News from Nelson – May 2 2011

Hi everyone,

Hopefully you are all fit & well? We trust so :-)

We have been keeping busy, though we had a fairly relaxing weekend just gone. Our architect asked us around for lunch on Sunday which lasted for three hours and was heavenly; sitting in the sun outside with good food, good wine and good conversation.

We went to Montrose Drive to see the house, and it is being so well looked after. Our tenant is actively looking for little projects to do. The spa room looks great now that they have re-roofed it.

Since I last wrote, I have caught up with Kel again with Ellie; we are trying to get our act together to meet each fortnight & have a chinwag at KaPie (the NMIT student’s ‘local’ café just down the street). So far so good!

Jan is now practicing for the next NSO concert, and for a Greenhill concert. From him being out each night at orchestra practice in the week leading up to the Beethoven concert (which went well, by the way), he is now out on Mondays at Greenhill, Tuesday at Underwater Hockey, Wednesday for NSO, and now wants to plan Thursdays for Volleyball at the Moutere Rec Centre. Hmm. I suspect he will run out of steam on Wednesdays.Jan played the Studer viola in the Beethoven concert and really enjoyed the sound.

John pulled the pin on the South Island tour because of the rain, so sadly Jan missed out on sharing the motorcycle tour. Then it fined up! 

Good sunrises out our way recently:

I have just been marking again; my research teams have submitted their final reports, and have gone a bit overboard. Nine research teams should have submitted about 85,000 words between them; I had 146,000 to mark. Reading and critiquing that lot took quite a long time, but the standard was also good and everyone passed.

Last time you may remember that I had been asked to teach an online Leadership course next semester with 140 students. I have decided to do it, as I will be working with another lecturer who is familiar with this particular programme. I have worked with Nic before, and it has gone very well. I will need restructure the assessments to reduce the assessment load though.

We think we have matched the paint for our porch, so we can paint it. Once that is done, then it is only tying off all the unfitted lights before we can apply for our Code of Compliance certification from the local council. However, aside from the paint match, we have no other progress! Photo: house from the top of Christian's hill next door

Next weekend we are volunteering at Founders for the Book Fair, going to a party at Shelley & Kevin’s and spending a day at home studying!

We have booked a Christchurch trip for the end of June (25-27). We are flying down and staying out near the Airport at the Sudima. Jan has a course there on the Monday (27), so we thought we would stay there & hopefully bludge on you Christchurch people to come & see us or pick us up. We have two days & nights to spend with you guys; if you want to organise a get-together somewhere, we would love to come :-)

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to my mother, William de Beer, my Aunty Jill & Colin Coke.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Richard Little on robot legs

Today on National Radio's Nine to Noon, Richard Little speaks about his work as an inventor, helping transform the lives of some paraplegics using a robotic exoskeleton. This is a fascinating talk on applied scientific research that is happening right here in New Zealand. Check out the podcast at http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20110525-1012-feature_guest_-_richard_little-048.mp3

Using LinkedIn for Career Placements

Hi All,
Hope you are all keeping well, and the weather is as mild for you as it has been for us :-)

Apparently there is a growing trend for graduates in the UK to use LinkedIn to kickstart their careers. Liz Holland from the Career Development Association (CDANZ) posted a link to an OnRec article about two surveys of  UK graduates. Read "Graduate job seekers more likely to utilise social media than rest of UK job seekers" at http://www.onrec.com/news/graduate_job_seekers_more_likely_to_util.

News from Nelson – May 2011

Hi everyone,

We are keeping well; I avoided Jan’s cold & he is now completely well again.

Our builder finished off a whole load of jobs; the hob backing and extractor fan cowling, fixing studs for pictures, floor-mounted door stops and framing for the top of the bookshelf.

We went out to Robbie & Janet’s place a few weekends ago, and stripped their walnut catchment. We lay them on mats in the lounge until they were completely dry, then packed them up in the cellar for winter. We also picked up Robbie’s motorised 500 litre sprayer unit, which we have used a couple of times already.

I have caught up with Kel a couple of times, once with Ellie, who used to be Kel’s manager at NMIT in the International Dept. Kel has a new project to work on and is looking forward to getting her teeth into a truly international project. It should be great. We have also pledged to try and catch up far more often... and as Kel is working remotely most of the time, we should be able to do that.

Jan is still practicing for the next NSO concert, which is rushing to meet him on May 21^st, but has borrowed a viola to try from Adrian Studer, a Swiss instrument maker who lives in Nelson (and who has a very impressive CV, supplying instruments to many of NZ and Australia’s top string players). Adrian is away for several months, so Jan will get a good chance to trial it. I think he should get a new set of strings for both violas and play them side by side often to decide whether he likes the new one enough to warrant the purchase. Jan got me to listen blind and tell him which sound I preferred on a few pieces. I picked the Studer viola each time. It sounds lovely – a very mellow, warm, liquid tone.

Our Montrose Drive tenants have replaced the spa room roof, and we need to get in there to pick up the old roofing material for disposal; but it has rained on & off for about a week now.

