News from Nelson - December 2014

Hi everyone,
In the past few weeks we have been a little less busy at work, which has been wonderful. it is the time of year where we have had several Christmas work functions to go to. Most of my work functions have been lunches, which have been a great time to catch up and talk - almost for the first time this year. Very enjoyable.

We have managed to get some jobs around the house done, particularly Warren and Jan flattening out around the house, putting down weed matting and covering it in shell. This means that there will be no great ocean of waist-high grass right up to the back door in summer; no more knotted hose-pipes tangled up in the weeds; no more hidden bark berries ready for unwary jandalled feet. I even got enthusiastic and bought a petanque set so we can enjoy the crunch underfoot outside in the lovely long summer evenings. I do need to buy one of those old hand lawn rollers though to flatten it all out (you know, those ones full of concrete ;-D). The work that Jan & Warren did is viewable here:


I have completed my Semester two marking, filing, and getting ready for moderation... just in time to start teaching summer school online (one day cross-over only). Additionally, my workload is not too bad as I have just discovered that there is a FAQ page function in NMIT Online/Moodle (I wish I had known about this three years ago!). I have been posting Q&A from my current and previous students, and asking my students to check here first before posting new questions. The FAQ page is proving to be a fantastic resource, and I think has already reduced my email load by half (despite there being 34 students enrolled).

We had a great wedding anniversary bash, with DJ & Dilani coming down for a few days. Jenny came up from Christchurch which was fabulous too. We bought ourselves an anniversary present of two sets of Katie Gold candle sticks:

Amy H did a stellar job of filming our wedding anniversary celebrations. If you haven't viewed this yet, check it out:

Oma Friedel's former neighbour, Frau Steinmann, was killed in a car accident in Germany yesterday (Saturday), which was very sad. There is an article here.

Eberhard sent us a photo of the Ulm Munster, lit up for Christmas:

Keeping it brief this time as we are about to head out to a Rose Road Christmas BBQ at the Whitten's.

We head up to Welly on 24 December for Christmas with Brigitte and John, Jeremy & Tina, Otto and Lara. John will be looking after the dogs while we are away. Lara & Otto are coming for a few days from the end of December to the beginning of January. I think Hartmut & Uta will be coming down to us at the end of January for a visit and to take in some of the Adam Chamber Music Festival.

Our next time away may well be April, heading for Sao Paulo!

Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - Nov 2 2014

Amy H did a stellar job of filming our wedding anniversary celebrations

Check it out at



Sam

News from Nelson - November 2014

Hi everyone,
Hope you are all well.

The last few weeks seem to have flown by. I have been up in Auckland at the CDANZ symposium and AGM. I just got back last night and am pretty bushed. I am supposed to be marking right now, but my head isn't in the right space, so I thought I would drop all of you an email instead.

John F is back, and is cooking again. Yay! Bonnie was very excited about John arriving, but took some time to migrate away from sleeping beside Coco at night. Now she is back with John each night, and now Coco sneaky-feets onto the bed with us so she has 'pack' to sleep beside. If I wake up and notice a canine invasion, I send her back to bed pretty sharpish. Jan is a whole lot softer than that.

We helped out at the Big Beach Cleanup with Nelson Pine a few weeks ago & got a reasonable haul of junk from around the cycle way. Jan has been building a new garden bed to the west of the house, which will be great for tomatoes, we hope. While progress is slow due to all the other things we have on at the moment, each week there is a bit more done.

Katherine's 1920s party was interesting (Craig L's new partner): I went as a bit of a middle class matron and was the only non-flapper there. Someone said to me "Oh, yeah - that's right: there were ordinary people too" (!). I felt like a bit of a nit anyway, and that certainly didn't make me feel any more comfortable. Jan wore his tux and a red fedora (which was a little large so looked more like a stetson). He also had a machine gun which he had a bit of fun with for a while. We had a good catch up with a few NMIT old hands.

Last weekend was Dawn's birthday party, which John also came along to. There was lots of lovely food (including lots of vege things), and it was really nice to catch up with everyone again so soon after Dawn & Neil's house-warming.

We have caught up with Warren & Tracey at least once a week since they have been here, which has been great. Wonderful to have them so close, but we are also a bit cautious in case we spend too much time hanging out with them and overload them (which would be bad :-( ).

This weekend is our Anniversary BBQ which should also be great fun. And there will be no costumery for it (with the loathing that I have for it being so recently reinforced!). There are a few out-of-towners coming in, which will be great, including DJ & Dilani and Jenny L. We are catching up with the Boots on Friday night at Warren & Tracey's for drinks as they are in Nelson this weekend for a family function of their own.

We will be in Welly for Xmas, then Lara & Otto are coming for a few days from the end of December to the beginning of January. I think Hartmut & Uta will be coming down to us next January or February for a visit and to take in some of the Adam Chamber Music Festival. Then next April we aim to be in Brazil (back to Kiwiland in time for Beck's wedding if we can manage it), and we will both be up in Auckland in May for my graduation.

I will write more after the weekend and post some pictures.

Keep well!

Sam (& Jan)