Excitement! Cars in the Garage!

We had a productive weekend clearing all Jan's workshop gear from the garage and putting it into Jan's workshop. Now our cars & the motorbike are at long last in the garage. It is brilliant!

Power usage

While we were at dinner tonight, Jan told me something very interesting. Apparently the 'average' household in New Zealand consumes 8000 kWh/year.
Extrapolating our past six month's use out to a year, the two of us consume about 2,600 kWh/year, including running a business from home. About 30% of an average household (and we don't pay for it, at present, as we are generating monthly credits, including offsetting our supply charge).
I really don't think that Jan can complain that I am profligate with energy :-)

News from Nelson - November 2010, mark 2

Hi everybody, 

 

I hope you are all fit & well. The weather has been fantastic here, but we need some rain. It keeps raining in Nelson, in Golden Bay and out in Tasman Bay - just not here...

Jan's concert went really well on Saturday night. The music was great and they finished on a really high note; Arnold's Four Scottish Dances, which skirled the concert to a conclusion. We celebrated our wedding anniversary at home with breakfast on Saturday before Jan headed off to his last orchestra practice.

Like the Nelson family in Wellington, I am having trouble shaking this blasted cold, but it is finally going now. It has just been a bother at night, with my nose blocking when I lie down, but the last couple of nights have finally been easier for sleep. It hasn't been bothering me during the day. Jan still gets a slightly sore throat at times, but it still hasn't come to anything more.

We have heard about a guy a couple of kilometres away who is pulling out his vineyard - he was a contract grower for Hermann Seifried - & heading off to Oz. We went around to see him on Saturday to see if there was anything that we could use for our place. We think we will buy his 2000 litre black watertank to use as a new header tank. Then one pump fill will last over a week (instead of the three days at the moment), but better than that, being black, we won't get so much algae in the water - we are getting lots of photosynthesis through the clear plastic of the one we have at the moment. He also has a load of half round posts that we can use for the cross planks in our retaining walls, and he may have a container for sale which would be great for more storage space. We seem to be running out of room to keep equipment quite quickly.

We have got Montrose Drive ready & on the market. It is listed at http://rwnelson.co.nz/cgi-bin/clients/rwnz/profile.cgi?webid=NEL20121&gid=24476. There was an open home on the weekend which Susa thought went well; we will wait & see if there are any starts to negotiation or offers, before we think it went well!

My folks & my Uncle Norman called in yesterday for afternoon tea, which was great. We caught up briefly with Kathleen last weekend, and celebrated Uncle Norman's birthday with my folks, Mike & Donna, and Donna's sister Tanya and her husband Charlie two weekends ago.

Jan & I also went to a business after five function for the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce, where we got a preview of the new NMIT Arts & Media building, which has been constructed almost entirely from Nelson Pine LVL (see it online at http://www.nmit.ac.nz/schools/artsmedia/artsandmediabuilding.aspx). We had a long chat with the architect as we got a tour of the building, which was really interesting. I have also been out for a farewell dinner for NMIT's Business Degree programme leader who is sadly heading off to pastures new.

In the next couple of weeks we are going to a private tour of the museum's Haven Ahoy exhibition with Nelson Pine, and going to the Chamber's Christmas Party. Oh, and we have a couple of dinners to go to as well, and a classical concert in Motueka. 

I have been through all the assignments, activities and forum requirements for Dip in Career Guidance, then made a matrix of what had to be done, and the date each bit was due by. Then I went through and put a date that I would like to get each bit done by, to ensure I get the whole thing cut by next June. So far I am on track, having finished my first unit - only 15 to go! 

Jan's work is still very busy, but the orchestra practice ensured he kept his work hours reasonable. I am not sure if he will be so punctual in leaving work at a good time now that he can stay as long as he likes once more. Time will tell.

Wellington people - let us know if you will be home on Christmas day avo; we would like to come & visit you if you are.

• Congrats to Tessa who has passed her first assignment in her Diploma with distinction :-)
• And before I write again, happy birthday wishes need to go to Jeremy, Neil, Donna, Janet, Jamal & Tina

Take care & alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson - November 2 2010

Hi everybody,

I hope you are all fit & well.

Jan's concert went really well on Saturday night. The music was great and they finished on a really high note; Arnold's Four Scottish Dances, which skirled the concert to a conclusion. We celebrated our wedding anniversary at home with breakfast on Saturday before Jan headed off to his last orchestra practice.