Jan had the opportunity to join John Fitzwater on one of his trial tour runs along some metal roads which was planned for Thursday, Friday & Saturday last week. John has an American PR person who was coming out to look at the trial back-road tours to write them up for US publications, and Jan decided to join them. They were going to do back roads between Nelson, Maruia and Hokitika with some stays in B&Bs along the way. However, because of the heavy rain, there are some river crossings that would be too dangerous. John has taken Michele down south instead, where the weather is much kinder at the moment. Jan is hoping to join them when the rain breaks, but sadly it looks pretty settled at the moment.

Frits is looking much better; he is back swimming, walking and talking about resuming running. Their Easter Saturday party was great – Dutch friends of theirs, Ardri & Hans, and two cousins of Frits’ from Holland, and Amy. Amy is looking really well and I felt a huge DeBoer flashback listening to conversations on either side of me in Dutch.

Speaking of a DeBoer flashback, it was Magda’s 50^th Saturday week ago and Jan & I had dinner with her and Tjibbe & Gea at Bouterey’s. The food was divine <sigh>. I have heard from Erik and he & Jackie listed their place with a real estate agent to test the market, they sold it in the same week with no plan of what they would do should it sell. Now they have all sorts of changes on their horizon as they have sold their country house & are moving into a brand new one near Rangiora.

Julie, Magda, Christél, Ray, Sandra, Jan & I caught up at Julie’s for morning tea on Easter Friday, and got to spend some time with Siobhan and Sterl. I had forgotten that Christél used to flat with Riccardo, and Julie had arranged for him, Dutch partner and their little boy to be there, which was unexpected! They are still living at Founders, and loving it. I think Christél and Ray had a great time, and it was interesting to meet Christél’s friend Sandra from South Africa. She seemed to enjoy her Kiwi holiday :-)

My study break was full of marking – four lots of assignments completed & passed back to students. I got one assignment knocked out for the Diploma course, and was asked to sit in on the Diploma in Career Guidance advisory meeting (which I did last week). I have some concerns about how the course is run, and fed that back to the meeting so they can better meet students’ needs.

I have also been asked to teach an online Leadership course next semester, which I am considering. The trouble is that (a) I don’t enjoy online teaching as much as I enjoy face to face work, and secondly, I will have 140 students. I am leaning towards “No, ta”. I need to talk to the Head of School about it.

Last time I told you that I have ambitions about painting the porch, ordering the string lights and making a planter unit for my herbs. They are still on my list. Maybe next time. We still need to put up the outside lights for the entrance way, but can’t do that until the wall behind it is painted. At least I have bought a test pot of paint to trial the colour, so we are getting there.

The push is on to get our Code of Compliance certification from the local council. Once we have all our wiring complete, we are ready to get the council in to inspect the house (for fitness for habitation!). Jan has completed all the wiring in the garage, and put up the last two spotlights in the stairwell and entrance way. We still have some bare wires hanging out of the ceiling in the living area, awaiting the string lights that Jan has put off ordering (to spread the cost). We have one set, but need three sets… however, Jan may just put some batten holders in place to keep the council happy, then replace those when we order the new lights later on.

We are also trialling a solar garden light, but unfortunately it goes out after about four hours. I would like something that lasts a bit longer, so we will keep looking... it would be good to get a solar sensor light of some description, but I don’t even know if such an animal exists!

Coming up it will be all attention on the NSO concert for Jan, and marking research projects and prepping next semester's materials for me. I am well over halfway through the Dip Course, but I had hoped to be finished by this time, so I want the mid-year break for study. Ah well, we can only do so much!

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Lars, Tessa, Adam D, Aunty Diana, my father, John D, Adrian C, Megan, and my mother.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Crop Dusting

Hope you are all keeping well - we have a lovely autumn cruising along here.

Our neighbours, Ian & Cath, had their pasture limed on Saturday morning via crop dusting plane. We had a ring side seat on the action :-)

News from Nelson – April 2011

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all fit and well; Jan has a cold which I have just managed to avoid thus far. However, I am sure that I will no doubt succumb in due course.

Last week we had the window people back to measure up for shutters in the spare room, so we can better control the heat in that room in the summer. Our builder is coming tomorrow to finish off some jobs, like putting up the backing on the hob, the cowling on the exhaust fan, putting up some hooks, putting in some fixing studs and some floor-mounted door stops. Last Saturday we finally bought an extended piece of flex for the dining table light, and Jan fitted it on Sunday. I have also managed to glue proper felt surface protectors on the base of all the furniture, and throw out the bits of wool-block which had given all our furniture the appearance of wearing ghastly grey fluffy slippers for the past year.

Jan is currently practicing for the next NSO concert, which is Beethoven on 21^st May. They are doing the 5^th (which will be quite fun). John Thompson (first violin) is leaving in May for a teaching position in Auckland, but will return for the concert itself.

Our Montrose Drive tenants continue to impress us. The garden looks fantastic and Jan is due to pick up the third trailer load of green waste tomorrow. They are currently helping to replace the spa room roof (he is an ex-roofer) as well. Long may they last.

