News from Nelson - October 2 2011

Hi everyone,

Seeing as I haven’t heard anything to the contrary, I will assume that everyone is keeping fit and happy. Both of us have managed to avoid having winter colds (as it is now spring, I can say that with all confidence!).

Well, we are managing to get some jobs ticked off our work list for the CoC. We have ghastly batten-holder lights up in the lounge to tie off the electrical cables (Jan still needs to order the lights we want, so this gives him time to do that – but I have given him a twelve month deadline!), smoke detectors installed, we are currently making a storage box for our gas cooker bottle, our porch is painted and our outside lights are up. We still have some work to do on putting our cables underground for the water tank pump, and a couple of other things, but we are well on track.

Jan’s new Mechanical Engineer seems to be pretty good but he still hasn’t filled the Electrical Engineer’s role. I have suggested a few strategies which he is studiously ignoring at the moment.

We have planted a lovely Kowhai and some flaxes alongside the garage, but have yet to find a suitable Pohutukawa. However, we have planted some beetroot, potatoes, tomatoes and lettuces, so we are getting our summer food on track. We have had a couple of rhubarb harvests already, and it is growing fantastically.

Frits came out last weekend and  stayed overnight (Kathleen is in North America at a couple of conferences). Tessa came to visit over the weekend (she is enjoying her study in Auckland, but misses the South Island). John is still with us, and cooking up a storm.

We went to the Sprig & Fern in Motueka to see all the All Blacks games for the World Cup – the beers are fabulous, and the pub has a great atmosphere. My favourite tipple is a ½ pint of Fern Dark. It used to have a much nicer name though: Wobbly Boot! For the life of me, I have no idea why they would have changed such an iconic name!

Over the weekend we went to the Ngatimoti Fair. The fair is out in the middle of the wop-wops and it was PACKED. We saw Bill there with one of his antique bikes. He & Cornish are almost ready to start building. We also saw Robbie & Janet (and Mac & Fergus), and a number of other acquaintances from Nelson.

We have just had the study break – I spent most of the time writing exams for the papers I am teaching, and getting organised to teach summer school.

My last assignment for the Diploma in Career Guidance has been marked, so I am now officially finished. Yay. My first Exec meetings for the National Executive of the Career Development Association is coming up in a couple of weeks, on the on 13 & 14 November. Jan is staying in Nelson.

I have taken in my supervisor’s amendments for my Masters pre-proposal, which has now been approved. Now I just need to get my registration done, and I can get on with it. Since I wrote last, I have also written a case study on 42 Below Vodka, and a chance buy at the Ngatimoti Fair has landed me with a copy of Mark Todd’s autobiography, so I feel an equestrian Olympic team captain case study coming on. Again, if anyone has any info on Mark or the 1988 NZ Equestrian Olympic Team (Seoul), please flick it through.

Christmas plans are firming up – Tina has got us well organised now. We should have a great time. Jan & I are also coming up to Welly on Dec 3, 4 & 5, so if anyone is around, please let us know; we would love to see you.

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing all of October’s birthday people a wonderful coming year: Hartmut; Morv, Marjie, Uncle Norman, Dawnie, Lara & Justine.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – October 2011

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is fit and well? We are keeping in good shape.

After raking the gravel on the building site and losing my pedometer, I bought a new one. Some days I get to 10,000 daily steps, but only a couple of days a week on average. However, I have certainly noticed that the very fact of having it is increasing my walking; and my average is increasing.

Jan’s new role as Engineering Manager is just starting to look a bit better; he had a new Mechanical Engineer starting yesterday, and has an ad out at present for a new Electrical Engineer. The applicants thus far for the Electrical position haven’t been that crash hot though.

Jan also had a concert last weekend, a Children’s Concert of the Nutcracker. He got really tired with rehearsal three nights last week, and then playing all day Saturday (three performances). However, he found that the music was quite easy to play, and the children really enjoyed it.

We had some compost delivered last week, which we were hoping to spread north of the garage to plant a pohutukawa and some flaxes in, and to fill some raised garden beds that we will create out of sleepers. However, it rained on us on Sunday when we were about to get started, so it will have to wait until next weekend now. We definitely needed the rain though.

Jan & I haven’t been anywhere much but we have had a few visitors here since I wrote last; Kathleen & Frits came out last weekend; Bill & Cornish came out to see what we have done with our house as they are about to start building; Hui-Ping was down for a weekend and we caught up with her for a lunch with Murray & Julie and again with Bill & Cornish; and Robbie & Janet called in with Mac & Fergus on their way home a couple of weekends ago. John has been staying for a couple of weeks since his return from Europe, so we still have Bon dog with us.

My students are going well too - the projects are coming through well. I am currently working on adapting a course to the online environment, which is really interesting. I had a TALO – teaching and learning observation – done a couple of weeks ago by another lecturer at NMIT. I was very pleased with the feedback; basically my observer thinks my teaching is pretty spot on. I whizzed that feedback onto the Head of School!

And – whoohoo! – I have finally finished my last Diploma in Career Guidance assignment. The whole thing is finally done, dusted and sent. I just need to wait now in case there are any marker queries. It is WONDERFUL to have it done. However, as a by-product of having completed the DiCG, and some of the flags that I have raised about it, I have been asked to step onto the National Executive of the Career Development Association. I am up in Wellington for my first Exec meeting on 13 & 14 November. All good.

My Masters’ supervisor has sent through some amendments for my one page pre-proposal already, which I was hoping to get done this weekend just gone. Unfortunately I ended up doing other things like GST and bookwork instead. However, it is on my list, so will get done before this weekend.

My Adidas’s perfect PR storm case study is nearly complete. Once done, I will also write another version from a leadership point of view. I am also thinking about doing a case study on Ruth Aitken, now that she is retiring (so if anyone has any info on Ruth, I would love to see it).

Tina has had a plagued recovery from her surgery; she ended up back in hospital with an infection. That made me feel very lucky about my recovery. I am still getting tired at the end of each week, but it is no longer the total collapse that I was feeling on a Friday night.

We were going to put Montrose Drive back on the market, but our tenants told us that they would like to stay for another year. With the housing market being so flat, we were VERY happy to keep such great tenants for another year, and to put the sale back another year.

Christmas should be a great affair this year, with Tina, Jeremy, Lara, Otto, Tanja, Lars and Tanja’s friend Adrian coming down to our place. My folks will come out on the day for a lunchtime barbecue along with Uncle Norman, my brother Mike and his fiancé Donna. We have also put the offer out to Donna’s family, if they would like to join us for a very low key afternoon. Lara has already put in her request for a real Christmas tree, so Jan & I will have to go and select a good wilding pine to bring the smell of Christmas tradition into the house.

Magda has just bought a new car, a Nissan Wingroad, after fifteen years of driving her old Sentra. She is so excited about it! Ooo, electric windows – whizz –whizz – whizz –whizz! Ooo. Central locking – click – click – click – click.

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing all of October’s birthday people a wonderful coming year: Bertie, Guy, Barb, Kell, Erica, Julie T, Trace and Hartmut.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young