04 July 2007

News from Nelson – July 2007



Hi All,
I hope all is going well with you all. We have had a really cold snap here - we have had a few frosts at home, and one day last week when the polar blast came through we had a sprinkling of snow on the hills behind the city.

Last night we had a celebration for my mother's 70th birthday. She had a great time, with about twenty of us gathering at a local restaurant. Mike, Barb & I got her a day spa voucher which she can either blow on one day of mega-pampering, or take piecemeal as she likes over the coming months. I also put together a photo album of 350 photos of relatives, friends and immediate family. I think she rather enjoyed that.

UWH in Chch for the UWH Secondary School Regional Champs was cold. The kids got really excited on the way home as it started to snow, but luckly it soon stopped. An uneventful journey both ways; all the kids behaved really well, had a good time and played hard.

Things have started to quieten down with work for both of us now; Jan has enrolled for this coming semester for another paper (Management Accounting), but we no longer have a competition to work towards for UWH, so that takes the heat out of that a bit.

Fleur & Neil came to stay on Sunday night - Fleur had to come over from Golden Bay for another trip to hospital - just for a routine scan. She doesn't have too long to go in her pregnancy, and hopefully everything will go OK from now on.

The Sports Diploma People Management lecturing starts in another two weeks. I have quite a bit of reading to do before it starts, but at least I have a bit of time to get started on it now.

Hui-Ping is also back in Nelson for a month or so as Murray has just been made Corporate Services Manager for TDC and needed an accountant to do his old job. Jan & I caught up with both Hui-Ping & Julie for lunch last weekend. We are also all catching up with Jenny Cooper & Mo for breakfast Tuesday next week (Mo is due to have her baby really soon too).

Well, you may remember that last time I mentioned that Jan had had a cold, and that a friend of ours told us about this new Vicks nasal spray product called "First Defence" which you can take to try to ward off a cold when you first start getting the symptoms. Well, I didn't catch the cold, so it looks like it worked. Not bad!

Last time we also had Bonnie the Boxer staying with us again - well, we picked her up again today for another month with us, as John & Jo have left to go overseas on a marketing trip. When Bonnie stayed recently she was great. She has grown up quite a lot since the first time & just clicked back into place. No problems except for the toy destruction; three boxers can spell death to playthings very quickly.

Fliss' eye ulcer got the all clear from the canine eye specialist, and she is nearly back to normal. We started running before it suddenly got so cold, and so I have now no desire to go out early in the mornings anymore.

Two weeks ago I had my braces fitted, and, as predicted, I have been eating a lot of soup and yoghurt. Having all that ironmongery permanently in my mouth feels DISGUSTING. By about day three, if the braces hadn't been bonded onto my teeth, I would have trying to drag them off with pliers. Never mind - only 1050 days to go!

This coming weekend we are heading down to Hanmer with some of the Hutties. Then we are off to Hanmer weekend for a luxury weekend in August and a lovely week in Sydney for our wedding anniversary in November. There might be another couple of trips in there elsewhere as well.

OK, I think that's all I have time for now - look after yourselves, everyone. Alles liebe :-)


Sam & Jan

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