News from Nelson - September 2018

Hi everyone,
Sorry for the long hiatus since updating you all: but I will go through and post the news month by month, despite the fact that the date is now January 2019.

At the beginning of September we got the terrible news that Jan's cousin Simone had been widowed. Her husband had been unwell for some time, but the news that Michael was gone was a terrible shock. Andreas and Simone are raw, but coping. We hope to see them in December when we are thinking we will go to Germany.

My work continued to be busy with this semester's students getting their projects underway: thought I would have to say that I had higher numbers of students at risk this semester than ever before. The supervisory team has been working really well, however, and are all doing a great job to lift the student game in double-quick time. We had one supervisor pull out, and the rest of us redistributed that supervisor's workload, but that seemed to work out OK.

Jan is still not enjoying his work, so has started firming up a commissioning job for German company, Dieffenbacher (which builds particle board, MDF and LVL plants and equipment). We don't know much yet about how long he is going to be away for, but he is thinking that he is likely to be away for two months at a time in the Americas, nor do we know a start date yet. Sometime in the New Year. I am not at all happy about it, but Jan is keen.

Argentina - the Pumas - played the All Blacks at Trafalgar Park here in Nelson. The Port Company had tickets which staff went into the draw for: Jan got two tickets. It was a great game. The weather was cold, but we were all dressed for it, and the crowd was partisan, but fair. We had left my little nana car over at the Port offices, so we walked to the park, then were able to simply walk back and drive home without the traffic over over 21,000 people all heading home at the same time affecting us too much. I almost lost my voice from shouting :-)

I am still working on the one year wardrobe challenge, and have rediscovered the outfit I wore to Lara's naming ceremony, which must be nearly sixteen years ago!

 Finn is growing like a weed, but still remains full of the joys of the world. He is a very happy dog to own (mind you, he has yet to hit those canine teenager times). Aunty Boo is keeping an eye on him, and keeping him in line. She runs a very good line in distraction tactics when he is misbehaving.

Jan & I had to clear out the ford closest to us a couple of times from the winter storms. Of course, all the working photos are of Jan, as someone had to take the photos...! From water level quite high with crap all over the fence...

To unblocking the drain under the ford...

To unblocking the drain on the uphill side...

To the ford going back to normal level and tidying up the last of the clumps of debris.

We got invited to a dinner at Shelley & Kevin's place, which was total foodie heaven. Shelley took on my dietary restrictions with gusto, and cooked things which I could eat, which was just bliss. A great night, with ex-Sealord colleagues Dawn (and Neil), Shelley (and Kevin), Karen & Tom, with much wine drunk! Even better, my old canteen of silver cutlery got a new home, as I realised that Shelley had the same service. My cutlery has been sitting in a carton in the back of the laundry for ages, and seeing the joy she got from using hers, it was an easy donation to make :-)

Jan went to Australia this month to attend a seminar run by his safety guru, Sidney Dekker. He said that the seminar was great, and he learned a lot. Interestingly enough he had a burst blood vessel in his eye while he was in a lecture session, seated between two paramedics who then checked him for all sorts before saying it was just one of those things. Couldn't have been in a better place for that kind of thing to have happened! He stayed with Tanja while he was there, which was nice for them both. He is currently working on his final essay for his Health & Safety course.

I have started a Maori cultural familiarisation course through CDANZ, which has been good, and have done a couple of Institute of Directors courses as well. I have been too busy at work to finalise my AJCD article changes, and realistically won't get to that until January now.

This month Jan also had an NSO concert, Opera Mania, which was be the last concert that the NSO will have at Old St John's. At long, long last the Nelson School of Music will be reopening next month. Opera Mania went well, with the Anvil chorus being repeated as an encore at the end. It was very, very good, despite a small dollop of Wagner!

My wee nana car crapped out this month: the first time it has ever broken down. The alternator died on us, on the way home (right outside the Richmond branch of the garage I use). Jan got in touch with a former colleague and he rescued us, gave us a loaner car, and we were off. However, this is making me think that it is time to start thinking about a replacement: it was first registered in 2006, now being a venerable 12 years old. I would really like an electric car, but I don't think they have the range yet for our driving requirements of up to 130km a day without a recharge. I will have to buy a second-hand electric car, which will have already lost some of its range. Also, Nelson has very few charging places - all of which you have to pay for. While I may be able to recharge, it will require an extension cord and a 'willing' power socket. Something to think about, anyway.

