News from Nelson - October 2 2013

Hi all,
I hope you are all fit and well - we seem to be boxing along here just fine. Jan has had a cold though - and spent three days off work with it, but amazingly I didn't catch it. There is a first time for everything!

We seem to have been busy here again for the past few weeks: again, I am not quite suire what has been filling our time, but we have been busy doing it.

We have had the orchard cut, our tenants are moving out at the end of November so we are looking at putting the Montrose Dr house on the market once more, and we have caught up with a few people around the country.

Jan has been to Wellington for the Naenae College reunion this weekend - and apparently many beers were imbibed! Jan went with Tina on the Friday night, and together they caught up with lots of old friends - particularly from Jan's year, as loads of his old compadrés turned up. On Saturday, Jan had brunch with Brigitte and John at Tina & Jeremy's.and caught up with Hartmut & Uta. On Saturday night Jan went to meet his year people for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant, and they finished up at Helen's mother's house in Kelson. He had a great time overall, and I am really sorry that I forgot to send him with a camera!

On Sunday, Gary & Sandra - who have been in Port Headland (Oz) for the past five years - were here on holiday, and picked up Jan from his flight home from Welly, and came to stay. Jan made a massive lasagne for dinner, which he had better freeze, because he is off to the US next week, and he will never eat 3/4s of a huge, deep lasagne dish full of pasta, mince, cheese and tomatoes, before he goes.

On Monday morning, Pat, Marjie & their brood called in for a waffle breakfast on their way home to Chch. The McLarin's drove up to Nelson on Friday, Pat flew to Welly on Friday night for the Naenae Reunion with Jan, came back on Saturday for brother Matt's 40th, then drove home Monday morning with a segue to our place for brekkie on the way. It was lovely to see them again so soon (Marjie is very trim & fit after doing a 20 week challenge. I don't envy her the effort, but it has been very worthwhile because she looks great).

The weekend before that we went to Christchurch, I went to my symposium & AGM, which was great. We stayed with Jen, Jan had lunch, morning tea & afternoon tea dates every day (including Bertie, visiting Meg, Mr Tunley and my Aunt Diana. He had a great time being a lady who lunches :-D ). We had dinner with Magda on Friday night, too.

We caught up with Jennie, Pat, Marjie, Megs (& Will), KB, Gary, Dan, Tori and all the short people. We had a great night at Pat & Marjie's, which was, of course, way too short.

  

 

We called in to see my sister on the way home - and to drop off her birthday present.

The weekend before that we had a lovely, quiet time at home, doing some tidying up and me prepping materials for the coming Career Symposium and AGM in Christchurch. We did a few jobs outside, but the weather wasn't that flash for getting out and about. We had a bit of rain and the fords were pretty full:

Dogs are well. Playing. Lying in the sun. Sleeping. All normal :-)

So, Jan is off to the US and Germany next Tuesday (5 November), and returns on 24 November. Just in time to talk at another Rotary Club about Rotary Youth Exchange with me about the two tours we have taken around the North Island.

Next concert (which Jan will miss) is Sibelius. Magda is coming to Nelson to stay though instead, so I will have the pleasure of her company instead:

That will do for now - I had better do some work!!

Jan & Sam

+++Out of Cheese Error +++

All of us are familiar with the oft-times incomprehensible messages from computers when they run into a glitch.

However, for those of you who read Terry Pratchett, you will be familiar with the Unseen University's thinking engine, Hex, and the entertaining bent that Sir P'Terry throws at error messages.

I was reminded of a few of these imaginative errors today when I went to comment on a friend's FB post but had no idea of who the person was my friend had commented on. I decided on "+++MELON MELON MELON+++ +++Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++" (Voice of Hex, Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times), but think I would rather have said “+++Out of Cheese Error +++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Redo From Start +++” (Voice of Hex, Terry Pratchett, Hogfather).

They make more sense than many of Microsoft's 'helpful' explanations.

References:

• LSpace (n.d.). Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki: Hex. Retrieved 9 October 2013 from http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Hex
• Pratchett, Terry (1996). Hogfather. UK: Victor Gollancz
• Pratchett, Terry (1994). Interesting Times. UK:  Victor Gollancz

Sam

News from Nelson - October 2013

Hi everyone,
Surprise! It seems like we have been pretty busy again these past weeks.

Jan has had a cold (and was off work for three days with it), but surprisingly I have managed to avoid catching the virus myself. That's two surprises in this catch up already.

Xavier from next door (at "The Warehouse" shed at the end of our pine trees) has mowed our orchard with his remote control mower, which means Jan doesn't have to stress about gorse control in the gully. Xavier cut the gorse two summers ago, which was so effective it lasted for two years. As the grass grows in thicker each year, the gorse is less and less able to get established, so means we can go longer between mows. While it is raining today, you can see how neatly the mower works below. It is a really safe - and non-toxic - way to control those nuisance exotic pest plants. And it is also one less thing for Jan to worry about not having time to get to :-D

You can also see that we have planted a few more fruit trees (apple, pears, nectarines & another walnut), protected by drums from the possums, rabbits and hares. The apple trees are still in blossom, while everything else is now in leaf. Everything in the garden is growing again, so needs to be protected from the other imported pests; the vegetarians who eat it!

Speaking of Jan having time, he is currently building plans for his trip to the US and Germany, so if he hasn't yet got in touch with you, it will be happening soon.

The Solo Spotlight concert was a great success: there was a storm of applause at the end, and got a preview in the local paper (http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/features/arts/9207635/Aspiring-young-musicians-go-solo). Jan is not playing in the next concert, so gets the last part of the year off.

We went to Max & Karen's birthday party a couple of weeks ago, and caught up with loads of old friends and made some new. A great night outside, despite it being a bit chilly still.

I am still working on transcribing the materials for my Master's study. Transcribing, transcribing, transcribing. I have just ordered Dragon, so instead of typing, I can just speak it. I am hoping that this will be easier (less vile), once I have 'trained' it to hear my accent, that is!

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a new phone from Telecom, as my contract was out, and I could get a free phone upgrade. I have stayed with Nokia, but gone to a Lumia. Am enjoying it a lot, but am also very conscious of the amount of $ you can gobble checking things on the web. At least it is hooked into the wireless at home, so doesn't cost here. Finally, an advantage of being in a rubbish mobile coverage area. And it takes pretty good photos.

As mentioned last time, Jan & I are going to be in Chch on 17, 18, 19 & going home on the 20th of October. I will be at a symposium at UC on Thursday (will catch a ride with Jenny L), and have the CDANZ AGM at CPIT on Friday. We have a shindig at Pat's on Saturday evening (sorta 4-ish kick-off...?). It would be good to catch up with everyone who can't make that at other times, so give us a shout & we will tee something up.

We are not sure if anyone in the family is doing anything for Christmas. If there are any great ideas, we would like to hear.

And some very sad - and unexpected - news. A former Sealord colleague, Julie Bryant, lost her husband Rob on the weekend. He had just completed a time-trial at a mountain bike event here in Nelson, and collapsed after the finish. He died soon afterwards. His funeral will be later this week.

Carpe that old diem.


Jan & Sam