News from Nelson - July 2017

Hello everyone!
Another month rolls around, and here we are again.

First of all we had Joan's 80th birthday at the Boathouse, on the wildest, stormiest day of the year. Because we were in Nelson, we were out when our creek flooded and cut off the houses on the Road. We missed it completely: had no idea when we came home that the creek had been raging away.

Part of the problem was that the Council had been prepping a ford, as they were about to replace the bridge at the bottom of our road. Their contractors had put in a temporary ford for us to cross while the new bridge was going in. When I looked at the culvert pipes on the way home on Friday night, I realised that they were miles too small, and that one rain would overwhelm them. Well, it ended up being a bit of a debacle as the torrential rain we had on the Saturday certainly did that: there was no ford left after the rain. Of course, the undersized culverts in the temporary ford was part of the reason that the road higher up became impassible. However, water will find a way, and the force of the backlog pushed all the fresh earthworks out of its path: one of the culvert pipes was found half a kilometre downstream.

Aside from that excitement, the 80th birthday party went well. Despite the terrible weather about 40 of us were warm and snug at the Boathouse, well fed, with lots of chat and catch ups. The family set up in the morning, Mike staffed the BBQ as Jan had only had surgery 10 days before, the Lionesses did the salads, and Barb organised a spectacular cake.

The one difficulty was in packing up afterwards: I had far too few plastic containers to pack things away in to transport home again. I have made a mental note to remember to take LOTS more next time!

The next day 'the gang', my parents group of friends, came out to Rose Road for a BBQ, to eat the leftovers (everyone had had strict instructions to bring NOTHING). A fabulous way of getting rid of lots of food from yesterday’s Boathouse shindig, and a great afternoon.

As I mentioned in last times' newsletter, my Mother ended up in hospital with a lung infection. I turned up to visit her just as her lung specialist was explaining that "with congestive heart failure this type of thing happens", which was a "$#^%?!" moment. I explained that she had been waiting to see a cardiologist to get a diagnosis since January, and the lung specialist said he would speak to the cardiology nurse and get my mother into the system. He did, and she now is in the system. Crikey. I am so glad that I came in when I did. She finally got to see a cardiologist, and the prognosis seems pretty good. She has a clear plan of action to work to, and I will attend her future appointments as an extra pair of ears, and to ensure that her case continues to be pushed forward.

Jan has recovered really well from his surgery, and in mid-July got the sign-off to return to work. He has been very careful in what he is doing, and has been slowly working up to full use. The specialist is very happy, but has warned him that he really needs to give everything a year to properly bed in before he can really relax and go back to 'normal'.

As Jan was getting signed off to return to work, I headed off across the Tassie for a PhD induction and a meeting with my supervisors. I flew out of Auckland on the Wednesday. When I arrived in Brisbane close to midnight, the airline had left my luggage behind in Auckland. This was because my flight out of Nelson had been delayed by an hour and a half due to bad weather around the rest of the country delaying inbound aircraft... Dunedin had hail, Queenstown had snow, Christchurch had fog, Wellington had a wild windy storm, and Auckland had rain. Nelson was fine, but the inbound aircraft was delayed by an hour and a half. While Jan and I were waiting at the airport, we were sitting at a table next to a South African couple, who were talking about the delay to the flight, and I realised that they too were flying to Brisbane. I talked to them about it, and when we boarded a plane at long last, they were sitting on the row opposite me. We asked the crew to radio ahead to let them know we were on our way. We arrived at Auckland domestic terminal with 35 minutes to get from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, and down to gate nine right at the end of the international terminal. I just made it as they were doing the final call for passengers. Funnily enough, I sat with the South African couple all the way across to Brisbane.

I had anticipated having enough time to get to dinner, and to go through duty-free, and get a combination Wi-Fi hub and charge unit. Epic fail there! Luckily I had a peanut stash in my handbag. But dammit, my checked luggage didn't make it. So I spent two days in the same clothes until Brisbane airport services reunited me with my gear. At least it was delivered to the door!