Plans are firming up for our German trip. It looks like it will be December. We will update everyone as we know.


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - October 2017

Hello again!
I hope you are all fighting fit? This month was a bit smoother for us than last month: thank goodness. Everyone has stayed well.

I have been clearing out my wardrobe a little: I have gotten rid of some unworn scarves, pants, jewellery, shoes and accessories... and even a very old laptop. While that has not made a huge difference to the space consumed, getting rid of stuff seems to make a difference mentally.

Doing yet another FutureLearn MOOC on “An Intermediate Guide to Writing” from the University of Reading. This is a two part course, which should be interesting.

Lara came for a week while Otto was up in Auckland at a hockey tournament, which was lovely. I took her for a leg wax and a facial... and she stealth shot me while having a haircut. Totally at my best!

Lara spent lots of time on with Lexie, walking, talking, playing pool, and even inner-tubing down the creek. She had a few baths with a bath bombs, and we did some cooking and watched a few movies. The dogs got walked a lot, which was great. We went Op Shopping to get her some gumboots, as her feet are now larger than mine, but had to give up. We bought some at the Warehouse instead. We have caught up with Dawn - Lara and I went to visit while she was here. She now has Pekin ducks - and a couple of those have cowlicks!

Our new couch has arrived (weeks ahead of schedule), and we have taken one of our old two seaters - the least worn one - to my Mother for her lounge. Now we are hoping that the L-shaped couch arrives too... but they did say the ETA on that one was the end of January. A while to go yet.

Boo and Bonnie are quite relaxed at home: and both have found good places in the sun, now that it has finally decided to stop raining.

Smudge, Scott's bulldog, adores tummy scratches. She trails around after Jan panting at him until he does his duty. 

The sunrises continue to delight:

Jan went down to Christchurch for a two day course in October and brought home a cold, bless him. That led to me having my first cold in 18 months, and ended up in bed for a few days. I missed Anabelle's birthday because of it, so Jan went on his own, as he had recovered!

I managed to strain my medical cruciate ligament, and thought that I could walk it off - and no you can't do that, as I have found - and now have it strapped. It seems to be very slow in healing, so instead of doing my 12,000 steps per day, I am just getting to whatever distance I get to without pushing it. One of my sport & rec students showed me how to strap it properly, so hopefully it will come right.

Jan has been approached by another organisation to see if he would be interested in working for them as a safety coach, and so he is exploring options. We will see how it shapes up.

We headed off to Auckland for a few brief days at the end of the month: I had a conference to go to, and we managed to squeeze in a couple of lunches with friends (one with Morv at Mojo, one with Doug at Bird on a Wire in Takapuna) and a night out with Janet & Shells at "Pleasuredome, the musical", out in Avondale. My advice on Pleasuredome: don't bother. It is pretty fragmented, and it took me quite a long time to work out where the songs came from. Most of them were pretty hard to recognise, and the storyline was very, very weak. The highpoint was the recreated New York street scene outside, which was pretty cool, however the prices for drinks and food was pretty steep. However, if you do go, and if you value your hearing, take earplugs. It was deafeningly loud. I stuffed chewed up tissues in my ears!

We booked an apartment in Lorne Street. It was very central, and - although it was getting quite worn - it had everything we needed. We did a lot of walking. Janet was awesome, picked us up from the airport and dropped us back again, as well as ferrying us to the Pleasuredome. We also did a spot of shopping at Sylvia Park (H&M). It was really lovely to catch up: it has been so long! 

The whole show was disappointing. Never mind: I am glad we went, because going is important. The songs included the Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’; Bruce Springsteen’s ‘I’m on Fire’; Frankie Goes To Hollywood, ‘The Pleasuredome’; Diana Ross, ‘I’m coming out’; Lou Reed ‘You’re a slick little girl’; Luther Vandross ‘The Night I Fell in Love’; Grandmaster Flash, ‘White Lines’; Hall & Oates, ‘I Can’t Go For That’; George Clinton, ‘Tweakin’; Tears for Fears, ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’; Simple Minds “Don’t you forget about me'... I am sure there were more, but I didn't recognise them.

We caught the Devonport ferry on a bit of a day trip, and I visited the Anna Stretton outlet shop ;-D

Everything was going swimmingly at work, when a colleague from the IT degree died suddenly. She had leukaemia, but went downhill very quickly. One of my supervisory team was covering for the IT courses, and suddenly found herself with our colleague's entire workload. My supervisor is now off on stress leave, having tried to do it all without outside help. However, the rest of us have managed to pick up the slack, and to start the process of getting in an outside marker for the end of year reports. Thank goodness for having written up all the instructions last semester: it should make it reasonably easy for me to brief someone new. I have also been asked if I would be interested in developing and teaching a Master's course on Leadership. Oh, yes!

We caught up with Magda and David before they left for Aussie - QLD - to live. I hope to catch up with them when I am over for supervisory meetings. They don't go until the end of November, but this was their last trip to Nelson. Julie came out with Sterl and Siobhan as well. We had a great time, and though it is sad to see Magda move so far away, I am sure the move will be great for both of them.

Graeme and Julie, and my mother, have been out to Rose Road for lunch as well.  Allan and Sarah are getting married in Dunedin in January, so the family are planning a road trip south to help them celebrate.

More next month!


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - September 2016

Hello all,
We have had yet another busy month. Jan has been studying flat out, and I have been trying to find time to get my PhD application prepared and into Griffith University. It is now submitted, and I only need to wait to hear whether I will be accepted, or what changes need to be made.

Jan and I went to the Gecko Theatre for a movie a few weeks ago, and watched "A Month of Sundays", which was a really nice movie. OK, it was largely focused on death, but it had dignity and gentle humour. I liked it. And we had a nice view of the moon, Mars and - I think - Jupiter on the way:

 
We went to Jellyfish at Mapua for lunch on Jan's birthday, which was really nice. Max and Karen, Erica and Tracey, Mike and Donna, my folks, Dawn, Kathleen, Frits and Amy all came. We had a very good time.

One Friday night we caught up with the Cools's for dinner - easy-care fish and chips from the Upper Moutere Takeaway straight over the road. Fabulous. But Renate still made a fantastically delicious birthday cake for Jan that we all ate far too much of.

Getting some nice sunrises now:

The Subaru has been in and out of the garage with a steering pump issue... which turned out to be a blocked hose, in the end. That was after a reconditioned pump had been fitted. Ouch.

Jan has been down to Christchurch for the first half of a health and safety certification course, and has caught up with quite a few of the Cantabrians. He has been staying with Jenny, and goes back down in a couple of weeks for the next half, followed by an exam the day after Labour Day. 

I go down to Christchurch next week for a conference (I am presenting on some research that myself and a colleague have been doing on employer use of cybervetting), and I too am staying at 'Hotel Ladley' :-)

Speaking of Jenny, she, Tracey & Erica have done the Abel Tasman track. Jan & I picked them up at Marahau, after they had walked down from Wainui Inlet. They had had a great - and, despite the rain over Nelson-way this week, a dry - time. Well: maybe from Jen's point of view, an "OK" time!

Luckily, in the last week of the month, I had study break, which has enabled me to do some of that research for the CDANZ conference (to be delivered next week), and get on top of the administration tasks. Both my research and Sports PR students are now mostly well on the way with their projects, and I have finished with lectures on those papers, so now only student mentoring and marking remains. While lectures still continue for my Leadership paper, the load-lightening on the other papers helps to gain a bit of free (well... free-er!) time.

Our road has been graded, and, although the weather has not been that dry, our driveway is now looking pretty good.
  

Jan, my Mum and I went to the Nelson Symphony Orchestra's "Solo Spotlight" concert, where eight very talented young performers entertained us. It reinforces that here are some very committed young musicians and singers out there, and it was a privilege to be able to listen.

