News from Nelson - January 2014

Hi everyone,
Well, it has been a long time since I updated you all! We are both well here, and the new year seems to be getting into swing quite fast.

Sad news is that Jan's other grandmother, Oma Friedel, passed away on Saturday (18 January), three weeks short of her 99th birthday. After a short illness she died in hospital. Gerhard and Eberhard were regular visitors, and Brigitte went over as soon as she could get a flight. The funeral is on the 29th. Tina is heading to Germany on 1 February to help Brigitte with anything that needs doing.

Oma Friedel at Christmas 2013

Jan is very glad that he made the time to go and stay in November last year with her. So no 100th birthday in Germany in February 2015... however, they think they might organise a family get-together on 12 February where family members can share their memories of her.

Our next overseas trip will be to Rarotonga for Mike's wedding in April. Then we will be organising a trip to Brazil to see the Martins; we are not sure if this will be later this year or next year yet. June-July, anyway, regardless of the year.

Jan has just ordered the first of the lounge in-ceiling speakers. Yay! At last we will be able to get rid of some the dangly speaker wires. Once this pair has arrived and been installed, then Jan will order the next pair. We have to do a two stage process; order them online in the US and get them sent to a US address (Barb's boyfriend's sister, Patience, in this instance). Then Patience posts them to us. She is a saint who happens to love Whittakers L&P block so gets her thank yous in bars of white and fizzy chocolate :-)

I have discovered the books of Peter Robinson and am just reading the last of them. I have also read about seven Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexfords too. I have a new Kindle touch and am enjoying that immensely (also care of Patience). My old Kindle has gone to my Father, as he can read the screen just fine on that; but a book is too dense. 

We have rediscovered a long-lost cousin: my Uncle Ian's oldest daughter, Kim. I met her with her mum when she was just a wee dot, when I was about five. Kim lives in Dunedin with her family, and we hope that she will come up to Nelson for my father's 80th Birthday party on May 24th this year. I am hoping that we will be able to get all the remaining brothers and sisters together, and as many of the cousins as possible, to have a real family get together. It would be really great. We will see!

Kim & Brenda around 1967/8-ish

Kim & husband Geoff

Had Aunty Jill out for a visit to our place & Aunty Diana up from Christchurch (and how they both hate being called Aunty). It will be a rellie good year :-)

Peter, Joan, Jill & Jan at Roses Road, Jan 2013

 

Peter, Joan, me & Aunty Diana outside at Roses Road

Jan & Aunty Diana at Krauts, December 2013

Andreas's birthday in Germany looked like a very stylish high tea party! Simone sent us photos :-)

Andreas with his grandparents Karin & Ernst at his birthday tea

Jan has been cutting down trees - and cutting them up for firewood. Getting ready for winter when we haven't even hit our summer straps yet. But very prudent. There is a clip below of Jan felling a tree outside my office. Pesky thing was in my view :-)

Chainsawing, of couse :-)

Jan felling a pine tree outside my office

First meeting of the academic year is happening next Monday. Ouch. I am up in Auckland at a Leadership training session at AUT for two days next week, then Otto & Lara come down to stay for a few days with us. Building some of their own family memories :-)

Masters is going on: and will be in draft by 01 April (just in time to go to Raro for Mike & Donna's shindig).

Bonnie has the early stages of congestive heart failure, but is on meds, so will hopefully be OK for many more years to come (as she is only 7). John is planning on a return to Kiwiland later this year, and hopefully won't notice any changes in her. We have tried Skyping with Bonnie, but she cannot work out where the noise comes from...!

Bonnie looking intensely... intense

Bonnie & Coco trying to work out why the crazy woman is trying to get their attention

Caught up with Kevin & Sandra at Mapua recently and finished the evening at McKee Domain with the most fabulous moonrise over the bay

Moon over Tasman Bay, Jan 2014

Right, that will do for now. I know I have missed out heaps of news, but I have hit the end of my writing endurance!

Take care

Sam & Jan

Peter Robinson's DI Banks Series

I have just discovered the books of Peter Robinson, in particular, those centring on Detective Inspector Banks. Yes, I am probably a little slow, as the man has been writing for over twenty years and until now, he hadn't appeared on my horizon at all.

However, I have enjoyed the books of his that I have read thus far immensely, both as talking books and in kindle format.

I do love a good crime/mystery - Agatha Christie, Aline Templeton, Ruth Rendell - and as a result these suit me well.

So, if you are looking for a good read this summer, have a think about a delve into a 'police procedural' as this genre is known. Find one second-hand or borrow from friends or the library :-D

Sam

Happy New Year!

Hi there friends & neighbours!

We are having a BBQ at home on New Year's eve to celebrate the coming of 2013, starting from 5pm (you can access the map from Nelson to here in our sidebar).

Casual. Come if you can, we would love your company in joining us to mark yet another turn of the year (and if you have people or family staying with you, bring them too!). Feel free to call in for a while on the way to the next thing on your NY celebrations list.

Bring a little something for the drinks table or some snacks. If you can join us to eat, BYO dead animals & vegebabels of choice and anything else you want to share. Aiming to eat around 6.30-ish.

Roses Road people - when having a chat with the locals, can you check that everyone on the road realises this is on & it is an open invite? And let Tony & Kelly, and anyone else on the Road who doesn’t know it is on, know?

Happy New Year ;-D

Jan & Sam

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Hi all,
We would like to wish all of our friends & family a merry Christmas & a happy New Year:

More news to come in the next couple of weeks. I popped a tendon on my wrist a couple of weeks ago which has held up my writing for a while.

Have a great summer!


Jan & Sam

Max Riley wins the Ernest Duncan Award!

Max Riley has just received the New Zealand national Ernest Duncan Award for 2013 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to in-class maths teaching. The award is conferred annually by the New Zealand Association of Mathematics Teachers.

It has gone to Max because of the work he has put into developing his school maths website, which is now used daily by maths teachers around the country under a creative commons licence, helping teachers chart a path through the bewildering maze of NCEA and curriculum standards. 

Go Max!

• Reference: Nelson Mail (5 December 2013). Maths Teaching Whiz Honoured by Peers. NZ: Fairfax Media. Retrieved 5 December 2013 from http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/9475068/Maths-teaching-whiz-honoured-by-peers

Sam

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

+++Out of Cheese Error +++

All of us are familiar with the oft-times incomprehensible messages from computers when they run into a glitch.

However, for those of you who read Terry Pratchett, you will be familiar with the Unseen University's thinking engine, Hex, and the entertaining bent that Sir P'Terry throws at error messages.

I was reminded of a few of these imaginative errors today when I went to comment on a friend's FB post but had no idea of who the person was my friend had commented on. I decided on "+++MELON MELON MELON+++ +++Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++" (Voice of Hex, Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times), but think I would rather have said “+++Out of Cheese Error +++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Redo From Start +++” (Voice of Hex, Terry Pratchett, Hogfather).

They make more sense than many of Microsoft's 'helpful' explanations.

References:

• LSpace (n.d.). Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki: Hex. Retrieved 9 October 2013 from http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Hex
• Pratchett, Terry (1996). Hogfather. UK: Victor Gollancz
• Pratchett, Terry (1994). Interesting Times. UK:  Victor Gollancz

Sam

News from Nelson - October 2013

Hi everyone,
Surprise! It seems like we have been pretty busy again these past weeks.

Jan has had a cold (and was off work for three days with it), but surprisingly I have managed to avoid catching the virus myself. That's two surprises in this catch up already.

Xavier from next door (at "The Warehouse" shed at the end of our pine trees) has mowed our orchard with his remote control mower, which means Jan doesn't have to stress about gorse control in the gully. Xavier cut the gorse two summers ago, which was so effective it lasted for two years. As the grass grows in thicker each year, the gorse is less and less able to get established, so means we can go longer between mows. While it is raining today, you can see how neatly the mower works below. It is a really safe - and non-toxic - way to control those nuisance exotic pest plants. And it is also one less thing for Jan to worry about not having time to get to :-D

You can also see that we have planted a few more fruit trees (apple, pears, nectarines & another walnut), protected by drums from the possums, rabbits and hares. The apple trees are still in blossom, while everything else is now in leaf. Everything in the garden is growing again, so needs to be protected from the other imported pests; the vegetarians who eat it!

Speaking of Jan having time, he is currently building plans for his trip to the US and Germany, so if he hasn't yet got in touch with you, it will be happening soon.

The Solo Spotlight concert was a great success: there was a storm of applause at the end, and got a preview in the local paper (http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/features/arts/9207635/Aspiring-young-musicians-go-solo). Jan is not playing in the next concert, so gets the last part of the year off.

We went to Max & Karen's birthday party a couple of weeks ago, and caught up with loads of old friends and made some new. A great night outside, despite it being a bit chilly still.

I am still working on transcribing the materials for my Master's study. Transcribing, transcribing, transcribing. I have just ordered Dragon, so instead of typing, I can just speak it. I am hoping that this will be easier (less vile), once I have 'trained' it to hear my accent, that is!

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a new phone from Telecom, as my contract was out, and I could get a free phone upgrade. I have stayed with Nokia, but gone to a Lumia. Am enjoying it a lot, but am also very conscious of the amount of $ you can gobble checking things on the web. At least it is hooked into the wireless at home, so doesn't cost here. Finally, an advantage of being in a rubbish mobile coverage area. And it takes pretty good photos.

As mentioned last time, Jan & I are going to be in Chch on 17, 18, 19 & going home on the 20th of October. I will be at a symposium at UC on Thursday (will catch a ride with Jenny L), and have the CDANZ AGM at CPIT on Friday. We have a shindig at Pat's on Saturday evening (sorta 4-ish kick-off...?). It would be good to catch up with everyone who can't make that at other times, so give us a shout & we will tee something up.

We are not sure if anyone in the family is doing anything for Christmas. If there are any great ideas, we would like to hear.

And some very sad - and unexpected - news. A former Sealord colleague, Julie Bryant, lost her husband Rob on the weekend. He had just completed a time-trial at a mountain bike event here in Nelson, and collapsed after the finish. He died soon afterwards. His funeral will be later this week.

Carpe that old diem.


Jan & Sam

News from Nelson - September 2013

Hi everyone,

Oh, no! It's too late! We let him in... Jan is now officially a Kiwi. We had the citizenship ceremony at the Tasman District Council buildings on 5 September, the day before Jan's birthday.

What was really cute was that Ian Morris from down the road was also doing his ceremony, as was another friend of ours, Mike Greenawalt. Very relaxed and friendly ceremony. I must admit that I would have preferred the Nelson version which is held on Wakatu Marae, but this was fine. Jan is going to apply for a Kiwi passport - then he can choose the shortest queue at whichever immigration line he is at (providing he remembers to leave and return to NZ on the same passport, that is).

We have been flat out here for the last wee while: blowed if I know what we have been doing, but we have been busy doing it. Planted some new fruit trees, transplanted some eucalypts, cut and moved some gorse, visited people, shared food and conversation (the best bits).

Jan is rehearsing for the Solo Spotlight concert at present: I have done the PR for it. Should be all good - though I still have to compile the programme.

Jan went out to Krauts for his birthday dinner, which was once again a great night. I had a child's portion which worked out to be just a perfect amount. Jan had Schweins Hax'n. He took half home for lunch the next day, and that worked out just perfectly too :-D

We have caught up with Jan & Renate Cools, Gary & Nicki, Suzie, Jo & Keiran in the last few weeks, and will catch up with Max & Karen this weekend coming for their birthday. Gary & Nicki have now moved into their new house in Marahau (Check out http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/8866551/Marahau-bach-wins-design-award). Jan helped them get the internet & PCs sorted this weekend just past. They sold their Nelson house through Susa on the first open home and had a two week settlement date, so it was a bit of a scramble for them. Of course, Nick was completely & utterly organised, but it was still pretty stressful for them, I think.

Jan & I are both well. I think that everyone else here is as well as can be expected.

Donna & Mike are deep in wedding plans for Raro next April. Jan & I have booked our tickets and I suppose I will have to buy new togs. I had some, but haven't seen them for ages. In fact, they may have got lost in our move, that is how long it has been since I wore them last!

Coco & Bonnie are well, though Coco managed to spike herself on some grass or something when she went running around the orchard with Bon dog a week ago when Jan planted some new fruit trees. She came up in a lump which has had to be treated with antibiotics, but it is resolving nicely.

Jan & I are going to be in Chch on 17, 18, 19 & going home on the 20th of October. I have a symposium to go to at UC on Thursday, and a CDANZ thing at CPIT on Friday. Jan will be free to meet anyone during those days, or to potter around as he sees fit. We have Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday breakfast time free to meet up, see houses, go and visit etc. So please let us know if you are available and when, because we would love to catch up with everyone.

Jan will be in Welly the next weekend for the Naenae reunion. I am not going, but will stay home & look after the dogs so we don't have to have a house-sitter two weekends in a row.

Then Jan is off to the US and Germany on 5 November, and returns on 24 November. 

Right, that is all I can think of for now, so I will leave it at that. Take care everyone, and Jan will be in touch with the German contingent to let you know when & where he will be in Germany. He keeps saying that he is going to get in touch, but it hasn't translated from talking about it to doing it yet!


Jan & Sam