News from Nelson - September 2 2009

Hi all,

Man, where did those weeks go?!

Right, the quick run-down. The build has started with a couple of glitches; the house was in the wrong place, due to the excavations being slightly off kilter. We got all that sorted out, but not before the builder had already done the profiles. We were away for the weekend, but went out yesterday to have a look at how it was going and realised that the house wasn't entirely where we thought it was going to be. But all sorted now, and Jan went out after work to sign off on the new profiles. And ask the builder to move them yet again! Ouch.

We have actual power on at the land, and are going to put the lights and power sockets into the shed this Saturday. Jan has installed a "life guard station" for the builders to use for their tools on site as well. One of Jan's electricians is coming out this weekend to help install and then to sign all the work off.

Jan is also starting to agitate about moving out to the land sooner rather than later. I would like to get the term over before having to move, but I understand his haste; being there we can catch problems before they become problems. I will have to start investigating our communications options this week to see what the costs are.

With regard to my health, my suspicions about having had a minor stroke were entirely correct. The oncologist is getting me an appointment with the neurologist; and he is asking for that to be expedited. I didn't realise initially that my sense of smell had been hugely diminished, but it is now slowly coming back. He said that there are some areas of damage that showed up in the MRI that are consistent with a stroke in the brain areas controlling speech, vision and smell. I have to have some new cholesterol tests and some cardio tests as well before I see the neurologist. The oncologist has no idea what caused the stroke; whether it is a heart problem, a blood factor, a blocked artery, a brain problem or a migraine problem, but expects the neurologist to be able to eliminate some and dig into the others. He suggests that I take aspirin daily (which I am already doing) and drink plenty (which I already do too). Glad to know I am doing all I can on my own!

I have submitted my work for CAT 15 and the RPL for CAT 5. I am now halfway through CAT 4 for RPL as well, but will wait to put that in until I get feedback on CAT 5. It is now the holiday break, and if I can get some more work on CAT 4 done around sorting out the remainder of the house bits & bobs on my list (comms, quotes for the showers, documentation for the bank, sourcing tiles, and designing the shelving unit for the end of the lounge), that would be good. But I won't hold my breath.

Jan is now a permanent member of the Nelson Symphony Orchestra. They have their next concert on November 28th, called the Italian Job. Read all about it at http://www.nso.org.nz/. He has lots of new pieces to learn, and is currently procrastinating about his rehearsal schedule :-)

Warren's birthday in Chch was great; we caught up with pretty much everyone except Pat (who was away). We even got out to see Gary & Karen's new house. Jenny Ladley got us sorted on all our light fittings; the second place she had on our 'places to shop' list came up with the goods & we spent $4.5k buying everything we needed. FAN-tastic! We took half the gear home with us and are just waiting for the remainder of our shipment to arrive. Jan has also gone through the list of electrical gear with one of his electricians, and we picked up the first part of that gear this week and delivered it out to the land.

We had a great time last weekend in Wellington with Tina & Jeremy, Otto & Lara; we caught up with Hartmut & John, and Karen & Hui-Ping ferried us around to see three new houses; Doug & Morv's new place in the Hutt; Guy & Sonja's new build in Belmont; and Mike & Birthe's half-built house in Whitby. It was great, but we ran out of time & couldn't get out to Island Bay to see Sam & Moose. Next time :-(

We have had a couple of invites to some 40th birthday parties, which we are thinking about. Our aim was not to go anywhere else for the rest of the year, and concentrate on the build. We are going to sit down and work out the $ budget and the time budget for the rest of the year and see what we can come up with. We will be back to you all in due course!

And we are aiming for a housewarming in April; exact date to be advised. Again, we will keep you posted.

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson - September 2009

Hi all,

Well, we are getting ready to sign our contract with our builder - Glenn Grant - so we will be all underway in a couple of weeks. He is a local, a younger guy who is establishing his team, seems very energetic and determined to come in on price and on time. We'll see whether we manage to get both of those right! We have talked to some previous client of our builder's and they are completely satisfied with his work; so much so that they are about to sign him up for their next job (always a good sign).

I have had a bit of a health scare - I ended up in hospital overnight a couple of weeks ago, have had at CT scan & an MRI - but we still don't have a diagnosis of what actually happened. It started off like the precursors to a migraine, but didn't develop into the classic aura nor did I get a headache; my speech, sight and co-ordination got very dodgy so Jan took me up to the hospital. Initially when I had the attack, I pretty much couldn't talk - I couldn't think of the words - & had chunks of my sight missing. It was all a bit frightening. When they stood me up I fell over backwards which was a bit trippy. I suspect it was a minor stroke, but I can't get into see a neurologist until after I see the emergency doctor who admitted me to hospital - and I can't see him until the 28th of September - not to mention the fact that he is an oncologist and will then have to refer me on to the neurologist; and goodness only knows how long that will take. The neurologist in Nelson does not take private patients, so, in order to see someone faster than being referred by my 'admitting' doctor, I will have to find someone to see me privately in one of the main centres. And I have no idea of who has expertise in this area... it is amazing how much at the mercy of the medical profession we can be. My speech came back to 99% quite quickly; I was reasonably intelligible within an hour or so, but I am still saying the wrong words from time to time two weeks later. My sight seemed almost completely recovered by the following Monday, and now it is fine. I was still missing some patches after a week, but after 10 days it was normal.

I have finished CAT 15 bar one teaching observation by the course supervisor, and have my RPL almost ready to be submitted (I am just waiting for a couple of attestation letters to be able to submit that). I have got a lot of quiet study done over the past week, as the building project is starting a few weeks later than we thought.

Jan too has filled up his time with some busy-ness. He was asked last weekend if he would play for the Nelson Symphony Orchestra, as they were a viola short for the Young Soloists' concert they were giving this past Saturday night. So with only a week to prepare for nine pieces, he has done an awful lot of practice and been quite short of sleep! He took Friday off work to practice, which left him feeling much happier. They had four three hour rehearsals, so he had lots of time to get used to the viola section, and some of the orchestra members are common between the Greenhill and the Nelson Symphony.

I went to watch the concert on Saturday night, and it was really good; the young musicians who played were from around New Zealand and Australia, and the standard was quite high. There was one violinist who got a partial ovation; he was an exceptionally good musician - full of passion and skill.

Interestingly, the last time we went to see the Symphony play they were supporting Deidre Irons and were pretty dire. Lots of squeaky violins and sour notes. But we hadn't seen them for maybe five years and since then they have had a new conductor and now have a new first violin, who also plays with the Greenhill. The Symphony's standard is much improved on five years ago. Jan has been asked informally if he would like to join them (I hope he decides to - I think the higher standard of play would be really good for him).

It was Jan's birthday on Sunday and we celebrated on Saturday night after he got home from the concert with a glass of Aria Riesling, some Ritter Sport and a mystery movie (as we had forgone dinner out so he could play). I gave Jan his birthday present; an electronic picture frame with 8 gigabytes image capacity; I had spent a fair few hours scanning ten photo albums worth of images into memory for him to enjoy his photos on his desk at work (as he had been bewailing the fact that we don't make or look at photo albums any more). A neat solution having an electronic version that he can enjoy 'flicking through' any time he wants to, and add to at any time with ease.

On Sunday morning we headed out to the land to check on the power installation; we now have a meter box and plugs all ready to go. We just await a contract so the builder can plug in his gear. I spent some time burning some old client papers (a partial purge before we move) and Jan dug out a small slip on the road... we cruised on home, went for afternoon tea at Lambretta's with Max & Karen, Sandra & Kevin, Murray & Julie, Dawn & Martin, Mike, Mother & Father, & Uncle Norman; then we went to a Greenhill Orchestra BBQ out in Hope.

This week coming we have something on every night again, and are really looking forward to coming away to Christchurch for a rest on 11-13 for Warren's 40th and to make some electrical purchases for the new house.

Then we start building a house on the 21st. Then we are up in Wllg for the 25-28 (Otto's birthday).

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan