News from Nelson – September 2012

Hi all,

We hope you are all fit & well, whether it is autumn or spring where you are.

Our pool is improving: Jan & I played three games on Saturday night before we went to bed, and the games are going much faster now. Jan won two and I won one; though I was only one ball off the pace on both the games Jan won. 

We had Robbie, Janet, Fergus & Mac here last weekend. We stayed up far too late, watched lots of films, played lots of pool and ate too much! In other words, we had lots of fun, and hope to do it again soon.

I have nearly got my research proposal for my Masters knocked into shape, being currently lost in the world of ontology and epistemology. I am up in Auckland on the 19^th of this month to meet with a load of people at Auckland Uni, and will catch up with Tessa for Japanese at the Stamford. I am doing a lecture on Leadership diversity at AUT in Manukau on the 20^th, on my way back to the airport, which will be interesting.

Jan & I had a lovely dinner out at Hopgoods for his birthday. I bought him a new viola case (when I was in Welly a couple of weeks ago for an Exec meeting) and got Camila’s folks to send some guava paste from Brazil (Beto & Célia also sent Jan some lovely peanut lollies that he likes - paçoquitas). Tina & Jeremy got shoes & socks for a child in poverty (what a great idea!) and we got a handmade card from Otto & Lara. My folks bought him a Mitre 10 voucher, Midori & handmade hazelnut chocolates, Kathleen & Frits got him Monopoly: the chocolate version :-)

Jan had a family & friends birthday lunch at Lambretta's – it was great to catch up with everyone, and the sun was kinda-sorta out too. Then he went off to rehearse with the NSO and I went to Kathleen & Frits’ place to mark.

We went to Lake Rotoiti a few weeks ago and presented “what happened on the North Island Tour” to the next intake of exchange students. They are a great crew and we should have a really good time next year on the tour as well.

We also caught up with Hui Ping & Mae at Bill & Cornishes’ place a few weeks ago, along with Murray & Julie. It was a lovely night with LOT of lovely pizza, which Hui Ping made for us all. Wonderful. Hui Ping went skiing, so had her dream stop in Nelson. 

Speaking of skiing, Camila has been, and probably now has the show bug as badly as Ana Silvia had it. Unfortunate that the snow has almost gone now; but I think overnight there has been a bit (it is chilly enough this morning to light the fire again).

Tina & Jeremy hosted me brilliantly in Welly a couple of weeks ago, and not only did we have a birthday party for Uta with Hartmut on Friday night, but I spent time with Otto & Lara watching Mr Bean on Saturday night. A great weekend.

Interesting sunrise recently with a halo around the sun... very thin cloud about.

 

Jan & I are both in Welly from 7-9 December (next Exec meeting) so we will be in touch to try & catch up with as many Welly people as we can then. 

Andreas, Katrin & Christian will be with us for Christmas and maybe New Year in Nelson. Flights are booked, should be loads of fun, and we are really looking forward to it!

Happy birthdays to Otto, Bob, Warren, Doug , Helen, Andreas, Leigh, Max & Karen, DJ, Tony G, Andrew and Ana Silvia! 

Right – better finish my marking. All the best :-D

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Do Be Do Be Do

Hi guys,
I am reading Richard Precht's first philosophy book, "Who Am I? And if so, How Many?" which Jan's Aunt Uta recommended to me. It is proving a very entertaining read. I particularly like Precht's quote from a plaque on a Greek Taverna wall, which said

"To be is to do - Socrates

"To do is to be - Sartre

"Do Be Do Be Do - Sinatra" (Precht, 2011, p. 247).

Precht takes this to mean that life is not so simple as Socrates' view that being is the same as doing, nor Satre's that doing means we are; but that our lives are a constant iterative creation of doing and becoming, doing and becoming; that we can invent who we become.

I like that :-)

News from Nelson – August 2012

Hi all,
Latest news – we have a new addition in the family: a pool table. I have had a search on TradeMe for a couple of years, looking for an old pub pool table, and we hit pay-dirt last weekend. We went to Blenheim to pick it up, avoiding the rain, and installed it in our lounge on Sunday.

We played about thirty games and we were both RUBBISH, but I was by far the MOST rubbish. No down-trous (Kiwi rule: if you don’t sink any of your balls, you have to take your trousers down), but close at times. It was fun. I see budgie-smuggler free pool parties at our house coming up (translation: budgie-smugglers are Ozzie for tight fitting swimming trunks that look like shiny undies). 

