News from Nelson - July 2018

Hi everyone,

Well: we pick up from where we left off last time: we are still busy.

The funeral home who arranged my Father and Uncle's donation to Otago Medical School arranged a tree planting, so we all turned up at Saxton's Field one cold July day to plant some natives. We planted a Rimu for my Uncle, and a Tawai Whero (Red Beech) for my father. Well, Mike and Jan did the planting, and Donna, Mother and myself offered moral support. And paid for coffee across the road at Zinc afterwards :-)

Finn is growing up quickly, and is now larger and taller than Boo:

We had a lovely time with Lara and Otto during the school holidays when they came down to visit us for a week. My bedside tables turned up, so they put them together, which was great, along with Lexi from further down the road:

 

We went out for breakfast a couple of times:

 Walked up to visit Simon's new house on the ridge:

 And Lara went Op Shopping at the Sallies:

And we went to visit Dawnie, the cats, and her boarders from Germany & France:

Lambretta's opened again after earthquake strengthening. They have been closed for about six months, so it has been wonderful to go back there for wonderful coffee again! Hui-Ping and Mae came down for a weekend, and we caught up at Lambretta's, then went up to see Bill and Cornish:

Semester 2 has double the workload expected (we had 25 enrollments on my capstone paper one week out: then in the first week of the new semester I suddenly had 50 students). We have no ability to predict these numbers, and in the school itself have no idea how many enrolments are in progress. The unpredictability of the workflow is very, very frustrating. I have heard though that Deakin Uni in Oz are working with IBM's Watson AI programme to create a student management system. It would be great if the Ministry of Education here could licence that... it would certainly reduce of a whole load of planning and scheduling headaches.

I am struggling to get any work done on my PhD, and am having a bit of a panic about it. I think I might have to make some difficult decisions as my PhD defense is looming in October, and my workload at NMIT is significant. A colleague has been diagnosed with a brain tumour - picked up during a routine eye exam - so was suddenly whisked away for radiation therapy, and I and two of my other colleages have picked up her teaching load. We have absolutely no fat in the system, so any further crises, like people having a cold, become serious HR problems very quickly.

Jan is still finding his workload is not decreasing, nor is he managing to get rid of the collosal pile of admin that it generates. The job is not what it was advertised, and he is not happy about it. I think there is likely to be another job change earlier than expected. He has started the next paper for his Post-Grad Cert, having passed the first one for the year (which is great). However, he is also not enjoying the new paper, which is on Safety Ethics.

However, at least we have had some lovely sunrises and sunsets:

And we hope to catch up with you all again soon


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 - December 2016

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the December edition of our family news... a fairly quiet month, which must come as a surprise to all of you :-)

It was Di M's Dad's memorial service early in the month, and my folks and I went to farewell him properly.

John has arrived back from the UK, and is staying with us until February, as the cottage in Waimea West has been rented out. Bonnie was beside herself to see him again.

Ian & Sharon came out for a weekend to go through our Nullarbor photos and videos. Ian and I spent the Saturday afternoon putting together a Momento photobook of our Nullarbor train journey in August, which I have since turned into a flipbook. This can be viewed here.

We caught up with the Cools's at our place for lunch in December, which was great. Renate always brings such GOOD cakes (though I simply admire their flawless construction now as I can't eat them - because of the no sugar, no grains thing).

Speaking of that, at this day of writing, 3 January, I am 210 days migraine free. I have also learned that even a small-ish amount of sugar will give me a headache.

Let me explain. I pretty much had a continuous headache since I was 11 until mid-May 2016. I would stop having a headache just before I got a migraine (actually, when I told the just-ex-neurologist from the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board - DHB - that, he basically told me I was imagining it. Cute).

From Angela Stanton's work (here), I am now aware that, as a migraine sufferer, I seem to have a fructose-glucose-sucrose intolerance, just a small amount will give me a headache. Justine kindly brought some Kendall Mint Cake out from the UK for me when she came in November. If I have one piece, I now find that about an hour later, I get a headache. So I salt (following the Stanton Migraine Protocol) and it goes away. I can eat a third of a piece with no ill effects at all, however.

I have been experimenting a bit with other things. I have found my limit for boysenberries. I had 12 boysenberries with plain whipped cream. About an hour later I got a headache (not a migraine). I salted to correct, and the headache went away. The next day, I tried 6 boysenberries. Got a headache an hour later. Salted. Next day, I tried 4. No reaction, so I now know I can eat 4 boysenberries a day without effect. That is my sugar tolerance... not a lot, but at least I know I can have some.

