Hi all,
Wow - I
can't believe the last month went by so fast!
We had a
fantastic time on holiday. Paris was fab - we would definitely recommend the
tiny apartment we had to anyone. Close to the Louvre, 200m from the Chatalet
metro hub, well supported by a neighbourhood supermarket, greengrocer,
patisseries, great restaurants; just perfect. We walked pretty much everywhere.
Hot, but not too hot, and lovely fine weather.
Germany.
Wow - how do you pack three weeks of holiday into a paragraph... Kenzigen,
Freiburg, Ulm, Eppingen, Polheim, Treysa, Edersee, Langen, Frankfurt - all
fantastic. Jan got to spend some time with both of his grandmothers, who were
both very, very pleased to see him. There is so much to thank everyone for -
our stay was made so easy by the efforts of the whole family. It was wonderful
to catch up; we were so well hosted by everyone, starting with Rainer &
Regina, by Eberhard, Uta, Oli & Katrin & the Paechs, by Andreas and
Katrin, by Holger, Katalin, Achim and Katrin (ably assisted by Heidi, Buddy
& Julia), by Eberhard, Thomas and Bettina, by Simone and Michael. Eberhard
organised a wonderful hosted three day family weekend at Edersee starting with
Thomas' birthday party on the Friday night at Waldeck, followed by a gathering
at Thomas & Bettina's house at the Edersee on Saturday night and completed
by a trip to Peterskopf on Sunday. Most of the family was there, so we got to
see everyone we hadn't seen already, and some of those whom we had seen, again
(we also got to see Gerhard & Claudia at Oma Friedel's). I got some
targeted shopping in, thanks to Uta, Andreas and Justine and Gareth! We had a
good catch up with Justine & Gareth - and I got to have a play on Gareth's
new iPad (very styley!). Freiburg was a really interesting city to visit, and
Justine & Gareth had made a great choice of hotel. However, Germany was
boiling. Four to ten degrees hotter than Paris - and it got hotter as time went
on... that didn't encourage us to be too active, though we tried.
I was
trying to think if there were a few highlights of the trip - and I can't settle
on a few. The whole holiday was just great - if anything, my overwhelming impression
is one of warmth. Warmth from everyone we spent time with, all of whom hosted
us so wonderfully, took care of us and treated us as though we were special
people. It was pretty humbling.
So; thank
you ALL for making our holiday such a wonderful experience. We had the very
best time, and would dearly love to host you in return in New Zealand, if and
when you come.
So we got
back after a long but uneventful flight - a bit longer than it should have been
as we first made up time, then seemed to have a new delay on every leg;
thunderstorm at Frankfurt, reboarding through a different gate in Dubai,
someone in our park in Bangkok, something else in Sydney. We missed our
connecting flight to Nelson, but we were booked on the next one easily enough.
We were met at Christchurch by Tracey & Erica to take any luggage we were
overweight on, but AirNZ was kind to us & pushed everything through. So we
had coffee instead!
We got
home to 3 degrees, hot pumpkin soup, and the fire going. Magda had done a great
job of literally keeping the home fires burning while we were away :-)
And now
we are back into the swing of things again. Jan is still battling tiredness,
but I have slotted back in quite well (surprisingly).
Our
current project is to get our Code of Compliance from the Council, so we had a
meeting with the builder & the architect this week. The builders still have
to duct in the range hood and install the stainless steel backing for kitchen
hob, and fix another couple of things that the architect has flagged. We still
have to permanently fix the gas bottle outside, finish the exterior lighting
and hook up the other 23,000 litre water tank.
Kathleen
& Frits came out to visit us last weekend, which was great. They brought
lunch, and we had a very relaxing afternoon in their company. They are off on
holiday soon - flying to Melbourne for a few days with their daughter Amy, then
onto Rome, then taking the train to Vienna, and on to Amsterdam. It sounds as
though they will have a wonderful time too.
Jan is
now one of my students (his work is being marked by another tutor). He told one
of his colleagues at work that "She seems to know what she is talking
about". Nice recommendation! For my CAT qualification I will be completing
my last assessment on one unit next week (review panel participation), and I
have had my proposal approved for my management case studies, which I have
started pulling together.
Today I
chair the first of my Founders Heritage Park Committee meetings, which will be
good. It is a strategic planning workshop which will be really useful.
Jan's
cousin Oli has the whole photo thing sorted. He has a great website that he
uploads photos to for sharing, and has such a good eye and camera that his
images are as good as they need to be right after the click. I have already
downloaded some of Oli's great shots of the weekend at Edersee. I have been
trying to edit and stitch all our photos from our trip, but I simply have not
had enough time. I have done some of them, but still need to spend another whole
day going through them. Not sure when I will have time for that. As soon as I
do, I need to send a CD to Justine & Gareth as they have sent me one of
their shots... as well as post a couple here every newsletter of the good ones.
We are
expecting our next weekend to be full of house-oriented things... a change is
as good as a rest, they say :-)
Take care
& alles liebe!
Sam & Jan
