Hi all,
Hey, it's
nearly Easter! Where did the last three months go?
Well, we
now have another 32 cubic metres of sawn timber. Half of that is eucalypt
floorboards, and the rest is a mixture of eucalypt and Pinus radiata railway
sleepers. Phew! Now we just have to find a weekend, the materials and the
labour to go & fillet and cover the whole lot. Anyone want a great
workout?!
We went
over to Marlborough a few weeks ago to see where Magda is living - she has a
great place heading out toward Redwoodtown. We caught up for brekkie with her
and had a good chat.
The next
weekend was the Cancer Society Relay for Life. Thanks so much to Hartmut, Joan
& Peter, Magda K, Karen Trotter, Hui-Ping, KT, Shelley & Kevin, Merrill
& Colin, John & Jo, Nicki & Gary, Megs, Bertie, Pat & Marjie,
Paul T, Warren & Tracy, Murray & Leigh; you are all wonderful! Jan
& I raised over $600 between us, which was great.
It
bucketed down on the day of the relay; Jan & I turned up at midday to help
our esteemed team leader, Tony, to put up the tent at the Relay for Life site
at the Tahunanui sports grounds. Tony was so organised that he pretty much had
the tent up already and we just helped knock the pegs in & then we spent an
hour mopping the water out of it!
It was
very, very wet - we started in pouring, driving rain. They called a halt to
proceedings for an hour to decide if they were able to go ahead and probably
had to get agreement from the Council as it was on their turf (literally!). But
we got the all clear, and after the first round, we all decided to abandon
shoes altogether & do the walks/runs barefoot, in shorts and rain jackets.
Sadly we don't have any photos of our mud-coated bodies after our rounds; but
luckily, with the rain, we had plenty of water to wash the mud off! The team went
well, and I think the adverse conditions actually made it all feel a bit more
meaningful.
However,
I think the Nelson City Council will have to do a lot of work to put the
playing fields to rights again; the mud was shin deep in places and it was an
absolute quagmire.
Jan has
had his first results back for his management paper at nmit - 100%. Now sadly,
it is only out of 2%, but it's a pretty good mark!
This last
weekend on Friday & Saturday we had the Rotary district conference & I
have been on an organising Committee, so that has kept me very busy on top of
work. It all seemed to go off well enough; lots of people really enjoyed the
event & a few people are thinking about coming along to our Rotary club to
learn more about what they can contribute to our community, so that's great.
On Sunday
we went to see PureStyle - the house designers - and now have some more
concrete ideas to think about. We are going to be very busy organising what we
want & what we don't want in the plans for when we go back to talk about $
on the 31st of this month. I took some photos of inside & out which I have
posted on this page (warning; they are large! Dial-ups need not apply!).
I have
had lots of marking to do for the Applied Management paper I am teaching, so
that has kept me out of trouble, too. This is for a self-directed research
project the students are completing. Their first assignment was a research
proposal. Next I will have three lots of progress reports coming in; then it is
their oral presentations & then lastly their reports. My other paper, the
Facility & Events Management paper, has students preparing a contract bid
which also has a slick report and an oral presentation component. It will be
really interesting to see which paper goes better. NMIT has also asked me to do
some evening training with some business people from the construction industry;
just a one night session, so that's not too onerous.
Next
weekend we will be trying to organise a day at the land to fillet & cover
the 32m3 of timber - weather willing. Then Easter is upon us & Jan has his
first large assignment to hand in (he hands in his next two percenter
tomorrow). Megs will be up here for Easter - and perhaps Bertie? Anyway, we
hope to catch up with whoever is around & swap some stories. Then Karen is
with us for a couple of weeks from the 29th which will be great (providing she
has booked her tickets, of course!).
Take
care, lots of hugs & more next time. Alles liebe :-)
Sam & Jan
