News from Nelson – January 2008

Hi all,

And a happy New Year to you all! Wow, it has been a busy start to the New Year.

We saw Jenny and her family on Boxing Day, out at the farm, which was great. I managed to catch a 24 hour vomiting & diarrhoea bug from Bunty, which laid me low for a few days, just when I had planned some time to play catch ups on lecture preparation & writing my final exam! But it was worth it to see Jen :-)

Jan has felt that his pile of work has been too big for him; he hasn't completed the tasks on his job list, and is also feeling under a bit of pressure.

However, we think we are coming to Europe in June. Jan may have a work trip taking him to a factory in Flensburg for a new cut-to-size saw for the MDF Plant, and, if so, I will go as well - but to London initially. If it all comes off, while Jan is busy with work, I hope to spend a week or ten days in London with Justine (hey, Justine, I have been meaning to call you & ask you & Gareth if I can come & stay!!), then go on to Germany once Jan's work is finished. We would then visit Treysa & Neu-Ulm for a week before heading home. We won't know (a) if the trip is going to happen until closer to time, and then (b) won't know exact dates until very close to time; it really depends on how the build is going at the German factory as to when we will get a departure date.

The other trip we are thinking about is a group tour of China. Some friends of ours heard about a group who toured last year for $3000/person including flights. Apparently there might be some spare capacity after the Beijing Olympics & Paralympics are over, so some friends of ours are checking it out. We will wait & see; if it proves to be cheap, we will probably try to get a booking around October or November.

The week before Christmas we went over to see the land to see the sawmiller who will be dropping our eucalyptus trees next week & turning them into floorboards & railway sleepers; and milling some old pine logs into railway sleepers as well. We plan on using the eucalypt railway sleepers to put in new garden beds here at Montrose Drive; the oils in the wood will preserve it & mean that it doesn't need any preserving treatment. Ideal for the vege garden :-)

We have bought our new camera, the Panasonic Lumix FZ-18. Jan has had a reasonable play with it, but I haven't had time to use it properly yet. Never mind, we will find some time this weekend to explore its potential. We are going to spend a bit of time doing things around the house - like hacking back the neighbour's wisteria which grows EVERYWHERE & doing some weeding.

Aside from some work in the garden and exploring the new camera, this coming weekend we are off to see the Da Vinci Machines exhibition at the Nelson Museum, having a farewell dinner with Magda & going to the land on Sunday.

Magda is off to Blenheim to live for a year or two; she has got a position at Wairau Hospital as a Registered Nurse. Aside from our friendship being slightly more long distance, I will miss our twice weekly tennis sessions. I need to find someone else to play with. The trouble is that I am fairly bad at tennis, so no one who can play well will be able to cope with my style of play (ie 'four counties tennis' - the rules are that if the ball is still moving, then you chase it regardless of which court it is in - or not in). I was starting to think that perhaps I should have some lessons (not that I hold much hope of lessons helping, it is just someone to play with!).

We saw in the New Year with Kathleen & Frits, in their new house. It was a really nice evening, but very tame; we watched a movie, drank some bubbly, ate some stollen, then did a Wasgij until 3am!

Uncle Norman is pretty frail at present; he is having to rest a lot more. He is not very patient with letting other people do things for him, or with having to ask for help. I guess it runs in the family! Last weekend I downloaded some freeware so that he could record all his old LPs and 45s as MP3s and play them on his MP3 player. We plugged in his record player & the whole process was actually pretty easy. Probably the trickiest part is synchronising the start of the record with the start of the recording, but it is easy enough to just start again if you muck it up. It makes me glad that I kept my record player... it is still safely in its carton in the garage.

Janet de Beer's husband Robert had a nasty surprise trip to hospital before Christmas; he had to have another stent (he is OK - a relief for all of us). Another friend of ours has just had to have the same treatment. It provides a bit of a reminder to keep down the fats & keep up the exercise when that starts happening to people you know.

Jan is thinking about buying a new motorbike. He wants to get one a little larger than the GN; something that will not use too much more fuel, but will give better traction in the wet and a bit more power. He looked at a BMW650 at Thunderbike two weekends ago, but doesn't think that bike is quite right for him. He needs one that gives him a fairly upright riding position. There is a Suzuki 650 V-Strom that he likes, but he hasn't managed to find one to test ride yet.

We went to the Playhouse for a dinner theatre with Trish & Wayne (ex-UWH hockey people from Chch who were up in Nelson on holiday), on the old costal highway between Nelson & Mapua. The show was the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Sadly it was only two days since I had had my bug, so I wasn't really in the mood (in fact, I ended up not being able to eat any dinner & having to go & lie down in the car). However, Jan got dragged up on stage to be Brad before I bailed. I managed to get some fairly bad photos of him (one of the things driving the new camera purchase).