Like the Nelson family in Wellington, I am having trouble shaking this blasted cold, but it is finally going now. It has just been a bother at night, with my nose blocking when I lie down, but the last couple of nights have finally been easier for sleep. It hasn't been bothering me during the day. Jan still gets a slightly sore throat at times, but it still hasn't come to anything more.

We have heard about a guy a couple of kilometres away who is pulling out his vineyard - he was a contract grower for Hermann Seifried - & heading off to Oz. We went around to see him on Saturday to see if there was anything that we could use for our place. We think we will buy his 2000 litre black watertank to use as a new header tank. Then one pump fill will last over a week (instead of the three days at the moment), but better than that, being black, we won't get so much algae in the water - we are getting lots of photosynthesis through the clear plastic of the one we have at the moment. He also has a load of half round posts that we can use for the cross planks in our retaining walls, and he may have a container for sale which would be great for more storage space. We seem to be running out of room to keep equipment quite quickly.

We have got Montrose Drive ready & on the market. It is listed at http://rwnelson.co.nz/cgi-bin/clients/rwnz/profile.cgi?webid=NEL20121&gid=24476. There was an open home on the weekend which Susa thought went well; we will wait & see if there are any starts to negotiation or offers, before we think it went well!

My folks & my Uncle Norman called in yesterday for afternoon tea, which was great. We caught up briefly with Kathleen last weekend, and celebrated Uncle Norman's birthday with my folks, Mike & Donna, and Donna's sister Tanya and her husband Charlie two weekends ago.

Jan & I also went to a business after five function for the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce, where we got a preview of the new NMIT Arts & Media building, which has been constructed almost entirely from Nelson Pine LVL (see it online at http://www.nmit.ac.nz/schools/artsmedia/artsandmediabuilding.aspx). We had a long chat with the architect as we got a tour of the building, which was really interesting. I have also been out for a farewell dinner for NMIT's Business Degree programme leader who is sadly heading off to pastures anew.

In the next couple of weeks we are going to a private tour of the museum's Haven Ahoy exhibition with Nelson Pine, and going to the Chamber's Christmas Party. Oh, and we have a couple of dinners to go to as well, and a classical concert in Motueka.

I have been through all the assignments, activities and forum requirements for Dip in Career Guidance, then made a matrix of what had to be done, and the date each bit was due by. Then I went through and put a date that I would like to get each bit done by, to ensure I get the whole thing cut by next June. So far I am on track, having finished my first unit - only 15 to go!

Jan's work is still very busy, but the orchestra practice ensured he kept his work hours reasonable. I am not sure if he will be so punctual in leaving work at a good time now that he can stay as long as he likes once more. Time will tell.

Wellington people - let us know if you will be home on Christmas day avo; we would like to come & visit you if you are.

• Congrats to Tessa who has passed her first assignment in her Diploma with distinction :-)
• And before I write again, happy birthday wishes need to go to Jeremy, Neil, Donna, Janet, Jamal & Tina

Take care & alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Our picture book of our house is viewable at http://www.momento.co.nz/priv_preview.asp?b=4754-6410-3324

News from Nelson - November 2010

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well - be it spring or autumn you are experiencing at the moment.

Jan is still practicing for the next NSO concert, which is on the 20th of this month. He keeps exclaiming how he hates multiple flats :-)

I have had a cold for the past four or five days which was pretty grim. I was in bed for three and a half days & today will be my first full day up, so I am pottering about doing some light and enjoyable things - like writing to friends. Tina emailed that Jeremy had been unwell for ages, as have both Otto & Lara. Jan had a sore throat for a few days, ate loads of vitamin C and all the cough lozenges we had, and shook it off (which is great for him, because he has lots of work on at the moment with organising his new position - and his team - at Nelson Pine).

Our Roses Road worklist is great - I keep adding to it. Mind you, some things are getting crossed off, like sealing the plasterwork, planting some more trees and installing our house water pump. Still plenty more to keep us busy though!