Tanja and Tony were awesome to stay with: they couldn't have been more helpful! Hotel Kuwilsky is alive and well in QLD! Tony lent me his travel card, which made it really easy to take buses and trains from Brisbane down to the Gold Coast. It’s the same as the Oyster card, or the Snapper card, with a tap and go function. I am going to buy my own, as I think this will be very useful for what is likely to become regular trips.

The PhD sessions were really useful. I have a Griffith ID card, got to see around the Gold Coast and the Nathan Campuses, and get a feel for the place. I really like it, and the culture. I learned some useful things, and have started to build a network - including a study group. I have a 'discipline librarian' (hilarious title!) who, funnily enough, turns out to come from Wellington.  I also attended a poster competition, which was interesting to see. There is an awful lot of VERY poor design with the posters, but there were some really good ones that I took some shots of below.

While I was away, Warren had arrived. After picking me up at Nelson airport, Jan, Warren and I called in to see Michelle and Margot, who were having a Rose Road midwinter party at their place. Jan and Warren had made marzipan horns, rounds of cucumber with cheese and ham, and taken basil and feta cheese dip with carrot crudités... that was a very nice dinner! Warren caught up with Erica, before flying on to Wellington for a Monday morning meeting.

We caught up with Dawn, who is happy, but is battling fibromyalgia. We spent a wonderful afternoon telling war stories and having lots of laughs... which reminded all of us how important it is to get together regularly!

Jan has had a graduated return to work which has worked really well. Although he was impatient to get back - as he was bored at home - I think he found himself more tired than expected at the end of each week. That makes the graduated return to work even more sensible. He is absolutely fine physically and mentally though, and gets out brushcutting every chance he gets.

He will be starting rehearsals for the next NSO concert next month, and has been asked to go back on the NSO committee. He is thinking about it.

Jenny Ladley was up in Nelson and we caught up with her for dinner, which was really nice... though the reasons she was here wasn't so good: a death in the broader whanau. Note that Jan had the briefing finger out while he was explaining the pertinent points of working for the Government at dinner.

Uncle Norman got hospitalised with a gastro bug, but is now back in the nursing home. I didn't go to see him after my trip away because of the possibility of having brought back a bug on the plane, neither has my mother been able to see him because she got another cold, then the hospital trip. Not a good month for visits.

Semester two is underway, and I am off to a much smoother start than last semester. This time we knew ahead of time that there were close to 50 research students, and there were two other supervisors from last semester to step in and know the ropes. With only one supervisor to onboard, it has been much easier. I am teaching a new AUT paper that is not well-resourced as yet, but I am organising that week by week instead of having it all ready to go at the start (an approach that I am struggling with, but am aware that I need to do it that way or else burn out!).

I have been writing a couple of articles for submission to peer reviewed journals. NMIT's research department suggest that NMIT researchers work with two emeritus profs who have moved to Nelson to retire, and who like to be paid in coffee (now there's a deal I approve of!). I have had a couple of meetings with Prof Bevan Grant about some work I am doing, and he suggested that I needed to get help in writing professionally, which took me back a bit at first. However, knowing he wasn't telling me this for no reason, I had a scout online, and found an English writing programme on FutureLearn, “English for University Study” from the University of Reading. As this is a self-paced three part MOOC, I completed the first unit fairly quickly (the whole thing took about 6 hours), and have signed up for round two, and for another course with Berkeley, on the edX platform. I have learned some things that I didn't know existed (such as topic sentences) which has, I think, made my academic writing more clear. The Prof was right, of course :-)

We had a wonderful mid-winter Christmas celebration at Rose Road with Kathleen & Frits, Amy, and Phil and Pauline. A fabulously easy weekend of laughter, conversation and relaxation. I wish I had taken some photos!

Magda and David are off to live in QLD in November, sadly... but they will also be there to visit when I pop across to Griffith. And speaking of that, Jan & I are both going across at the end of November/beginning of December for ten days.

Again, we have had some lovely views to enjoy:

Lara is coming to stay for a few days in October, which will be fabulous. Looking forward to it already!

Hope all of you have a wonderful month, and I will be back to you in September.


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - June 2017

Hi again,
I hope you are all well. Jan came through his second hip replacement surgery well, and appears to be completely on track with post-operative healing and mobility. This is excellent.

