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 - October 2 2013

Hi all,
I hope you are all fit and well - we seem to be boxing along here just fine. Jan has had a cold though - and spent three days off work with it, but amazingly I didn't catch it. There is a first time for everything!

We seem to have been busy here again for the past few weeks: again, I am not quite suire what has been filling our time, but we have been busy doing it.

We have had the orchard cut, our tenants are moving out at the end of November so we are looking at putting the Montrose Dr house on the market once more, and we have caught up with a few people around the country.

Jan has been to Wellington for the Naenae College reunion this weekend - and apparently many beers were imbibed! Jan went with Tina on the Friday night, and together they caught up with lots of old friends - particularly from Jan's year, as loads of his old compadrés turned up. On Saturday, Jan had brunch with Brigitte and John at Tina & Jeremy's.and caught up with Hartmut & Uta. On Saturday night Jan went to meet his year people for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant, and they finished up at Helen's mother's house in Kelson. He had a great time overall, and I am really sorry that I forgot to send him with a camera!

On Sunday, Gary & Sandra - who have been in Port Headland (Oz) for the past five years - were here on holiday, and picked up Jan from his flight home from Welly, and came to stay. Jan made a massive lasagne for dinner, which he had better freeze, because he is off to the US next week, and he will never eat 3/4s of a huge, deep lasagne dish full of pasta, mince, cheese and tomatoes, before he goes.

On Monday morning, Pat, Marjie & their brood called in for a waffle breakfast on their way home to Chch. The McLarin's drove up to Nelson on Friday, Pat flew to Welly on Friday night for the Naenae Reunion with Jan, came back on Saturday for brother Matt's 40th, then drove home Monday morning with a segue to our place for brekkie on the way. It was lovely to see them again so soon (Marjie is very trim & fit after doing a 20 week challenge. I don't envy her the effort, but it has been very worthwhile because she looks great).

The weekend before that we went to Christchurch, I went to my symposium & AGM, which was great. We stayed with Jen, Jan had lunch, morning tea & afternoon tea dates every day (including Bertie, visiting Meg, Mr Tunley and my Aunt Diana. He had a great time being a lady who lunches :-D ). We had dinner with Magda on Friday night, too.

We caught up with Jennie, Pat, Marjie, Megs (& Will), KB, Gary, Dan, Tori and all the short people. We had a great night at Pat & Marjie's, which was, of course, way too short.

  

 

We called in to see my sister on the way home - and to drop off her birthday present.

The weekend before that we had a lovely, quiet time at home, doing some tidying up and me prepping materials for the coming Career Symposium and AGM in Christchurch. We did a few jobs outside, but the weather wasn't that flash for getting out and about. We had a bit of rain and the fords were pretty full:

Dogs are well. Playing. Lying in the sun. Sleeping. All normal :-)

So, Jan is off to the US and Germany next Tuesday (5 November), and returns on 24 November. Just in time to talk at another Rotary Club about Rotary Youth Exchange with me about the two tours we have taken around the North Island.

Next concert (which Jan will miss) is Sibelius. Magda is coming to Nelson to stay though instead, so I will have the pleasure of her company instead:

That will do for now - I had better do some work!!

Jan & Sam

News from Nelson - February 2013

Hi all,
Wow. Dunno where the year has gone already!

We have been watching the rain pass us by for some time now. While we have plenty of water still (the advantage of having three huge tanks), it is not so good for the garden - nor the neighbour's pasture!

We are now firmly into firewood mode, and have had some old tracks cleared by Jimmy Sagar so we could fell some trees close to our power line, and get at some trees which had fallen a while ago.

Jan is happy as a sandboy with his chainsaw... and I have discovered that acetone-free nail polish remover gets pine sap out of clothing, so I am happy too :-D

Hartmut sent us three beautiful bowls that he made (not the one that discorporated and hit his forehead, needless to say):

I have published my first issue of the CDANZ  magazine, which has been quite intense, along with all the other things I am trying to do at the moment. Now I get a breather until late March, when the next one will be in the starting blocks.