I have discovered that you can’t preserve pumpkin puree in jars. I suspect it is because of the amount of starch – sugar – in root vegetables, but am not sure. The jars that I preserved fermented after two or so weeks. So we will buy pumpkins and keep them whole in the cellar instead (as we will rarely have room enough in the freezer). Through TradeMe we got in touch with an older couple who are planning on building a smaller house – initially I picked up 34 jars from them. They contacted me to say they had another 95. So now I think we are pretty much set until our own fruit trees come on stream.

Frits appears to be recovering from surgery slowly, still having quite a bit of pain, but slowly coming right. He is back at work full time. He & Kathleen are in Christchurch this weekend visiting John, so hopefully he has coped OK with the drive. We will see them all next Saturday night for an Easter Saturday party.

Ian who has also had surgery (hip replacement) seems to be going great guns. He emailed me to say he has walked into town – with sticks – but is improving by leaps and bounds.

Jan hired the little digger, and moved the mound of dirt towards house a bit more, so I can plant some screening plants between the office and the shed. We also put sawdust over the mound, and planted it. Moose, Sandra, Kevin, Gary & Karen, you will be pleased that we have at last planted your house-warming presents and are really looking forward to seeing them grow! Jan has also cleared the drains, and dug out the culvert in the bottom of the gully. We didn’t get to fill in the dirt around our big water tanks, as he needs to first put in a retaining wall. I think he is hoping to get our plasterer to help him with that.  That means that we still down have our clothes line in. Never mind, we will get there eventually.

Jan got the drains cleared just in time; it rained heavily last Friday. It was good to see the drains running free. Friday was the end of the first teaching term, so students are all on study break for two weeks. I had managed to get all my students on all courses to hand in assignments on Thursday & Friday, so I have a good week’s worth of marking. That will keep me occupied for the coming week. Then I have a couple of assignments to get knocked out for the Diploma course.

Jan’s motorbike training course went well. When he got home, he told me, to my surprise, that I had 15 minutes to pack an overnight bag. We went into Nelson and checked into the Rutherford, where we were staying overnight, then went to Mint for dinner (which was fabulous). We strolled back to the hotel, and ate chocolate in bed, watching crap telly, had breakfast at Lambretta’s and lunch at Founders Brewery with my family and Magda. A very nice birthday weekend. John & Magda dog-sat. 

The house is greying off now as the timber weathers. Eventually it will fade back into the hillside as all the timber silvers, and sit very quietly on the landscape. Fliss is also looking grey!

Christél and Ray arrived yesterday, and Magda came and joined us for dinner here last night. Christél & Ray are heading to Golden Bay for a couple of days, but are coming back to us on Friday. Julie, Magda, Christél, Ray, Jan & I will all catch up at Julie’s for morning tea on Easter Friday.

Next up, Kel gets back from the US, and I will catch up with her on Thursday. Jan & I are heading out to dinner for Magda’s birthday at the end of this month with Gea & Tjibbe.

As well this coming weekend we are going out to Robbie & Janet’s place to get some walnuts and have a look at Robbie’s 100 litre sprayer unit (thinking about uses in the gully). And I have ambitions about painting the porch, ordering the string lights and making a planter unit for my herbs. But we will see.

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Glenys, Sharon, Magda, Fran, John I, Lars & Tessa.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson - March 2 2011

Hi all,

In the past few weeks we have managed to get our builder up to look at some jobs. I would imagine that we will see the builders back to do the work once the weather starts packing it in (nothing like having some nice, dry indoor work when it’s not so nice outside).

Jan’s NSO concert went well. The pieces were a bit challenging, but in general they were delivered well. There was a good review in the newspaper (though the presentation of the programme got slated!).

Montrose Drive appears to be peopled by saints. These guys are just great tenants… I suppose we were due for a break on the tenant-front though.

Preserves are ploughing along well; I picked up another 70 Agee jars in the past couple of weeks. Of course, we are now just about out of things to preserve, but getting the jars gives us a great head start on next year. We now have well over a hundred jars of preserved tomato puree, pumpkin puree, stewed apple, apple juice, pear quarters and stewed plums in the cellar ready for the winter. I have managed to pay Kathleen back the jars we borrowed as well.

Speaking of Kathleen, Frits has had surgery on his back, and is currently recovering at home. He seems to be coming along OK, but isn’t sure yet whether his back feels better or not. I guess by next week he will have more of an idea.

Yet another person having surgery is Ian, who has just had a hip replacement done. He seems to be recovering well by spending plenty of time spreading humour around.

Glenys & Kevin came over for a night & we watched a couple of movies; some wine went west, and boy, was it hard getting going the next day! We had a great time though - and it made us realise that we do this kind of thing way too rarely.

The little digger that Jan was going to hire a few weeks ago had to be postponed, so that is happening in a fortnight. That means we can fill in the dirt around our big water tanks, put in our clothes line, and move a mound of dirt over a wee bit between the office and the shed so we can plant some screening plants in autumn. Jan is also talking of clearing the drain down the road before the autumn rains start.

Speaking of rain, our water tanks are still full. It is amazing to be at the far end of summer and be almost at full capacity. We are also still getting credits from our PV panels, so all in all this house doesn’t cost too much to run.

