to 6! A great day though, and I think we will both be keen to be involved again next year. 1500 7 to 15 year-olds took part (peaceful playing fields at Tahnunanui at dawn on my post before 1500 kids and parents deluged in).

Right, that's it for now – this weekend we have the Long Lunch at Kahurangi on Sunday, and both Jan & I are working on Saturday (marking for me, commissioning software for him). I think last time I said that I was ensuring that we don’t add any more back in for the next two weeks… what was that Sydney trip again…?! Gary & Nic, Jan & I have been trying to find a weekend free to catch up. We are now into the second week in May, and still don’t have a date that works :-(
Happy birthdays to Melissa, Brigitte, Mike D, Sandra W, Jen C, Frits, Duncan & Dilani
All the best - hope to hear from you all soon!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young