Hello everyone,
Welcome to our November edition of our family news!
And yes, surprisingly, it was yet another busy month :-)
Justine was still just here at the beginning of November, and we went to meet Betty and Peter at 8 a.m. for breakfast at the Monaco Mercure Kitchen. I had an omelette, and Justine had eggs benedict (so, after angsting at Panama kitchen between banana pancakes and eggs benedict - and settling for banana pancakes - she managed to fit them both into one short Nelson stay anyway).
Well done, her!
Breakfast is my easiest meal out now: easy to get veg, eggs and no carbs or sugar (providing you don't have their yoghurt. I have been horrified how much sugar is in 'unsweetened' yoghurt!). Man - I am sounding like the food police... however, it is now so, so close to 180 days without a migraine that I am being a bit careful.
I know overall it won't matter at all, but I really want to crack 6 months migraine-free. Then I can go back to my Doctor and the Specialist with some good, persuasive data about why their medications are pointless at this stage, as the Stanton Migraine Protocol is proving more than adequate.
Dawn had a Guy Fawkes party at her place recently, and we both cooked in the sun, AND cooked from the flames! I met up with some older Sealord hands whom I hadn't seen for a long time, which was great, and heard about Shelly & Kevin's plans for 'retirement' (no, they haven't got time to retire!).
There's nothing like a Kermit onesie to enjoy a Guy Fawkes party!
Of course the world now has a cookie monster in the White House. Who knew that a nation could be so stupid? Ah well. The Brits were also nutcases earlier this year. The power of human stupidity never fails to surprise.
And then we got an earthquake. Boy: that was a long quake. I was up. I had been unable to sleep and had finally given up and gone to do some writing. I had just turned my PC on, when the rolling started. I got under the desk. The rolling continued. I held my finger on the PC off button just in case of a short. I vaguely heard a voice, but was just hanging on under my desk, until I heard Jan yelling, asking where I was.
We had no damage at all in our house: not even a glass fell over.
Wow. The people in Kaikoura and Waiau had a VERY rude awakening for that rock and roll to have been so strong where we live, hundreds of kilometres away. We have been watching the news updates with interest, but it is going to be another long haul like Christchurch to put everything back together again. Years. There have been a lot of aftershocks, but not bad where we are.
At the beginning of this month the semester ended, and exams started at NMIT and AUT. I finished teaching in week one, then climbed into marking and preparing papers for moderation. Our results meeting was on the 30th, and I had everything complete (thanks to the trusty whiteboard to plan my marking load!).
My last NMIT tasks are done for the year. Well, almost. I have a small group of research students who want to start their projects over the summer (about five) so I will do a bit of supervising. That will lighten my load for semester one, and hopefully, I can get these students to help others in the class as they will be further ahead in their projects. Paying it forward.
Jan spent the last week in November in Wellington completing a block course for his electrical certification, and caught up with Brigitte, John, Tina & Otto while there:
Not only has Jan completed all his training for the year - his NEBOSH courses and exams, and his electrical courses and exams - but he has a new job. He starts next month with the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board as a Health & Safety Advisor for the maintenance team. He is very excited about the change, and really looking forward to the learning that will come from the new role.
I have at last managed to pull together all our photos from our Brazil trip - almost two years ago now - and have finally started to put all the photos together in an album. I am still tinkering with it, but hope to send it to print before two years have gone by in April. I have also sent Magda's album to print which she should have received by now.
We had Holger, Dieter, Gudrun and Hartmut come to stay for a few days. It was fantastic to be able to repay some of the wonderful hospitality we have had in Germany from these guys. We took them to the Founder's Brewery for some beer platters, had a BBQ at home, had a waffle breakfast the next day, then headed up the hill to see the view from Christian’s place. Hartmut, Gudrun & I walked up and Hartmut & I walked back.
We went to Kaiteriteri and walked along the beach, then went to the Shorefront Café to have coffee, beer, and water. We sat for probably two hours watching the view and talking. Just lovely.
We drove across to Marahau around the coast, and walked the first distance into the park – to the very first beach after the estuary crossing, where Justine, Jan and I stopped a couple of years ago; sat and enjoyed the view, and the peace. Watched the dotterels and the variegated oyster catchers.
We had a picnic on the side of the road in Marahau, all of leftovers from our first night’s BBQ.
They had been going to do the Farewell Spit Eco Tour, but unfortunately it was booked out – a group of 30 tourists come through for Tuesday morning (the day they were going to do it) - so they had to skip it. A real shame.
So we did a day trip into Golden Bay instead. We stopped at Hawkes lookout on the Motueka side, the Harwood's lookout on the Golden Bay side, then went through to Anatoki Salmon and both Jan and Holger caught a salmon.
We had both salmons smoked for lunch, then drove through to Collingwood, and had a picnic in the tussock by the sea. We stopped at Rosy Glow and - very restrainedly - bought three chocolates, which we divvied up and ate at the Wharariki cliffs.
We went to the farm at Puponga, and looked up to Farewell Spit, and had a coffee on the verandah.
A lovely day. Hartmut & I spent a lot of time talking about anthroposophy, and I learned a lot. They took us out to Jellyfish for a farewell dinner:
They were gone all too soon to head down the West Coast and to Christchurch to fly out.
Jan & my mother went to the last NSO concert of the year on the 26th, and said it was a great send off for the summer break. Jan enjoyed catching up with his muso mates as he has not been playing since June in order to attend all the required classes for his electrician's ticket.
John should be back with us early in December, which will be great (actually, both Jan & I are hanging out for someone else to cook!!). Bonnie will be super-excited to see him again, too, I am sure. John is staying with us until January sometime, then will head off back to the Waimea West cottage for the remainder of the summer season, with Bonnie.
However, we won't be dogless. On Boxing Day we go to pick up our new/old fur baby: an older Boxer bitch called Boo. That will be exciting!
We will be in Welly very briefly for Tina's shindig on the 17th - which should be really great fun.
Jan starts at his new job on 19th December. He will more than likely have a new cellphone number, so we will advise as soon as we know what that is.
Happy birthdays to Christina, Janet, Joe, Camila, Kamal, Tina, Carl, Cherry, Christél and Wayne this month!
Sam (& Jan)