John has finished his last tour of the season and picked up Bon dog last night. Coco and Fliss are both a bit lost without her.

This Saturday Jan is doing a motorbike training course, and then we are going into Nelson for dinner. On Sunday we are having a family lunch at Founders Brewery, which will be great.

Lots is happening in April; Christél and Ray are coming down at Easter, and Magda, Julie & I will all catch up with them (it will be great to get together again). Kathleen & Frits are having an Easter Saturday shindig at their place, and Jan & I will head in for that. Kel is off to the US for a flying family visit, and I will catch up with her when she gets back, 3/4s of the way through April. Jan & I are heading out to dinner for Magda’s birthday at the end of April. Our Rotary exchange student, Nathalie, has her parents visiting her from Belgium, and there is a BBQ at our club Secretary’s place so they can meet us all (and double-check we aren’t leading their daughter astray!).

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Murray H, Birthe, Gerhard and Glenys.

Right, I think that's it. Catch you again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Kathleen talking on marine collagen

A friend of ours, Kathleen, has been speaking on National Radio about her research with Plant & Food Research at http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ocw/ocw-20110317-2134-Adding_Value_to_Hoki_Skin-048.mp3

Preserving & Agee Jars

Hi all,

We are all well in Nelson & hope you are all enjoying your season!

So far this year we have done 70 bottles of preserves. Stewed apple, apple juice, stewed plums, pear quarters, beetroot and tomato purée have rolled off the Rosepine production line and have been lovingly stored in the cellar.


One of the local horticulturalists opens their tomato patch up to the scavengers once their tomato crop is past its prime - for 70 cents a kilo. Last weekend Jan & I picked up about 35 kilos and made tomato purée all day Sunday (thanks to Bunty giving us the scavenging tip-off!). I have another 18 kilos of nearly ripe tomatoes in front of the sliders in the lounge that I picked yesterday, turning fire-engine red in the sun. I will preserve them on Sunday when they are nice & ripe.

So this is just a quick request. We are looking for Agee Jars and/or rings to do some more preserving (either green or gold-sized jars/rings). We want to get a good stock ahead for next summer, and need to pay a friend back for 20 jars that we borrowed. We are interested in any amount. 2, 3 or 100. If you have some old rings lurking in the bottom drawer and no jars left to match them with, we would be happy to take them off your hands.

We are happy to buy jars if anyone has some to sell - though they probably need to be relatively local (or have some easy personal courier method to us in Nelson!). Drop us an email or flick us a text if you can help on 021 998 846.


More news next week :-)

Sam & Jan

Earthquakes, Nuclear Plants and Carbon Credits

Awful news about Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant problems. In the past day Japan has experienced a lot of strong aftershocks - in fact 38 over magnitude 4, and three over 6 (check out http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php and http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/). Some of the earthquakes are as shallow as the one in Christchurch on Feb 22. A shaky day.

What a terrible combination of disasters for a country to have to deal with; thousands homeless, winter, little power, roads out and no way to get food to the survivors. Our poor Cantabrians seem lucky in comparison.

Interesting from my safe seat in New Zealand that the earth's rotation has been shortened by 1.8 microseconds and earth's axis moved by 25cm... but pretty damned awful to be feeling the effects of it on the ground in North East Honshu.

While John Key said in a UN address in 2009 that there is a 'growing regard for nuclear power in New Zealand', I think that the additional risk of a post-earthquake nuclear power plant failure has been clearly demonstrated in the unfolding situation in Japan. Nukes may be carbon-neutral, but they aren't safe when the world is being rocked on its axis. Perhaps GE should add as a rider to their plant sales collateral "Earthquake-prone countries need not apply".

News from Nelson - March 2011

Hi everyone,

The Christchurch earthquake continues to dominate our news, along with the situation in Libya. Petrol has risen by about 13 cents per litre in the past couple of months, but oil companies have kept the price in Christchurch as it was in an effort to make things easier on Christchurch residents.

Jenny L came up for a few days with her brother & sister-in-law as a rest from the failed Christchurch infrastructure. She came to stay here for a night, and it was great to see her. She was itching to get back down to Christchurch though, and check through her house thoroughly. The Uni is opening again on March 14^th.

It is amazing, but none of our friends appear to have been hurt. The only people we know of who have lost their house are Dave & Jo L (but they & the kids are all OK). Everyone else seems to have come through in good shape.

The central city will take a long time to return to normal; first of all the people of Christchurch need to decide if they wish to rebuild the CBD in the same location, or if it should be relocated to firmer ground. Repairs will apparently cost about $20b.

Photo: 3News (2011) from http://modernsurvivalblog.com/earthquakes/another-quake-rocks-christchurch-new-zealand/


Tessa is now up in Auckland, and is planning on settling there. She is staying with Mike & Kara while she organises everything –she has a preschool position already and is about to move into a house-share in Botany Downs.

Like the rest of the country, here in Nelson we have had a bit of rain, and the temperatures have fallen from some 30 degree days to some cooler temperatures.

In the past few weeks we haven’t really got any work done around the house, as Jan is practicing for the next NSO concert (which is in a fortnight), I am busy teaching a full-time teaching load this semester, and we have been doing lots of other things on our weekends.

We dropped off a trailer-load of firewood to Montrose Drive and picked up a trailer load of green waste from them – man, have we got some great tenants thus far. They seem to be treating our house like their own, and really taking care of it inside and out. It is wonderful.

Last weekend we helped out with the Weet-bix “Tryathlon”, which is a triathlon for primary school children. It was a great event, with nearly 1400 children sea-swimming, cycling and running (and only 4 accidents). I organised a group from Rotary to help out as marshalls on the cycle course, and made banana cake & coffee to bring in for our Rotary helpers team. It was great fun to take part and help the kids complete the event.

We also had Robbie & Janet’s birthday party at their farm in Tapawera - a 'cowboy' party. Luckily both Jan & I have hats, check shirts and boots, which made the whole dress-up aspect really simple. The party was in the woolshed, complete with a really good covers band who played nearly the whole time. It was a really good night, and we caught up with all sorts of people. Fleur & Neil were there and we had a great chat to them, as well as a surprise catch up with Nathan I.

Jan & I also volunteered to help take down a set of water fountain installations from a Nelson street display. There was a competition for these ‘water works’, with the winner getting a prize of $3000, and all the pieces were purchased. The one I liked was a stone sculpture of a man & a dog in a dingy on some rocks, which has been bought by a local pub (the Free House), to go in their beer garden. The fountain is a jet of water that squirts up between the man & dog, as if their boat has been holed. Very cute.

We also went with Sandra & Kevin to the Crusaders vs Waratahs rugby match at Trafalgar Park – moved to Nelson because of the Christchurch earthquake. It was a great opportunity to see a really good game at a very low cost ($32 for both of us on the embankment - plus loads of Stephanos pizzas to keep our strength up!). We would love to be going this Friday coming for the Crusaders vs Brumbies match, but we have friends coming over for a BBQ & movie.

We now have 50 jars of preserved apple puree, apple juice, pear halves and stewed plums in the cellar ready for the winter. I had to borrow some jars off Kathleen to get us through, so now I am trying to buy more Agee jars so that I can pay her back for the loan. Thank goodness for TradeMe and the Buy Sell Swap!

A group of us caught up with Jen C for breakfast the other day – she and some other members of her Friday painting group have an exhibition on at Kaimira Estate for a month, which is pretty exciting. She is thoroughly enjoying Golden Bay, and is now a mad contract Bridge fiend (to the point of having stood for Vice President of the bridge club). The damage from the late December floods is still being repaired.

I have also managed to catch up twice with Kel A – which must be a miracle in the space of a month! Duncan is in PNG, she is splitting her time between Welly & Nelson, but is off to the US in April for a break.

Oli took some fantastic photos at Oma Friedel's 96th birthday in Feb. A couple to share with you below:

This weekend Jan is going to hire a small digger so we can fill in the dirt around our big water tanks (and I can get my clothes line in on top), and move a mound of dirt over a wee bit between the office and the shed so we can plant some screening plants in autumn. We have also ordered our next lot of fruit trees for the gully.

Fliss didn’t have anything stuck in her throat; she had laryngitis! Bonnie then got an eye ulcer, and we spent two weeks back and forth from the vet for both of them. I emailed John & said that it was like a dispensing ward here with all the various meds that had to be administered at each meal time! Fliss is now pretty right, and Bonnie’s eye is slowly coming right.

John got back last week, and is reunited with Bon dog. He heads away in another ten days or so for his last tour for the season, and Bonnie comes back for another stint of ‘home away from home’.

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Melissa, Brigitte, Sandra W, Mike D, Jen C, Frits, Duncan A & Dilani.

Right, I think that's it. Catch you again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Update on Christchurch family & friends

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch yesterday has caused a lot of damage. The shock was only 5k down (very shallow) and only 10k away (three times closer to the city than the September quake), with an epicentre in Lyttleton. The September earthquake was 30k away and 10k down, and even that quake was much shallower than we usually experience in New Zealand.

So far all our friends & family in Chch are OK, post-earthquake; only losing doesn't-matter-stuff, like small breakables and their nerves :-)

 My sister Barb, Tessa, Aunty Diana & Uncle Eddie are all good. Just breakables ...and mess.

Jenny was outside having coffee at the time, and was shaken but not stirred (not sure how her house is). Warren & Tracey have lost their caravan and chook-house to a falling boulder, but they are OK - Trace has headed down to Waimate. Pat is getting back today from overseas, and he, Marjie & the sproglets are thinking of heading up to Nelson. Bertie spent the night at her folks' place before heading home to clean up the broken stuff (minor). Dan is OK. Paul & Bridget are OK - and Paul's shop is less smashed up this time, as the epicentre was further away, and at home his chimney was toppled in the September quake, which was a bit of a bonus in a weird way).

Kathleen & Frits' son & nephew are in Chch but both are OK and helping out people around them who need assistance. We haven't heard directly from Megs but have heard through the grapevine that she & hers are alright. 

