News from Nelson - March 2019

Hi everyone,
After another busy month: the fire danger has passed from the four fires we had; Jan has been back for a fortnight and has gone back to the US again; Warren and Erica have been to stay; Tracey and Erica have been to stay; Justine arrived; John and Aniko came to stay; and Finn had surgery. We caught up with Simon; Zig and Lib & Steve and Liz; Glenys and Kevin; Ian and Sharon; Kathleen and Frits; and my family.

New Zealand feels a bit different in the wake of the terrorist attack in Christchurch, however, I think our Prime Minister handled the event well, and New Zealanders have also reacted responsibly. There has been a lot more discussion, open mosques and sharing which will knits us more closely together as a group of people in the South Pacific. By the end of next week our gun laws will be harmonised with Australia's. People have asked why the terrorist staged his attack in New Zealand, and I think the answer has to be "because he could": our lax gun laws allowed him to buy what he needed for this attrocity. Following the firearms restriction in Australia there have been 60% fewer firearms-related deaths, and I am glad this type of attack will no longer be quite so easy in NZ. I had no idea we were so far behind our Australian cousins in this regard, and am glad we are catching up now. 

Sean Yeo's cartoon pretty much sums up how we felt:

At least the sun still shines, but terrible so many died.

Warren and Erica came to stay, for Warren to do the Kaiteriteri Half Marathon. The weather was just breaking, with some soft drizzle, which made the going a lot more pleasant than if it has been sunny. We stopped for lunch at Toad Hall on the way back, which is always a pleasure.

And following on from last month, it took me pretty much until mid-March to get my PC to where I wanted it to be. I have had to replace an awful lot of software, as much of it wouldn't work with the latest Windows, so a lot of my energy has been consumed in researching software to get replacements that would at least do what the old kit would do. A jolly nuisance!

Once I was able to work smoothly again, with Jan away I have been steadily turning out rooms and getting rid of stuff that I didn’t even know we had. I have been taking Jan's stuff to the shed for him to decide what he wants to let go when he is back in NZ next (which will be in July), but house things and my things I have been shedding like old skin. It feels good to let things go and to have less clutter. I have been giving things to friends, taking things to the council recycle centres, op shops, selling things, or - if all else fails - sending stuff to land-fill (not much of the latter, though, as I can usually pass things on to someone else).

We had a tree down on Rose Road this month which had the power out for six hours while the power people replaced the power pole and the lines. This was our eighth significant power cut since last October (and we had a ninth one later in the month). Starting to feel a bit third-world here for electricity of late. I am not sure our separation of power and transmission providers is giving anyone a good deal.

We are still in drought here, as we have not yet had the 180mm of rain we needed: I think we have had about half that. However, it was enough rain to prevent more trees dying, so that was good. The fires are all out, and, while the initial fire was an accident, the person who lit the remaining three of the four fires has been prosecuted. The danger is, aside from all the restoration work, hopefully over.

Jan was here for two weeks in March, but went back to Michigan again at the very end of March. He muled back some second-hand Fluevogs which I had purchased online.

We went to Auckland so he could get the correct visa for work in the US, and spent a night up there before his appointment. We walked along the waterfront to see the new America's Cup village work, and had a beer at the Mac's pub on Quay Street. We went to the Museum. The hotel we were in had a pool, so I swam each day, which was nice.

It was great to have Jan home, but all the things that needed doing on the property rather got in the way, as did me having to work, and all the friends who wanted to catch up with us. I felt that we had very little time together, though at least we did manage to talk about what he is wanting to achieve out of this international work. While he was here, I postponed as much work as I could, and got up in the wee hours to get work done before he woke up. However, the list of jobs which needed to be done were hardly touched in the two weeks he had here. They are now on my work list, for me to hire in people to do them.

Jan & I have been using FB messenger to keep in touch, as it is a lot more reliable than Skype. It remains horrible having him away, and has increased my workload quite a lot as all the land and house decisions which we used to share end up with me trying to work my way through them. While we can talk about it, it is not the same when you are the one having to deal with it, and it has to work for you. I have, however, been very touched by how many friends and family members have rung offering help: it is very humbling to be surrounded by so many thoughtful people.

Some of the neighbours are going to build a fence around the house for me to keep Finn in (as before his surgery he would take himself off for a walk if I haven't yet taken him), so while Jan was here I took advantage of having an extra pair of hands to get the posts, the waratahs and the gates. Now I only need to find and purchase the right sort of wire mesh, and whenever the neighbours are ready, I will have everything required.

We had someone take the corner onto the bridge in our valley a little fast, and take out the entire side of the bridge...

Then somehow they ended up 15 metres down the creek, facing the other way. With their chainsaw still on the tray of their ute. The ute - a complete write off - has been towed out of the creek and is still sitting in the farmer's paddock, three weeks later.

We have a letterbox, at last. Jan has set up two German bank accounts, and despite very clear and careful instructions, both banks independently posted his documentation and bank cards to our non-existent street address. So of course, they eventually ended up back in Germany, because we didn't have a street address. So we decided to apply for rural delivery, and after 9 years of living here we now have a letterbox, 2 kilometres down the road. Now if any illiterate administrative idiot decides to post something to Rose Road, at least we will be able to receive it.

While Jan was here we went out for some lunches and coffees, and took the dogs out.

And despite the work, eating out and catching up with friends, there was time for relaxing in the shade.

Justine arrived on Jan's last afternoon here, but we took the opportunity to have lunch at McCashin's Brewery.

Finn developed a very fast growing - but benign - cancer on his chest which needed to be removed. I thought I would be clever and get it done while Jan was here, but it still turned out to be much more complicated than that. He was healing nicely, and Jan went back to the US. Then, when I was at work and Justine was here, he got totally overexcited by a fantail trapped in the house, and burst his stitches. Back to the vet to do it all again. Justine is now back in Wellington, so I have to get someone to be here to watch him, as I can't take him to work, and don't want to leave him crated all day (having to go to the toilet in the crate). Wounds that should have been well healed a few days ago now have another week before I can be reasonably sure he can't do that again. He has to be confined, wear a tee-shirt (so he can't scratch) and stay calm. For a dog who usually does at least 4ks with me each day, the confinement is driving him - and therefore me! - batty.

Boo has been to the canine physio as she is getting arthritis in her spine. She has twice-daily exercises to do (which means that I have twice-daily exercises to do with her). 

My work is going fine, with students largely on track. Managing all the other supervisors is a little more challenging, but that too is going well enough. The other supervisors are sooo much slower at getting their marking done, and I am finding that increasingly difficult. I need to sit down with them all and find some middle ground that is reasonable for everyone.

In June (Queen's Birthday weekend, in two months time) I am hoping that I will be able go to Canada to meet up with Jan: if it all works out, he should be able to drive from MI across the border and we will spend a week in Toronto together. Then he is back to NZ in July on a three week break. One week of that time will be spent in Fiji with the Hutties.

I would imagine that he will have some leave in September, but we have no plans for that as yet. Then in November we are coming again to Europe to do a cruise on the Danube, starting on the river in Budapest and ending off the river in Prague. More details to come on that trip as things firm up!

Back to you all next month, I hope.


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - March 2018

Hi all,
Another month ticks around: I don't know where they all go. Here we are, a third of the way through the year already, and I can't understand where the last ninety days went!

All the health and family issues over the past year have been weighing heavily on me of late, especially with Tania not progressing in her treatment. It has been hard to make good progress on my research, or to do anything other than to simply get through each day's list of tasks. I have been losing my mojo. So I decided not to keep trying to soldier on, but to take a leave from my PhD for three months. Hopefully that will get me back on track and feeling like I have something constructive to say. I will keep working on slowly, but at my own pace and as I feel like writing.