Jan managed to catch up with Gary & Sandra, and Gary & Karen (both while I was out of action, sadly). We both caught up with Bertie & Megs, Hui-Ping & Yi Mei; but I missed catching up with both Kel Atkinson & Wendy Sawyer. I am catching up with Kel today & hope to see Wendy next week, as I haven't seen her since her return from the UK.

In fact, Jan & I went with Hui-Ping & Yi Mei out to a new café at Cable Bay, opened by Kay Field who owns Morrison Street Café and the café at Mitre10 Mega. It is a great little café, with wonderful food. It is in a little converted cottage, has a very bachy feel, has loads of old photos of the area on the walls, and the garden is full of tables. They haven't spoiled the interior at all; it is just as you would expect a Kiwi bach to be. It is next door to the tiny motor camp at Cable Bay, 100 metres from the sea, right on the road. The place was jammed full, with carloads of people just driving out to go to the café - and not being able to fit (like the clientele for the café at Makara Beach - if it is still there).

We went to see Fiona Pears last Friday night, a jazz violinist, at the School of Music with John & Jo Fitzwater. She was a very energetic performer (she reminded me of Coco!), and very talented. She wrote a lot of the music she performed.

Tonight we are off having dinner out with Sandra & Kevin & playing a few bad games of pool. Should be a laugh. On January 29th we are going to our second 50th birthday party; Wayne Chisnall, who is married to my school & hockey compadré Wendy, is having a fairly full on bash for a large crowd. I would imagine that we won't be up for much the next day!

I don't think we will be heading away anywhere until April; my summer school class doesn't finish until the 8th of February (final exam) and then we have Karen & Hui-Ping down from Wllg on Feb 15, 16 & 17 for Sealord Opera in the Park, and on the 29th we have the Suter's Annual Degustation Dinner, which we are taking a table at. Then Karen is down again at the end of March for the Taylor's Women's Triathlon again (and I am not doing it this year, yay!).

We had thought we might be able to get away at Easter, but the Certificate in Adult Teaching foundation course will be being run then. As it looks as though I will be carrying on with part-time teaching (I have an AUT Intro to Marketing course scheduled to deliver in Semester 2 this year), I feel that I need to do the training.

Jan is collecting coins (at last we have something to put in that 600kg safe that we bought in Christchurch in 2006!). So if anyone has any old Kiwi currency that they want a home for, or if you find a bright & shiny coin, send it to Jan. He may even remember to send you back the equivalent value  :-)

Phew; I think that's all our news. I hope you manage to endure to read right to the end!

Take care, hugs, hope you are having a great 2008. Alles liebe :-)

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson – December 2007

Hi all,

Go to http://gpsinformation.info/main/merryxmas.swf to get in the Xmas mood - or to http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1583109341 to see our board of the Business Development Company (the company CEO organised this & sent it to all the board members as a Christmas 'surprise'). Very cute - our CEO must have the same contacts as Tina & Jeremy!

Jan & I have had a busy few weeks, what with some extra Christmas functions that we have been invited to & were able to get to, going to Wellington & work.

Jan has his "end of work" BBQ on Monday for the Christmas shut, but he is back at work on Thursday for all the shut maintenance, upgrades & commissioning. I was at drinks at NMIT's Business School on Friday, and am technically off until 7 January, but will be busy preparing the lectures for the rest of the semester, have some assignment marking to do, and a course delivery proposal for Semester 1 next year to work through & decide if I want to do it. That should keep us both out of trouble.

Jan was asked to attend the Business School's prizegiving a week ago & thought he must have got a prize for having come top in the Strategic Management class. However, his name wasn't in the programme when we got there, and we found, after having got down to the second to last award, that he had won a prize for being the top performing part-time student. Not bad, eh?!

Magda graduated with her Batchelor of Nursing Friday a week ago & has just heard that she has also passed her State Finals, so is also now a fully registered nurse, a B.N with twenty years experience. I dragged out the old SLR film camera & took some photos of her in her flat hat & bat cape after the ceremony conferring her degree :-)

We had a lovely time in Wellington, staying with John & Brigitte. Tina is recovering slowly from surgery, so her birthday on Friday night was a low key, family affair. Lunch on Saturday at Clarks was great; it is amazing how quickly everyone's children are growing up. Karen looks fantastic & Sonia is pregnant! We missed Hui-Ping, Wendy & Gerry & Christél (all otherwise engaged). Karen, Jan & I slid across to the City Gallery afterwards to see the Bill Hammond exhibition, which was quite disturbing & challenging (as usual). We caught up with Hartmut & Uta for dinner & a play - Streetcar Named Desire - at Circa, then went out to Upper Hutt to see them on Sunday morning. A final trip to visit the Nelsons & we were off home once more.

I have heard from my cousin Susan in the UK, and, having been off work for quite a while, she has now finished her breast cancer treatment. She feels that the prognosis is good & expects to be getting back into work fairly soon. All a big relief.

This weekend is a weekend of catch ups with us seeing Andrew & Jennie (and Maya & Ella), John & Jo (and Bonnie), trying to catch up with Max & Karen (missed them), my family Xmas get together and then hooking up with Jenny L, Bunty & Donald on Boxing Day. We are also catching up with Bertie & Megs on Christmas eve, which will be great.

Wendy Sawyer is back in Nelson & I hope to catch up with her for lunch sometime next week, while things are a bit quiet. Kelly Atkinson & I have been trying to catch up for a coffee, but ran out of time before Xmas. I did manage to drag her along to Rotary with her Cancer Society hat on to talk to the members, and before we knew it our Rotary club was entering a team in the Cancer Society Relay for Life (yep, I am in the team), and probably selling programmes to raise funds at the Opera in the Park (yep, Jan & I too).

Coco is about to be deliriously happy for Xmas - Jo has got her friend in Florida to send some more of those delightful squeaky toys over. Coco won't know where to start - with six of them there will be far too much choice! I think we might need to get Fliss some earplugs... or perhaps just some pigs ears to take outside and gnaw.

We have booked some events for the Nelson Jazz festival which starts on 2 January, and for Kiri at Opera in the Park on Feb 15th. Jan, Karen, Hui-Ping & I all have posh seats. With champagne, blinis & smoked salmon catering. Mmmm...

We are going to organise a trip away, but are debating on whether that will be going North or South. We have some airpoints to use up, so will come back to you when we have made our decision about where we visit next.

Take care, hugs, happy New Year. Alles liebe :-)

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson – November 2 2007

Hi All,

I hope this finds you all feeling fit and well.

Our holiday in Sydney was fine. We went to the Technology & Maritime museums, had a day out on the ferries, went to Manly, went to the Opera House & the Botanical Gardens, watched fireworks & a Regimental band concert, visited the Museum of Contemporary Art & the Art Gallery NSW, and did a tiny bit of shopping.

We went on board the replica HMB Endeavour - specifically commissioned by the Australian Maritime Museum - which was really interesting. We hadn't realised that the original vessel had been converted from a coal cat collier to a South Pacific exploration vessel; 96 officers & crew lived on board with very, very tight space below decks. Jan was walking almost bent double in many places. Lots of opportunity for head-cracking! Cook's original vessel went down off Rhode Island USA in 1778 blockading the French, and the replica Bark was finally commissioned in 1994. The only structural differences between the replica and the original are the timbers and the metals used. If you are interested, go to http://www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=439.

We saw a camera that we will think about buying (Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18), but we decided we could buy it more cheaply in New Zealand. Once we get a chance to catch our breath we will start having a look around.

We walked at least 5k each day - and some days were double that, which was great.

However, we both came back from Sydney feeling tired! It was fairly hot over there, but we came home to the same temperatures here. It was 29 degrees inside here on Sunday evening, in the hall (one of the cooler parts of the house), with all the curtains having been closed against the sun and the windows open all day. Summer is apparently with us.

This week we are back into Xmas function mode; tonight we had a Catamaran harbour cruise for the Business Development Company (whose Board I chair), which was just lovely. Tomorrow night we are meeting Jenny L at the airport for a coffee & then have my brother's partner Donna's birthday party. Then Thursday night we have Dawn coming around for drinkies & a catch up. Saturday night we have "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" night organised with the Rotary club - goodness knows where we are going! - and next Tuesday night we have the Chamber of Commerce Xmas do. Next Weds is the Career Practitioner Association Xmas do; Thursday is Rotary's Xmas do and Friday we have been invited to the Independent Electrical Merchants' Xmas dinner. So far, the week starting the 10th we have nothing on aside from coming to Wllg on the Friday!

I am flat out at present preparing for delivering a semester's study in just eight weeks. At least it looks like I will only have a dozen students, which will be nice. Jan is busy at work commissioning some new machinery so that is keeping him busy too.

We would love to catch up with any of you who are in Wllg on Saturday December 15th at Clarks in the Library for lunch at 12.30pm. We were going to try & organise a BBQ at Sonia & Guy's new house, but we simply don't have enough time as we have to be at a ballet recital somewhere in central Wllg for Lara by 4pm. Let us know if you can make it! We would love to see you all.

There are no other trips away planned for this year - we will have to get down to Chch sometime before Easter, but we will leave organising that until after the silly season.

Take care, all of you. Alles liebe :-)

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson – November 2007

Hi all,

I hope you are all feeling fit and healthy!

As I said last time, we had started looking at house plans, and are going to put together a creative brief & go to an architect. But we haven't done it yet! Maybe during our holiday in Oz next week.

We had a great night at Woollaston Estates listening to Viva, accompanied by a fantastic Russian trumpet player; they were just fabulous. What a great night that was.

The wind up to the silly season seems to come a little earlier each year - we had something on every night last week and this week is the same. Thank goodness we are away for a large chunk of the rest of the month!

Congrats to Yi & Paula who have a brand spanking new wee girl called Zofia. I think they are all coping with life!

Hui-Ping was in Nelson a couple of weekends ago, and we took both her & Cornish out to the land. Jan was all set to do some spraying, but got stymied by the weather - it rained. So we abandoned all thought of work and slid off to the Mot Valley Café, which is run by a German guy who grows lots of his own produce and bakes his own bread. We had a great lunch there, the sun came out & we drank pinot gris in the sun. Lovely.

And after talking about all this hedonism, this is a real recycling and environmental footprint awareness year for us. Truly! While we aren't getting really green, we are consciously trying to lessen our impacts. Aside from the usual (hanging the washing on the clothesline, vege garden and compost), we have been trying a bit harder.

I have been using the library very regularly, borrowing books from other people and buying second-hand books where I really want to own something. Our local library has also added in a DVD loan service which has been great, as they have movies that you don't get at mainstream video shops (for only $2 hire, as well).

Jan is taking his motorbike to work when the weather is fine, to keep our car use down, and I am trying very hard to make only one trip into town each day - if I can't avoid using the car altogether, that is.

Despite recycling cardboard and glass, we haven't managed to make a significant impact on reducing our plastic rubbish. I use cloth bags & avoid plastic grocery bags, but I can't see my way around all the plastic milk bottles and things. We try to buy larger items so we use less plastic - or refills, although they are often not very economical. The plastic pile, while not enormous, is still there and is very annoying. However, we will keep working on it :-)

We are trying to decide whether we should buy a soda stream to make sparkling mineral water or soda water to help cut down on plastic. I would ideally like to get one on the Fly Buys points. I email & ecard... wherever possible go electronic; bills, payments, invoices, pdfs rather than hardcopy. I have bought an online subscription to the newspaper so I am not consuming trees for my daily media fix. We have a 'no circulars' sign on the letterbox. We start the fire with ancient client files and our paper rubbish.

We have gone through all our old videos and DVDs, our old electronics and computer stuff, trying to get rid of things that we haven't used, or that we have left over from old systems. I am amazed how much has been 'recycled' on TradeMe. We still have lots of cabling to go through & get rid of, but I need Jan's expertise on exactly what the specs are for each of those, so that can wait until after we get back from Oz.

I have also helped some friends from just down the street load all sorts of furniture & household stuff like chests, lamps and glasses onto TradeMe for sale, and they sold all but two items. They are about to move into a new house, so getting some $ and clearing out was excellent for them.

Jan has brought a little up from the garage and sold it, but hasn't really had the time to go through and really decide what really is surplus to requirements (the garage is so full you can hardly get in there as well!). Also something to tackle after his exam & our trip to Oz.

TradeMe doesn't work well for selling books, in our experience. However, we have another outlet for recycling books & magazines in Nelson; Founders Park houses a load of old Nelson buildings & heritage displays which they keep in part maintained via an annual book fair. So while we wouldn't part with most of our books, I do have a load of out-of-date business studies text books that will become donations for the next book fair. The fair - staffed by volunteers - runs for a week at Queen's Birthday weekend, and usually raises $100,000.

Another thing that's happened recently is that the Tasman District Council has bought into a website called terranova.org.nz, which is sort of a message board for people with recyclable items to hook up with people who want things, NZ-wide. A very good idea, and I am wondering if we could find a use for our plastics there... !

If any of you have any ideas or solutions about what else we can do to lessen our environmental impacts, please let us know. I have started a list that you can access (if you are interested) via the link underneath the photos on this page.

Well, next week we are away to Sydney. Our Wellington trip is on December 14-16, which will be a good family catch up for Tina's birthday, and everyone else we can possibly fit in... maybe a lunch at Clarks on Saturday?

Take care, everyone. Alles liebe :-)

Sam & Jan