News from Nelson - December 2017

Hello everyone,
I hope you all had a lovely time with your whānau over the break!

When we came back through Aussie on our way home, we came through Christchurch airport, and saw Sue, a friend of ours... so teed up a catch up before Christmas. Jenny flew up to Nelson on the same night, and John was there too so we had a good catch up dinner. Except we over-cooked the fish and ended up with something that resembled kippers! Most entertaining, and will be forgotten by no one, I am sure!

Had the CDANZ end of year function, and nearly got a migraine driving home, but salt and water saw it off. I also ate some avocado when I got home (high in potassium) to ensure it stayed gone. It is staggering how easy it is to get rid of migraines, just through food. No drugs necessary.

NMIT's graduation went off well, now back in the Trafalgar Centre, with everyone all together. It has taken three years for the earthquake strengthening work to be completed, but it is done at last. It was lovely to see the students who have been working hard for three years gaining their undergraduate degrees. A day of celebration - though the street parade is darned hot in a cashmere gown in 25 degree heat!

Jan has started his new job with Port Nelson, and appears to be enjoying it so far. Time will tell, but it seems like they have a good culture. He will work through most of the break, but he had organised the time off to go to Dunedin before accepting the job, so at least will have had three mini breaks within three months. Then it will be a long haul through until he has leave again, at Christmas 2018. We are thinking about a holiday to Europe then, though. Providing he doesn't change jobs again, we should manage that this time!

We took Nadine into town for lunch at the Suter and looked at the exhibitions that were on. There was a great wall exhibition from Katie Gold that really were wall flowers. Gorgeous. We walked through the gardens, then came home.A lovely, lazy day. We caught up with Gary at the Upper Moutere pub, who was here from Port Headland for a couple of days. He came around to  our place for dinner, and we had a good catch up, on the same evening that John got back from Aussie. We have a house-full once more!

It has been dry and hot for six weeks (in fact, we left Brisbane at 31 degrees, and came back to 31 degrees in Christchurch!), but at last we had some rain. We watched the clouds gather, and then the thunderstorm started over Nelson way.

We had 17mm in a couple of hours, but despite a bit more drizzle, it wasn't enough to wet the soil more than a centimetre down. Thank goodness for having so much water supply - our tanks were three quarters full before the rain started, and full once the rain was over :-)

We will have a new addition to the family early next year: a boxer dog puppy we are calling Finn. When we go down to Sarah & Allan's wedding in January, we pick Finn up on the way home. Eric bred Libby and Finn is the sole result of the litter. Expensive lot of AI that was!

Nadine is going to house- and dogsit Boo and Bonnie while we go south with my Mother for the wedding, and to pick up Finn on our way back. The one thing I am wondering about is that our new couch and our new puppy arrive in the same month. I am hoping that these two things don't intersect in a bad way!

Barb came to stay for a week over Christmas, which was great. She left on New Year's eve. And, as you can see, we went all out on the Christmas decorations (the piece underneath is a pottery paua sculpture by Owen Bartlett):

Tessa and Izzy came down as well. Mr Busy Izzy had a good time, even though things were a bit spartan. We did have a tree – Jan cut down a pine tree which I had selected for early culling (growing on top of the septic tank!) and brought it in to decorate it for Izzy. Iz also got very attached to the only plastic present that he received: a batman mask and some kind of daggery thing (no idea about Batman - always thought his tights looked ridiculous). Christmas lunch was at our place with only nibbles, which was great. Tessa did a lovely platter of veges which got hoovered in double-quick time. We didn’t drink much (getting through just over one bottle of bubbles between us). No huge amounts of food, no one bloated and sleeping on the couch, and the fridge looking normal.

Izzy did the present allocation, which was quite fun in itself: and this year the theme was recycling. Regifting abounded, and then people swapped regifted presents as well. It was quite fun, and I think we all redistributed some stuff. However, we the family collectively got my Mother a fitbit to record her heart rate for the cardiologist - aside from things for Izzy, this was the only 'traditional' Christmas gift. We have stripped the commercialism out of this family time now, though it has taken us a good number of years to get there.

