News from Nelson – August 2 2008

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all fit & well. We have been avoiding the colds & flu that seems to be plaguing the city - so far, anyway.

Sadly my Aunt Ann lost her battle with complications from breast cancer last week, in Australia. Her funeral was yesterday. It sounds as though it was a family time for celebrating her life; my Aunt Jill said that all the children were wearing jerseys that Ann had knitted them.

Julie C is 10 weeks pregnant with twins, and Sterl's cancer has returned. How's that for a double-whammy on one family. Julie seems in fairly good spirits - she is trying to rest & focus on the positive.

Wendy Sawyer has returned to the UK - the call was too strong to stay here. She had some real problems trying to leave the country though - several flights cancelled due to bad weather, but she finally got away in the end. I look forward to getting the TrainGirl UK reports again.

John & Jo are back from their travels to nearly every continent (they missed Africa). Bonnie was very excited to see them back, but still likes to come and visit our lot - we have caught up a few times since their return. We also watched the Canadian film "The Corporation" with them last weekend. A great film, and I have bought a copy of the DVD to show some parts of the film to my classes. Very thought-provoking. Worth a look if you get the chance.

Jo brought back an ingredient statement for doggie ice cream from her travels in the Bahamas, which Janet has kindly turned into a recipe. Jo is going to have a crack at making it up, then testing it on our expert taste panel (I am sure that the three of them would eat a manhole cover if they could get their teeth through it, so probably not likely to fail the taste panel test!).

We caught up with Kelly & Duncan Atkinson for a movie ("Prague") and a coffee. It was great to see them - it has been far too long. Dunc has been working all over the planet on helicopters, but an eye problem has brought him back to Nelson, possibly permanently. If so, despite the restriction for Dunc, and from a purely selfish point of view, it will be good to have them here to play with more often!

We have also caught up with Dawn, whom we don't see nearly enough either (for a long goss, food & wine), and Murray & Julie T (for a dog walk along the Boulder Bank & coffee). They are all in good form, enjoying life and having holidays. Oh; except Julie who is newly in business, so Murray is going to Cairns without her. I know JUST how she feels!

I had a chat to Linnea Brown the other day who was telling me that Kelly McGrath is currently somewhere in the UK. I haven't heard from her in ages - so Kell, if you are reading this, please email & let us know what you are doing!

We held another Kiwi movie night for the Nelson Newcomers Network - this time showing Sione's Wedding. I think I enjoyed the film even more the second time around. It is such a nice movie; and very telling about the differences between Pacific Islanders and Pakeha.

And we also had Sharon & Ian McGuire around for a movie - Stickmen - before the left on their three month sojourn in Oz. Another good night. Last Sunday we also had Frits & Kathleen around for breakfast to celebrate their holiday, Frits' performance in the half marathon, catching up again after so long, being well, and all sorts of other things that we could celebrate. Jan, Kathleen & I also managed to get a Wasgij done, while Frits read the Sunday Star Times - all excellent entertainment for a rainy Sunday!

I have been busy with Rotary projects and with all the other things I do, despite promising myself that I would slow down once Jan got back from Germany. And I have taken a couple of half days during the week and watched some docos that I have been saving up and read a couple of books, which was nice. However, because of the Olympics, Jan has been joined at the hip with the telly. And because I enjoy TV sports as much as an enema, I tend to go back upstairs to the office. So even though I am supposed to be taking things easy, I have been finding work to do at night rather than 'enjoy' the ranting of commentators. But it is finished now at last. Yay!

This weekend we are going to a Chamber music concert at the School of Music with Jan's boss (the New Zealand String Quartet), and going out to the land to pick up some more firewood and frown at the gorse! If the rain has stopped we will do some gorse control.

We didn't have any damage from the big storm at the land, so that was good. We have got lots of gorse growing again though. We really need to get out there & spend a full weekend dealing with it; but every weekend seems to get more and more wedged into it and it is getting harder and harder to find time. The next two weekends are quite busy and then we are in Wellington for Otto's birthday, then Jan is in Christchurch for UWH the weekend after that. Which takes us through to September 27 and well into spring. And LOTS of growth of the bionic prickly plant. Ah well, we can only do so much.

My folks are due back in another week - it will be wonderful to have the dog sitters back again! They are currently in the North of England visiting obscure rellies, and no doubt having a ball. We have missed them :-)

That's it for now. Take care & I will write more soon. Alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson – August 2008

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all fit & well?

Jan arrived back from Germany on Sunday, very tired but well. He is not so impressed with Emirates Business Class though; he thinks Air New Zealand is better! His trip to Flensburg was about 80% successful; the factor hadn't finished the work they should have done, but he thinks he spent enough time to get it all roughly right. He will find out when the containers and the commissioning engineers arrive in a couple of months.

He had a great time catching up with everyone in Ulm; Svenja's baptism turned into Thomas & Bettina's confirmation/blessing of their marriage (a surprise to everyone), as they had only had a civil ceremony so thought they would add a Church ceremony on while they had everyone together. Jan has taken lots of photos, but so has Oli - with a great camera, I might add. You can see Oli's images online at http://gallery.me.com/oliverschuette/100047.