And I can still eat dark chocolate, providing it really is dark without much sugar. Mmm. Whittaker's Dark Almond...

We went up to Welly for Tina's birthday, staying at Jeremy's place. We went out to see Hartmut and Uta on the Friday night, then caught up with a load of friends - Hui-Ping, Mike & Birthe, Katherine and Craig, and Sam & Moose - at Prefab for Brunch on the Saturday morning (a GREAT place for food and coffee).

Jan & I also went to Te Papa and had a scout around at the Gallipoli exhibition.

It was great to see Jörg, Tony and Tanja who had flown in for Tina's 50th birthday party, as well as catching up with everyone else. John D did a great piece of verse about Tina, and both Jörg and Otto did speeches (Otto's was very polished for such a young man!), as well as a couple of Tina's school friends (Maryanne and LT).

Lara and I talked about fitbits, as she was keen to get one with her Christmas money. I talked about how I use mine, and how I find it useful, and where I find it not so useful. She got one for Christmas, and is now starting to use it. She is coming down later this week, so we will share how we are finding the technology works for us.

Jan had his first week with the DHB, and has enjoyed the difference. He is now enjoying the first Christmas - New Year period that he has had off in a long time. 

I got approval as a PhD candidate at Griffith, though I will have to have my proposal and a peer reviewed publication before confirmation (which will be 12 to 18 months in). It is an interesting idea, ensuring that there is already one publication out of the proposal before confirmation. Good hedging, on their behalf, and I can only see it as a benefit from my end too. An early test of ideas, rigour and method. 

Jan & I had a very quiet Christmas: we got in some boysenberries and sloughed around being lazy. watching movies and relaxing on our own. Jan also couldn't resist getting the chainsaw and the brushcutter out, and felling half a dozen pine trees ready for winter. It was Christmas Day that I learned that 12 boysenberries are too many for me.

Boxing Day we drove down to Christchurch and picked up Boo from Erik and Jackie. Boo is a retired show dog who, at seven, was needing a new home - Gr Ch Quasar Tit for Tat: or Boo, for short. While we were there, we had a BBQ at Wendy's place, with Geia and Tjibbe, so caught up with almost the whole family.

Boo seems very cruisy thus far - she and Bonnie seem to be learning to get along pretty well, but like most things, it will take time to find out how well. She is starting to get called Boosephine. Or Boozilla.

Sam and Moose came to visit while they were in Nelson, which was lovely. Gary and KB came to visit briefly, and took Jan away for a morning as their driver so they could go kayaking on the Motueka River. A great time was had by all.

We also hopped on the bike and went to Murchison to see Gary and KB for dinner at the Lazy Cow: and I invented a new game that I have dubbed "Rephrase Scrabble". When we arrived at the table, there was a wooden board with scrabble letters on it, saying "Six thirty, Karen". I grabbed it and reorganised the letters into different words, took a photo, and passed it to Jan. Each of us took a turn. It was really, really fun.

So on New Year's eve, we did the same thing when the party started to get a bit quiet (I asked people for a phrase to get us started - I got "Good as gold, eh" but I substituted 'aye' as it gave a wee bit more flexibility! My rules ;-D). We didn't have so many people here this year for our party: Stu and Anne, my folks, Glenys and Kevin, John, Nane (a young German woman who is spending 6 weeks travelling around NZ, the Cooks and Australia, and who came to stay with us over New Year), Jan, Renate, Kilian and Sarah, and a few others came for dinner and dessert: then we had a later influx of Rose Road people - Margot and Michel, with their relatives and children, and Ian M. However, we did manage to stay up until 1.30am :-)

New Year's day dawned a little cloudy, but was fine as the day progressed.

As mentioned, we have Otto and Lara arriving later this week, which will be great. Then we have lots of time for relaxing, and, in my case, thinking and writing.

Happy birthdays to Christian O, Kevin J, Andreas S, Tanja, John F, Nicki, and Tamara.

Take care, and we hope to catch up with you all this year!


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - July 2016

Hi everyone,
At the beginning of July, Jan and I went up to Wellington to attend a leadership lecture at  Victoria Uni from a set of Fullbright scholars and Sir Peter Blake Leadership trust award recipients. It was very interesting, and hosted by my old Master's supervisor, Brad Jackson.

Jan had to come with me to be my left-hand man, as I would have been unable to have gone without his assistance :-)

We got picked up by Brigitte & John, with Otto, and had a cup of coffee and a chat at the Ibis. We walked from there down to Vic law school for the lecture (and they gave us lots of canapes). 