Jan made boysenberry jam after everyone went home from some of last year's fruit in the freezer, so at last we are getting some freezer space back. Jan, Barb and I all went for a late walk down the hill with the dogs to enjoy the sunset and some cooler temperatures.

We had a few lunches out as a family while everyone was here, with the traditional ice cream sundae (my Father always had one, so someone now carries on the tradition). Izzy ate part of the one below, delivered as plain vanilla ice cream, without nuts, sauce or sprinkles, so somewhat less sickening than usual Only the sundae glass and the wafer made it anything like a sundae, really.

Tessa starts her psychology degree at the University of Auckland in Semester 2 next year, which will challenge both her and Izzy: and be good for them both.

My last MOOC for the year, l'Ecole Polytechnique’s  How to Write a Scientific Paper, on the  Coursera platform, is now complete. This was a very useful course as it taught me a lot about writing my cover letter and how to ensure my artwork was correct, and all the appropriate declarations. As a result, I finally got one of my articles complete and submitted to the Australian Journal of Career Development. Now I just have to wait to find out if it is accepted for review, or if it is a desk reject. Hopefully the former after all the hours and hours of work, and twelve full rewrites...

Two of my NMIT office colleagues have just retired, which will make next semester very interesting indeed. It won't be the same without Ellie and Chris.

The rest of summer will be PhDing... and enjoying lots of dog walks.

We end this newsletter with our Christmas message. Have a safe and happy season!



Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - July 2017

Hello everyone!
Another month rolls around, and here we are again.

First of all we had Joan's 80th birthday at the Boathouse, on the wildest, stormiest day of the year. Because we were in Nelson, we were out when our creek flooded and cut off the houses on the Road. We missed it completely: had no idea when we came home that the creek had been raging away.

Part of the problem was that the Council had been prepping a ford, as they were about to replace the bridge at the bottom of our road. Their contractors had put in a temporary ford for us to cross while the new bridge was going in. When I looked at the culvert pipes on the way home on Friday night, I realised that they were miles too small, and that one rain would overwhelm them. Well, it ended up being a bit of a debacle as the torrential rain we had on the Saturday certainly did that: there was no ford left after the rain. Of course, the undersized culverts in the temporary ford was part of the reason that the road higher up became impassible. However, water will find a way, and the force of the backlog pushed all the fresh earthworks out of its path: one of the culvert pipes was found half a kilometre downstream.

Aside from that excitement, the 80th birthday party went well. Despite the terrible weather about 40 of us were warm and snug at the Boathouse, well fed, with lots of chat and catch ups. The family set up in the morning, Mike staffed the BBQ as Jan had only had surgery 10 days before, the Lionesses did the salads, and Barb organised a spectacular cake.

The one difficulty was in packing up afterwards: I had far too few plastic containers to pack things away in to transport home again. I have made a mental note to remember to take LOTS more next time!

The next day 'the gang', my parents group of friends, came out to Rose Road for a BBQ, to eat the leftovers (everyone had had strict instructions to bring NOTHING). A fabulous way of getting rid of lots of food from yesterday’s Boathouse shindig, and a great afternoon.

As I mentioned in last times' newsletter, my Mother ended up in hospital with a lung infection. I turned up to visit her just as her lung specialist was explaining that "with congestive heart failure this type of thing happens", which was a "$#^%?!" moment. I explained that she had been waiting to see a cardiologist to get a diagnosis since January, and the lung specialist said he would speak to the cardiology nurse and get my mother into the system. He did, and she now is in the system. Crikey. I am so glad that I came in when I did. She finally got to see a cardiologist, and the prognosis seems pretty good. She has a clear plan of action to work to, and I will attend her future appointments as an extra pair of ears, and to ensure that her case continues to be pushed forward.