However, just when I thought that family was the gift that might stop giving, Uncle Norman had to be moved to a nursing home. My mother, Mike, Jan & I worked non-stop for about three weeks to pack up his whole flat, put all his gear in storage, and do our best to wind up his outside affairs as he would have liked them done, find him a rest home, and start getting into a routine of visiting him.

It has been pretty crazy. I am glad that I took most of May out of doing my PhD, else I think I would have been going spare now.

Uncle Norman's change in circumstances also coincided with NMIT end of semester reports coming in and me needing to moderate 50 students' project work and reflections. No pressure.

Then my mother got sick and had to go to hospital with breathlessness and a lung infection. Turns out she has a heart condition, which I found out about accidentally by turning up when her lung specialist was talking to her. Thank goodness I arrived in her room when I did.

All that was two weeks out from her 80th birthday party, which I was trying to organise in the remaining three minutes I had left this month... all while waiting for Jan to go under the knife for his last hip operation, and fighting the council to ensure that they put in all weather access to our valley as they were replacing our bridge (initially they hadn't been going to do ANYTHING about allowing us to get to our homes. Perhaps they were expecting us to fly?).

Though a local wag added an addendum to the bridge notice, as follows:

Collectively, all the happenings over the past four months led to three break-through migraines last week: the first patch I have had in a year. Not surprising really. But, by crikey, I hope that is IT for a while. I need six months of peace and quiet.

Of course, I am not going to get it. Next month I am off to Australia for a PhD induction and a planning session, I have two other research papers which need to be edited ready for publication, I start teaching a brand new paper in four weeks' time which I haven't even looked at yet, my sister tells me that the rest home my Uncle is in is poor, so he needs to be moved, my mother goes to the cardiologist in a fortnight and I need to go with her, and and and...

Deep breath.

We have concreted in part of the dog run under the gate, and bought and hung a new steel gate, as Boo has turned out to be an escapologist. So far she has not escaped since "project imprisonment" was completed. Bonnie has a malignant tumour on her hind leg, so is not likely to be with us for much longer.  However, we have not told her she is sick, so she doesn't know, and is carrying on as normal ;-D

And the world continues to give us visual gifts, as you can see:

 

Barb was back from the US this month, and came to stay in the last week, to help me organise the last bits and pieces for our Mother's 80th.

But more about that next month... and hopefully this time it is all good news.

Take care!

Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - May 2017

Hi everyone,
Another month has rolled around, and hopefully it will be less stressful than the last one.

We started with a bang: Jenny L came to visit - and stayed - which was great. Warren also stayed for a night with Erica. Warren helped Jan to get the pool table lights finished. Then Jan got one more spotlight to fit over the VERY last electric light wiring in our ceiling, and AT LAST the lights are complete: almost seven years after we moved in.

I decided that for this month I was not going to do any study or work other than that which was already booked: to give myself four weeks break. It was nice to have permission to play for a while.  Jan & I have taken the dogs for lots of walks, and I have been doing at least 11,000 steps per day.

My mother had booked a holiday before my father died: a two week bus tour of the far north. She decided that she would still take the time away, and enjoyed it. It gave her time to think, but also enough structure in her day to prevent brooding. A good balance.

While she had been away, she had all the carpets shampooed. We called around and helped her put her furniture back just after we dropped Warren off at the airport. My mother gave my father's stereo to Erica, who is now a real teen with her own music centre. Except for being ten years old!

I have rediscovered two crime writers: Louise Penny and Jo Nesbo. I now have pretty much all their books as talking books, and am working through them in order. It is proving quite restful. We also got a notification from the Tasman District Council library that the third series of the Danish programme "The Bridge" had come in on DVD. We picked it up and binge watched it.

Jan got access to John's Netflix account, and has been watching all kinds of things. We watched the Crown, which was quite fun. 

Jan, my Mother and I went to see the latest NSO Concert, The World’s Most Beautiful Melodies. It was a good concert, and the spinto soprano was very good in the Puccini ...except for her last two notes (which were screamed, as opposed to sung). Extremely enjoyable aside from just four seconds. There aren't many experiences you can say that about.

