The days are getting longer and warmer and it is time to recap September.
This month I have spent time with Sharon & Ian, Warren, Tracey, Erica, and Jenny.
I went to Sharon & Ian's for lunch, and found that Sharon had rather a lot of teaspoons for me to pass on to my jeweller friend:
Warren came out and we spent a morning putting together the frame of the little (!) tunnel house that Jan bought when he was here last, and we even read the instructions:
We have put the frame of the tunnel house together so that when Jan gets home, we can prepare the site (that is the clay patch you can see behind Warren reading the instructions), then cover it and move it into position together. It will save half a day of Jan's time home, in which there is plenty of other stuff to be done. Warren also helpfully put up the bike racks which I bought from Torpedo 7 on special a few years ago, so at last I can get into the space under the stairs in the garage. There are lots of boxes under the stairs which have not been touched since we moved in. Now that I can get to them easily, I can sort them out, and decide what needs to go, and what I want to keep.
I got another partial truckload of kiln dried timber ends from Kev, and stacked it in the shed:
And the sunrises still don't fail to impress:
There were lots of birthdays in September, including Jan's (which he was away for, but I sent him some new Sennhauser earphones from Amazon). Max & Karen, their Woofer, Erica and I helped Warren celebrate his 50th by having fish and chips at Tahunanui beach, followed by a dog walk. Warren has now bought a new house in Enner Glynn. I helped him a tiny bit with a couple of loads, and took a couple of photos. He has lovely views to the West and to the North... and a swimming pool:
Finn thinks he is a people and has taken to sitting on the outdoor furniture. I am amazed he can fit himself in, because he has turned out to be quite a big dog:
Erica came to stay for the weekend with Jade and Ollie, and four dogs had a LOVELY time with a long walk each day and much playing. Even Jade managed the 4k round-trip down to the second ford each day without running out of steam (big walks for a little dog):
Boo and Finn ate the side off one of the rubber mats on the deck. While the mats might have prevented me slipping, they also prevented Boo from digesting. Sigh. More trips to the vet, but thankfully no surgery yet. We are hoping that "this too shall pass"!
The washing machine has been at the repair shop for six weeks, waiting for a part to come: it arrived and was ready for pick up just as Warren moved into his house and needed his washing machine back! Spectacular timing.
The ford by the winery has been concreted in, to the tune of two concrete trucks full of concrete. Simon did all the boxing and prep, and he and Cie did the screeding while I was out teaching for the day. All I had to do was to leave one car on the 'inside' of the ford and the other on the 'outside' for a couple of days while it cured. It is fabulous now:
My undergraduate research students are mostly on track, and I have another couple of post-grad students doing Master's projects. My teaching workload at present is steady, which is good, and this month I delivered my last research lectures for year. However, I still have orals to organise, and my Sport & Rec paper lectures finish at the beginning of November. Then it is only marking and getting results into the system to be finished with the undergrad work. I will have three Master's supervisees who will still be going until late November, with one not finishing until January.
While I am still saying no to additional teaching projects this year, I am in talks about mentoring a new undergraduate research paper co-ordinator and moving into teaching post-graduate papers in the business school next year. I am still a bit hesitant about this, but have said yes to teaching a first post-graduate paper in semester 1 2020. I am also doing some Sport & Rec planning for semester 2 2020, as two of my AUT papers are being rolled into one, and I am working through what needs to be kept out of the two originals, and from two previous papers I have taught. I have been thinking about this for some time, and have a meeting next month where I need to formalise my proposal... and the write up of those thoughts will need to be tackled in the study break.
Additionally, I have hired some cleaners, so on the weekends I am no longer spending half a day cleaning. With the spare time I have created, I have been enjoying the books of Rhys Bowen, the "Her Royal Spyness" series. They are quite fun, and the library has a few of the talking books. I went to the movies for a charity fundraiser for the Motueka swimming pool, and saw the Downton Abbey film. It was quite good, but not as taut as Gosford Park had been.
At the end of the month, daylight saving started. This is a horrible time of the year for me, as I am now effectively getting up at 4.30am, and really struggle with an hour's less sleep each day. It usually takes met two weeks to adjust, and luckily this year, the study break gives me that two weeks to adjust my sleep pattern.
Jan is still in Rock Hill SC, but has done some travelling at last, having gone to Chimney Rock with some of his colleagues:
He met up with an old school friend, Claudia, and her partner, in Durham, NC. This was midway between where Claudia lives and where Jan is staying:
Aside from a few hours at the beach one Sunday, the rest of his time has been working, having evening bbqs (as they are not supposed to cook in their rooms) and following his workmates on shopping trips locally in Rock Hill or further afield to Charlotte:
Jan is back in NZ on 19 October for a nine days, then off again. He will next be back in NZ next on 23 December. We meet in November in Munich, visit Ulm, then head off on the Danube river cruise meeting Justine in Prague, then onto Stuttgart for Jan to do a week-long Siemen's course where we will meet Simone and Andreas. I will potter about Stuttgart and sightsee while Jan is on the course each day, and continue to supervise my Master's supervisees. We return to NZ together.