Jan has recovered really well from his surgery, and in mid-July got the sign-off to return to work. He has been very careful in what he is doing, and has been slowly working up to full use. The specialist is very happy, but has warned him that he really needs to give everything a year to properly bed in before he can really relax and go back to 'normal'.

As Jan was getting signed off to return to work, I headed off across the Tassie for a PhD induction and a meeting with my supervisors. I flew out of Auckland on the Wednesday. When I arrived in Brisbane close to midnight, the airline had left my luggage behind in Auckland. This was because my flight out of Nelson had been delayed by an hour and a half due to bad weather around the rest of the country delaying inbound aircraft... Dunedin had hail, Queenstown had snow, Christchurch had fog, Wellington had a wild windy storm, and Auckland had rain. Nelson was fine, but the inbound aircraft was delayed by an hour and a half. While Jan and I were waiting at the airport, we were sitting at a table next to a South African couple, who were talking about the delay to the flight, and I realised that they too were flying to Brisbane. I talked to them about it, and when we boarded a plane at long last, they were sitting on the row opposite me. We asked the crew to radio ahead to let them know we were on our way. We arrived at Auckland domestic terminal with 35 minutes to get from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, and down to gate nine right at the end of the international terminal. I just made it as they were doing the final call for passengers. Funnily enough, I sat with the South African couple all the way across to Brisbane.

I had anticipated having enough time to get to dinner, and to go through duty-free, and get a combination Wi-Fi hub and charge unit. Epic fail there! Luckily I had a peanut stash in my handbag. But dammit, my checked luggage didn't make it. So I spent two days in the same clothes until Brisbane airport services reunited me with my gear. At least it was delivered to the door!

Tanja and Tony were awesome to stay with: they couldn't have been more helpful! Hotel Kuwilsky is alive and well in QLD! Tony lent me his travel card, which made it really easy to take buses and trains from Brisbane down to the Gold Coast. It’s the same as the Oyster card, or the Snapper card, with a tap and go function. I am going to buy my own, as I think this will be very useful for what is likely to become regular trips.

The PhD sessions were really useful. I have a Griffith ID card, got to see around the Gold Coast and the Nathan Campuses, and get a feel for the place. I really like it, and the culture. I learned some useful things, and have started to build a network - including a study group. I have a 'discipline librarian' (hilarious title!) who, funnily enough, turns out to come from Wellington.  I also attended a poster competition, which was interesting to see. There is an awful lot of VERY poor design with the posters, but there were some really good ones that I took some shots of below.

While I was away, Warren had arrived. After picking me up at Nelson airport, Jan, Warren and I called in to see Michelle and Margot, who were having a Rose Road midwinter party at their place. Jan and Warren had made marzipan horns, rounds of cucumber with cheese and ham, and taken basil and feta cheese dip with carrot crudités... that was a very nice dinner! Warren caught up with Erica, before flying on to Wellington for a Monday morning meeting.

We caught up with Dawn, who is happy, but is battling fibromyalgia. We spent a wonderful afternoon telling war stories and having lots of laughs... which reminded all of us how important it is to get together regularly!

Jan has had a graduated return to work which has worked really well. Although he was impatient to get back - as he was bored at home - I think he found himself more tired than expected at the end of each week. That makes the graduated return to work even more sensible. He is absolutely fine physically and mentally though, and gets out brushcutting every chance he gets.

He will be starting rehearsals for the next NSO concert next month, and has been asked to go back on the NSO committee. He is thinking about it.

Jenny Ladley was up in Nelson and we caught up with her for dinner, which was really nice... though the reasons she was here wasn't so good: a death in the broader whanau. Note that Jan had the briefing finger out while he was explaining the pertinent points of working for the Government at dinner.

Uncle Norman got hospitalised with a gastro bug, but is now back in the nursing home. I didn't go to see him after my trip away because of the possibility of having brought back a bug on the plane, neither has my mother been able to see him because she got another cold, then the hospital trip. Not a good month for visits.