After the lecture we got picked up by Jeremy, and taken to see his new place. We met DeAnne, and got a chance to catch up with Lara. All in all we had a very tight schedule, but we managed to fit in lots of visits.

It was great to go to the lecture, but my arm was jangling fit to bust by the time I got back to the hotel, and by the time I got home again after the trip.

A pity we couldn't see Tina, Hartmut and Uta as well, but there was such a short time. We could perhaps have caught up with Tina for breakfast, except I had already arranged to meet Brad at Astoria for breakfast, to talk about  PhD options.

Brad thought that I should try Griffith University in Brisbane, and that I should continue to pursue the idea that I worked up for AUT, rather than undertaking my original career leadership idea. Griffith apparently has a good - and growing - global reputation. As I had not considered Griffith before, this will take some investigation. 

Brad was quite dismissive of my original career focused PhD: and I think he has a point. This is a "safe" idea that won't rattle any cages, nor will provide the amount of challenge that my sports governance one will. 

After breakfast, Jan went to meet one of the HR people at WorkSafe (New Zealand's health and safety government watchdog). He wanted to find out more about the organisation, and DeAnne had put him in touch with someone to talk to.

Despite the Wellington trip away, I have been taking things very quietly. I have read a book a day since my surgery, which has been really wonderful. 

Jan has decided to take the opportunity to become a certified electrician, and is starting his coursework this month, with his final exam being in November, and a practicum in the first week of December. He is also hopeful of getting into a health and safety certification course, NEBOSH (and I've no idea what it stands for), which will be held in September and October. He is currently on the waiting list for that.

The Nelson Symphony Orchestra had their mid-year concert: America, held in the Nelson Cathedral. This was a very interesting programme, with music that was quite expansive and sweeping. Jan has also volunteered to play in the Nelson Choir's production of Stabat Mater, and in Nayland College's school production of Annie get your Gun (with performances in the first week of August).

We caught up with Glenys & Kevin for an afternoon of eating, drinking and talking (surprise, surprise) which was very entertaining. We also had dinner with Jenny, Tracey and Erica. 

We also had a mid-winter Christmas at the Hofman's which was great: we had "three lights"; three light courses - nibbles, soup, and cake for dessert. I had made a Nigella Lawson Christmas cake last year, but the recipe makes two, so I had put one in the freezer. I pulled that out and defrosted it. We took a sugar cone, and brandy, and turned the 'bladder' of Peckhams mulled cider into a burnt caramel, clove and cinnamon heaven. The nibbles were just fantastic: all the things we don't usually eat.

And no-one was too full. It was a really good night, with lots of laughs.

I drove for the first time three weeks after my surgery. to see the hand physiotherapist, for exercises and wrist support. my surgeon had said that I was OK to drive, and despite my reservations, I drove the automatic. The hand physiotherapist told me off quite thoroughly, saying that I should not be driving until the surgeon had signed the bone off as being healed. 

However, despite the driving, I got a good report from the physiotherapist. I have good mobility and had no pain at all from the session - she was very conservative, and focused on only what I could do until I started feeling a small amount of resistance. She was very happy with my mobility and movement, and gave me three small exercises to do five times a day each. My challenge was that they all needed to be done v-e-r-y slowly! She only wants to see me once my surgeon has signed me off, which will be next month. 

After I saw the hand physiotherapist, I went to catch up with an old friend, Di, who was able to drive us around that day, while we had a good gossip, drink coffee, and acted like we were ladies of leisure. 

So once more, Jan had to drive me into work, as I started teaching on the 18th. At least in the first week, I only had two lectures, as one of my other classes didn't start until week six, and the other was online.

By the last week of the month it was six weeks after surgery, and although I hadn't seen the specialist (because he was too busy off skiing and swanning around the world to conferences), I started driving again. Much easier.

We went to Alex and Caroline's Wassail celebrations this month, pulling in all manner of English traditions including the Black Morris to bring on the fruit for the coming year. Kev the Farmer sang a couple of songs again (he has such a good voice). Glenys and Kevin came along too, and we had a good chat about our planned weekend at McLaren's Bay next month.

We caught a movie at the Gecko Theatre in Motueka - Our Kind of Traitor - which was quite good. No major twists, but a good movie. We realised that we don't go to the pictures often enough, so have made a resolution to try to get there at least once a month.

I did a bit of digging and found that Griffiths was 39th in the world for sports management, so figured they could be really worth a look. I also realised that Graham Cuskelly was a professor in the business school at Griffith, and so I emailed him, and, despite being overseas, he replied straight away. So it appears that I may have my supervisor. 

Just like that. A new home across the Tassie for my project too.

Sam (and Jan)