Another month has rolled around, and it is now September, and time to recount the happenings of August.
I caught up with Bridget, Warren, Tracey, and Erica; Warren and Erica; Kathleen and Frits, at Jellyfish in Mapua; WOW in Stoke; and Toad Hall respectively.
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| Erica's new (second-hand) bike |
There were no human illnesses this month, but Boo got very sick, and spent a week in and out of the vets, and was on a drip for a day. They think that she ate something horrible which badly upset her stomach. She seems relatively OK now, but I was quite worried for a while. She had to come to work for a day with me during her recovery as she needed feeding in tiny amounts several times during the day. She was quite unsettled, though the doggy people in the office were great about keeping her distracted while I had student supervision meetings, and delivered lectures.
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| Boo with her drip-bandage still on |
The semester is well underway and everything has settled down. Assignment work is coming in, the usual conversations are being had. As usual, I have some challenging students and some superb ones: and, as usual, if I wasn't vigilant, the superb ones would only get 20% of my attention while the challenging ones would be the time-sucks. I set 15 minute appointments, which helps to ring-fence those who are not doing the work.
I have another Master's supervisee just starting, as my current one is about to finish. I will have a second one starting soon as well: my first supervisee didn't pass the thesis the first time around, but has reapplied and is coming back for a second bite at it later in September. What is surprising is that they have requested to have me as a supervisor again.
There is a new Master's Co-ordinator in the school who seems really onto it, and I am hoping that they will lead a thorough review of systems and materials. The trouble with new programmes like NMIT's Masters is that the development has been somewhat piecemeal, and it now needs a systemic review. What I have seen thus far seems to be identifying the type of inconsistencies which I have noted... which is reassuring.
While I am enjoying the Master's supervision, I am comfortable teaching at under-grad. However, I am getting more requests to teach at post-grad, and I have the feeling that I need to start making some strategic choices. I am just not yet sure what those choices should be... so I have some thinking to do.
I had a couple of very, very cold days after rain where the rain froze in slippery puddles on the deck. Warren came out and drilled some drain holes in the timbers to prevent the water pooling where the planks have completely closed up with the rain, which was great. It should reduce the risk of falls, hopefully.
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| Sheet ice on the decking |
I have had a half-truck load of kiln-dried timber delivered by another friend, Kevin, which was great. I was a bit worried about running out of dry timber, but a week after the wood was delivered, it suddenly started getting warm enough to not need the fire. Still, better to be safe than sorry.
I discovered the documentaries of curator Lucy Worsley, and have watched everything I can find on YouTube. While I have watched documentaries created by her - for BBC or Channel 4 - in the past, I didn't realise quite how much of a body of work she had put together. It was rather educational.
A friend of mine is making jewellery from recycled souvenir teaspoons, and I have been going around the second-hand and charity shops finding interesting souvenir samples for her. In return she has made me several sterling silver pieces, which has been lovely. I am very lucky:
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| Tina De Suza's lovely creations from https://www.tinadesuza.com/ |
The views remain great from here, and dawn is arriving earlier and earlier with each passing week.
With regard to location, Jan is still in North America. I am still in Nelson. It will be nearly three months this time that he will have been away for by the time I see him next. He will be back at the end of October for his Dad's 80th birthday celebrations. While this is a good reason to be coming home later, it is a long time for him to have been away. There is - of course - a huge pile of work on the land for him to get through on his return. He will only be here for a week though, so not much will get done, I suspect. We will have to pay builders, fencers or general contractors to bridge the gap, which will be expensive.
Jan has gone out twice on the weekend since he has been in Rock Hill. He found some good coffee at a French-style cafe, and walked around a water treatment plant:
Jan & his colleagues have been eating out, Jan has been using the pool at the hotel, and they are all encouraged to use the BBQ outside rather than cooking in their rooms. The pool facilities are pretty good, but the place looks like a concrete industrial park, as you can see from the photos below.
We are off to Germany, Hungary and Croatia in November/December for the Danube cruise. Actual plans to come. Will update you all in another month... hopefully with our plans for 2020.
Sam
