News from Nelson – August 2 2011

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is fit and well; Jan & I are fine here. I have just realised that neither of us has had a cold all winter – so we are bound to catch a spring one!

Fascinating weather pattern over Kiwiland in the past ten days – a massive cold snap came up from the Antarctic and hit every area of the country with snow, ice, road closures and accidents; except Nelson. We had a week’s worth of perfect weather, and hardly any frosts (light breezes through the nights kept the frost off). Blowed if I know how that worked when you see the photos & hear the stories coming in from the chaos elsewhere in the country.

My recovery slowed up; I stopped taking my iron tablets after I went back for my specialist’s follow-up appointment & got the all clear. Over the next couple of weeks, my energy levels started to drop & I got more tired. So I have gone back on them again & my energy has increased; so I guess I should stay on them for a bit longer!

The semester is going well. I have just over 150 students, and am managing OK thus far. I have a tutorial assistant to help with the marking on the big course, but hopefully will be able to manage the rest. Thank goodness for that month off and all the planning I managed to get done – it set me up for the rest of the semester.

Jan is really busy at work – he has lots of things on, and is feeling like he isn’t getting anywhere, which is hard for him. He is short staffed as he is trying to promote from within and his team are being slow to make the step-up decisions, so he is delayed in hiring the new people he needs. But some decisions were made last week, so I think he is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

We have managed to watch the Kiwi movie Stickmen twice in two weekends – we have been trying to get two sets of friends from here in the Moutere together for ages (Glenys & Kevin, Ziggy & Lib) to have a Kiwi movie night, and when we succeeded, one set weren’t able to make it, so we ended up with two sessions! Good nights, both of them, though. I could hear Jan reciting bits of the film the second time through.

Fliss turned eleven last weekend. She is so grey around the face now that she looks like she is wearing loads of black eyeliner. Even her eyelashes are white now – they look very fetching :-)

Bonnie & Coco are full of beans. I take them out for walks together every day, and Fliss walks by my side, while Bons & Coco hoon off, plaiting around each other, play fighting, leaping, running, racing, jumping. They both must do eat least three times the distance that Fliss & I do.

The view from the top of Christian's ridge from the top of Mt Arthur showing behind the Moutere Highway foothills to the start of the Southern Alps stretching away to the left below:

We have had internet problems here – for the past couple of weeks I have spent pretty much three days each week in Nelson as we have had no connectivity at home. I would get a minute or two’s connection, then it would drop off again. I didn’t realise just how much of my work is done using the internet as well as the PC; probably 1/3 is PC only, 2/3 is PC & internet. To fix the problem Jan has felled a corridor of the wilding pines in the satellite’s path, and that seems to have boosted our signal strength a bit. Then Jan took out a signal dampener & we seem to be staying on line OK now. Long may it last!

I still have half an assignment to finish – half of it is already complete, but the other half is an interview that has to be recorded, evaluated, reflected on & emailed. I have absolutely no interest in doing it! I felt that morally there was no way I was going to record a client interview; I wouldn’t even ask a client if they would be willing for me to do so. It just feels wrong. So I am stuck with doing a ‘simulated’ interview, and to record an hour’s worth of interview is going to take a lot longer than an hour. It is a big commitment to ask someone to bear with you while you sort out the technology, they will want briefing on why you are doing things, they will probably be nervous, we will need to test to make sure the recording is happening at the right levels, etc. So I am stuck with asking Jan to do it. And because neither of us really want to do it, I have been avoiding it for a month, dragging out finishing the Diploma.

I have started writing two new case studies though; one on leadership about Ray Anderson from Interface Inc, and the other on PR crisis management about Adidas’s perfect storm about the AB’s rugby jersey.

I now have a spec for my new PC – once I have some contract payments coming in, I will put my order in. Jan’s PC (my old one) has started mysteriously and unexpectedly shutting down, so Jan is looking forward to getting my current PC instead. Nothing like hand-me-downs!

The ‘new’ laptop is going well, though the battery doesn’t work at all. I have been looking on the web for a battery, and hopefully will find one for a reasonable price soon.

Jan & I went to see Mrs Carey's Concert at the Gecko Cinema in Motueka yesterday - a special screening for the NSO. What a cute little theatre the Gecko is, and what a fascinating film. Catch both when you have the time!

Right – I think that his all for now, aside from birthdays: Uta K, Oma Lieselotte, Jan, Hui-Ping, Rae T-H, Otto, Bob, Warren & Doug.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Energy Generation

Wow - today, when almost the whole of Kiwiland is in the grip of snow and ice, here in Nelson we have had one of our biggest PV generation days of the whole winter. Amazing.

I hope you are all keeping warm: Jeremy & Tina have even had snow in Karori!

Shame, Adidas!

Gouging, anyone? Adidas, sponsors of the All Blacks, has been supplying facsimile All Black jerseys to NZ retail chains; at a cost price higher than the shirt is being sold at retail elsewhere in the world. Adidas claims that this is to "recoup R&D on the All Black jersey"... but they don't sell real player jerseys. While the cut is the same, the fabric is different, so as to keep the technological advantage.

Further, why should Adidas penalise Kiwi rugby fans for the R&D that is part of Adidas' commercial sponsorship contract with the ABs? Why should Americans be able to buy the shirts for under half the NZ retail price ($90 vs $220)? 

So, shame, Adidas. You are sponsors entrusted with stewardship of a huge Kiwi icon. Don't give us bumpf about Kiwis needing to share your R&D cost for the jersey unless you want to sell us the real one (Yeah, right). Stop gouging, and remember that the ABs fans are part of the package that you sponsor; without the fans, the AB brand value will erode. 

 

Dogs - happy at home

Hi all,
A couple of photos of the dogs - they have such a TERRIBLE life of it, really :-)

News from Nelson – August 2011

Hi everyone,

Well, we have had snow since I talked to you all last – it only hung about for three days, but it was pretty surprising none-the-less. See photos below this posting for how pretty it was (nothing like knowing you won’t have to cope with it for long, it won’t be a mucky thaw and it won’t refreeze!).

I am recovering well from my surgery. I am back lecturing today, so the month off seemed to go pretty quickly. I go to see my specialist for my follow-up appointment tomorrow. Should be all OK – I feel good. Jan’s finger is slower to heal, but I think it is also doing as well as it should be. He keeps complaining about not being able to go to volleyball :-)

Over the past month I consumed about 15 books and 6 talking books. It was wonderful. I also got my papers for this semester pre-planned, all the materials printed and everything ready to start tomorrow. I have been in touch with a number of students, and will start to meet them all tomorrow too. I am ready to get back into it. However, I will make sure that my students carry all my printing for me.

Jan managed to get an old laptop through work that had died, and we swapped my crapped-out-laptop memory and hard drive into it, so I now have a laptop again. The next project is to get a new home PC, as this is one is four years old. Time for something newer & speedier; and I didn’t want to have to replace a PC and a laptop in the same year, really.

We missed Fleur & Neil’s party (significant birthday) because I didn’t think I would be able to do two hours over Takaka Hill to get there, then a few hours at the party, then two hours back again. Hopefully they all had a GREAT time. But we caught up with Kevin & Sandra for a LOVELY dinner at their place on the weekend. Jan was most impressed as he got to watch the Rugby (which he had completely forgotten about). All good all round.

Jan went with Kathleen, Frits & my Mum to the NSO a couple of weeks ago; they al really enjoyed the music.

Bonnie is great – all the dogs had baths and toenail-trims on Sunday, and she was so good. Fliss would have liked to have unscrewed her feet and have hidden them somewhere if at all possible, while Coco shrieked with every toenail we cut (wus). 

I am now on my last assignment for the DiCG. At last. So I have been taking a little break and doing some research for my Masters instead.

Speaking of Jan not being very motivated for his Certificate in Horticulture; he has decided to withdraw. He thought there would be a lot more practical show & tell stuff in it; he is not very interested in the theory. So he has gone to see the Programme Leader to explain. His brassicas seeds nearly all germinated though!

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Merrill, Moose, Julie C, Paul T, Mike W, Tessa W, Erik & Neil L.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young