Hi all,
Just a quick update again as we are both pretty busy! Surprise, surprise!
Happy birthday to Jan's Oma Friedel who has just turned 99, here with Katrin & Monika:
I went up to Tauranga for a couple of AUT training days, and caught up with DJ & Dilani, who are both in great form. Hopefully we will catch up with them both again when we take the Rotary exchange students around the far north this April too.
Kathleen & Frits came to stay for a weekend and we shamelessly put them to work. First we cleared some of the rubbish piles from when we had our trees felled about six years ago:
Then, where Jimmy had felled some trees which were threatening our powerlines, Jan & Frits cut them up.
And Coco and Bonnie helped.
And, what a delight for the eyes. Bonnie, sound asleep with eyes slightly open, dreaming and snoring with her tongue out. Bless.
Flissy is getting pretty frail: her back end is getting pretty wobbly due to the Ankylosing Spondylitis. We had them all at the vet the other day for check ups, and basically there is nothing else we can do for her now except control her pain (and she seems relatively pain-free, so that's good). Old dogs :-(
This week Jan has been in Auckland at a work conference/seminar and I have been in Welly for another CDANZ meeting. My next 'meeting' will be via video link from the BNZ Centres all around the country. It will be interesting to see how that works! But if it does work well, it will mean that we can save some $ for our members and have some 'minor' meetings during the year. I don't think the technology is good enough to replace collegiality yet, but it may come.
I teach students in Marlborough via video link, so does work OK: but it is not a replacement for being there.
We have rented our house again, as aside from one offer which fell through, there was nothing happening on the sales front.
Jan is playing in the next NSO concert - a salute to the Steinway - and I am trying to get my NMIT courses sorted so I can get back to my own study. I have some interesting students in my classes though. All those good things that make it enjoyable!
Our neighbour, Kath, is not good again, which is a real shame. But at least Harrison is three now, so will have memories of his Mum.
Our next trip will be the Rotary Youth Exchange one in April/May. Hope to see some of you then.
Jan & Sam
Hi all,
Wow. Dunno where the year has gone already!
We have been watching the rain pass us by for some time now. While we have plenty of water still (the advantage of having three huge tanks), it is not so good for the garden - nor the neighbour's pasture!
We are now firmly into firewood mode, and have had some old tracks
cleared by Jimmy Sagar so we could fell some trees close to our power
line, and get at some trees which had fallen a while ago.
Jan is happy as a sandboy with his chainsaw... and I have discovered that acetone-free nail polish remover gets pine sap out of clothing, so I am happy too :-D
Hartmut sent us three beautiful bowls that he made (not the one that discorporated and hit his forehead, needless to say):
I have published my first issue of the CDANZ magazine, which has been quite intense, along with all the other things I am trying to do at the moment. Now I get a breather until late March, when the next one will be in the starting blocks.
Jan is busy at work still, but seems happy enough with how things are going.
Montrose Drive still hasn't sold, so we have decided to keep it on the market & rent it out. We are meeting some potential tenants there today.
Kathleen & Frits are coming to stay for the weekend, and we have a full-on programme planned, including the Sarau Festival on Sunday. Additionally we may well see Andrew, Jennie & their family today, on their way to the Neudorf concert.
Next week I am in Tauranga (Thursday & Friday), the week after I am in Wellington (Sunday & Monday) and Jan is in Auckland (Monday & Tuesday). Things will also crank up for Semester 1 from the 25th (though I need to be in for orientation week before that).
The Masters work is coming along painfully at the moment as I am still writing a RFP for a presentation at the International Leadership Association conference in Auckland in Anzac week. But it is coming along. So we will see.
In Anzac week we also take off on the North Island Tour with the Rotary International exchange students for twelve days. They will leave me in Auckland for the conference and go on to Hobbiton etc. I will then fly into Rotovegas to catch them up (and miss Hobbiton!). Should work out just fine. We CAN do everything! And Jan will have his trusted lieutenants in Timo, Kazu and Karin.
Camila is back at school, after a lovely holiday at the beach (pictured here with Beto (her Dad), Célia (her Mum) and Ana Silvia:
Tessa got engaged to Sandra last Saturday in Nelson, at a family gathering at Mike's place. I don't have any photos yet, but when I do get some, I will post them.
Simone has sent some photos of Andreas with Michael, and herself and Michael:
It is my folks' wedding anniversary on the 13th, so hopefully we will get to celebrate with them the weekend before.
Right: I know I haven't covered everything, but this will do for now. Will add more when I get time!
Jan & Sam