This break has fallen alongside my supervisor being otherwise engaged (Commonwealth Games) and the start of a busy semester for me. The break also means that my next trip to the Gold Coast will be in September, rather than July. I will defend my proposal in September, I think, during the NMIT study break. What is also very interesting is that my Master's supervisor, Prof Brad Jackson, has moved to Griffith. My main supervisor, Graham, is thinking that Brad might like to come on as an associate supervisor, which might be good. It makes sense from Graham’s point of view: he doesn’t have the knowledge of Tangata Whenua or Pasifika that he needs to understand the context.

My mother and Sue came out for coffee. We were going to go to Michael McMillan’s sculpture gallery down Neudorf Road, but they weren't open, so we went to the Riverside Cafe instead. Then Sue and my mother both came back to our place for lunch afterward. It was a very enjoyable and relaxed afternoon.

With all the rain in spring last year, the neighbour had a number of his heifers die from magnesium deficiency. One of them dropped dead half in and half out of the offal pit, and bloated. Because it was so wet, he couldn't do anything much about disposing of the carcass, so it was left to rot for a while. And stink. I managed to keep both Boo and Bonnie away from it, but one of the neighbours' dogs hauled the head through the fence and it got covered up in the long grass. So this month, Boo was getting more and more sick over a weekend. We carted her off on Sunday afternoon to the vet, and various scans, x-rays and other things were done. Well, $1700 later we now know that Boo managed to eat the flaming eartag off the skull and get it lodged in the top of her stomach. We have the eartag as a fairly expensive trophy... and a dog with a nice neat row of healing stitches in her underbelly and a bald panel in her side for pain killer patches!

Finn is still growing. Almost getting to the gangly stage. He has also discovered pine cones in a big, crackly, satisfying, crunchy way.

We caught up with Sharon & Ian again, ahead of them heading off to Europe for a long break. I think they will have a wonderful time, as we head into winter.

Our courgettes, cucumbers and spinach have been growing well, and at last our tomatoes are starting to come through. They have been very late this year, I think with the early warmth, then the rain, the cold snap, the cyclones and now the warm again. Plants must be very confused! Our Granny Smith apples were ready early, so we have processed about 20 litres of apple juice and preserved it in 1 litre jars. All ready for Jan to drink over winter :-)

I have been going through my old clothes and shoes, and taking things that have not been used in a long time to the op shop. Jan decided to get rid of some stuff too. We had a shoe count-up: he was complaining that I had so many pairs of shoes that it was ridiculous. So we counted how many pairs we each had in the wardrobe. I had 19: he had 17. Yah boo sucks, Mr Kuwilsky! And yes, I did rub it in!

We had a great afternoon at Zig and Lib's place too: they are going to Europe for six months and wanted to introduce all the people on the road to their house-sitters (Rose and Russell). It was a good get-together for the rest of us too: Ian M; Hugh, Jackie, Logan & Lexi; Steve & Liz; Daniel & Diana. Didn’t see Ian B, Margot & Michel, Robert Coombes, Simon or anyone from Jimu’s old place. Hugh & Jackie are planning on having a mid-winter Christmas at their place sometime in June this year, which will also be fun.

The mornings are drawing in. Two shots below are from the sun just rising on our way to work towards the end of the month.

We caught up with Jenny this month: and she did more sewing for us. The woman is a genius! She picked up fabric on special at Spotlight as a throw for us on the couch, and brought it up with her on the plane. I picked her up, and we went to Tracey and H's for dinner. They planned their Heaphy tramp. Most entertaining! Jenny was here to keep an eye on her mama as she has been having cataract eye surgery while conscious (ugh!).

Jan's study is continuing, though he is finding it challenging. I think that is a good thing, because it means our mind is being changed! I go back to the office to carry on after dinner and a break, he tends to drift back in as well. Nothing like having regular time to throw at things to get them done.