Happy birthday to Bertie, Robert, Becks, Jenny, Uta, KT, Ana Silvia, Guy, Barb, Kelly, Erica, Julie, Tracey, and Hartmut. 

We are really looking forward in November to seeing Holger, Dieter and Gudrun: can't wait!

More next month :-)


Sam (& Jan)

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)

News from Nelson - November 2013

Hi all,
Wow, another few weeks have whizzed past, and here we are halfway through November already.

Amazingly green around here at the moment, and when I go outside first thing in the morning all you can smell is the bush - it takes me right back to my earliest tramping days in the third form. Just lovely! Had some late winter squalls come through in October, but they were very brief (as you can see - only lasted about ten minutes, then it was blue sky again, until the next one came through):

When I dropped Jan off to work a couple of weeks ago, I realised that Nelson Pine's gardens are maturing really nicely; the natives are looking very nice. I took a few quick photos and stitched them to remind me of what we are aiming for on our bank at Roses Road.

I managed to Skype with Jan a couple of times while he was in the US. He was looking pretty tired, but he managed to do the main task while he was in Chicago - buy Coco some more squeaky toys! Below is a shot of him at Streeters Bar in Chicago, with a couple of the other guys from New Zealand: and of course, they managed to find some women...

 And amazing what a screen dump will do; it has captured Mr Kuwilsky wearing a tie:

In the background behind me above is my colleague Nic J (if your eyes are good enough. Hah, now that's a test for us all, isn't it!).

Jan is halfway through his trip already, having arrived in Germany last Friday evening NZT. He was shattered, having only slept for a couple of hours of his 9 hour flight, but was picked up from the train by Holger, taken to visit Dieter and Gudrun, Anne, then off to Oma's overnight. On early Sunday NZT he travelled down to Ulm to Aunt Uta. Thomas, Bettina and Svenja are there, so he got to spend some time with them too - an unexpected bonus! He said it was great to see everyone, and that they were all in good health (and that Svenja has a gap-toothed smile as her adult teeth are coming in - man, she is six already). I so want to be there - but next time!

It was Dawn's birthday today, and I went to join the throng of celebrators at Jellyfish (where Flax used to be at the Mapua Wharf complex). I had some lovely tomato soup for lunch - a perfect pick as it clouded over as we lunched and was raining a little by the end. Not cold, but damp. Dawn has big news - she and Neil are getting married next year. He is such a nice man - I am so pleased for them both! (terrible photo quality as I was facing right into the light).

Doug & Morv are off to Auckland - a big change for them. At least it looks like the test-run / holiday is persuading Katie that a northward shift mightn't be all bad.

I have just finished marking my last student assignment for the year, but am halfway through an online course on Emotional Intelligence (yeah, yeah, I know: that AND my Masters - like there isn't already enough going on. All I can say is that it was an opportunity, OK?!).

Currently I am transcribing recordings. My supervisor thinks I may be trying to be a bit too accurate with it as 15 minutes of recording is taking about 4 hours to transcribe. I don't know how you can be roughly accurate with transcription; I think it is an either correct or incorrect transcription... isn't it? Never mind, back to the grind - and everyone talks about the hellhole that transcription is, so at least I am in good company! Every other researcher on the planet!

Speaking of my supervisor, Brad is changing Unis next year - going to return to Victoria Uni to head up the School of Government there. So for the last semester of my Masters I will have to have another supervisor acting as my Primary Supervisor. Luckily it will be someone whom I have already had some contact with, Liliana Erakovic, who teaches strategic management using the Harvard case method - which is a real bonus. And yes, for you Kiwis, the Erakovic name is indeed the same family: Liliana is Marina's mother.

I have become a Lorde junkie in the past few weeks: I keep listening to Lux 400, Royal, The Love Club, and Bravado over and over. Anyone would think I was sixteen. Also just finished reading the Two Brothers by Ben Elton (thanks for the loan, McLarins!). Great book, I really enjoyed it.