Now this weekend we have a whole lot more things to add to our work list - but not at Roses Road. We have decided to put Montrose Drive on the market. The tenants moved out on 30 October, so we had a chat to an estate agent who is a member of my Rotary Club and very straight (Susa's German) & have decided to market it until Christmas & see what happens. Susa thinks we will get our price. If you know anyone who is interested in a four bedroom plus office, 1.5 car garage, three storey board & batten north-west facing house in Nelson with sea views, let us know - or click & download a description of the house with photos here. We have some outside work that needs doing (we are meeting someone there next Tuesday to sort out the grounds), plus a good clean inside. We also found a few minor things that were broken, which the property managers will hopefully sort out.

A couple of our hazelnut trees are growing like mad, one is very slow, two are middling. It is amazing the difference in speeds from four seedlings that started at all the same height, have had the same treatment, same planting and are all fairly close in position. Genetics, I guess!

We had Sharon & Ian McGuire around for afternoon tea a couple of weeks ago, along with Kevin & Glenys Johnston from the Mudcastle. Kevin told Jan about a whole pile of Ake Ake that had self-seeded and he was about to plough under - did we want them? So Labour Monday saw us at the Mudcastle harvesting 30-odd Ake Ake, a couple of Whauwhaupaku (five-finger) and some rosemary. Kevin (another one!) Heasman had already given us some lancewoods, Ake Ake & Whauwhaupaku, so we now have some lovely shrubs for the garden... once I get Wayne Heine up here with a truck-load of topsoil to plant them in, that is.

We went to Miranda Harcourt's "The Biography of my Skin" at the Theatre Royal. It was a really good piece - part of this year's Arts Festival. We decided that we wouldn't go and see anything else this year. There were other things we could have seen, but nothing that burned brightly enough for us to spend 1.5 hours travelling in & out to see.

Labour weekend we also had the Hofmans - Kathleen, Frits & John - around for dinner. John has nearly finished his B.Eng, and made it to the final cut interviews for a Google position last month, being flown to Sydney for the final interviews. He missed the job, but isn't too upset by it - figures there will be plenty of other chances. We have also caught up with John F, after he was away in Auckland for a week. Bonnie came to stay with our two dogs for a week while John was away, and kept Coco fairly quiet, playing night and day. It was great for Fliss, who could then sleep as much as she liked. We also had Ellie & Greg Fijn around with Daniel & Diana (our neighbours) for afternoon tea, and Magda has called in too.

Last Saturday was the Upper Moutere School fair, so we went along. It was a lovely day, and they had loads of activities for the kid to enjoy, including climbing / building a stack of wooden crates (we saw a few tumbles - the kids were in safety harness suspended from a crane, so it was safe, but quite a spectacle to watch). We saw Bob & her sister Therese, Daniel & Diana, and one of the flautists from the NSO (whose name escapes me - but she made a fantastic pear, chocolate & almond cake!). Although the photo doesn't look that heavily populated, I think the entire Upper Moutere community was there. All the school children had tasks to do and performances to give, parents staffed the stalls, and it was very buzzy and lively. We bought some heritage tomato plants and some herbs to start my herb garden. Jan was surprised at the lack of produce stalls, until I pointed out that everyone had a garden and everyone kept chickens, so there wasn't much call for it. Lots of cakes, biscuits, bread, jam, pickles, duck eggs, plants, jumble and BBQ food for sale though. Jan was in heaven.

Fleur called in yesterday on a Nelson-side-of-the-hill shopping trip with her youngest, Lani, & picked up our Rimu TV cabinet to take it to its new home at their place in Takaka. She & Neil took the matching bookshelf a wee while ago. We had a quick cup of tea & a chat (which was all I was up to anyway) before she hurtled off back over the hill with all the shopping, the cabinet, a new mattress, a rabbit cage, a 'loaner' rabbit and Lani in the truck. Fleur dropped back the formica dining table chairs, which we had lent them a while ago. They managed to get some Rimu chairs, which was brilliant, so dropped the old ones off. I have been wondering what we should do with the dining table which is currently in the workshop. Now we have the set complete again, we can decide if we want to keep it for something or pass it onto a new home.

Because Jan's concert is on our wedding anniversary, we have decided to celebrate at home instead - we think we might go for a picnic or something similar. It will be probably as low key as last year. But we are considering a trip away next year instead.

My materials have finally arrived for my Dip in Career Guidance; a huge pile of stuff. Because of my cold I haven't had a chance to get into it, and now I have NMIT & AUT exam marking, course finalising & all sorts on which is taking up a lot of my time. It might be a while before I get started on my course materials now. I got registered early so that I could take advantage of the lull, but because of their systems, my early-birding didn't gain me any advantage. Pity.