We haven't heard anything from Gary & Karen, or Yi & Paula, but are assuming that no news is good news... Hopefully everyone at Streats is OK too.

In Nelson we have had very minor disruptions to phone and power systems; power due to the fluctuations of supply through Christchurch, phones due to overload. Neither of which are remotely bothersome for us, except when we are trying to get news of people we care about.

 

Anyone who hasn't heard from friends or family should call 0800 RED CROSS. Important response information is posted at http://canterburyearthquake.org.nz/. For those of us not in Christchurch, news can be found at http://www.stuff.co.nz/ 

Our best wishes go out to everyone. Call us if you need us, and feel free to come & camp.

News from Nelson - February 2011

Hi everyone!

The weather has been hot & sunny, with an hour or so of light drizzle last week – just enough to wash the dust off the roof into the water tanks. We are doing well for water though; our tanks are still half full.

Waitangi weekend was the start of the Adam Chamber Music Festival, and we saw five concerts between us. The music was great, and the Hermitage String Trio from Russia was just fantastic. Last weekend Jan had a whole weekend of music as on the Sunday he also had a full day workshop for the NSO.

Despite having bought some wall-plugs, none of our heavier pictures have yet made it to the walls, nor have our bathroom mirrors. I am quite tempted to ask the builder if he can put them up, to take them off Jan’s list. We’ll see.

The Montrose Drive tenancy is going well so far. Fingers Xed for the long term.

My study stalled for a bit; I have got an extra paper to teach in Semester 1 this year, and have been getting it ready instead.

Jan has been going to Underwater Hockey, (twice this year now – the Adam Festival got it the way a bit). He is thinking about playing in the South Island Masters Games which will be held in Nelson in October this year, so is pretty keen to get to the pool every week.

He has also signed up for all the NSO concerts for the year, and I have signed up as a  “Friend” and booked my concert seat all the way through. My mother has done the same, and booked the seat next to mine, and Kathleen & Frits have also signed up.

The Sarau Fair was really nice; we bought an updated version of “The Road to Sarau”, a history of the area written by our architect’s wife. The fair started at 4, and carried on into the night, which is a great idea for high summer. It was very relaxed, and we found we knew a lot of people there.

Last Saturday night we had Gary Rae’s 50th birthday party at the Honest Lawyer, which was fun. It was a 60s fancy dress theme – Jan went as a hippie & I went in psychedelic gear (we raided a local fancy dress shop which had some great costumes). Nik was a Mary Quant dollybird and Gary was a mod! I think there was only one person there not in a costume, so everyone had really got into the spirit of the thing. Wendy & Wayne were there – and we had a good catch up with them – along with Hugh & Julie B. Jan had a long chat to Paul Dalzell from Nelson Pine – and only part of it was about work!

On Sunday while Jan was at the music workshop, Magda came out after church with some plums and cooking apples from Gea. We had a lovely afternoon having lunch and pottering about, and after she left, I got the Agee preserver out and spent three hours stoning and bottling the plums (only 5 jars for my trouble, and terribly stained fingers!). On Monday night Jan & I did 7 & 1/2 jars of apple puree from Gea’s cooking apple tree.

So this weekend we are swapping some Cox’ Orange seconds from our local friendly apple man for a bottle of wine, and we will be apple processing to the max. One day’s full on effort will keep us in bottled fruit for a year – and we know exactly where it came from and what it has in it. And very low air miles :-)

This Sunday Jan is off for a mbike ride with Derek Sherwood, which will be fun for both of them.

Fliss is at the vet today as she appears to have something stuck in her throat; Jan dropped her off this morning and we will hear through the day what the problem - and the solution - is. Coco, despite having Bonnie here, is quite lost. I took her for a walk this morning and she spent her whole time wanting to run down the road after the car (despite Jan having left half an hour before).

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Kathleen, Kenn B, Pat McL & Kent.

Right, I think that's it. All the very, very best for the next few weeks.

Until I write again - alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Parkour

For a look on the light side, check out Parkour Training founder, David Belle's BBC ad at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMAr8y-Vtw, or some younger Brits in Parkour play at St Johns in Oxford at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wDMnKpEMfM.

If, like me, you really like the music in the background of the St John's vid, it is Professor Longhair's "Big Chief", from the 2000 album "New Orleans Funk".

News from Nelson - January 2011, Part 2

We are having a great summer. We had a lovely bbq recently with about 50 people here, and got to catch up with folks we haven’t seen in ages. We were also surprised how many of our friends had other connections between each other. It all goes back to that Kiwi thing of 1.5 degrees of separation.

Tanja, Brigitte & John all came to stay for a week, and we got to celebrate Tanja’s birthday with her. I think they had a good time in Nelson, including going for some very scenic drives – and only one of them was unintentional! We had fish & chips down at the Mapua wharf, from the fish & chip shop that has just got the Wild Tomato Award for the best F&C in the top of the south, had the bbq for Tanja’s birthday, and had a very relaxing time. Mind you, Brigitte & Tanja could have shopped for New Zealand – it should be an Olympic sport! And I know I don’t have the staying power to do what they do. I should emulate John & grab a coffee & a paper & have them swing by afterwards to pick me up.

Jan has now built the second wine rack built and that has a couple of columns of bottles in it already. We still have some more space that we need to free up in the cellar, but we feel like we are starting to make more progress. This week I hung some of our pictures, and we bought some wall-plugs for those things that are a bit heavier, so hopefully this weekend they might get put up, along with our bathroom mirrors. The list gets shorter!

We have rented Montrose Drive again until this coming October, when it will go back on the market for the 2011-12 summer. We have some great tenants for this year (so far, anyway!), and what is more, we had two lots of really nice people to choose from. We downloaded all the forms from DBH and filled out everything that we needed, have sent off the things we needed to and took lots of photos. Should be all good.

Bon dog went home for a few days when John F got back from his first tour of the summer last week, but she came back again last night for the next month while John is away on #2 tour. Fliss & Coco were beside themselves when she arrived back with Jan last night. We ended up having to take them 2k down to the end gate last night at 8pm to get them to calm down. At least it was quite cool by that hour.

We had Wendy & Wayne up to see us last weekend, and it was great to see them. We were also going to go & see The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) in the meadow at Fairfield House on Sunday night, but it got rained off. Next time.

My study is going well – I am onto unit 9 of 16, as my second lot of course materials finally turned up. Mind you, I am still waiting for 4 assignments from the first half of the course to be marked & come back.

Jan is going to Underwater Hockey tonight, which will be the second time this year. He is thinking about playing in the South Island Masters Games which will be held in Nelson in October this year. So he needs all the pool time he can get between now & then.

He has also signed up for all the NSO concerts for the year, and I have signed up as a  “Friend” and booked my concert seat all the way through. My mother was talking about becoming a friend too, but I don’t know if she has registered yet.

At the beginning of February we also have the Adam Chamber Music Festival starting. Jan is going to see five concerts, and I am going to three. He is going to a Paganini concert on his own as I can’t stand the Caprices – to me it sounds like cats being dreadfully murdered :-(

Next weekend is the Sarau Fair, which is a blackcurrant festival. That should be fun.

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Tamara, Mike S, Eberhard and Oma Friedel. I hope Andreas' footballing birthday party went well, as did Christian's birthday celebrations.


Best wishes to Steph - I hope the floods haven't damaged your Rockhampton property too much (let us know if there is anything we can do); and we were glad to hear that Uncle Lin escaped most of the damp north of Brisbane.

Right, I think that's it. All the very, very best for the coming few weeks, and we look forward to catching up with you all sometime this year.

Take care and alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Random Acts of Kindness - dead or alive?

I have been reading today about Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) by Interflora (go to http://lnkd.in/izxY6W ); Interflora are crawling Facebook & Twitter to find people who have had bad days, then they send them flowers. 

Interflora's RAK is a nice idea, but I would rather get a live plant than a bunch of dead bits... what do you think?

Hello Mall

For those of you who remember the film "Shirley Valentine", you will no doubt remember Shirley uttering those memorable words "Hello Wall" in a monologue to the wall, which reveals her innermost spirit, and by degrees, how narrow, confining and boring her life has become. Shirley wants happiness, challenge and change.

Entrepreneurs and service workers have flocked to Dubai to get an economic bite of the wodge of oil dosh that is transforming this splinter of the East into the West. On the surface, the Dubai development looks like it could bring both the immigrants and the locals happiness, challenge and change, but Joe Bennett isn't so sure.

I have just been reading Joe's latest travel book - this time he delves into the UAE, in "Hello Dubai: Skiing, Sand and Shopping in the World's Weirdest City". As with "Where Underpants Come From" (2008), Joe's writing is most entertaining, with him gently poking his finger at both the Western and Eastern cultures.

However, I was most struck by a couple of paragraphs on pages 60 and 61 of his book, regarding consumerism, and our consumer society, which read:

“Malls are easy to despise, but they are merely covered markets and markets are as old as agriculture. But what a mall offers is far more than agricultural surplus. It offers the ideal fantasy world as seen on television and in magazines. And nothing is permitted to disrupt the fantasy: no weather, no thugs, no traffic, no dirt, no distress. There are security guards, piped music, and cooled synthetic air. Malls are the apex of the consumer society that Dubai has come to represent. And of all societies in history the consumer society is the least social. It emerges from Fortress Home only to make raids on stuff, to take that stuff home in a sealed car, haul up the drawbridge, drop the portcullis and then watch television in order to learn what to get next.

“It is so easy to forget how constantly we in the West are bombarded with a single lie. It is the notion that the things we buy – the cheese spread, the duvet inner, the all-in-one barbecue tool - will make us happier than we were before we bought them. The lie is bellowed from the radio, the television, the newsprint, the roadside billboards. Experience tells us that the lie is a lie. Yet some instinct continues to respond to its siren call, and the balloon of hope keeps re-inflating.

“In our world the call of advertising is as constant as the call of the muezzin. Commerce and religion use identical marketing strategies. The mall is effectively our mosque and, like a mosque, it is built to impress. Like a mosque it is a focal point, the place where people gather to do a culturally important thing. Like a mosque it confirms a belief and gratifies a need. And if Dubai had to choose between mosques and malls, it would choose malls. Indeed, though it would never admit it, it already has. Just as we have chosen them over cathedrals.”

Having not watched TV for fourteen months, Joe's comments give me hope that my consumer edge is becoming dulled. I certainly feel no pull to buy the latest supercallifragilisticexpialidocious goods. Mind you, that could be the results of building a new house and being poor, and having an intense aversion to malls. But I digress.

Buy Joe's book, and support a good, transplanted-Kiwi writer. It is a thought-provoking read.

Bennett, Joe (2010). Hello Dubai: Skiing, Sand and Shopping in the World's Weirdest City. UK: Simon & Schuster.

News from Nelson - January 2011

Well, what a busy few weeks we have had. We are both well; Jan narrowly skirted getting a summer cold, but it didn’t quite eventuate. Jan’s work isn’t too busy, and my study has reached a stall-point as I am waiting for my next lot of materials to be sent to me, and I have completed all the on-line work available. So for the next couple of days, I guess I have to read a few books and go for some walks instead.

We are still battling the gorse in the gully, and we now have a large pile of it against our shed, drying out to burn in autumn once the fire danger is low and we can get a fire permit.

Not only do we have cars in our garage, we also have one wine rack built and full of bottles. Jan did a great job welding last weekend, and we stocked it up. That has freed up a lot of space in the cellar, though we still have one more rack to build, and then some benches and shelves down there before we are really organised. There is still some timber and a few remaining workshop items in the garage that need to go across to the shed.

Our new tandem axle trailer arrived from Briford in Christchurch just before Christmas, which was great. Jan managed to clear some space in the shed for it, so it is stored out of the rain.

We have had lots of visitors – in the past week we have had Kathleen & Frits and John F for an overnight; Megs, Will & Emily along with Noreen & Paul and Max & Karen on New Year’s Day for brunch; Hui-Ping, Ella & Nikus a couple of days ago; Kent C & his wee boy Cameron. Kathleen & I played tennis at the Moutere Rec Centre courts, which was great fun. 

The Chamber of Commerce Christmas function was entertaining at the upgraded Theatre Royal – the restoration team have done a wonderful job of the theatre, including recreating the original wallpaper. The AUT graduation party, NMIT’s graduation and the Business School's farewell get together all went off well. The Roses Road Christmas Party & our family pseudo-Christmas lunch went off well, but we ran out of steam for the Neudorf Road Neighbourhood Party (at Glenys & Kevin's) & put in our apologies instead. We caught up with Glenys & Kevin a couple of nights later & caught up with their news first-hand anyway.

Our Wellington trip went well – read the entry immediately before this one to catch up on that info. Unfortunately we missed seeing Guy & Sonya, but hopefully next time; and also didn’t manage to catch up with Sam & Moose or Gary & Karen on this side of the Cook Strait either.

We have Bon dog here for a couple of months while John F is off on tour. Fliss & Coco are thoroughly enjoying having their partner in crime back.

John, Brigitte and Tanja are coming down to visit us for a few days next week, and I have a few brochures for them to decide what they would like to see while they are here.

We have a barbecue on January 15^th from 3pm if any of you are about Upper Moutere & looking for a party :-)

Right, I think that's it. All the very, very best for January, and we look forward to catching up with you all sometime this year.

Take care

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Christmas in Wellington

Jan & I had a lovely time in Wellington - the company and the weather were both fabulous.

We had Weinachten (Xmas Eve) with Jeremy, Tina, Brigitte, John, Tanja, Otto and Lara at the Nelson's in Karori. Everyone had made so much delicious food, it was terribly tempting to eat until we popped! A great night, and everyone was very good about us boring them with our German photos :-) 

We had a lovely, low-key Christmas day, starting with a wonderful brunch with Hartmut & Uta. We peacefully drove home the slow way down Stokes Valley & through Hutt City, with Jan giving me a tour of places he used to go, and where his friends lived. We had a walk along the Petone waterfront. Very relaxing and peaceful. Then we caught up with some friends at the Intercontinental Hotel & had a light meal for dinner there, which was perfect.

We were asked to do some extra activities (eg going to the European painting exhibition at Te Papa, and, while I would have loved to have gone, it would take another three hours and would have cut down on our time with friends & family), which after some discussion on various ideas, we declined all extras. 

On Boxing Day we went to see Doug & Morv who were preparing for their Boxing Day BBQ, before heading back to Karori to Tina's Boxing Day BBQ. Tina had along some people we already knew, and some we didn't. Hui-Ping came, and then some other friends unexpectedly arrived to pick her up - Ella & Alenas with their son Nikus - whom Jan & I hadn't seen for several years as they had been in the US, and we had a good and unexpected catch up. 

So we had a lovely, low pressure Christmas, thanks to learning to say "no"! And we left our camera at home, but hopefully we will get some photos off the others. 

More news next week :-)

Chainsawing

Jan, Coco and Fliss have had a busy morning sorting out firewood. Coco supervised from the tray of the new trailer :-)