We went to visit Kathleen and Frits, taking with us a pair of Fluevogs - Investigators - that I was returning to Timeless Soles as they were too narrow for me. Kathleen got me to open them, saw them, tried them on, and bought them. They are gorgeous on her.

Barb is back in the US, spending time with Joe. She has been to visit the Fluevog shop in DC. I can't wait to see what she has on her feet at my Mother's 80th birthday party in July.

Justine came down for a visit for a few days. We spent some time talking about our experiences in having just lost one parent each, and how we are processing that. We went to small, out of the way places like the Macmillan Gallery and tried to call in on Vickie's Originals (but they were shut. Next time).

We had lunch with Sharon & Ian at the Moutere Tavern, eating inside this time. Another great menu and a relaxing afternoon. Sharon and Ian bought me a shrub to remember my father by, which was very nice of them.

Warren, who is up again to visit Erica, came for a visit in the afternoon with Erica, and we went for a walk down the hill with Ollie and Boo. Jan and Warren had a good chat, and Erica read quite happily. Jan has managed to get Netflix working on his tablet so he can download 50 episodes of Dr Who in preparation for his next hip operation in June.  

Donna suggested that we celebrate my Father's birthday somewhere he liked going, and everyone - aside from me - had a chocolate ice cream sundae in his honour:

Late in the month Uncle Norman had a couple of bad falls, and ended up in hospital with a fractured scapula and broken ribs. He is determined to get home, and is in the AT&R ward again already, undergoing rehabilitation to get him ready to return to his flat. However, when we went to visit him, he is floating in and out of reality: it doesn't seem to me like he can go home in a hurry.

I will be heading for Aussie in July for my doctoral induction, and to have a half-day planning session with my supervisors.

Take care - catch you all up next month.


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - April 2017

Hi everyone,
I hope you are all well, and that the year is treating you kindly.

We have had a big month again. I was just getting back into my PhD work during the study break, and following my illness last month, when my father took a turn for the worse. He went into the hospice before Easter for few days, as he was getting very breathless. They thought they would simply stabilise him, and he would go home again.

However, once he was in, they felt that he really needed to stay until after Easter because they were worried how my Mother would cope on her own with him. Then on Easter Saturday, they called me in the evening, and said that he was quite bad, and that I should come in. Jan & I drove in to the hospice, saw him, then called the family, and everyone came in. My sister was just back from the US, and she and Bella hopped in Bella's car and drove up from Christchurch. Tessa caught a flight down from Auckland. We spent the next five days camping out at the hospice, taking turns to sit with him, talk and share memories as he slowly slipped away.

Kim flew up from Dunedin to Christchurch, and drove from there with Aunty Diana. Aunty Jill came to visit. Graeme and Julie came to see him a few times. We have had lots of laughs, reflections, and shared stories. The family has probably spoken more about our impressions of past events in the past week than we ever have in the past. Various spectres have been laid to rest.

He died on 19 April, and, as he had chosen to donate his body to Otago Medical School for student learning, we had no funeral. Instead we held a memorial service at Club Waimea. Over eighty people attended. I MCed, and Barney Thomas arrived – serendipitously – and I asked him if he would do a karakea: which he did. It was just perfect. Mother spoke about father not giving in to his illness. I spoke about his desire for us all to learn. Barb spoke about lessons from hockey. Mike spoke about father calling him at aged 25 to ask if he had been 'playing' with his screwdrivers in the garden. Tessa did the housekeeping about the donations to the Hospice and St Johns, then told stories about how she would play Nana and Poppa off against each other, and how her son Izzy loved his Poppa. Diana told a story about her 'stink' money – she got 2-/6 per week for cleaning his sleepout. Kim talked about my father as being like a father to her. Various people spoke about his community work, his hockey and bowls dedication, his fundraising, and his work at MAF… it was really lovely.

Then Bonnie got diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer on her hind leg. We are simply going to leave it until the tumour gets too large, or she gets ill.

Jan went in for the first of his two hip replacements, and the surgery went very well. But it was still worrying. He is recovering very quickly, and is already in much less pain than he was in before the surgery. 

However, it is turning out to be a bit of a shitty year, to say the least.

I did get a bit of a birthday celebration, at The Grape Escape:

And I did buy myself a pair of shoes. Fluevogs, naturally:

More next month. Hopefully next month's news is a lot better.

Sam (& Jan)

Sad news

My father, Peter, died on Tuesday 19th of April 2017 at Nelson Tasman Hospice.

We are having a morning (or "mourning") tea, as my sister Barb keeps calling it, at Club Waimea in the Barnicoat Room this Saturday the 22nd at 10.30am (map here).

No flowers, please (they will just create a problem for my mother, Joan, to have to dispose of later), but donations to Nelson Tasman Hospice Trust (here) or to St John's (here) would be spectacular.

There will be no funeral as my father has donated his body to Otago Medical School for research and student learning.

If you can't be there this Saturday, but have a memory of Peter that you would like to share, please message me, and I will share it with the group. I will also be posting a web address for online tributes to be lodged once receive it from the undertakers.

Sam

News from Nelson - March 2017

Hi everyone,
I hope you and your families are all well.

However, this has been a tough month in a few ways for us through distance and illness. My sister got married in a private ceremony to Joe at Ocean City in Maryland, and, because my Father is not well, neither my Mother nor my Father were able to attend. I was teaching, so couldn't go either. However, they are both planning a public ceremony at a Renaissance Fair in a couple of years, which everyone is invited to. Hopefully that will line up with teaching, but even if it doesn't I will be there.

My Father had rheumatic fever at 15 which has now turned into congestive heart failure with a whole load of other complications. While he has been frail for some time, he's been fairly stable until this year. Since my last update he has deteriorated, and he isn't great.

The month ended with Justine's Mum dying in the Mary Potter hospice in Wellington. Justine came back to NZ and spent the last fortnight with her, but neither she nor Peter were expecting Betty to go so quickly. It is very, very sad.

And then on top of that, my workload has been pretty crushing. I am teaching four papers, and doing my PhD, which is pretty full on. I had expected 30 year 3 students in the capstone research project that I supervise, which in itself is a huge workload, to then turn up on the first day and find 55 students in my classroom. It took two weeks for NMIT to find three other supervisors, and in the meantime I had worked some pretty crazy hours to get these students up to speed and underway on their primary research projects (I had just spent four days grappling with admin, marking and pulling long hours. I didn’t eat properly. I wasn't sleeping well. My to do list was getting longer every day)... and I wigged out.

I completely lost the plot, having a “transient global amnesia” episode (TGA). My day went as usual until I had my 11.30 student appointment, then I appeared to lose what I was supposed to be doing next, what year it was, and my place in time. I was physically OK, but personally gone to la-la land.

One of my colleagues called my doctor, cancelled my classes, took me to my doctor's, called Jan, who came down from the hospital to see me at my Doctor's surgery.

They then took me to the emergency department, where I was for a few hours before being admitted overnight. They asked me lots of questions in the ED…  apparently I was quite blissed out. The ED department people were fascinated, because they had never seen anything like this before. I had very high blood pressure but was cheerful as all get out. I think I had put myself in a happy place, outside time, and therefore outside any additional pressure.

Apparently, my mother had a bout of TGA when my father broke 7 ribs and punctured a lung in 1980. I had completely forgotten that this had occurred for her... and this is apparently a condition which is more likely to happen for migraine sufferers (which she is too). Though nobody has any idea whether there will be any lasting effects, or whether it will happen again. But stress is known to be a trigger.

This was due to overload, I think: I was full to over-capacity. Because I'd lost my place in time, there was no pressure for anything. I'd created some "me" space. I spent a “long dark teatime of the soul” overnight in hospital examining my workload. I decided I would drop both my year 2 leadership papers. I was very clear in my own mind that I wanted to keep supervising the capstone research paper, but that I needed to free myself up for doing my Ph.D. study, which is really important to me.

However, my bout of TGA meant that we could not be at Brigitte's 75th Birthday celebration in Wellington. Which of course was two days after I went into hospital. It sounds like it was a great party.

I had a very frank conversation with my NMIT manager following all this. They seem quite willing for me to cut my hours and continue with a reduced workload, anyway. The whole thing has probably given them a bit of a fright. And it is a health and safety issue.

Now I am managing a team of four supervisors – they are great, all being supervisors on our postgraduate diploma in business enterprise – and have 16 students of my own to supervise. And by 16, I mean eight single semester students, and eight full year students (who are effectively a .5 each): so 12 full-time equivalents. Much easier than 55. Feels like a holiday!

Jan is still going to Men's yoga with Jan Cools: in fact, they are both pretty consistent in turning up. He is working on his pre-hab plan to prepare for his surgery, including work in the pool.

Later in the month my Father was able to get out and about a bit more again. My folks came out today to visit us, along with friends of theirs, Graham and Julie. They stayed chatting for two hours, then we all went down to the Riverside community for lunch and had a delicious lunch together.

Boo is settling in well, and Bonnie is enjoying the company - though Bonnie is spending quite a bit of time at John's little house in Waimea West, with Aniko, between bike tours.

 We have had a bit of early morning mist, which has made for some interesting photos in the mornings:

Jan had an NSO concert at Old St John's which went really well, called Transformations, and conducted by John Rimmer. This will be Jan's last concert for a while, as his hip surgery will knock him out of the next two concerts, and a musical that Nayland College is doing:

We visited Sue L in her little house in the Brook - which is lovely. Thanks very much to Tina who connected us when Sue transferred to Nelson.

And Tina has got engaged to Brad. We haven't heard anything about a wedding date, but hopefully they will make each other very happy. Jeremy is now considering work as a marriage celebrant, which is great.

More next month!

Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - February 2017

Hi everyone,
We hope all of you are in good health.

My father is still not well, and was in and out of hospital until the third week of this month. Once he got out, we have had a family conference at the Doctor's surgery to decide on our next steps. We are going to take the Hospice route of palliative care, as opposed to the Hospital route, where they are constantly running tests and trying to repair the unrepairable. My sister came up, which was great, so we were all there as a family to talk about everything (including my Father, of course). We have had a good talk about what will happen, and when, and built in choices for him.

Jan went to the specialist to get an opinion on his hips. He has been getting a lot of right hip pain, and, despite being on humira, the pain hasn't settled down. He was rather shocked to be told by the specialist that he needs two hip replacements. He thought that he would be nowhere near that bad yet, and was thinking that this would mean that he would need to have both hips done again before he meets his end.

But as the specialist said: each year there is only an extra 1% chance of needing another hip replacement: so in thirty years, there is only another 30% chance of a second replacement; or a first replacement. So why put up with pain now?

Good point. So we have tentatively booked in for the week following Easter for the first operation, and hope to have the second one done in June. Then he should be all set for the following thirty years :-)

Jan has been going to men's yoga in the Upper Moutere village, with Jan Cools. They both seem to enjoy it. Jan also has a pre-hab plan from Claire to help strength and flexibility prior to him having his first hip replacement. A great idea to prepare before surgery.

I have officially accepted my place at Griffith, which is great, though I do have to go for a post-graduate 'induction' session in July. Although I have tried to get them to video link it, to record it and upload it, or to allow me to Skype in, the admin team remain obdurate that all post-graduate students must attend in person. The sessions before July are all when I have teaching on, so I am hoping that the timing of the July session will fit in before the start semester two. Fingers crossed too that Jan's surgery goes well, and he is OK for me to leave when I have to hop across the Tassie.

I have been writing a piece on how long it would take a non-digitally competent person to learn enough digital skills to be work ready. This has been a fascinating piece of secondary research to do. Basically, no one has any real idea of how long it should 'reasonably' take the average person to learn a set of skills... which is staggering. So I am trying to put something together. I am nearly finished draft one. Two professors emerita have retired to Nelson, and have offered their services to NMIT. I have tapped into that, and am regularly asking for advice - simply for the price of a good coffee. Talk about epic value for money  :-)

Have fallen in love with Fluevog shoes, and have bought two pairs so far. Below are the flower patterned boots. I also have some cobalt blue boots which are gorgeous.

We had a few lovely catch-ups at the Upper Moutere Tavern this month, al fresco dining: with Sharon, Ian, David & Sue; and with Gary & Sandra; and with my folks. It was also my parents 57th wedding anniversary, which we managed to celebrate with a lunch for twenty of their friends in Richmond.

Barb was here for a few days while we were sorting out family things, and for my folks' wedding anniversary. She has started knitting me dreadlocks - or dreaddocs, as I am calling them - to be worn under my doctoral bonnet on/after graduation. The idea is to not take the whole thing to seriously. There is a PhD at NMIT who wears her doctoral bonnet with Christmas decorations hung off it, and I love that irreverence. My dreaddocs look disgusting, but will be so much FUN!

 

  

Had dinner at Nahm with Kevin & Sandra, which was lovely, including a spectacular view of a cruise ship exiting the harbour while we were waiting to order. 

Tracey, Erica and Jenny came around one weekend and we made Kesundi sauce and pureed and bottled tomatoes. A very productive weekend.

Had the usual spectacular sunsets and sunrises:

Hope to be in touch as the year progresses

Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - January 2017

Hi everyone,
We hope all of you are fit and well.

My father has been in hospital for a few days with breathlessness, but has recovered well enough and is now back at home. I think he gave us all a bit of a fright. Strangely enough, in one of those coincidences that seem to happen to Kiwis, he ended up in a bed right next to my sister-in-law's grandfather. 

Jan & I have had a lovely break from work, relaxed, read, watched movies, played pool, got out in the sun, and done quite a few jobs around the house.

We have had visitors: Otto and Lara down from Wellington, Warren from Auckland, and Heidi here from Germany.

It was great to have Otto and Lara here. We baked, set up the train, visited Dawn, had fish and chips at Mapua, ate out at the Moutere Tavern, and watched lots of movies:

 

We went to Golden Bay with Heidi, and, although the weather was pretty overcast, I think we all had a good time. We stopped at Hawkes Lookout; Takaka for morning tea at The Wholemeal Café; The Waikoropupu River and the Springs; Rosy Glow; Langford's Store at Bainham (were I bought a nice new bucket hat); The Naked Possum; The Puponga Café for a picnic outside, then coffee and a view of Farewell Spit from the deck; Wharariki cliffs at Pillar Point; and lastly, Wharariki Beach:

Jan has finally bought chaps for chainsawing, and looks terribly stylish when amongst the trees now!

He has finished all the wood for winter, and is now working on next winter's felling. He also hired a pole saw and had topped all the kanukas outside both sides of our lounge to reclaim some of our view. The kanukas will have bushed out and hedged up by this time next year:

 

When Warren was here, he and Jan worked hard for two entire days to get the string lights up at long last (although there is still some finishing to do). This means there is only ONE more light to go in for the lighting to be complete. Only the patch panel in the office to finish and the supports on the spare bathroom bench to go and the house will be pretty much finished. And it only took seven years, and we aren't thinking of selling any time soon, so we get to enjoy all the completed jobs ourselves.

On Sunday just gone we had the Sarau Fair, which is the annual blackcurrant festival in Upper Moutere, to celebrate the berry harvest. Jan entered two of his blackcurrant jams - made from Tracey's organic blackcurrants and our 'support' fruit. The flavours were blackcurrant and apple, and blackcurrant and lime. The blackcurrant and lime was by far the nicest.

However, Jan entered the Jam under my name, saying it is 'easier' for Kiwis to read and say... and 'I' won first and second prize for the jams. Well done me ;-D

We have also managed to catch up with the Cools's already this year at the Sarau Fair, along with Stu and Anne, and some visitors from Germany, Wolfgang and Renate.

Our weather has been both good and awful over the summer:

 

Boo is settling in well, and, aside from totally lacking traffic sense, is a pleasure. Thank you, Erik!

We have larger holidays planned until December, when we think we are going to head to Germany for a few weeks for a - hopefully - white Christmas. I may be going to the Gold Coast once or twice this year for my PhD - possibly July and November. As these trips will be just a few days, if the timing is right, Jan & I will both go. Also, we are both going to Auckland at the end of October and the beginning of November for four days. I have a conference to attend, and, as Jan is only working three days a week, he thought he would join me. This part-time lark is fantastic.

Happy birthday to Mike S, Eberhard, Steph, Gary R, Linda, Kenn, Kathleen, Pat and Kent.

Ka kite ano

Sam (& Jan)