Semester two is underway, and I am off to a much smoother start than last semester. This time we knew ahead of time that there were close to 50 research students, and there were two other supervisors from last semester to step in and know the ropes. With only one supervisor to onboard, it has been much easier. I am teaching a new AUT paper that is not well-resourced as yet, but I am organising that week by week instead of having it all ready to go at the start (an approach that I am struggling with, but am aware that I need to do it that way or else burn out!).

I have been writing a couple of articles for submission to peer reviewed journals. NMIT's research department suggest that NMIT researchers work with two emeritus profs who have moved to Nelson to retire, and who like to be paid in coffee (now there's a deal I approve of!). I have had a couple of meetings with Prof Bevan Grant about some work I am doing, and he suggested that I needed to get help in writing professionally, which took me back a bit at first. However, knowing he wasn't telling me this for no reason, I had a scout online, and found an English writing programme on FutureLearn, “English for University Study” from the University of Reading. As this is a self-paced three part MOOC, I completed the first unit fairly quickly (the whole thing took about 6 hours), and have signed up for round two, and for another course with Berkeley, on the edX platform. I have learned some things that I didn't know existed (such as topic sentences) which has, I think, made my academic writing more clear. The Prof was right, of course :-)

We had a wonderful mid-winter Christmas celebration at Rose Road with Kathleen & Frits, Amy, and Phil and Pauline. A fabulously easy weekend of laughter, conversation and relaxation. I wish I had taken some photos!

Magda and David are off to live in QLD in November, sadly... but they will also be there to visit when I pop across to Griffith. And speaking of that, Jan & I are both going across at the end of November/beginning of December for ten days.

Again, we have had some lovely views to enjoy:

Lara is coming to stay for a few days in October, which will be fabulous. Looking forward to it already!

Hope all of you have a wonderful month, and I will be back to you in September.


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - February 2017

Hi everyone,
We hope all of you are in good health.

My father is still not well, and was in and out of hospital until the third week of this month. Once he got out, we have had a family conference at the Doctor's surgery to decide on our next steps. We are going to take the Hospice route of palliative care, as opposed to the Hospital route, where they are constantly running tests and trying to repair the unrepairable. My sister came up, which was great, so we were all there as a family to talk about everything (including my Father, of course). We have had a good talk about what will happen, and when, and built in choices for him.

Jan went to the specialist to get an opinion on his hips. He has been getting a lot of right hip pain, and, despite being on humira, the pain hasn't settled down. He was rather shocked to be told by the specialist that he needs two hip replacements. He thought that he would be nowhere near that bad yet, and was thinking that this would mean that he would need to have both hips done again before he meets his end.

But as the specialist said: each year there is only an extra 1% chance of needing another hip replacement: so in thirty years, there is only another 30% chance of a second replacement; or a first replacement. So why put up with pain now?

Good point. So we have tentatively booked in for the week following Easter for the first operation, and hope to have the second one done in June. Then he should be all set for the following thirty years :-)

Jan has been going to men's yoga in the Upper Moutere village, with Jan Cools. They both seem to enjoy it. Jan also has a pre-hab plan from Claire to help strength and flexibility prior to him having his first hip replacement. A great idea to prepare before surgery.

I have officially accepted my place at Griffith, which is great, though I do have to go for a post-graduate 'induction' session in July. Although I have tried to get them to video link it, to record it and upload it, or to allow me to Skype in, the admin team remain obdurate that all post-graduate students must attend in person. The sessions before July are all when I have teaching on, so I am hoping that the timing of the July session will fit in before the start semester two. Fingers crossed too that Jan's surgery goes well, and he is OK for me to leave when I have to hop across the Tassie.

I have been writing a piece on how long it would take a non-digitally competent person to learn enough digital skills to be work ready. This has been a fascinating piece of secondary research to do. Basically, no one has any real idea of how long it should 'reasonably' take the average person to learn a set of skills... which is staggering. So I am trying to put something together. I am nearly finished draft one. Two professors emerita have retired to Nelson, and have offered their services to NMIT. I have tapped into that, and am regularly asking for advice - simply for the price of a good coffee. Talk about epic value for money  :-)

Have fallen in love with Fluevog shoes, and have bought two pairs so far. Below are the flower patterned boots. I also have some cobalt blue boots which are gorgeous.

We had a few lovely catch-ups at the Upper Moutere Tavern this month, al fresco dining: with Sharon, Ian, David & Sue; and with Gary & Sandra; and with my folks. It was also my parents 57th wedding anniversary, which we managed to celebrate with a lunch for twenty of their friends in Richmond.

Barb was here for a few days while we were sorting out family things, and for my folks' wedding anniversary. She has started knitting me dreadlocks - or dreaddocs, as I am calling them - to be worn under my doctoral bonnet on/after graduation. The idea is to not take the whole thing to seriously. There is a PhD at NMIT who wears her doctoral bonnet with Christmas decorations hung off it, and I love that irreverence. My dreaddocs look disgusting, but will be so much FUN!

 

  

Had dinner at Nahm with Kevin & Sandra, which was lovely, including a spectacular view of a cruise ship exiting the harbour while we were waiting to order. 

Tracey, Erica and Jenny came around one weekend and we made Kesundi sauce and pureed and bottled tomatoes. A very productive weekend.

Had the usual spectacular sunsets and sunrises:

Hope to be in touch as the year progresses

Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - October 2 2014

Hi everyone,
Here I am again.

Jan has been on a week long residential course in Christchurch. He caught up with Jenny & Bertie while down there, and has come back with lots of plans for work: so all good... provided he gets time to implement what he wants to, and doesn't get road-blocked too much.

While he was away, I revamped my website and got my marks back for my Master's (A). All good. Had a few storms go through, but most haven't touched us here in the Moutere:

Roses Road looking east, storm going along the Nelson ranges, Oct 2014

A couple of weekends ago, Jan had a concert with the Greenhill Community Orchestra at the Stoke Memorial Hall, which my Mum and I attended on the Sunday (photo of the rehearsal below). Warren swung by on Saturday and we gave him a hand to first load a trailer-load of his farm gear that he had been storing on our wetland, and to then off-load it at his place on Sunday. We even got dinner for our efforts (always stellar if I don't have to cook!).

Greenhill Rehearsal at Stoke Memorial Hall, Oct 2014

Labour weekend we went to three of the Nelson Arts Festival shows: Black Faggot, White Cloud and Davinia Caddy. Of the three sessions, Black Faggot was the most powerful, but White Cloud the most enjoyable. I was thinking, on our way home from seeing White Cloud, that there is probably nowhere else on the planet where you can go to a tiny provincial theatre and have one of your nation's music legends play music and tell conversational stories about their childhood and family. It felt like we were being hosted in Tim Finn's living room. Black Faggot was confrontational, full of pathos, funny and thought-provoking all at once. Both these shows were absolutely stellar.

Davinia Caddy was good, and, as this lecture was held in the Granary Festival Café, we enjoyed a good coffee and a stonking chocolate chip biscuit while listening. We also caught up with Derek Sherwood for a good chat (and briefly with Kate between her performances).

All in all, a great labour weekend. Jan even managed to fell some trees, and I got a chunk of marking done. Jan has been very busy in the garden, and has recycled an old door from Nelson Pine as cloches:

John Fitz returns in a couple of weeks, bringing with him Jan's new bike, a Triumph Tiger:

Jan's new bike: Triumph Tiger 800, 2014 Reg

Barb has been in the US (Maryland) for a few weeks, visiting Joe and his family, and got some great photos at Montego Bay & on Assateauge:

Barb showing us this is definitely Assateague, Oct 2014

Patience (Joe's sister) & Barb, Assateauge, Oct 2014

Awesome light at Montego Bay: Joe reads while carrying Barb's shoes (!)

Next weekend we are helping out at the Big Beach Cleanup, and doing some more gardening chores. The weekend after that, we have a 1920s party to go to (...I have no idea what we will go as!). I will be in Auckland from Sun 16 to Tues 18 Nov at a CDANZ meeting, Symposium and AGM; and the weekend after that is our Anniversary BBQ. Man, where has the year gone?!

We may possibly have a trip to Dunedin to visit some family sites of interest next February, but we are unsure as yet. However, Jan & I are definitely planning a trip to Brazil next April (back in time for Beck's wedding if we can manage it), and we will both be up in Auckland in May for my graduation.

Right, that's all for now: more in a couple of weeks. Keep well!

Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - October 2 2013

Hi all,
I hope you are all fit and well - we seem to be boxing along here just fine. Jan has had a cold though - and spent three days off work with it, but amazingly I didn't catch it. There is a first time for everything!

We seem to have been busy here again for the past few weeks: again, I am not quite suire what has been filling our time, but we have been busy doing it.

We have had the orchard cut, our tenants are moving out at the end of November so we are looking at putting the Montrose Dr house on the market once more, and we have caught up with a few people around the country.

Jan has been to Wellington for the Naenae College reunion this weekend - and apparently many beers were imbibed! Jan went with Tina on the Friday night, and together they caught up with lots of old friends - particularly from Jan's year, as loads of his old compadrés turned up. On Saturday, Jan had brunch with Brigitte and John at Tina & Jeremy's.and caught up with Hartmut & Uta. On Saturday night Jan went to meet his year people for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant, and they finished up at Helen's mother's house in Kelson. He had a great time overall, and I am really sorry that I forgot to send him with a camera!

On Sunday, Gary & Sandra - who have been in Port Headland (Oz) for the past five years - were here on holiday, and picked up Jan from his flight home from Welly, and came to stay. Jan made a massive lasagne for dinner, which he had better freeze, because he is off to the US next week, and he will never eat 3/4s of a huge, deep lasagne dish full of pasta, mince, cheese and tomatoes, before he goes.

On Monday morning, Pat, Marjie & their brood called in for a waffle breakfast on their way home to Chch. The McLarin's drove up to Nelson on Friday, Pat flew to Welly on Friday night for the Naenae Reunion with Jan, came back on Saturday for brother Matt's 40th, then drove home Monday morning with a segue to our place for brekkie on the way. It was lovely to see them again so soon (Marjie is very trim & fit after doing a 20 week challenge. I don't envy her the effort, but it has been very worthwhile because she looks great).

The weekend before that we went to Christchurch, I went to my symposium & AGM, which was great. We stayed with Jen, Jan had lunch, morning tea & afternoon tea dates every day (including Bertie, visiting Meg, Mr Tunley and my Aunt Diana. He had a great time being a lady who lunches :-D ). We had dinner with Magda on Friday night, too.

We caught up with Jennie, Pat, Marjie, Megs (& Will), KB, Gary, Dan, Tori and all the short people. We had a great night at Pat & Marjie's, which was, of course, way too short.

  

 

We called in to see my sister on the way home - and to drop off her birthday present.

The weekend before that we had a lovely, quiet time at home, doing some tidying up and me prepping materials for the coming Career Symposium and AGM in Christchurch. We did a few jobs outside, but the weather wasn't that flash for getting out and about. We had a bit of rain and the fords were pretty full:

Dogs are well. Playing. Lying in the sun. Sleeping. All normal :-)

So, Jan is off to the US and Germany next Tuesday (5 November), and returns on 24 November. Just in time to talk at another Rotary Club about Rotary Youth Exchange with me about the two tours we have taken around the North Island.

Next concert (which Jan will miss) is Sibelius. Magda is coming to Nelson to stay though instead, so I will have the pleasure of her company instead:

That will do for now - I had better do some work!!

Jan & Sam