Jan is busy at work still, but seems happy enough with how things are going.

Montrose Drive still hasn't sold, so we have decided to keep it on the market & rent it out. We are meeting some potential tenants there today.

Kathleen & Frits are coming to stay for the weekend, and we have a full-on programme planned, including the Sarau Festival on Sunday. Additionally we may well see Andrew, Jennie & their family today, on their way to the Neudorf concert.

Next week I am in Tauranga (Thursday & Friday), the week after I am in Wellington (Sunday & Monday) and Jan is in Auckland (Monday & Tuesday). Things will also crank up for Semester 1  from the 25th (though I need to be in for orientation week before that).

The Masters work is coming along painfully at the moment as I am still writing a RFP for a presentation at the International Leadership Association conference in Auckland in Anzac week. But it is coming along. So we will see.

In Anzac week we also take off on the North Island Tour with the Rotary International exchange students for twelve days. They will leave me in Auckland for the conference and go on to Hobbiton etc. I will then fly into Rotovegas to catch them up (and miss Hobbiton!). Should work out just fine. We CAN do everything! And Jan will have his trusted lieutenants in Timo, Kazu and Karin.

Camila is back at school, after a lovely holiday at the beach (pictured here with Beto (her Dad), Célia (her Mum) and Ana Silvia:

Tessa got engaged to Sandra last Saturday in Nelson, at a family gathering at Mike's place. I don't have any photos yet, but when I do get some, I will post them. 

Simone has sent some photos of Andreas with Michael, and herself and Michael:

It is my folks' wedding anniversary on the 13th, so hopefully we will get to celebrate with them the weekend before.

Right: I know I haven't covered everything, but this will do for now. Will add more when I get time!

Jan & Sam

News from Nelson - March 2 2011

Hi all,

In the past few weeks we have managed to get our builder up to look at some jobs. I would imagine that we will see the builders back to do the work once the weather starts packing it in (nothing like having some nice, dry indoor work when it’s not so nice outside).

Jan’s NSO concert went well. The pieces were a bit challenging, but in general they were delivered well. There was a good review in the newspaper (though the presentation of the programme got slated!).

Montrose Drive appears to be peopled by saints. These guys are just great tenants… I suppose we were due for a break on the tenant-front though.

Preserves are ploughing along well; I picked up another 70 Agee jars in the past couple of weeks. Of course, we are now just about out of things to preserve, but getting the jars gives us a great head start on next year. We now have well over a hundred jars of preserved tomato puree, pumpkin puree, stewed apple, apple juice, pear quarters and stewed plums in the cellar ready for the winter. I have managed to pay Kathleen back the jars we borrowed as well.

Speaking of Kathleen, Frits has had surgery on his back, and is currently recovering at home. He seems to be coming along OK, but isn’t sure yet whether his back feels better or not. I guess by next week he will have more of an idea.

Yet another person having surgery is Ian, who has just had a hip replacement done. He seems to be recovering well by spending plenty of time spreading humour around.

Glenys & Kevin came over for a night & we watched a couple of movies; some wine went west, and boy, was it hard getting going the next day! We had a great time though - and it made us realise that we do this kind of thing way too rarely.

The little digger that Jan was going to hire a few weeks ago had to be postponed, so that is happening in a fortnight. That means we can fill in the dirt around our big water tanks, put in our clothes line, and move a mound of dirt over a wee bit between the office and the shed so we can plant some screening plants in autumn. Jan is also talking of clearing the drain down the road before the autumn rains start.

Speaking of rain, our water tanks are still full. It is amazing to be at the far end of summer and be almost at full capacity. We are also still getting credits from our PV panels, so all in all this house doesn’t cost too much to run.

John has finished his last tour of the season and picked up Bon dog last night. Coco and Fliss are both a bit lost without her.

This Saturday Jan is doing a motorbike training course, and then we are going into Nelson for dinner. On Sunday we are having a family lunch at Founders Brewery, which will be great.

Lots is happening in April; Christél and Ray are coming down at Easter, and Magda, Julie & I will all catch up with them (it will be great to get together again). Kathleen & Frits are having an Easter Saturday shindig at their place, and Jan & I will head in for that. Kel is off to the US for a flying family visit, and I will catch up with her when she gets back, 3/4s of the way through April. Jan & I are heading out to dinner for Magda’s birthday at the end of April. Our Rotary exchange student, Nathalie, has her parents visiting her from Belgium, and there is a BBQ at our club Secretary’s place so they can meet us all (and double-check we aren’t leading their daughter astray!).

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Murray H, Birthe, Gerhard and Glenys.

Right, I think that's it. Catch you again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson - February 2011

Hi everyone!

The weather has been hot & sunny, with an hour or so of light drizzle last week – just enough to wash the dust off the roof into the water tanks. We are doing well for water though; our tanks are still half full.

Waitangi weekend was the start of the Adam Chamber Music Festival, and we saw five concerts between us. The music was great, and the Hermitage String Trio from Russia was just fantastic. Last weekend Jan had a whole weekend of music as on the Sunday he also had a full day workshop for the NSO.

Despite having bought some wall-plugs, none of our heavier pictures have yet made it to the walls, nor have our bathroom mirrors. I am quite tempted to ask the builder if he can put them up, to take them off Jan’s list. We’ll see.

The Montrose Drive tenancy is going well so far. Fingers Xed for the long term.

My study stalled for a bit; I have got an extra paper to teach in Semester 1 this year, and have been getting it ready instead.

Jan has been going to Underwater Hockey, (twice this year now – the Adam Festival got it the way a bit). He is thinking about playing in the South Island Masters Games which will be held in Nelson in October this year, so is pretty keen to get to the pool every week.

He has also signed up for all the NSO concerts for the year, and I have signed up as a  “Friend” and booked my concert seat all the way through. My mother has done the same, and booked the seat next to mine, and Kathleen & Frits have also signed up.

The Sarau Fair was really nice; we bought an updated version of “The Road to Sarau”, a history of the area written by our architect’s wife. The fair started at 4, and carried on into the night, which is a great idea for high summer. It was very relaxed, and we found we knew a lot of people there.

Last Saturday night we had Gary Rae’s 50th birthday party at the Honest Lawyer, which was fun. It was a 60s fancy dress theme – Jan went as a hippie & I went in psychedelic gear (we raided a local fancy dress shop which had some great costumes). Nik was a Mary Quant dollybird and Gary was a mod! I think there was only one person there not in a costume, so everyone had really got into the spirit of the thing. Wendy & Wayne were there – and we had a good catch up with them – along with Hugh & Julie B. Jan had a long chat to Paul Dalzell from Nelson Pine – and only part of it was about work!

On Sunday while Jan was at the music workshop, Magda came out after church with some plums and cooking apples from Gea. We had a lovely afternoon having lunch and pottering about, and after she left, I got the Agee preserver out and spent three hours stoning and bottling the plums (only 5 jars for my trouble, and terribly stained fingers!). On Monday night Jan & I did 7 & 1/2 jars of apple puree from Gea’s cooking apple tree.

So this weekend we are swapping some Cox’ Orange seconds from our local friendly apple man for a bottle of wine, and we will be apple processing to the max. One day’s full on effort will keep us in bottled fruit for a year – and we know exactly where it came from and what it has in it. And very low air miles :-)

This Sunday Jan is off for a mbike ride with Derek Sherwood, which will be fun for both of them.

Fliss is at the vet today as she appears to have something stuck in her throat; Jan dropped her off this morning and we will hear through the day what the problem - and the solution - is. Coco, despite having Bonnie here, is quite lost. I took her for a walk this morning and she spent her whole time wanting to run down the road after the car (despite Jan having left half an hour before).

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Kathleen, Kenn B, Pat McL & Kent.

Right, I think that's it. All the very, very best for the next few weeks.