The one advantage of having lots of transcription to do is that other, horrible jobs suddenly look quite appealing. So I have also been spending an hour in our gully each day, pulling out pig fern. For those of you who don't know about pig fern, it is a fern that starts with a very small aspect, but if left untended for a couple of years, it turns into this giant bionic monster that covers your land with huge canopies and kills your grass. All I can say is that at least it doesn't have prickles, unlike gorse, supplejack and blackberry (other noxious pests our forefathers cunningly imported to our little South Pacific paradise).

Montrose Drive is going on the market again in December. I think we have decided that this time it goes: that the price drops until it is sold.

We are aiming to come to Wellington briefly at Christmas, but have so far not been able to get a house/dog sitter. Everyone has plans! How mean is that? I will keep trying... we might be able to get the dogs into the kennels, perhaps, but I no longer know any of the people who run the local ones. There is a place out in Wakefield, so I might go and visit them and see what they are like (at least I do know someone who took their dog there).

Happy birthday to Justine :-D

Right, I think that is all for now. Take care, and we will catch up with you all in due course!

Sam (and Jan)

News from Nelson - April 2013

Hi all,

So, that was Easter, disappearing in the rearview mirror of life!

We are still having lovely weather, and the Easter break was pretty good. We had a nice time doing lots of relaxing, socialising and even prepping our accounts ready for the tax man (hey, I wonder why tax collection is still a gender-oriented profession?!).

On Saturday night, Jan & I went to Krauts German restaurant for my birthday, ably assisted in celebration by my folks, Uncle Norman, Kathleen, Frits, Amy, Dawn, Janet (who had come down from Auckland for Easter) and Julie & Murray. Several foolish souls ordered schweinshax’n (pork shanks) and took home doggie bags for the next day :-O

 

Jeanette & Jake vdB were at Krauts while we were there too, and say hello to Magda, Gea & Tjibbe. All is going well with them.

Murray, Julie & Janet came out for a BBQ on Sunday, with Murray’s very grown up daughter Amy & her boyfriend. After lunch, Janet, Julie & I tackled Christian’s hill with Coco & Bonnie in some very light mist (only day without lots of sunshine all Easter), leaving Flissy behind dozing on the couch with Murray & Jan! 

 

With regard to our next trip away - the Rotary exchange student NI Tour - Jan hopes to catch up with Beth D on the 23rd of April when he is in Waitomo in sole-charge of 11 teenagers (as I will be in Auckland presenting at the International Leadership Conference). I catch up with Jan again in Rotovegas on the night of the 24th. Then we hope to see DJ & Dilani on our way through Tauranga on our way around the Coromandel. If anyone else is around and would like to catch up, please get in touch!

I will be in Auckland on Monday 22 to the afternoon of Weds 24, staying at the Stamford. Days I will be at Auckland Uni’s business school (http://nzli.co.nz/64/conference).

On the 16th we had the first concert of the NSO 2013 Concert season, with a tribute to the Steinway. It was a very professionally delivered concert, and the audience seemed to really enjoy it. I loved Rhapsody in Blue – that is such a lovely piece. The applause went on for some time. The NSO had its AGM last week, and Jan found – somewhat to his surprise – that he is now Chair of the NSO committee. He will do a fine job. I guess that also means that I will carry on doing the PR for the orchestra as well :-)

The weekend before Easter we went out to a friend’s orchard & traded some ‘grape juice’ for fifty plus kilos of royal gala apples. We juiced the apples, loaded the juice into jars, sealed and ran them through the Agee preserver, and now have 40 lovely litres of apple juice in the cellar alongside with our tomatoes, apple purée, pear halves, rhubarb and plums. It is a lovely feeling, making and storing food. Mark C from NMIT came out & he & Jan chainsawed wood. We still have a trailer full in the shed that we don’t know where to store it! Kathleen, Frits & Amy have been out to visit too – and we have given Amy the guided tour so she knows where everything is for when she is here and we are away.

Tonight Jan is going to permanently wire in our pump, so we can push a button in the laundry to fill the tank up the hill. All these little jobs are slowly getting done. It takes time, but we get there in the end. It will also make Amy’s life easier!

 

Since Janet left, Jan has been practicing pool diligently, as Janet nearly beat him twice and he is feeling his manhood has been challenged ;-)

Thanks for all the kind birthday wishes via email, Skype, text, phone and Facebook. We had a great chat to the Martins in Brazil and John in the UK. Very kind of everyone! On Monday we went in to see Murray B about the North Island tour. We are now pretty much all sorted for the trip, and leave on the 20th of April. Amy H is going to house & dog sit for us.

We leave Nelson for Welly on Saturday 20th, Auckland on Monday 22; Waitomo on 23, Rotovegas on 24-25; Tauranga Coromandel on the 26th; Whangarei on the 27th; Paihia on the 29th; Kauri coast on the 1st; Orewa on the 2nd; home on the 3rd. 

This Weds nite we are going for dinner at NMIT’s Rata Room (the chef training school) with Sandra & Kevin which will be fun. This coming weekend we have nothing booked at all, which will be just lovely.

I have my next CDANZ meeting in Welly on May 12-13; then June 30-July 1; Sept 9-10. Jan is in Auckland on Sept 10-12.

We will both be in Chch in October – myself for a CDANZ Career Symposium and AGM, and Jan on an NZIM residential course. We were both going to stay the weekend afterwards to hopefully catch up with everyone (Oct 19 & 20). Will confirm dates etc later. Then the last trip away for this year should be November to Queenstown.

Jan’s Oma Lieselotte is not expected to last much longer. Over Easter she has become bed-bound. She is now not eating, and is unable to drink without choking. Aunt Uta is looking after her, with Thomas, Bettina and Simone there to help and Uta’s home physio/nurse friend. Hopefully Omi will have a peaceful end to what has been a full and busy life. It is a rare privilege these days to be able to die quietly - with dignity - at home, amongst people who care for you. Our thoughts are with you all in Neu-Ulm and please tell Omi we love her.

Tanja – I hope your knee comes right. Take lots of sunshine, rest, good company and recreation to help it along :-)

I am sure that I have forgotten heaps, but that will do for now.


Jan & Sam

News from Nelson - November 2012

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well and prosperous! We seem to have avoided the spring colds that are doing the rounds, though Jan has a bit of a sore throat still.

Camila has been with us for a month already; it has gone so fast! We can’t believe that she is away this weekend to do the South Island Tour and tramp the Milford Track. She will be away for nearly two weeks, and will see a lot of the South Island, in the company of the other South Island Rotary exchange students. She will have a ball.

Jan has helped her pack, so she is thoroughly well organised too!

Camila’s pool playing has improved by leaps and bounds since coming to stay here: she has beaten us both at times, and will be able to earn a living in bars in no time (:-D).

We have been so busy lately, I can’t think where to really start; so perhaps I will go backwards. Last weekend Jan & I helped out at his work on the annual “Big Beach Clean-up”, where volunteers clean up the coastline. We cleaned up the perimeter of Nelson Pine and the Waimea Estuary for a couple of hours. It was reasonably clean, but we managed to get a Ute-load of junk and rubbish from a couple of kilometres of shoreline and estuary (some stuff been there for a long time). We also had Michelle and Tony here for a BBQ, had dinner with Kathleen & Frits, and went to a Thai Food night fundraiser (I am now totally in love with Thai Green Curry from a little food-cart in Nelson!) with Ellie & Greg, Mark & Nicky and Camila and her friend Lydia (who turns out to be the daughter of some master cider-makers who live down the road from us). We tidied up our garden beds, put an extra layer of timber on them to make them higher, and filled them with fresh soil ready for planting this summer’s crop of vegetables.

The week before we went to the Upper Moutere Fair, went to Dawn’s Guy Fawkes party (where Jan & I saw Shelley & Kevin and spent a lot of time talking to Ross L & his wife... and came up with a novel way of cooking sausages), and went to the Chamber of Commerce Business Awards with the Nelson Pine team. Camila's friend Flora has been to stay (and played pool). While at the business awards, Jan got roped in to playing for the Greenhill Orchestra again for an upcoming concert (2 December) which is conveniently on the same day as the Nelson Symphony Orchestra’s Friends Thank You bash; so I have to choose which one I go to. We also had the sliders in the lounge measured up for blinds, so we can watch movies before 9pm in the evening (it is so light here in summer). The blinds will be ready and installed before Christmas.

 

 

 
The week before that we installed some shelves… doesn’t sound like much, does it. Well, it was a four day mission. The story goes: NMIT, as part of the government building earthquake safety audit, had to close their nursing school building. It is being demolished now, but just pre-demolition, all NMIT staff were emailed on the Wednesday asking if they wanted to buy any of the building fittings (at very reasonable rates, I might add). I emailed the list to Jan, and he suggested that find out if we could go and have a look at what was there. So bright and early on Thursday morning, I emailed Mira at NMIT to see when we could come and have a look. She got back to me at 10, and said there were only two more supervised, guided tours of the building, with the next one happening at 11 (and we should be quick, because things were going fast). Jan had already put the trailer on the car and gone to work, just in case we were able to pick anything up on the day. So I raced in to his work, picked him up, and got into NMIT on the dot of 11, with Jan still driving around and around the campus looking for a carpark that would fit a car and a trailer. Well, for the grand sum of $220, we got a two benches, one with timber drawers and cupboards, one set of wall-mounted cupboards and shelves, and two big sets of shelves, all in solid rimu. Staggering. And staggeringly heavy.

We had a deadline to get our purchases out of the building: 5pm the next day. Luckily there were a few other staff whom I knew, and they pooled their muscles and tools to get all their materials out. The most exciting part I missed: Jan and the team getting our big sets of shelves down the stairwell, as I had to go and deliver my last Leadership lecture of the semester. Camila arrived on Friday after school, helped us get everything loaded and then helped with unloading at home.

We then spent the weekend putting everything in place and completely reorganising the cellar (and very fine it looks too). And no, I didn’t get any Masters work done!

Speaking of my masters, it is continuing well – so well that my supervisor is suggesting I consider skipping the masters and going straight to PhD as the depth and quality of my work is exceeding masters’ standards. He is going to investigate the process and whether this might be possible; and has already warned me that this will mean a lot more work (I will really have to come to grips with ontology and epistemology <sigh>). Regardless of whether I am able to do that or not, I am VERY pleased to have my work considered so highly. Jan will prevent me getting an inflated ego though. When I told him, he said “Oh, lots of people at Uni did that”. <pop>

We have had fish and chips with Camila down at Mapua, and have done plenty of trips in and out of town for various events. We have also got some great shots of the neighbour having their top dressing done, which was pretty cool with the plane flying right over us!

 

The next NSO concert is on 24 November, ‘Dusk’. Jan is not playing in it, as he decided with being away in October in Australia, and all the other things he had to do at work, he would have some time out. A good move, I think (and of course, now he has volunteered for the Greenhill concert anyway).

On Wednesday nights the NSO Secretary, Becks, has been coming around for a pot luck dinner and we have all been working on getting NSO systems and PR sorted. It has been very productive.

My CDANZ stuff has been a bit neglected – I will have to get back into that, but I have been marking final semester projects flat out. I have one more left to do – a late submission which will come in tomorrow – then some preparation for Leadership being moderated. I have already moderated AUT’s Leadership paper, so that is one more thing off my list. I am going to get three of my courses overhauled over the summer break, as well as work on my masters, but I am not teaching again until February, which will hopefully mean I am fresh and ready to start teaching with lots of zing.

Jan & I are both in Welly from 7-9 December (next CDANZ Exec meeting). I will be free on Saturday evening, so catch ups Sat night with the Hutt crowd would be great. 

I will also be up in Tauranga for an AUT leadership training session on 7-8 February. I hope to catch up with DJ & Dilani while there, but haven’t heard from them yet.

Congrats to Magda who has a wonderful new job. But sad faces to Sam & Jan who lose her as her new position is in Christchurch :-( She is coming around tonight for a farewell dinner as she leaves next Wednesday.

Tessa is coming to Nelson at the end of this month for Donna’s birthday. She got knocked off her bike a couple of days ago, but seems – luckily – to have escaped serious injury. Just at home, getting better.

Happy birthdays over the coming month to Dawnie, Lara, Justine, Jeremy, Donna & Neil! 

Right – better start peeling potatoes for dinner tonight.

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young