Jan has being tutoring one of our neighbours' daughters in maths and physics, which has been interesting. There is so much which I have forgotten, to my shame! Jan & I did something else for the others on the road this month: we cleaned out the second ford which had been choked up with weed, gravel and flotsam after the two cyclones. Boy, that was a hard day's work. 

My mother has to have an angiogram at some stage: we are waiting for the appointment to come through. I will go with her, and stay with her when the procedure is finished.

This month we have been watching a Swedish police crime series called Borderliner. Very good!

Sam (& Jan).

News from Nelson - March 2017

Hi everyone,
I hope you and your families are all well.

However, this has been a tough month in a few ways for us through distance and illness. My sister got married in a private ceremony to Joe at Ocean City in Maryland, and, because my Father is not well, neither my Mother nor my Father were able to attend. I was teaching, so couldn't go either. However, they are both planning a public ceremony at a Renaissance Fair in a couple of years, which everyone is invited to. Hopefully that will line up with teaching, but even if it doesn't I will be there.

My Father had rheumatic fever at 15 which has now turned into congestive heart failure with a whole load of other complications. While he has been frail for some time, he's been fairly stable until this year. Since my last update he has deteriorated, and he isn't great.

The month ended with Justine's Mum dying in the Mary Potter hospice in Wellington. Justine came back to NZ and spent the last fortnight with her, but neither she nor Peter were expecting Betty to go so quickly. It is very, very sad.

And then on top of that, my workload has been pretty crushing. I am teaching four papers, and doing my PhD, which is pretty full on. I had expected 30 year 3 students in the capstone research project that I supervise, which in itself is a huge workload, to then turn up on the first day and find 55 students in my classroom. It took two weeks for NMIT to find three other supervisors, and in the meantime I had worked some pretty crazy hours to get these students up to speed and underway on their primary research projects (I had just spent four days grappling with admin, marking and pulling long hours. I didn’t eat properly. I wasn't sleeping well. My to do list was getting longer every day)... and I wigged out.

I completely lost the plot, having a “transient global amnesia” episode (TGA). My day went as usual until I had my 11.30 student appointment, then I appeared to lose what I was supposed to be doing next, what year it was, and my place in time. I was physically OK, but personally gone to la-la land.

One of my colleagues called my doctor, cancelled my classes, took me to my doctor's, called Jan, who came down from the hospital to see me at my Doctor's surgery.

They then took me to the emergency department, where I was for a few hours before being admitted overnight. They asked me lots of questions in the ED…  apparently I was quite blissed out. The ED department people were fascinated, because they had never seen anything like this before. I had very high blood pressure but was cheerful as all get out. I think I had put myself in a happy place, outside time, and therefore outside any additional pressure.

Apparently, my mother had a bout of TGA when my father broke 7 ribs and punctured a lung in 1980. I had completely forgotten that this had occurred for her... and this is apparently a condition which is more likely to happen for migraine sufferers (which she is too). Though nobody has any idea whether there will be any lasting effects, or whether it will happen again. But stress is known to be a trigger.

This was due to overload, I think: I was full to over-capacity. Because I'd lost my place in time, there was no pressure for anything. I'd created some "me" space. I spent a “long dark teatime of the soul” overnight in hospital examining my workload. I decided I would drop both my year 2 leadership papers. I was very clear in my own mind that I wanted to keep supervising the capstone research paper, but that I needed to free myself up for doing my Ph.D. study, which is really important to me.

However, my bout of TGA meant that we could not be at Brigitte's 75th Birthday celebration in Wellington. Which of course was two days after I went into hospital. It sounds like it was a great party.

I had a very frank conversation with my NMIT manager following all this. They seem quite willing for me to cut my hours and continue with a reduced workload, anyway. The whole thing has probably given them a bit of a fright. And it is a health and safety issue.

Now I am managing a team of four supervisors – they are great, all being supervisors on our postgraduate diploma in business enterprise – and have 16 students of my own to supervise. And by 16, I mean eight single semester students, and eight full year students (who are effectively a .5 each): so 12 full-time equivalents. Much easier than 55. Feels like a holiday!

Jan is still going to Men's yoga with Jan Cools: in fact, they are both pretty consistent in turning up. He is working on his pre-hab plan to prepare for his surgery, including work in the pool.

Later in the month my Father was able to get out and about a bit more again. My folks came out today to visit us, along with friends of theirs, Graham and Julie. They stayed chatting for two hours, then we all went down to the Riverside community for lunch and had a delicious lunch together.

Boo is settling in well, and Bonnie is enjoying the company - though Bonnie is spending quite a bit of time at John's little house in Waimea West, with Aniko, between bike tours.

 We have had a bit of early morning mist, which has made for some interesting photos in the mornings:

Jan had an NSO concert at Old St John's which went really well, called Transformations, and conducted by John Rimmer. This will be Jan's last concert for a while, as his hip surgery will knock him out of the next two concerts, and a musical that Nayland College is doing:

We visited Sue L in her little house in the Brook - which is lovely. Thanks very much to Tina who connected us when Sue transferred to Nelson.

And Tina has got engaged to Brad. We haven't heard anything about a wedding date, but hopefully they will make each other very happy. Jeremy is now considering work as a marriage celebrant, which is great.

More next month!

Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - March 2016

Hi everyone,
We are both OK: busy, as usual, but also making lots of preserves at present for winter. 

Tracey and Erica have an organic farm in Appleby, which is 20 minutes away from where we live. it is a largely horticultural block, with tunnel houses and fruit trees (though they do have some organic Angus beef, and free range chickens as well).

We have been picking and processing tomatoes, pears and peaches from their place. And by processing I mean bottling, so we now have many litres of pear quarters (from our pears), peach halves, and puréed tomatoes with onion and basil in jars down in the cellar... all ready for winter consumption by both families. Tracey grew; we processed :-)

I have 60 litres of tomato purée in the cellar... I think that may be enough!

Jan has also made apricot jam, mixed berryfruit jam, the blackberry jam, kiwifruit jam, and plum jam (from our own Damson plums). We also made juice from our own Granny Smith apple tree (about 10 litres), and preserved black boy peaches from our black boy peach trees (which are the most delicious peaches on the planet).

Our Damson plums

Our Beurre Bosc pears

Our black boy peaches

Everywhere we go, Jan has been giving friends and family his jams. I think it is always nice to have the personal touch!


All in all, it has been a very fruitful start to autumn, and a good break for both of us from work.

For Easter there was a Kuwilsky family reunion in Taupo: Tanja and her partner Tony, as well is Lars and his girlfriend Ann, flew in from Australia; Brigitte and John drove up from Wellington, as did Tina and her partner Brad. Joerg, Melissa (and her friend) drove down from Morrinsville. We flew in to Taupo late on the Friday afternoon, and Tina picked us up from the airport.

The family had organised a great house to stay in, just out of the city, and we had a great weekend, with coffee forays, some walks, and some great places to catch up, talk, and eat.

Anne, Joerg & Jan having a great lunch in Taupo

Our selfie at Huka falls

Aratiatia Dam spillway, looking downstream (click to open a video)

Jan & Ann at Craters of the Moon

Jan & Sam attempt another selfie

The family on the first night

Otto & Lara couldn't be there as Jeremy was hospitalised with gallstones as he was driving up to to Taupo. He recovered reasonably quickly, but this was a great shame, as it would have been the first time almost all the family has got together for a long time. 


But hey: some is better than none! 

On the day we got back from Taupo, I met up with some Nayland Old Girls - Robyn, Nik and Chris - at Toad Hall. While Jan & I had been in Taupo, the Nayland College Reunion had been on. As I felt it more important to go to the family event rather than the school one, we arranged a catch up with some of those who were staying on after the event for coffee and a goss instead.

Sam, Robyn, Chris & Nikki

 
Sam (& Jan)