Hi all,
Go to
http://gpsinformation.info/main/merryxmas.swf to get in the Xmas mood - or to
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1583109341 to see our board of the Business
Development Company (the company CEO organised this & sent it to all the
board members as a Christmas 'surprise'). Very cute - our CEO must have the
same contacts as Tina & Jeremy!
Jan &
I have had a busy few weeks, what with some extra Christmas functions that we
have been invited to & were able to get to, going to Wellington & work.
Jan has
his "end of work" BBQ on Monday for the Christmas shut, but he is
back at work on Thursday for all the shut maintenance, upgrades &
commissioning. I was at drinks at NMIT's Business School on Friday, and am
technically off until 7 January, but will be busy preparing the lectures for
the rest of the semester, have some assignment marking to do, and a course
delivery proposal for Semester 1 next year to work through & decide if I
want to do it. That should keep us both out of trouble.
Jan was
asked to attend the Business School's prizegiving a week ago & thought he
must have got a prize for having come top in the Strategic Management class.
However, his name wasn't in the programme when we got there, and we found,
after having got down to the second to last award, that he had won a prize for
being the top performing part-time student. Not bad, eh?!
Magda
graduated with her Batchelor of Nursing Friday a week ago & has just heard
that she has also passed her State Finals, so is also now a fully registered
nurse, a B.N with twenty years experience. I dragged out the old SLR film
camera & took some photos of her in her flat hat & bat cape after the
ceremony conferring her degree :-)
We had a
lovely time in Wellington, staying with John & Brigitte. Tina is recovering
slowly from surgery, so her birthday on Friday night was a low key, family
affair. Lunch on Saturday at Clarks was great; it is amazing how quickly
everyone's children are growing up. Karen looks fantastic & Sonia is
pregnant! We missed Hui-Ping, Wendy & Gerry & Christél (all otherwise
engaged). Karen, Jan & I slid across to the City Gallery afterwards to see
the Bill Hammond exhibition, which was quite disturbing & challenging (as
usual). We caught up with Hartmut & Uta for dinner & a play - Streetcar
Named Desire - at Circa, then went out to Upper Hutt to see them on Sunday
morning. A final trip to visit the Nelsons & we were off home once more.
I have
heard from my cousin Susan in the UK, and, having been off work for quite a
while, she has now finished her breast cancer treatment. She feels that the
prognosis is good & expects to be getting back into work fairly soon. All a
big relief.
This
weekend is a weekend of catch ups with us seeing Andrew & Jennie (and Maya
& Ella), John & Jo (and Bonnie), trying to catch up with Max &
Karen (missed them), my family Xmas get together and then hooking up with Jenny
L, Bunty & Donald on Boxing Day. We are also catching up with Bertie &
Megs on Christmas eve, which will be great.
Wendy
Sawyer is back in Nelson & I hope to catch up with her for lunch sometime
next week, while things are a bit quiet. Kelly Atkinson & I have been
trying to catch up for a coffee, but ran out of time before Xmas. I did manage
to drag her along to Rotary with her Cancer Society hat on to talk to the
members, and before we knew it our Rotary club was entering a team in the
Cancer Society Relay for Life (yep, I am in the team), and probably selling
programmes to raise funds at the Opera in the Park (yep, Jan & I too).
Coco is
about to be deliriously happy for Xmas - Jo has got her friend in Florida to
send some more of those delightful squeaky toys over. Coco won't know where to
start - with six of them there will be far too much choice! I think we might
need to get Fliss some earplugs... or perhaps just some pigs ears to take
outside and gnaw.
We have
booked some events for the Nelson Jazz festival which starts on 2 January, and
for Kiri at Opera in the Park on Feb 15th. Jan, Karen, Hui-Ping & I all
have posh seats. With champagne, blinis & smoked salmon catering. Mmmm...
We are
going to organise a trip away, but are debating on whether that will be going
North or South. We have some airpoints to use up, so will come back to you when
we have made our decision about where we visit next.
Take
care, hugs, happy New Year. Alles liebe :-)
Sam & Jan