Talk to you all again in a month or so.
Sam (& Jan in the US).
I went to Sharon & Ian's for lunch, and found that Sharon had rather a lot of teaspoons for me to pass on to my jeweller friend:
Warren came out and we spent a morning putting together the frame of the little (!) tunnel house that Jan bought when he was here last, and we even read the instructions:
We have put the frame of the tunnel house together so that when Jan gets home, we can prepare the site (that is the clay patch you can see behind Warren reading the instructions), then cover it and move it into position together. It will save half a day of Jan's time home, in which there is plenty of other stuff to be done. Warren also helpfully put up the bike racks which I bought from Torpedo 7 on special a few years ago, so at last I can get into the space under the stairs in the garage. There are lots of boxes under the stairs which have not been touched since we moved in. Now that I can get to them easily, I can sort them out, and decide what needs to go, and what I want to keep.
I got another partial truckload of kiln dried timber ends from Kev, and stacked it in the shed:
There were lots of birthdays in September, including Jan's (which he was away for, but I sent him some new Sennhauser earphones from Amazon). Max & Karen, their Woofer, Erica and I helped Warren celebrate his 50th by having fish and chips at Tahunanui beach, followed by a dog walk. Warren has now bought a new house in Enner Glynn. I helped him a tiny bit with a couple of loads, and took a couple of photos. He has lovely views to the West and to the North... and a swimming pool:
Finn thinks he is a people and has taken to sitting on the outdoor furniture. I am amazed he can fit himself in, because he has turned out to be quite a big dog:
Erica came to stay for the weekend with Jade and Ollie, and four dogs had a LOVELY time with a long walk each day and much playing. Even Jade managed the 4k round-trip down to the second ford each day without running out of steam (big walks for a little dog):
Boo and Finn ate the side off one of the rubber mats on the deck. While the mats might have prevented me slipping, they also prevented Boo from digesting. Sigh. More trips to the vet, but thankfully no surgery yet. We are hoping that "this too shall pass"!
The washing machine has been at the repair shop for six weeks, waiting for a part to come: it arrived and was ready for pick up just as Warren moved into his house and needed his washing machine back! Spectacular timing.
The ford by the winery has been concreted in, to the tune of two concrete trucks full of concrete. Simon did all the boxing and prep, and he and Cie did the screeding while I was out teaching for the day. All I had to do was to leave one car on the 'inside' of the ford and the other on the 'outside' for a couple of days while it cured. It is fabulous now:
My undergraduate research students are mostly on track, and I have another couple of post-grad students doing Master's projects. My teaching workload at present is steady, which is good, and this month I delivered my last research lectures for year. However, I still have orals to organise, and my Sport & Rec paper lectures finish at the beginning of November. Then it is only marking and getting results into the system to be finished with the undergrad work. I will have three Master's supervisees who will still be going until late November, with one not finishing until January.
While I am still saying no to additional teaching projects this year, I am in talks about mentoring a new undergraduate research paper co-ordinator and moving into teaching post-graduate papers in the business school next year. I am still a bit hesitant about this, but have said yes to teaching a first post-graduate paper in semester 1 2020. I am also doing some Sport & Rec planning for semester 2 2020, as two of my AUT papers are being rolled into one, and I am working through what needs to be kept out of the two originals, and from two previous papers I have taught. I have been thinking about this for some time, and have a meeting next month where I need to formalise my proposal... and the write up of those thoughts will need to be tackled in the study break.
Additionally, I have hired some cleaners, so on the weekends I am no longer spending half a day cleaning. With the spare time I have created, I have been enjoying the books of Rhys Bowen, the "Her Royal Spyness" series. They are quite fun, and the library has a few of the talking books. I went to the movies for a charity fundraiser for the Motueka swimming pool, and saw the Downton Abbey film. It was quite good, but not as taut as Gosford Park had been.
At the end of the month, daylight saving started. This is a horrible time of the year for me, as I am now effectively getting up at 4.30am, and really struggle with an hour's less sleep each day. It usually takes met two weeks to adjust, and luckily this year, the study break gives me that two weeks to adjust my sleep pattern.
Jan is still in Rock Hill SC, but has done some travelling at last, having gone to Chimney Rock with some of his colleagues:
He met up with an old school friend, Claudia, and her partner, in Durham, NC. This was midway between where Claudia lives and where Jan is staying:
Aside from a few hours at the beach one Sunday, the rest of his time has been working, having evening bbqs (as they are not supposed to cook in their rooms) and following his workmates on shopping trips locally in Rock Hill or further afield to Charlotte:
Jan is back in NZ on 19 October for a nine days, then off again. He will next be back in NZ next on 23 December. We meet in November in Munich, visit Ulm, then head off on the Danube river cruise meeting Justine in Prague, then onto Stuttgart for Jan to do a week-long Siemen's course where we will meet Simone and Andreas. I will potter about Stuttgart and sightsee while Jan is on the course each day, and continue to supervise my Master's supervisees. We return to NZ together.
Talk to you all again in a month or so.
Sam (& Jan in the US).