I still have to get down to Christchurch to see that man about my brain (!), but have only had one migraine since 21 August. It looks like a 100mg aspirin might be my magic bullet; however, it may also be the 40mg beta blocker in combination. So I have just reduced my daily beta blocker dose by a quarter and will try that for a month & see if the migraine incidence increases. If not, I will drop by another 1/4 next month. I have been taking my blood pressure twice each day, so I can keep an eye out for any changes. Will keep you posted.

Our next confirmed trip away will be to Wellington for Christmas. John is house-sitting for us with Bonnie, so all will be well at home. We will be staying with Tina & Jeremy, and will have Christmas Eve with Tina, Jeremy, Otto, Lara, Brigitte & John, then see Hartmut & Uta late morning on Christmas Day. We were hoping to come & see as many of you as we can on Christmas avo - so let us know if you will be about, and when might suit you. On Boxing Day Tina is planning on having a BBQ at their place, which will be good. It all sounds very relaxed.

After that, I have no idea when we will be away again, but it is likely to be next year - but not before Brigitte, John and Tanja come to visit us in mid-January, which will be great.

Congrats to Adam who has a new job as Strategy Consultant with the Sulger-Buel Company :-)

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson - October 2010

Hi everyone,

Wow, October rolled around very quickly, and we have now been in the house for six very pleasant months.

Jan is now practicing for his next Nelson Symphony concert, 'Scottish Connections' in November, just after he has finished his Applied Management paper. Check out the programme at http://www.nso.org.nz/. He was considering enrolling in a Shostakovich Pro Am concert for February, but has decided not to, so that he can concentrate on getting the electrical work finished around the house.

I have the possibility of gaining some funding for getting my case studies published, so need to look into that. I am not sure it will come to anything, as it is a contestable fund, but it is definitely worth investigating.

As I mentioned last time, our garage still needs another day's work of emptying out tools into the workshop to fit my car into it. However, Jan's highest priority has been his paper, and rightly so. I thought about moving the arm-load sized things myself, but there are a couple of barriers to that; there is a lot of stuff that needs to be moved around inside his workshop - or stored in the back of the garage, like the double-bed base - before the armloads can be delivered into it; and as this is Jan's workshop, I am a bit reluctant to make decisions on where things need to go. It will happen soon enough, I am sure.

Our inside house worklist remains much the same, but we have created a master list of things which need to be done outside as well. Cool, if you can't get your job list done, just add to it!  However, we have drafted a very rough plan of how we will plant around the house. Jan & I have diametrically opposed philosophies about planting - he wants everything a long way away so no debris gets into the gutters, I want some trees and shrubs close by to frame the view and create pools of shade. So we have compromised, in that he gets nothing planted close by the house (!) but the view is framed by planting. Although our result is not exciting, I think it will do for now. We also didn't want any lawns, but we have a great material available here, made of crushed shell, which is in shades of cream, fawn and gold, will pack to form a firm base, and will mulch down over time.

Justine has been here in New Zealand for a short holiday, and came to Nelson for five days, leaving last Wednesday. Betty & Peter came down for the first few days as well, and we had lunch and dinner with them on Saturday. Justine should be meeting Gareth in Shanghai today. While she was here we visited Mapua, Motueka and Nelson and went to as many of the art and craft places as are open for the summer already. We met up with John F at the Golden Bear in Mapua for some beers and a burrito, had a roast dinner here - and Yorkshire pudding - with Julie & Murray, went shopping for shoes at Whitwells, had lunch at the Suter and went to the World of Wearable Arts Museum.

Our next confirmed trip away will be to Wellington for Christmas. We are however planning something for our wedding anniversary, but haven't decided what that something is yet. And I still have to get down to Christchurch to see a man about my brain.

Speaking of my brain, I went to see my local 'neurologist' and told him I wanted to try taking one aspirin tablet daily to see if that made a difference to the number of migraines I had. Once I started them I had no migraines for six weeks and two days. I will have to see if the pattern continues to be that good, or if this is an aberration. I had four migraines in August, and prior to going away to Europe on holiday, I had 6 on average a month. I was doing some reading that women who had more than two migraines a month were four times more likely to have a stroke, so anything that can reduce the occurrence would be good. It would also be nice if the magic bullet could be something with as few side effects as aspirin.