It was wonderful for Jan to see the family together at Eberhard, Uta & Oma Lieselotte's like that - he was staying at the same hotel as Claudia & Gerhard, so they had a couple of good late night catch ups. I have seen some of the DVDs (one isn't working properly, but no doubt Jan will get Oli to send another one) and half of the photos. We have had lots of presents come back in Jan's luggage too, which is lovely. And Uta needs a special thank you for taking Jan shopping and helping him buy a perfect gift. Herzlichen Dank!

He had a flying visit to Eppingen to visit Andreas, Katrin & Christian, drop off some crunchies for them; then got to to Besse to see Tante Thea, and to Treysa & Oma Friedel. He also caught up with Dieter and Gudrun and Anne & Herbert, before having an uneventful trip back to Frankfurt to fly out.

John & Jo are back this Saturday; with Jan being away for three weeks, I have just realised that we are getting to the end of their time away as well. We are picking them up at the airport, and - if they are not too jet lagged - will take them out for breakfast before reuniting them with Bon dog. Coco will be at a loose end when Bonnie goes home again!

It has been stormy here lately - we had a huge storm last Wednesday that ran up the Richmond Ranges from the South (just like Cyclone Alison, for anyone who remembers that) and pulled a lot of big trees down. Isel Park, an old English-style park in Stoke, lost a third of its trees. A Sequoia on the corner of Collingwood & Hardy Streets fell, and - despite there having been a police cordon on all approaches for about half an hour - nearly got a car (the driver had exited a carpark inside the cordon!). Two trees came down at NMIT, several at ANZAC Park, several on Nile Street, and a couple of really big oaks out at Waimea College (another smaller tree came down on some Waimea students in the bus shelter, but they got off with minor cuts and bruises). Cathedral hill seems OK, and around the port. However, there are tree surgeon's trucks everywhere currently! The sequoia coming down can be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtCzlZogjZQ. And you too may think "Duelling Banjos" while listening to the idiots' background conversation!

The storm put the power out at home for five hours and it was out for eight hours in Richmond... in fact, power was only restored late on Friday to some of the outer areas of the city. The water main down from the Maitai dam was damaged and is still under repair - so we have been on 30% water since last Wednesday. They are saying the repair should be finalised today (whew!). Mind you - at least we still have water. Some houses on the hills have been on truck water only since the storm.

There was no damage at home, and I am very glad that we had the fireplace. I heated some soup up on the fire, and lit some candles and did some lecture prep! When the storm hit I was lecturing at NMIT. The power flickered a bit, and being on the fourth floor in such a howling gale was interesting, but we got through with no problems. However, getting home took me half an hour to make a three minute drive through the city because of road blocks and diversions (one being the sequoia that hadn't yet fallen).

This weekend Jan & I will head over to the land to see if we still have a shed. It is open to the south east, so will have caught a bit of the wind. I have heard that the winds kept fairly close to the Richmond Ranges though, so here's hoping that we got off OK.

Last Saturday night was Sharon McGuire's farewell from the Chamber of Commerce. It also coincided with the All Blacks playing Australia so all the rugby-heads abandoned the farewell dinner for the hotel lounge to watch the live match. So after a lovely dinner and some great table conversation, I snuck home early! However, I am catching up with Sharon again for coffee today - she has kindly agreed to come along & speak to my students about her personal philosophy of leadership and I am going to give her some background on the class.

This past week an old school friend, Suzie, has got engaged; this will be her third marriage! Talk about an optimist :-) Nick, Wendy & I all met at the Honest Lawyer to wish her well. Then I caught up with Wendy again on Saturday out at the Stoneridge Café in the Moutere for another friend's 50th birthday party. I hadn't seen Wendy since New Year, so to catch up twice in a week was quite staggering.

However, while Jan was away, I really put my head down and worked some very long hours. Oh, and went to the vet (Fliss got a sting from a mason bee, had a very bad histamine reaction and got two eye ulcers that haven't healed yet), had a flat battery in Jan's car - automatic and didn't respond to recharging - so got a man in to take it away and fix it, and had to get a Trespass notice issued with the Police against Karen Holland (those of you who know her can email me & I will fill you in on the goss). And it rained and rained and rained and rained. The ground in the back garden squelches underfoot!

I have had a good catch up on the phone with Jennie Ladley, and skyped with Jan, and with Jeremy & Tina.

My folks sound like they are having a good time in the UK - latest reports are that they are keeping busy and seeing lots, so that's good. They are heading up to Geordie-land shortly to see all the Gateshead crew. Uncle Norman is still keeping on; after the storm he was quite frail, but seemed OK again by Friday last week.

In the next few weeks I am planning on doing very little aside from delivering my lectures & keeping my current clients happy. I might go away for a couple of days myself, but haven't decided where & when yet. On Wednesday night I will be doing the second-to-last piece of voluntary strategic planning work for the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary, which will be good. The last piece should be complete by the time I write again. They are putting pressure on me to come on the Trust, but I am resisting!

Right - I think that's it for now. Take care & more in a few weeks. Alles liebe :-)

Sam & Jan