Until I write again - alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson - January 2011, Part 2

We are having a great summer. We had a lovely bbq recently with about 50 people here, and got to catch up with folks we haven’t seen in ages. We were also surprised how many of our friends had other connections between each other. It all goes back to that Kiwi thing of 1.5 degrees of separation.

Tanja, Brigitte & John all came to stay for a week, and we got to celebrate Tanja’s birthday with her. I think they had a good time in Nelson, including going for some very scenic drives – and only one of them was unintentional! We had fish & chips down at the Mapua wharf, from the fish & chip shop that has just got the Wild Tomato Award for the best F&C in the top of the south, had the bbq for Tanja’s birthday, and had a very relaxing time. Mind you, Brigitte & Tanja could have shopped for New Zealand – it should be an Olympic sport! And I know I don’t have the staying power to do what they do. I should emulate John & grab a coffee & a paper & have them swing by afterwards to pick me up.

Jan has now built the second wine rack built and that has a couple of columns of bottles in it already. We still have some more space that we need to free up in the cellar, but we feel like we are starting to make more progress. This week I hung some of our pictures, and we bought some wall-plugs for those things that are a bit heavier, so hopefully this weekend they might get put up, along with our bathroom mirrors. The list gets shorter!

We have rented Montrose Drive again until this coming October, when it will go back on the market for the 2011-12 summer. We have some great tenants for this year (so far, anyway!), and what is more, we had two lots of really nice people to choose from. We downloaded all the forms from DBH and filled out everything that we needed, have sent off the things we needed to and took lots of photos. Should be all good.

Bon dog went home for a few days when John F got back from his first tour of the summer last week, but she came back again last night for the next month while John is away on #2 tour. Fliss & Coco were beside themselves when she arrived back with Jan last night. We ended up having to take them 2k down to the end gate last night at 8pm to get them to calm down. At least it was quite cool by that hour.

We had Wendy & Wayne up to see us last weekend, and it was great to see them. We were also going to go & see The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) in the meadow at Fairfield House on Sunday night, but it got rained off. Next time.

My study is going well – I am onto unit 9 of 16, as my second lot of course materials finally turned up. Mind you, I am still waiting for 4 assignments from the first half of the course to be marked & come back.

Jan is going to Underwater Hockey tonight, which will be the second time this year. He is thinking about playing in the South Island Masters Games which will be held in Nelson in October this year. So he needs all the pool time he can get between now & then.

He has also signed up for all the NSO concerts for the year, and I have signed up as a  “Friend” and booked my concert seat all the way through. My mother was talking about becoming a friend too, but I don’t know if she has registered yet.

At the beginning of February we also have the Adam Chamber Music Festival starting. Jan is going to see five concerts, and I am going to three. He is going to a Paganini concert on his own as I can’t stand the Caprices – to me it sounds like cats being dreadfully murdered :-(

Next weekend is the Sarau Fair, which is a blackcurrant festival. That should be fun.

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Tamara, Mike S, Eberhard and Oma Friedel. I hope Andreas' footballing birthday party went well, as did Christian's birthday celebrations.


Best wishes to Steph - I hope the floods haven't damaged your Rockhampton property too much (let us know if there is anything we can do); and we were glad to hear that Uncle Lin escaped most of the damp north of Brisbane.

Right, I think that's it. All the very, very best for the coming few weeks, and we look forward to catching up with you all sometime this year.

Take care and alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – October 2 2008

Hi all,

We have been flat out in the past few weeks; I don't think our feet have touched ground. Just a few notes & then I will update you properly in a few weeks as things are just too busy right now!

   Jan has been taking Coco to Dog Agility & she loves it (photo).

   We have our Brazillian exchange student, Ana Sylvia, with us now. She is wonderful! She heads back to Brazil on Boxing Day.

   Sold some stuff on Trademe to make room in the garage for the new motorbike, so we could sell the old & clear out the spare room so we could fit Ana in!

   We caught up with Warren & Trace & Erica in Marlborough last Sunday of Labour Weekend which was fab

   Christél & Ray got married - pix at http://www.flickr.com/photos/29854470@N04//show/

   Tessa & her new girlfriend Helen were up in Nelson this last weekend & we had dinner with them

   We are both largely recovered from our colds

   Next holiday will be heading over to Golden Bay for our Anniversary while Ana Sylvia does the Milford Track

   Brigitte & John are coming to visit at the end of November

   Otto, Jeremy & Tina are coming to visit on Boxing Day.

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson - September 2 2009

Hi all,

Man, where did those weeks go?!

Right, the quick run-down. The build has started with a couple of glitches; the house was in the wrong place, due to the excavations being slightly off kilter. We got all that sorted out, but not before the builder had already done the profiles. We were away for the weekend, but went out yesterday to have a look at how it was going and realised that the house wasn't entirely where we thought it was going to be. But all sorted now, and Jan went out after work to sign off on the new profiles. And ask the builder to move them yet again! Ouch.

We have actual power on at the land, and are going to put the lights and power sockets into the shed this Saturday. Jan has installed a "life guard station" for the builders to use for their tools on site as well. One of Jan's electricians is coming out this weekend to help install and then to sign all the work off.

Jan is also starting to agitate about moving out to the land sooner rather than later. I would like to get the term over before having to move, but I understand his haste; being there we can catch problems before they become problems. I will have to start investigating our communications options this week to see what the costs are.

With regard to my health, my suspicions about having had a minor stroke were entirely correct. The oncologist is getting me an appointment with the neurologist; and he is asking for that to be expedited. I didn't realise initially that my sense of smell had been hugely diminished, but it is now slowly coming back. He said that there are some areas of damage that showed up in the MRI that are consistent with a stroke in the brain areas controlling speech, vision and smell. I have to have some new cholesterol tests and some cardio tests as well before I see the neurologist. The oncologist has no idea what caused the stroke; whether it is a heart problem, a blood factor, a blocked artery, a brain problem or a migraine problem, but expects the neurologist to be able to eliminate some and dig into the others. He suggests that I take aspirin daily (which I am already doing) and drink plenty (which I already do too). Glad to know I am doing all I can on my own!

I have submitted my work for CAT 15 and the RPL for CAT 5. I am now halfway through CAT 4 for RPL as well, but will wait to put that in until I get feedback on CAT 5. It is now the holiday break, and if I can get some more work on CAT 4 done around sorting out the remainder of the house bits & bobs on my list (comms, quotes for the showers, documentation for the bank, sourcing tiles, and designing the shelving unit for the end of the lounge), that would be good. But I won't hold my breath.

Jan is now a permanent member of the Nelson Symphony Orchestra. They have their next concert on November 28th, called the Italian Job. Read all about it at http://www.nso.org.nz/. He has lots of new pieces to learn, and is currently procrastinating about his rehearsal schedule :-)

Warren's birthday in Chch was great; we caught up with pretty much everyone except Pat (who was away). We even got out to see Gary & Karen's new house. Jenny Ladley got us sorted on all our light fittings; the second place she had on our 'places to shop' list came up with the goods & we spent $4.5k buying everything we needed. FAN-tastic! We took half the gear home with us and are just waiting for the remainder of our shipment to arrive. Jan has also gone through the list of electrical gear with one of his electricians, and we picked up the first part of that gear this week and delivered it out to the land.

We had a great time last weekend in Wellington with Tina & Jeremy, Otto & Lara; we caught up with Hartmut & John, and Karen & Hui-Ping ferried us around to see three new houses; Doug & Morv's new place in the Hutt; Guy & Sonja's new build in Belmont; and Mike & Birthe's half-built house in Whitby. It was great, but we ran out of time & couldn't get out to Island Bay to see Sam & Moose. Next time :-(

We have had a couple of invites to some 40th birthday parties, which we are thinking about. Our aim was not to go anywhere else for the rest of the year, and concentrate on the build. We are going to sit down and work out the $ budget and the time budget for the rest of the year and see what we can come up with. We will be back to you all in due course!

And we are aiming for a housewarming in April; exact date to be advised. Again, we will keep you posted.

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan