News from Nelson - January 2018

Hi everyone!
We kicked off the New Year with our traditional New Year's Eve BBQ... which finished after 3am on the 1st of January 2018. We slept almost until midday after that! Even Boo and Bonnie didn't stir for breakfast at 7am. We had a fairly small turn-out this year, but the neighbours were total stayers, bless them! There wasn't much to clean up as before we hit the hay, I had had run the dishwasher once while I tidied the place up, got the recycling ready to go out, then loaded it again when we went to bed, and had the last load ready to go in when we got up. New Year's day was a lovely day too: we took the dogs for a nice long walk.

Murray and Leigh came around at 4pm on New Year's day for afternoon tea with Lexie and Isaac… they played pool, and we chatted for a couple of hours before they headed back to their rental to get ready for the return to Christchurch tomorrow. Nadine is currently staying at our place, and Nane is now taking the current tour with John.

Then on the 4th, we hopped in the car for our first road trip of the year, along with my Mum: heading off to Dunedin for my cousin Sarah's wedding. My Aunt from Christchurch and my sister both came as well, so it turned into a bit of a minor family reunion, which was really good. Nadine kindly house and dog-sat while we were away. We had a lovely trip down to Christchurch, and had lunch at the Nor’Wester Café in Amberley before going to visit Erik and Jacky and meeting our soon to be new puppy, Finn. After that we cruised in to stay with Jenny, who is in very good form. My Mum stayed with Diana. We caught up with Gary and Karen, and Jan caught up with an ex-DHB colleague in the cafe at Moeraki Beach on the way down. The trip the next day to Dunners was pretty uneventful, and we got to check out Warren's place, which is brilliant! He has done so much to the place already. It is light-years more organised than our place, and we have been here coming up eight years... <sigh>. Erica was staying, so we got to see her as well.

The wedding in Dunedin was great: though the weather was not very co-operative. The ceremony was held out at Wal's Plantland in Mosgiel, with the reception just on the other side of Mosgiel, in a local hall. Sarah and Allan's friends had done a great job of decorating the hall, with everyone doing a little, to share the work around and make the day easy for them.

 

We also got taken up in some wee two seater planes for a scenic flight from Taeiri Areoclub by Geoff and his mate Gerard. We had a blast, with Geoff trusting Jan enough to fly his baby. We went out over Port Otago and Larnach's Castle and it was wonderful.

And below you can see bits of our flight from Taeiri along the Otago Peninsular and back. It is almost ten minutes long as I made this for myself, so I remember it!

All in all a great trip. Except on our first night in Dunedin we got a call from Nadine to say that Bonnie was unable to put any weight on her hind leg, and didn't want to eat, move, or otherwise. John was away with his tour, we were at the other end of the country. We got Nadine to call the vet, and she contacted a good friend of John's who knows Bonnie well to go with her. The vet rang me after she had seen Bonnie, and said that she had broken her knee from the weight of the tumour on her hind leg. It was time. She was in her 13th year: not bad for a dog with a heart murmur and a very malignant tumour. And full of joy for all but the last day of her life. So very sad though. And terrible for all the main people in her life to be away, and to not be able to say a last goodbye.

Aside from that terrible news, Finn is doing well, and settling in with Boo. She began with a face like "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest" (Henry II 1133–89 about Thomas Becket, Ratcliffe, 2006) and has now shifted into resigned mode. Even sometimes now moving into running interference mode: when Finn is getting told off, she pushes in to protect him. She is such a nutter when considering the amount he hangs off her lips, ears and cheeks. She should, by rights, simply abandon him to his just desserts. 

Finn is not that conducive for good PhD writing (which is what I am supposed to be doing!), but he is a joy to have. He has certainly helped to fill in the huge gap left by Bonnie.

Jan is back at work, and I am trying to write. NMIT starts again at the end of February, and I want to get a lot more done before then. All my prep is complete, and my supervisory team is ready to go, so hopefully things won't be too difficult this year.

Our new couch arrived two and a half weeks early (thanks Smith's City) and so now we have it. The really strange thing is that the one we saw in the shop was less... 'bouffant' than this one. I guess from all the bums on seats the couch had packed down a bit, whereas our one is still pretty puffy. We need to apply some serious backsides to this to flatten it out to our expectations! I don't think I have ever said that before about something new...

We had a BBQ down at Miranda's at number 99 on the road, which was a lovely way to spend a glorious summer afternoon. We got a date for Cards Against Humanity out of that session, and found out about a huge eucalypt that had come down on Zig & Lib's place, which Jan could get enough wood out of to make an outdoor seat.

Erica, Tracey and H came around to dinner one night and brought Ollie. They got to eat the scraps of the BBQ, and even Finn got the hang of how to sit politely for Erica.

An ex-workmate of Jan's gave us some tomatoes that weren't quite ripe yet. I lay them out on the rug inside the sliding doors in the lounge to redden up, and once done, I bottled 22 litres of tomato puree. It was a race between me and the puppy, as the tomatoes just fitted nicely in his mouth, so, if not carefully watched, he kept stealing them and taking them outside to chew (obviously much nicer mouth feel than the actual toys we have lying everywhere!).  I need to find some more tomatoes as ours have hardly grown this year, and I do like tomato soup in winter.

Jan won second prize in the Sarau Festival jam competition this year, with another crack at blackcurrant and lime. But it was a bit too firm, and he knew that when he entered, but still got placed pretty well. We caught up with Jan and Renate, Killian and Sarah, spent lots of time with Sue, saw Gary and Nicki, had a brew with a few of the neighbours, and generally had a great time.

The sunsets and sunrises continue to give us much to be grateful for, even out of a zippy wee car on the way home from the fair.

Back to you all next month

Sam (& Jan)

• Ratcliffe, S. (2006). Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (5th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.