“Deutschlandreise 2012” has arrived from the printers, so I am now waiting for Jan to write a couple of letters before the copies will wing their way to Jan’s grandmothers. 

NMIT & AUT teaching is going well; I have sorted out all my courses and my semester's teaching is going smoothly. My study is going slowly, and I am constantly getting lost down side-alleys in UA’s LOVELY library where I have access to journals for Africa! Ooo Grommet!

My brother’s 40^th birthday was last weekend. My family came together for a party, which was great. My sister is off to the US in a couple of weeks for a holiday, and to meet some friends whom she has met online (in Washington DC and Pennsylvania).

Dogs are all well, if put out by the rain. They keep going to doors and expecting me to open them onto sunshine, I think. However, they certainly don’t mind splashing through puddles, if it is a walk. It is only toilet stops that are infra dig in the rain. Photo of a weird sunrise attached, and a night shot from Princes Drive.

Only a couple of months until Camila comes to us for the last three months of her Rotary exchange year. I suspect that we won’t see too much of her during the weekends though as she has lots of places to stay in town. However, she does enjoy pool, so perhaps the pool table will provide a key attraction!

We are going to Lake Rotoiti this weekend to present “what happened on the North Island Tour” to the next intake of exchange students. That should be fun.

Andreas, Katrin & Christian will be in New Zealand this coming Christmas and New Year, and it looks like either Christmas in Nelson, or Christmas in Wellington at this stage – but we haven’t heard back on a final decision from Eppingen yet. Hopefully this will spur a response!

The weekend after next I am in Wellington for a CDANZ meeting. I am up in Auckland on 19^th Sept for some Masters stuff, to joint-present a lecture at AUT’s Manukau Campus and to have dinner with Tessa. 

Happy birthdays to Neil L, Gary B, Uta S-K, Oma Lieselotte, Hui-Ping, Raeywn TeH, Otto, Bob, Warren, Doug, Helen, Andreas, Leigh, Max, Karen and DJ! 

Right – I am sure that I have forgotten lots, but this will do for now. All the best to everyone :-)

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Bridge Street Collective

Hi all,
Check out the Bridge Street Collective which has redefined the old Brough's Building in Bridge Street Nelson - this is a great meeting spot and creative place. Their blog is at http://www.bridgestreet.org.nz/
 

They have good, locally roasted fair-trade coffee :-)

News from Nelson – July 2 2012

Hi all,
Here we are on the downhill run to August already; and Christmas is frighteningly close.

I have sent our “Deutschlandreise 2012” for printing, so two copies will be winging their way to Jan’s grandmothers within the next month. I am about to start putting together another book: one for the Martins (Ana Silvia & Camila’s family) as they leave today to return to Brazil.

We had a lovely time meeting Berto and Celia, hosting them at our place for a night. They travelled the North and South Islands, but spent a good chunk of their time in Nelson, being hosted by all the host families of the girls. Tina and Jeremy also had the whole family around for Raclette at the tail-end of their North Island tour. Celia says she feels like she has had a taste of the Rotary experience!

We all have lots of photos of them all, and they are a delightful family. Ana looks almost the same as she did when she left four years ago – and spent a lot of time at our place with the dogs.  

Anna & Phil G hosted a get-together at their place, as did Hugh & Julie B, and we had a couple of meals out with a big group at restaurants, including a farewell dinner at Café Affair last night. Murray & Yvonne B took them over to the Golden Bay, we took them to Kaiteriteri, Anna & Phil took them to Lake Rotoiti. They have seen a good chunk of Nelson. 

They fly out today at 10.30, and I think they have had a great time, and now will know all the things that the girls speak of, as they too have a personal connection. We plan on going to Brazil on our way either to or from Germany for the 100^th celebrations in 2015. 

It was great to hear from Hartmut that Karin & Ernst have been to Ulm to visit Oma Lieselotte and Uta. It sounds as though everything in Ulm is stable at the moment, but I will find out when I write shortly to Uta, to accompany the photobook and tell her how we all are.

Simone has written a lovely email, Achim has sent a quick email and Karin has emailed photos. Technology is a wonderful thing!

Last Saturday night we had dinner at Kathleen & Frits’ place but didn’t get to look at their trip photos, although we showed them ours!! I think that was a bit one-sided; we will have to put that right soon :-)

NMIT & AUT teaching is going well; I have sorted out all my courses and my semester's teaching is planned out. I have handed over Applied Management (L) to a new lecturer, and have set aside one full weekday for my Masters study (Mondays – NOTHING else is done on Mondays but Masters research).

It is my brother’s 40^th in a couple of weeks, so my family will be coming together for a party. That will be all good.

John appears settled in the UK for now, and has been posting regularly on Facebook; but he does miss Bonnie the Boxer. She is heartless and doesn’t seem to be pining in the slightest (by the way, John: she is registered & tagged in TDC to our address now. It was painless). But October will come soon, and John’s return with it, and then I am sure she will collapse in wiggles and smiles.

Speaking of October, Camila comes to us in October for the last three months of her Rotary exchange year. It will be wonderful to have her. We think we have sorted out the logistics of getting her in to Nelson College for Girls every weekday (car with Jan to Richmond & bus to Nelson on the days I don’t go in), and there are many offers of accommodation for her to overnight in Nelson if she needs to stay late, has soccer practice or wants to socialise.  

We have heard from Sandra & Gary, who are having a great time in WA; as usual, Sandra wrote a hilarious summary of all the happenings in their household. It sounds as though they are having a good time, and have managed to collect another dog. Number 3 canine and no children. Sounds like people we know…!

Andreas, Katrin & Christian are planning on being in New Zealand this coming Christmas and New Year, and we were thinking of finding out where they were going to be, and spending Christmas with them. We hope that Jan’s Welly family can join us, but can’t do any planning until Jan finds out what Andreas’ family plans are. It would be great to spend a Kiwi Xmas in the Bay of Islands!

Happy birthdays to Fleur, my brother, Kelly M, Moose, Merrill C, Julie C, Tracey P, Paul T, Tessa W, Erik dB, Neil L, Gary B, Uta S-K, and Coco! 

Right – I am sure that I have forgotten lots, but this will do for now. All the best to everyone :-)

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – July 2012

Hi all,
Wow – where did the time go?

It seems like two minutes ago that we went to Germany, and here we are back again already. The partly-completed flip book of all our trip images can be viewed by clicking on the link “Deutschlandreise2012” to the right (we are still waiting for photos from our Kassel visit to be emailed to us).

Jan’s grandmother, Oma Lieselotte, is relatively OK, and still has a good sense of humour and a quick turn of wit. The second day there Omi was very ill, confused, and uncertain not only of who everyone else was, but who she was and where she was. However, the House Doctor came and found that she was retaining fluid. She had an injection and has other meds to control this in future. By the next day she was fine – relatively – again, and had her sense of humour back.

Uta is undertaking all her care, and very good care that is too, but it is hard on Uta. I know that Uta wants to do it, but the workload isn’t light, and it goes on day in, day out. However, Uta does have some good friends who help as well.

Jan spent a lot of time helping Uta and spending time with Omi. He also went through and photographed all the pages of the family book that his Grandfather had researched, so he has a record.

Eberhard took me to a Rotary lunch, where the Rotary Club of Ulm-Donaubrücke had a tour of the Ulrich Medical plant. It was extremely interesting. However, I was presented with a Rotary flag, and hadn’t brought one of Whakatu’s with me (!). Last Friday at  Rotary I officially presented the Ulm-Donaubrücke flag to my club, and was given one to send back – the next job on the list today. Jan & I also met Eberhard’s new partner, Monika, and had dinner with them at one of the old restaurants in the Fischerviertel. They have an apartment on the top floor of one of the buildings nearby, with a lovely shared garden for the building, near the old city walls.

Jan & I did a few walks around the Donau and through the parks. Uta & I did a bit of shopping, and I managed to get some presents for people and get some Lebkuchen to bring home. Mmmm.

I also spent a day with Justine in München, which was just great! Justine flew over from London to München on Saturday morning, and stayed until Sunday morning. I took the train from Ulm to München and we met at the railway station. We had a lovely time, drinking coffee, looking at museums and choosing food at the markets. What more could we want?! Well, more time, obviously, but other than that, it was great. I had a fabulous day, and got back tired on the train at 9pm. However, as Thomas & Bettina had arrived, we stayed up talking, but I slept like the dead when I finally got into bed.

Thomas, Bettina and Svenja came to stay for our last weekend in Ulm , so Jan got to spend time with them on Saturday while I was away. But sadly Thomas got sick on the Sunday morning, and had to stay in bed, which was horrible for him. Svenja showed Jan & I how playing should be done with the trampoline and the swing though :-)

We had a brief visit with Simone, Michael and Andreas, who kindly had us to stay on the first night in Langen. We also caught up very briefly with Katrin O in Eppingen on our way to Ulm; and with Gerhard and Claudia, Ernst and Karin, in Kassel, for coffee, before we headed back to the Edersee. We visited Oma Friedel four times, staying with Anne & Herbert for a couple of nights. We also caught up briefly with Dieter and Gudrun. We also stayed on the last night with Achim, Katrin, Mariella and Holger, which was great. We got a walk in the woods with them and a fantastic lunch at the Limes to send us homeward again. 

Sadly we missed Oli & Katrin as they were in France at the same time we were in Germany. We also didn’t get to meet their new Beardie puppy, Barney, as he was with them. Next time!

Since we have got back, we have briefly caught up with Kathleen & Frits, who have been as busy as we have. We are trying to catch up so we can all talk about our various trips and compare notes.

Congratulations to Adrian & Bridget on the birth of Matthew. Happy birthdays to my mother, John H, Colin C, Aunty Jill, Jörg, Thomas, Fleur, and Kelly M over the next month.

All the best - hope to hear from you all soon!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson (brief) - Jun 2012

Hi all,
Chilly chilly chilly here this morning, but nowhere near as cold as Christchurch. I went into Richmond with Jan this morning, and this was my view, driving home as the sun came up. Unfortunately I only had my cellphone with me, so photos aren't that great.

Snow on the tail end of the Southern Alps, but still comfortingly far away from home.

We are both flat out getting things done, as we are off to Germany tomorrow. Will catch up with all of you when we get back :-)

Sam

Read about the Elephant in NZ's Economic Room

Hi all,
Tony Smale from Forte Management has just written up a very cohesive piece on why New Zealand is falling behind economically. Read all about it at http://www.forte-management.co.nz/resources/100-Forte_Enterprise_Digest_June_2012_print_friendly.pdf.ashx

Sam

Flipbooks

Hi all,
There are two links on the right-hand side of this post - one is the Rotary NI Trip Flipbook, the other is the story of bulding our house. Please try using them and let me know what you think!


Sam

News from Nelson, May 2012

Hi all,
It has been a while since I wrote up our news – I don’t know where the last two months have gone. Staggering really; you turn around and it is suddenly a week away from winter!

Jan’s grandmother, Oma Lieselotte, is still slowly recovering in Germany. We have planned a fortnight’s trip to Ulm in June. While we hoped to catch up with everyone, unfortunately it looks as though we will miss Oli & Katrin as they are heading to France for two and a half weeks at the same time :-(

However, our plans at the moment are:

-          Sunday 10 June: 18.00 into Frankfurt, pick up the rental car & overnight with Simone & Michael in Langen.

-          Monday 11: drive to Ulm, to Uta & Omi Lieselotte. 

-          Tuesday 12 - Sunday 17:  Ulm, catching up with as many people who can make it there to see us.

-          Sunday 17: drive to Treysa, to Omi Friedel, staying with Anne & Herbert.

-          Monday 18: Treysa: catching up with as many people who can make it there to see us.

-          Tuesday 19 - Friday 22: Edersee.

-          Friday 22: drive to Frankfurt (possibly via Polheim), leave at 19.45 for NZ.

John F has headed off overseas for the winter, so Bonnie is still with us. She is such a happy dog! Magda will be looking after things at this end, and, with a bit of luck, while we are in Germany, we will catch up with John in Ulm. Funny how small the world is these days.

Brigitte’s birthday celebration went well. We caught up with Melissa, Jörg and Tanja who all came especially. Jörg had a bit of a relapse afterward, but seems to be right again now.

I have been up to Wellington a couple of times for CDANZ Exec meetings, but get to miss the next one as I will be in Europe. I will be up again in August though, so perhaps I can catch up with some of the Welly crowd then (August 24-26).

Justine came to Kiwiland for a holiday, and came over to Nelson. We did lots of shopping, eating and talking… what a surprise! Had a lovely catch up, and hopefully we will be able to catch up again in Germany in a couple of weeks time; we will see how Justine’s time works out.

Mike & Donna’s engagement party went off well – and I spent some time catching up with various family members. I am hoping to get some photos from my sister of the three of us.

Jan has an NSO concert on this weekend, with guest conductor Luke Di Somma. They are playing Mozart, Fauré and Elgar, which will be interesting to experience. This week Jan has practice tonight, tomorrow night, Friday night and Saturday. The performance is Saturday night, so by Sunday he will be ready for a very quiet day.

The Rotary North Island trip was a blast (see the post a couple down for some photos). We had eleven girls with us from nine nations, so were quite a mixture. Both Jan & I have said we would do it again, and I am currently preparing a photobook of the trip to send to all the girls. The girls also gave us a New Zealand flag as a memento of the trip, which we have had framed. It will go on the office wall.

A couple of the girls – Anna from Germany and Camila from Brazil – have come to stay for a weekend, having a king hit on watching the entire Director’s Cut of the Lord of the Rings… all eleven hours of it. We had a lovely time then too!

We have briefly caught up with Kathleen & Frits, who have been in Europe for a huge holiday, but are looking forward to a much more in-depth discussion of where they went and what they did soon.

Uncle Norman has had a fall, and has been in hospital for a week. He is more-or-less OK now, and was allowed home today.

Happy birthdays to my Father, my Aunt Diana, John D, Adrian C, and Megan A over the next month.

All the best - hope to hear from you all soon!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Skinnymalinks vs skilligimink

Hi all,
Having just spent some time thinking about words, I was reminded of the phrase "sky-blue pink with a finny haddy border". I think I heard that phrase from either my mother or my grandmother, so assumed that it was a London phrase. So I trotted off across Google, detouring to wwwords (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sky1.htm), and found that in actual fact it was an American phrase that started off as just "sky-blue pink". Trust the Brits to embellish it in the 1930s :-)

But what I was struck by was a line from Howard Garis, the 1910 author of a children's book containing sky-blue pink "He splashed around and scattered the skilligimink color all over the kitchen, and when his mamma and Susie fished him out, if he wasn’t dyed the most beautiful sky-blue-pink you ever saw!". What struck me was that "skilligimink" seemed awfully close to skinnymalinks, an old Scots word referring to someone who was very, very thin (perhaps with faint modern overtones in these days of anorexics of being only as good as they should be).

World Wide Words Michael Quinion hadn't made the connection between  skinnymalinks and skilligimink, I think: "Don’t ask me about skilligimink, by the way: Garis seems to have been the only person ever to use the word, and where it comes from is unknown". The two words seem too similar for skilligimink not to have been an eggcorn (a mis-heard or mispronounced word).

Sam

An Arm and a Leg

Hi all,
I read in an email recently "In George Washington's days, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.' (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint)"
It sounded like a total piece of bollocks to me, so I went and did a 2 minute search on the web. I found several items:

1. From PhraseFinder (http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/13/messages/1197.html):
   An arm and a leg - "A large sum of money; as if worth two of one's four limbs." From "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" revised by Adrian Room (HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1999, Sixteenth Edition). No origin is given.
   There's another Brewer's entry that sounds like it might have a connection: Chance one's arm - "To run a risk in the hope of succeeding and obtaining a profit or advantage. The.phrase is of army origin. A non-commissioned officer who offends against service regulations risks demotion and the loss of a stripe from his sleeve."
2. From PhraseFinder (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/arm-and-a-leg.html): an American phrase, coined sometime after WWII. The earliest citation I can find is from The Long Beach Independent, December 1949 "Food Editor Beulah Karney has more than 10 ideas for the homemaker who wants to say "Merry Christmas" and not have it cost her an arm and a leg."
   'Arm' and 'leg' are used as examples of items that no one would consider selling other than at an enormous price. It is a grim reality that, around that time, there are many US newspaper reports of servicemen who lost an arm and a leg in the recent war. It is quite likely, although difficult to prove conclusively at this remove, that the phrase originated in reference to the high cost paid by those who suffered such amputations.
3. From Snopes (http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/lesson.asp):
   "If it takes a leg" (used to express desperate determination) dates to 1872. Similarly, print sightings for "I'd give my right arm" (to be able to do something especially desired) go back as far as 1616.
4. From Word-Wizard (http://www.word-detective.com/032404.html) says it was popularised in print in 1956 and is nothing to do with painting.
5. Surprisingly, our man from WorldWideWords (http://www.worldwidewords.org/wordsearch.htm) is silent on this one. This guy is usually, etymologically-speaking, sound as.

So where does all this leave us? Possibly the phrase has sprung from a mixture. It will cost you an arm, based on 'chancing your arm' or giving your right arm; to which someone has inflated the value with 'and a leg'. It sounds much more logical to me :-)

Sam

News from Nelson - April 2012

Hi all,
Jan & I have spent the last two weeks touring the top half of the North Island with eleven Rotary International Youth Exchange students from - closest to Kiwiland - Chile (Rosario), Argentina (Magui), Brazil (Camila), France (Margot & Camille), Belguim (Caro), Germany (Anna & Jenni), Austria (Ela), Sweden (Tove) and Chikara (Japan).

We had a great time, and are even mad enough to think about doing it again.

Some photos of the trip (more to come):

I will put together a book of the trip once I have all the photos back from the girls :-)

Jan & Sam

Social Cycle Theory

In 1982 I bought a SciFi book, Friday, by Robert Heinlein. Having recently re-read that book, I was struck anew by Heinlein's proposition in the book that there was a causal relationship between men’s beards, the length of women’s dresses and the price of gold, which you could as a measure of societal health at any given time.

I was saddened by how much this book - a once 'old friend' - had dated in the intervening 30 years (!), and I don't imagine that I will read it again. But with this reading, instead of leaving the proposed relationship between beards, dresses and gold as an allegorical tool to engage the reader, I googled these three factors to see if I could find any links. Not surprisingly, I found it unlikely that there was any link - no causation that I could see, nor even any apparent correlation between the factors. But my research did lead me to look at social cycle theory.

So I did some reading on this. I quickly realised that social cycle theory was something I had run across many times before - but I just didn't know that was what it was called. There were a lot of proponents who expand social cycle theory into the rise of an elite class, or apply it to a particular ethnicity or religion (Pareto, Sorokin & Sarkar), but the aspect of this theory that I find particularly interesting is the secular mathematical model development of long-term socio-demographic cycles, largely by Nefedov, Turchin, Korotayev, and Malkov.

These guys collectively focus on socio-demographic cycles in complex agrarian systems. What happens is, after our population reaches the land's carrying capacity (ie, once humans are at maximum stock units), our growth rate declines. Our population is under stress, our living standards decline, we have famines, rebellions and unrest. While our systems have reserves, within 50-150 years we have chopped through those; then we have a "Malthusian catastrophe". This is a huge demographic collapse; severe famines, epidemics, increasing internal warfare and other disasters, resulting in a big chunk of deaths. Lots of dead people result in more resources being available, we start breeding again, and we start a new cycle.

Nefedov, Turchin, Korotayev, and Malkov set up mathematical models to predict the likelihood of Malthusian catastrophes. That old saw about history repeating itself appears to hold true: there appear to be recognisable and repeating patterns to agrarian societal rises and collapses.

Birth - growth - starvation/fighting - death - birth - growth...

But what about technological societies? What happens to our societies when only 1% of the planet's US population and 10% of the New Zealand population work the land? I might have to start researching whether social cycle theory applied to agrarian systems will follow the same rules of engagement with a technological society...

However, one of the things that all of this really brought home to me was that all of this pondering was REALLY possible - and easy - because two PhD students from Stamford created a little search engine. Called Google :-)


References:

• Bridges, T A, PhD (8 March 2012). Sociology & Social Theory: Classical Social Theory. Retrieved 4 April 2012 from http://toddarthurbridges.org/10.html
• Heinlein, R A (1982). Friday. UK: New English Library
• Korotayev, A, Malkov, A & Khaltourina, D (2006). Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends, Chapter 4 - Secular Cycles & Millennial Trends. Russia: Editorial URSS, 2006 (pp. 95-133)
• Prout (1998). The Social Cycle. USA: Proutist International Inc. Retrieved 4 April 2012 from http://www.prout.org/ChapterTwo.html#dialectics
• Wikipedia (n.d.). Social Cycle Theory. Retrieved 4 April 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_cycle_theory

Birthday present

Hi all,
PIcked up my birthday present today: a Pohutakawa and boulder bank vessel from Katie Gold. The unexpected and wonderful thing was that Katie had made two vessels, but one had delaminated in the firing. She gave me the 'second', so instead of one original sculpture for my birthday, I am the proud owner of two!
Katie has made both of these using my favourite colours, with Pohutakawa flowers, mussel, scallop and paua shells to decorate, and using a photo her husband & fellow clay artist has taken of Nelson's boulder bank. So immensely cool.

I like the blue one best, which is not the second. And they fill the spaces in the bookshelf almost like they were designed for it :-)

Check out Katie Gold at http://www.form.co.nz/artists/katie_gold.htm

Sunrises from Roses Road

And we have been having some nice sunrises lately. A couple of images:

And an update of what our living area looks like (please note that we still don't have in-ceiling speakers!):

Sam

News from Nelson – March 2 2012

Hi all,
Sorry not to email you all to say that I had posted an update: this news is 'old' news!

Jan’s grandmother, Oma Lieselotte, seems to be recovering a little. Hartmut has updated us regularly on progress. Brigitte and John are back from Germany, and we will be seeing them next weekend at her birthday celebration. We will be able to also catch up with Jörg, as he will be there too, as will Tanja.

I have had a cold, a real stonker of one. It arrived on Saturday night when we were in Sydney. I managed to get through until Monday afternoon before I finally had to give up and go to bed, officially ‘sick’. I got up on Friday (yesterday)! However, although I am coughing and my nose is still a bit blocked, I feel reasonably normal again now. I think that is my first cold in a bit over a year, so that’s not too bad.

We had a fairly good time in Sydney – it rained on the Saturday, but it didn’t impinge too much on our plans. The hotel - Sebel Pier One - was a good one, Jan’s stamina for the Art Gallery was fairly good, but our restaurant got changed. Est, the restaurant we were booked to go to, said they wouldn’t honour their promissory voucher, so we got changed to an Italian restaurant (Intermezzo). It was OK, but not what we were expecting. We did some shopping though, and lots of walking. The hotel had really good quality fittings etc.

Tonight the Nelson Symphony Orchestra has a concert, but I won’t be in the audience: it is also my brother’s engagement party. He & Donna are planning on getting married sometime in the next couple of years in Rarotonga. The whole family will be there, aside from Jan, who will be at the concert.

The Long Lunch at Kahurangi Winery was great fun, and we met the Peckhams there, who live in Neudorf Road, and make the most divine cider. We hope to see more of them!

The Rotary North Island trip is coming closer – just another couple of weeks now until Easter. I will update you all again afterwards.

 

Happy birthdays to Duncan, Dilani, Murray, Birthe & Gerhard.

All the best - hope to hear from you all soon!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson - March 2012

Hi all,
Whew, and we gallop on through the year!
Jan’s grandmother, Oma Lieselotte, is quite ill in Germany. She may have had a stroke, as her legs were paralysed, but we have not had an update, so are unsure if this will be permanent or temporary. Jan’s dad, Hartmut, left for Ulm on Monday, so will hopefully be able to update us on how she is doing shortly. Brigitte continues her recovery in Germany, and Jörg is getting the help he needs at last. No other illness in the family, thank goodness.
Jan & I are both well, but both still flat out. Jan is still trying to hire a new Electrical Engineer and I am STILL trying to commission my new PC. I have hit all sorts of “you can’t get there from here” Microsoft messages in trying to put the damn thing together (mainly permissions and key codes for XP).  However, summer school has all been finalised, and I have finished marking my first round of assessments for Semester 1 already. I keep thinking that perhaps I should just hand the thing over to a shop and say “make it so”!
The Nelson Symphony Orchestra is continuing to take up quite a bit of both Jan’s & my free time, but we are hoping that once we have built a big list of everything that needs to be done, we will be better able to plan everything.
We are about to Skype with the people who drove the Rotary International exchange teenagers around the North Island last Easter, to pick up all the goss. We are both looking forward to going at Easter.  Frits & Kathleen went into the Abel Tasman for Frits’ birthday a few weeks ago, and we took Camila with us. Photos: Camila above Anchorage, leaving Marahau on the water taxi, Pitt Head coming into Anchorage, Te Puketea Bay, Camila on the beach at Te Puketea Bay.

We will be up in Wellington again on 31 March for Jan’s Mum’s 70^th birthday (just after she gets back from Germany). Hopefully Joerg will be OK to fly; he has booked his flights, so should be all good. Then I am up again on 27 to 29 April for my second CDANZ Exec meeting.
However, we will also be in Australia from 16-18 March; yes, in eight days. We went to the Suter Gallery’s Degustation dinner a couple of weeks ago, and bid on, and won, the last auction item of the night; a trip for two to Sydney. We fly AirNZ, stay at the Sebel Pier One Hotel, get a guided tour of the Picasso Exhibition which is at the Art Galley of NSW, and get a dinner for two at Est. We will have lots of fun. We fly up to Auckland on Thursday the 15^th, and nice and early to Sydney on Friday morning (my students get to play hookey for the day!).
We also had the Roses Road BBQ a few weeks ago, and caught up with just about everyone the Valley, except Christian (he was away in Blenheim), but including Lyn Redden, who is back living in his house. Zig & Lib’s house is coming along slowly, but no wonder it has taken them so long to get organised with it; it is a pretty big place. Lib is planning on having another get-together at Orinoco Winery later this month or early April, so we will have seen everyone on the road three times already this year! (Photo: Kath, Jackie, Linda & Ian obscured behind Jackie, Hugh, Daniel, Diana, Christine, Kevin).

Jan and I also helped out a the Weet-bix Tryathlon last weekend, as cycle marshals on the cycle course.  Whakatu Rotary did this last year as well, so we were all keen to help again; though the 5.40am briefing was a bit grim when it meant that Jan & I had to get up at 4 to leave home at 5 to be there by 20 to 6! A great day though, and I think we will both be keen to be involved again next year. 1500 7 to 15 year-olds took part (peaceful playing fields at Tahnunanui at dawn on my post before 1500 kids and parents deluged in).

Right, that's it for now – this weekend we have the Long Lunch at Kahurangi on Sunday, and both Jan & I are working on Saturday (marking for me, commissioning software for him). I think last time I said that I was ensuring that we don’t add any more back in for the next two weeks… what was that Sydney trip again…?! Gary & Nic, Jan & I have been trying to find a weekend free to catch up. We are now into the second week in May, and still don’t have a date that works :-(
Happy birthdays to Melissa, Brigitte, Mike D, Sandra W, Jen C, Frits, Duncan & Dilani
All the best - hope to hear from you all soon!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson - February 2012

Hi all,
Wow – here we are a sixth of the way through the year already! How did it get to be mid-February so fast?!

Brigitte appears to be recovering well from her hip replacement in Germany, and Jörg is slowly making progress following his head injury. My brother got swarmed by a wasps nest recently when mowing the lawn. He appears to be OK, but that is not the nicest experience either. He was very lucky. 

I had a minor fall – Coco towed me over on the neighbour’s steep gravel driveway, leaving me with lots of bits of gravel to pick out. Thank goodness for Christian’s high pressure winery hose – that cleaned the bits out pronto :-)

As I write I am reading over what we were doing last time I wrote; and I am pretty much at the same space! I am still trying to commission my new PC. Jan has finished building shelves in the cellar – though; and they look great. 

I have pegged back my teaching for this year; only teaching three papers, and they are all now underway. I am still trying to mop up summer school though. Getting there, but it feels like the mountain is very big at the moment.

Each week I have been helping the Nelson Symphony Orchestra secretary set up some new systems. Their previous secretary, who basically carried the whole shebang for several years, recently left. No one knows how to do anything as everything was in his head. At least while we are reinventing everything, we are writing it all down, and putting it into Google docs, so that everyone can access everything.  

We are definitely now driving the Rotary International exchange teenagers around the North Island at Easter for my birthday. Camila, Ana's sister, is here from Brazil, and is coming to stay this Friday night with us. We are going into Able Tasman on Saturday for a day cruise in and a walk – or part walk, part cruise – out, depending on the weather. I hope Camila enjoys the dogs as much as Ana did.
Last weekend we had a great time up in Wellington. Jan had lunch with Doug, and Hui-Ping came around to Tina & Jeremy’s along with Pae-Ling, whom I vaguely remember from Auditing class many years ago. It was great to see everyone. We had a lovely family brunch on Sunday morning too, with Hartmut and Uta, and another friend of theirs. Tina & I tried to take a run – well, Tina did, and I puffed along beside until nearly asphyxiating and having to walk! I was up for a CDANZ Exec meeting, and so had eleven hours of meetings in two days. It was a bit full on – I got a pretty bad migraine on the way home, so will have to cut down what I try to fit in while I am up in Welly.

Kathleen & Frits came to stay at our place for a weekend, which was really fun, and we had Erin, Simon & wee Isla up for a meal while they were on holiday in Nelson. 

Right, that's it for now – this weekend we have the Abel Tasman trip, and a Roses Road BBQ on Sunday. Then I am ensuring that we don’t add any more back in for the next two weeks!

* Justine – the earphones arrived perfectly! Send your CV!

All the best - hope to hear from you all soon!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young