News from Nelson - October 2012

Hi everyone,

I just did a drive-by on www.xmasclock.com to find there are only 68 shopping days until Christmas. Where did the year go?

Camila comes to us this weekend; we are going to pick her up on Saturday morning. That will be very entertaining, I am sure! She postponed her change of address for a week as she had lots of things to do in town last week, and thought it would be easier to stay where she was. No problem!

Speaking of entertainment, our pool table is continuing to keep us occupied. My skills appear to have plateaued, but Jan is continuing to improve.

I think this weekend we will be continuing with gorse control, a bit more tree planting, and protecting some of the trees we have already planted with drums. Last weekend I went up to Wellington on Sunday, but on Saturday we went into Jan’s work and recycled some old oil drums. Jan cut the tops and bottoms out, so we can put them over our trees and foil the very, very hungry bunnies who are currently our only lawn mowers.

My masters work is continuing well – my reading list is now 460 items long though! However, I am chopping through them. I am holding to an A overall (my methodology needs work though) so all is looking good. Just got to keep chipping away at getting the work done, and not lose focus.

Jan’s Les Mis production went very well, with lots of audience and orchestra people saying they would like to do it again, despite it having been such a huge commitment. So all good. Brigitte and John came down to Nelson while the production was on, so we got them tickets to go and see it. They said that for an amateur production it was surprisingly good. I know exactly what they mean by that, as the same comment was repeated again and again by the audiences. All in all, a great success for Richard Carruthers, the show’s director, driver and creative influence.

Jan was also in Oz last week to visit a Nelson Pine plant, with his mechanical engineer, to look at how a project has gone over there. He has come back with some good ideas, despite being very tired. It was go-go-go for them both for the four days that they were away.

I managed to get my marking sorted during the study break, and have been tackling lots of Career Development things. I had meetings, training and the AGM in Wellington on Sunday & Monday for CDANZ, and came away with my head so full that I felt like I was concussed. I think I have managed to process now! However, we had a stand-out presenter at one of the training sessions, Amanda Fleming of Presenter At Large from Auckland. This woman is a great speaker, with some very interesting stories to tell and insights on personal development. If you get the chance, to go to one of her sessions, go.

Bonnie will be staying with us for a bit longer, I think: John is going to the US for a few months while he gets some business systems sorted out. No problem for Coco to retain her friend, especially as Fliss is growing increasingly frail.

Jan & I are both in Welly from 7-9 December (next CDANZ Exec meeting). I will be free on Saturday evening, so catch ups Sat night with the Hutt crowd would be great. 

Congrats to Christél & Ray for being able to share cute little Lizzie with Christél’s folks! Hard to tell the puppy from the slipper :-)

Congrats to Magda who has a wonderful new job. But sad faces to Sam & Jan who lose her as her new position is in Christchurch :-( 

Happy birthdays over the coming month to Hartmut, Morv, Margie, Uncle Norman, Dawnie, Lara, Justine & Jeremy! 

Right – better feed the dogs  :-D

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Entertainment with Moa in Kiwiland

Hi all,

A bit of a laugh for you all today, courtesy of a friend in Chch.

Now I like Geoff Ross. I think what he did with 42 Below was cheeky and had just the right amount of irreverance and panache. However, the Ecoya thing for me had the marketing oomph of a 'pfft'. 

Now Mr Ross has become CEO of Moa, the Marlborough craft beer set up by Josh Scott (of Allan Scott family fame). Moa has decided to raise a chunk of change with an NZX float, and they have done a bit of a marketing make-over of what was a pretty good craft beer, drunk by craft beer drinkers. You know, the kind of people who are happy to shell out for Founders Tall Blonde or a Mussel Inn Captain Cooker. People who like beer, not to look good, but because they LOVE it.

So, there has been a bit of a burst of venom generated by Moa's IPO, where their brand-spanking (!) brand image may not quite have entered popular culture in a good way:

• http://philcook.net/beerdiary/2012/10/13/the-moa-ipo/#comments
• http://publicaddress.net/8230
• http://publicaddress.net/up-front/moa-sub-standard/
• http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10840093
• http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7808884/Moa-Beer-ruffles-feathers-with-prospectus
• https://twitter.com/search?q=%23momentsofmanhood (love the Don Brash ones)
• http://atheistpinkosluts.tumblr.com/post/33396770885/moa-made-by-decent-brewers-marketed-by-wankers
• http://atheistpinkosluts.tumblr.com/page/2
• Download the prospectus here: http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/document/pdf/201241/investment.pdf (and seriously, check out the tone of the 'ads'!)

Love some of the comments, take the Herald: "Ross told BusinessDesk the document targeted the 30 to 50 year-old, high income men that Moa seeks as both customers and investors as it pushes to create an identifiably New Zealand brand in the fast-growing boutique beer market, especially the US. 'It is somewhat Mad Men,' he said, appealing to 'men who want moments of manhood.[...] If you go to (Wellington waterfront restaurant) Shed 5 on a Friday, there a whole lot of guys in suits having a drink. It's their vernacular, their mentality.'" Hmm. Aren't those guys in Shed 5 drinking 85% mainstream draughts anyway? And why was it Moa needed to look like 1960s misogynists again...? Oops - and how is this New Zealand's beer if we are focused on selling it to Americans...?

Moa's strapline "New Zealand's beer, globally". Hmm. Maybe a new strapline... perhaps "New Zealand's beer, w*nky-wannabe"?

It has a ring to it :-D
 

News from Nelson - September 2012 #2

Hi everyone,

Wow, nearly another month has passed, and here I am talking to you all again.

Our sympathies go out to Janet, Robert and the boys as Janet’s mum died recently, after a relatively short illness. Janet had just been down in Nelson & we had all had a catch up, so it was rather shocking – though somewhat expected – to get the message about her Mum so soon.

The pool table is still proving great entertainment: largely because Jan is rehearsing so much at present for Les Mis, there is not much time for anything longer. 

We seem to have had weekends based around the weather of late: we have had lots of fine weeks and wet weekends. However, last Sunday we managed to have a session sorting out the gorse as the rain stopped for a couple of days. Got some good weather-oriented photos though!

I got my Masters research proposal in, and was told that it was one of the best my supervisor had ever received (which was very kind of him). I had a very productive day at Auckland Uni, meeting all sorts of people and asking millions of questions. I even had time to get a book out of the library for Jan. I caught up with Tessa and we had Japanese at Kabuki Teppanyaki restaurant at the Stamford; I met her friend Lisa who seems really nice.

On Thursday I delivered a Leadership diversity lecture at the AUT Manukau campus. Wow, that is the most fantastic campus! It is like being in a park!

This weekend Jan is playing in a Les Mis performance both days, so I will get on with some housework and study. I also have a good chunk of marking to do, with the study break coming up, there will be a bit more time for doing all those ‘nice to do’ things like cleaning :-(

Life is pretty full of Les Mis at the moment.

I will be up in Welly briefly in a couple of weeks (Oct 13-14) for Sunday - Monday meetings, which is the weekend that Camila comes to stay. Jan will get her safely installed, though I don’t know how he is going to find time to do some required furniture repairs. I might need to get Michael Bender onto the job and take the pressure off him.

Dogs are well, though both Coco and Fliss took themselves off for an unsupervised walk today. I caught up with Fliss down past the winery, heading determinedly along the road to our bottom gate. She is so deaf she couldn’t even hear the car, but got in the car sheepishly enough when I tooted RIGHT behind her.

Barb has been the US having a tiki-tour, and hopefully she will catch us up on how she enjoyed that now she is back.

Jan & I are both in Welly from 7-9 December (next Exec meeting) so any ideas for catch-ups would be great. 

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

Happy birthdays to Andrew R, Ana Silvia WHO IS TWENTY ONE, KT, Aunt Uta, Robert dB, Jenny L, Bertie, Guy, Barb, Kelly A, Erica, Julie T & Tracey M! 

Right – better start my marking  :-D

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – September 2012

Hi all,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Do Be Do Be Do

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

"To be is to do - Socrates

"To do is to be - Sartre

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

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

I like that :-)

News from Nelson – August 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Bridge Street Collective

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

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

News from Nelson – July 2 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – July 2012

Hi all,
Wow – where did the time go?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson (brief) - Jun 2012

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

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

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

Sam

Read about the Elephant in NZ's Economic Room

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

Sam

Flipbooks

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


Sam

News from Nelson, May 2012

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

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

However, our plans at the moment are:

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

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

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

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

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

-          Tuesday 19 - Friday 22: Edersee.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Skinnymalinks vs skilligimink

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

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

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

Sam

An Arm and a Leg

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

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

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

Sam

News from Nelson - April 2012

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

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

Some photos of the trip (more to come):

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

Jan & Sam

Social Cycle Theory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


References:

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

Birthday present

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

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

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

Sunrises from Roses Road

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

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

Sam

News from Nelson – March 2 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young