And if you want to see what the weather is like from our place, go to http://www.takeabreak.co.nz/accommodation/nelson.asp?cam=4 and click on the Neudorf Vineyards webcam. Our house is almost EXACTLY dead centre in that image, between the poplars and the willow, just over the first ridge. You can see Lynn Redden's patchy pine trees on our boundary. Drag your mouse from left to right to see how the day went in our neck of the woods :-)

Happy birthday to Barb, who hits the big 4-0 today :-)

Take care & alles liebe!

 Sam & Jan

Sam & Jan

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson - September 2010

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all fit and well.

Jan's Greenhill Orchestra in the Golden Bay and the Nelson Symphony Solo Spotlight concerts both went really well. We just drove over for the day for the Golden Bay concert, to find that the dinner on the Saturday night before the concert was being co-ordinated by Fleur, at Neil's folks new house just down the road from their place. Awesome! I caught up with them both at a hockey match during the day, and acted as a very rusty ball boy for those that got away.

Jan's next concert is in November with 'Scottish Connections' (http://www.nso.org.nz/). I think that is the last one for the year.

Jan's study is going well, with the major chunk of his work due in three weeks time. He will be busy for a wee while.

I have completed three case studies, just delivered my interim project report (my supervisor is very happy), and have had feedback on the case studies from two senior Lecturers at AUT - both asking if they can use the cases in their teaching next year. I am feeling very pleased about that. One of the AUT Lecturers has passed on to me a couple of case study publishers' details, along with the publishers' style guides. I will have a look at whether I think I can tear my work apart and rewrite it enough to fit the mould after I get over my interim glow of self-congratulation!

I have also pre-enrolled in my next qualification (Diploma in Career Guidance), so I don't get lazy & put it off. Should be relatively easy though - just formalising some aspects of my work that I have been doing for the past fifteen years.

Wow, it has really been wet here recently. Rained and rained and rained. Amazing. So we still haven't sealed our plasterwork. Our garage is looking emptier as Fleur & Neil came over last weekend and called in for coffee on their way home. When they left they also took a rimu bookshelf home with them. With that gone and loads of cartons of books gone, I can see that our garage only needs another day's work of emptying out tools into the workshop to fit my car into it. Now that would be cool - actually having two cars in the garage!

Our house worklist is remains pretty much the same. It all has to be done - outside lights to install, hob stainless steel backing, sealing the plasterwork, fixing our gas bottle, installing smoke alarms, getting our underfloor heating man's producer statement - before our CoC can be applied for. Then there are the things that we want to get finished - installing kitchen extractor fan cowling; installing the house water pump & building a pump shed; build the wine rack in the cellar; buying & installing the lounge string lights; buying & installing the lounge speakers; getting the builder to finish the battery box doors, fit the garage downpipe bracket, mend my wardrobe door roller and box in the top of the bookshelf; getting the legs cut & fitted to the spare bathroom basin; gluing up the mirror for the spare bathroom; and putting up some of our artwork.

We continue to generate more power than we are using; this last month we even netted off over half of our supply charge as well. Our power bill was $14. While I am pretty sure that the $21k that the solar power system cost will never pay for itself, there is a nice warm glow of social good that we are delivering to make us feel better!

This Saturday just gone we went to see Jenny L at her folk's place in Wakefield, which was really great. We heard all about the Christchurch quakes, and what has happened at the University. We caught up with John Fitz at the Golden Bear in Mapua for a burrito and a beer last Saturday avo, between the NSO practice and the concert. Jo is in Thailand doing a Vipassana course.

Adam is back from UK for a wedding, and we caught up for lunch yesterday. He has just finished his Cranfield MBA, and is set to relaunch himself on the work scene in London when he gets back. He is planning on getting back to NZ next February for his sister's wedding, so we will hopefully have a more targeted reunion then! It would be good to get Murray & Karen & Gilbert some of the old gang together to swap lies & tall tales.

Happy birthday all you Virgo babies - I hope you all have a wonderful time.

Tonight we are heading off to Scottish Country Dancing for a bit of a laugh, this weekend I think there is a party on Saturday night that we might go to as well. Justine will be back in Kiwiland from the end of September until mid-October, which will be great - she will be in Wellington for a chunk of time, but is planning to come down to us & see the house.

OK. I hope you all stay happy, healthy & keep in touch.

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan