News from Nelson – June 2009

Hi all,

We have had our first real rain in three weeks this week, but it rained for five days. We went out to see if we had any damage to the road or the excavations on Sunday, but everything has been very stable, which is great. We picked up a bit more firewood from our felling rubbish piles from a couple of years ago (we have so far used up all of the smaller pile and are just starting on the larger pile - in two years. Not bad.

We hired a digger last weekend and Jan flattened out the fourth bay of the shed so Dave Singer - builder - can box it up and get the floor concreted. Jan & I met with him a few weeks ago to plan the project. Jan & I need to purchase a roller door & an exterior door before that project can get underway properly; now all the ground-works are done. We have a loose estimate to get the power onto our shed - $5k - from the transformer further up the ridge, on the neighbour's property (behind me in the middle photo). I still want us to investigate how much it may cost us to disconnect after the build and whether there are any penalties if we decide to do that though.

Christél was in Nelson a few weeks ago, travelling with her Mum (Louie), so Jan & I caught up with them for coffee along with Julie C & Magda. We called out to see Julie C & the twins (Siobhan and Sterl) on our way out to get some firewood too. Magda has a new job in Wards 9 & 10 at the hospital, exactly where she wants to be, which is great. She is thoroughly enjoying her nursing.

Jan's hours are now more realistic; he had a meeting with Murray Sturgeon a couple of weeks ago & the pressure is off a wee bit. All good. He also has a concert in a couple of weeks with the Greenhill Ensemble during the Arts Festival.

We caught up with Karen's daughter Angela last weekend in Richmond; I hadn't realised that her daughter Alysha is now seven years old! Man, time flies. Angela is studying towards a computing diploma, which is great.

I had my compadré from AUT - Dr Sean Phelps - down this past week visiting NMIT; we had a one hour meeting scheduled and ended up gabbing for three hours. Nice guy too, and we have shared lots of materials. He has moderated my course and come back with no changes, and no suggestions, so that's pretty good too.

I haven't heard yet from the Institute of Directors about my accreditation; I presume any approvals probably have to be ratified at a full board meeting, so hearing in five minutes is probably not on the cards.

As well as gearing up to complete the Diploma in Career Counselling in August, and CAT module 19, I am going to tack on another CAT module - CAT 15 Effective Teaching Practice - as there is another tutor whom I get on very well with who wants to complete that next semester, and whom would really like to work with. So no pressure! Jan is going to start studying again in Semester 1 next year too.

I have a Trade Show to attend this coming week, which will be interesting. I had to get photography done for a new trade show banner, as well as unearthing all the old trade show materials. I haven't been to one for ages, but I have roped in a couple of people to help me - including one of my students - so it should be fun.

I am now the President's of the Rotary Club of Whakatu for 2009-10. We had a very low-key change-over celebration (a mid-winter Xmas themed breakfast) where all the formalities were very minimal, and my first meeting, which was also absolutely to time, with minimal formalities. All good thus far, and I am making sure that I share the decisions and the power around.

Jenny L is up again this weekend, and it will be great to see her again. She has been scouting out some prices on things for the house for us in Chch which is fantastic!

We need a few more weekends in the garden at Montrose Drive to get the top terrace in, and move the clothes line, then we can get the paths in here so the outside is looking tidy for when we rent it. We also have some painting to do inside and a few more tidy up jobs. Recarpeting with something workmanlike & reasonable for cost will have to wait until we rent it, as we can't apply the price against the rental unless we are already out of the place (mind you, we can't do it when we are living here anyway, as it is entirely rotten throughout & the whole house will need to be empty of furniture).

We head to Hanmer on July 10-12 for the 20 year Canterbury Uni anniversary. We have booked our September airfares to Wllg - we arrive up at 7 on Friday night, Sept 25, leave Sunday 4pm Sept 27.

Right, that's all for now. Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson – May 2 2009

Hi all,

We got the earthworks at Roses Road completed and the water tanks in just before the rain hit. The digger driver also excavated 75% of the cellar too, and got the gravel down on the road. So now all is ready for a spring kick off on the building site. And we got the bill for the earthworks and took a nice deep breath before opening!

However, we still need to get the fourth bay of the shed closed in, so we can move out there. Jan & I are meeting with Dave Singer this weekend to build a plan around that.

However, Jan is still working lots of hours on the C Saw & Sander at work.

We had Brad & Jacquie Jackson down here for a few days from 8-11 May, and had a great time. What a neat couple of people they are. Jacquie is a lecturer in Media Design with a strong interest in architecture, and was very interested to see our plans and to talk to Jan about a new type of composite board that she is interested in getting manufactured, whereas Brad & I spent all weekend discussing business and leadership (I can hear heaps of you groaning now with the boredom of it all!). Seriously, we had a wonderful time, and they have an open invitation to come back & visit whenever they have free time. They live in Wellington & Brad commutes to Auckland, and have also given us return open invites (I think the waffles swung that!).

I have had my interview with the Institute of Directors in Wellington, which seemed to go very well. I am so glad that I put in the study beforehand though (I had to skip the weekend in Chch for Tessa's birthday to fit some study in) as, although they didn't ask any tricky questions, going through their 180 page "pillars of governance" doc refreshed my memory about exciting things like the solvency test, NZSX rules and dividends. Karen T picked me up from the airport & ferried me around all day. We had a lovely time & drank far too much coffee! I also caught up with Jeremy briefly (and we did a hand-over of Nelson purchases in a café - for those of you who remember Cheech & Chong - ! - it all felt a bit like "Let's do a dope deal").

And speaking of Tessa, she had a good birthday celebration in Chch - even Mike D & Kara came down from Auckland (which she wasn't expecting) - so it was a good family catch up. Except me :-( She is planning some study next year - either in Chch or in Auckland, depending on how quickly Helen gets into the police force - on early childhood development.

We have put in our requirements to the solar water supplier & now have our quote back. It is easy to see why most people don't go through with any form of alternative energy; the numbers simply do not stack up - even over a 25 year payback period. But I guess we aren't 'most people' in that respect - which is why we are doing it... and why the deposit has been sent and the contract accepted.

I am also gearing up to complete another minor bit of study - Diploma in Career Counselling - in August, and ticking off another Certificate in Adult Teaching module - CAT 19: Working with International Students.

I mentioned in our last newsletter that Janet, Julie T, Murray, Jan and I went out to dinner at Havana's Café; the week after our dinner, I heard on a local news spot that the restaurant had closed. The owner had decided that the economic forecast was too bad to continue, and decided to close before they were forced to.

In a week I take on the President's role for the 2009-10 year for my Rotary Club - the Rotary Club of Whakatu. I have already been to my first local area 'President's Meeting' and upset the apple cart by asking "But why?" 50% of the time, and trying to find a nice way of pointing out smarter ways of doing things the other 50%. Never mind, they only have to put up with me for a year. I have an extremely able VP in Jo Gargiulo, who is great at sharing the work around and kicking me in the backside if I try to do too much within the club. She will be great as President the year after - she will be even more blunt with the other clubs in the region, I suspect.

So, next trips are in July 10-12 for the 20 year Canterbury Uni anniversary in Hanmer, and then Wllg at the end of September for Otto's birthday.

Right, that's all for now. Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson – May 2009

Hi all,

The weather has broken a little, but not enough to stop the earthworks at Roses Road. We now have the garage 75% excavated (the remainder will be excavated when we start the foundations in spring), the road realigned and the holes for the water tanks to go into. We got a bit of a nasty shock today though as the water tanks turned out to be $1500 each dearer than expected. Ouch. But we have to have water, and we don't want it in plastic.

A couple of trucks full of gravel will be rocking up there very shortly to cover the bare clay before the rains really kick in. Phew - just got all that done before the winter, so we are ready to kick off the build on 01 September.

Jan is still working 12 hour days on the C Saw & Sander installation at Nelson Pine. He is making gains, but it takes a lot of time for only one person. But hey, it is a recession, and he has plenty of work, so that's something to be thankful for.

We are having a meeting with Leigh tomorrow night, to correct the errors on the plans, and to make some changes, before they go to the council for approval. We have just found out that the man who did the producer statement for our waste system is no longer available; his wife has cancer and he is nursing her. What is worse, his first wife died of cancer. Makes you count your blessings - but leaves us in a bit of a hole over making changes to our producer statement, all the same. We still need to put together a list of items for the solar power supplier & get that through to them for a quote.

Janet was down from Auckland a couple of weeks ago for a play - she, Julie T and I went on a shopping marathon for Julie's winter work wardrobe. For FOUR hours. I didn't buy anything, but I was exhausted! We also took all the doglets for a tramp around the beach, and went out to dinner at Havana's Café (with Murray and Jan!). I think Janet had a good break away :-)

Last Friday I got a cold, so spent most of the weekend trying to sleep in bed. Jan got busy-itis and caught up on a load of jobs that he wanted advice and admiration for, so every time I had just gotten off to sleep, I got woken up again. Eventually I just gave the idea of sleeping up as a bad job and got up. However, Jan got the lights fitted in the kitchen (we have been waiting 6 & 1/2 years for that job to be ticked off the list - we have had bare bulbs dangling by their wires in the kitchen since we moved in), and has installed a new kitchen tap.

The new kitchen tap is a trial for the ones in the new house. We are trying out a cheapie Chinese one to see if it works OK, before we buy a house lot of them. The attraction (aside from a nice design) is that they are 80% cheaper than the European ones - and suit low pressure systems. We can't use many of the European ones as they are generally not suitable for low pressure systems; and the few which are, are phenomenally expensive.

This weekend we have Brad Jackson from Auckland Uni here to stay with his wife Jacquie - I got in touch with Brad about a book that he wrote on Leadership which my class were using as a text, and he kindly offered to come to Nelson (at his own expense) and give a lecture to the students. So he arrives on Friday, stays with us & enjoys the sights for the weekend, and then leaves on Monday avo. Jan is going to cook waffles on Saturday morning, which will definitely show them a good time!

My folks had a very exciting trip to the North Island on their guided provincial tour - my mother ended up in hospital on a drip; either a gastric bug or food poisoning. Not the way you want to spend your holiday. The amazing thing was that she was up and about a day later and they carried on with the entire trip. Braver than I am!

So, next trips are still Wellington for the day on 21 May (for my provisional accreditation interview with the Institute of Directors), then July 10-12 for the 20 year Canterbury Uni anniversary in Hanmer, and then Wllg at the end of September for Otto's birthday.

Right, that's all for now. Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson – April 2009

Hi all,

The weather is still pretty settled - it is an amazingly dry autumn. The non-natives are dropping their leaves (a very weird thing to do to eyes attuned to evergreen bush. Exotic trees always look so diseased in autumn - then it gets worse - they are dead in winter!). Jan loves this time of year, loves the autumn show; I don't like it, as it looks like those bits of the city are dying.

Jan continues to be busy at work with the installation of the C Saw at Nelson Pine. Most of the redundant workers have gone, and people are just getting on with things.

We have our working drawings, on which there are some errors. We will have to work through those by the 20th of the month, when Leigh is back from holiday so we can get them corrected. Then we just have to check our producer statements and put it all into the council for approval. We also need to put together a list of items for the solar power supplier & get that through to them for a quote.

Noot, the digger driver, managed to get himself entirely over-booked before Easter & didn't get our job done (note to self about his reliability for the build once we start). So he will have to realign the driveway, excavate the garage & excavate for the water tanks once Leigh is back from holiday.

Jan's cider was entirely drinkable - we took a bottle of it over to see Warren & Tracy, who were house sitting for friends of theirs in the Waihopai Valley over Easter. We drank a bottle at lunch, and it went down quite well. We suspect that only a little fermentation took place, but is was enough to make it drinkable. Warren sat down with us over the plans & came up with several ideas, which were really good.

We caught up with Jen Ladley when she was up in Nelson a couple of weekends ago - we went out to Karanga & saw both her & her folks, which was great. Jen had kindly brought me up a food parcel from Chch (Goan Cuisine Green Chilli Jam - the most divine thing you can ever have with cheese in the universe... obtainable from Cashmere Cuisine in Chch). And a tiny thank-you food parcel on its way back to you in Chch via Warren & Trace, Jen!

Jen Cooper was over again for my birthday celebration last week at Trailways, another early morning breakfast, which was great. Dawn was there too, along with Gisella, Mo and Amelia (though Amelia is a little young for grown-up style breakfast yet, being in the twos!). Julie B and Julie T were both apologies - too much work on for both of them.

Janet is down from Auckland at the end of this month for a play - she is staying with Julie T for a few days. It will be great to catch up with her.

We have heard from Ana Silvia again; she is keeping busy with her schoolwork and sounds like she is slotting back into her life in Brazil. My folks are currently away in the North Island on a guided provincial tour - their itinerary sounds great - Martinborough, New Plymouth, Napier...

I am up in Wellington on 21 May as I am applying for provisional accreditation with the Institute of Directors and have to have an interview - I am just flying up for the day & then have to get back by 4 for a lecture at NMIT. Karen T is going to take the day off and play taxi-driver for me (very nice!). Jan's & my next trips away will be in July for the 20 year Canterbury Uni anniversary in Hanmer and then Wllg at the end of September for Otto's birthday.

Right, that's all for now. Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan