Another month has rolled around already - and suddenly the end of the year is rushing toward us.
This month has been relatively quiet for me. We had two weeks of study break so I was mainly playing catch-ups on administration, marking and planning for next year. I have planned a new Leadership course for Semester 2 of 2020, and set up a new Moodle site for some students who need to complete the old version - which is now retired - over summer school. The break arrived just at the right time to do that work.
Jenny and Tracey came out to Rose Road for a night of debauchery, celebrating Tracey's and Jennie's birthdays. There were nearly hangovers in the morning, but we did do a lot of talking, a lot of laughing and even managed to avoid too much smartphone time while we were together!
Jan's work in the US has appeared to become pretty much routine, and - being without a car - he pretty much only went to work and back to the accommodation for the month. However, he had taken a couple of photos:
Jan was back in Kiwiland briefly in the last week of October, mainly to attend Hartmut's 80th birthday. To get as many of the jobs that had piled up at Rose Road done as we could, we flew up to Wellington and back on the one day. Tina had booked the Tugboat Restaurant by the Freyberg Pool on Oriental Parade and everyone had a lovely time. There were no gifts to be given, so people made things: cards were made using old photographs; Lara played guitar and sang one of her own songs; Otto played violin; and we made marzipan and almond chocolates. Tina had a slideshow of many of the old family photos. Joerg made a very moving speech about the gifts that Hartmut had given him. Jan spoke about bringing the family on an adventure to New Zealand which gave the entire family opportunities that may well have been closed to them if they had stayed in Germany. A very nice afternoon, ended by kaffee und kuchen.
I was surprised on our way back to Nelson from Hartmut's birthday party to see that Wellington airport had only been established in 1959. Perhaps it had been named something else, or been an aeroclub ground before that.
The travel agents who are organising the Danube Cruise tour group from NZ got the group together for another event, luckily held while Jan was home. Everyone except our friends Sharon & Ian were able to attend. We got our packs of materials, and now know what is going to be available each day. We will start planning what exactly we want to do and see closer to time, next month.
Jan has dropped some more trees so that we have a few down and drying ready to saw up into rounds over summer, when I hope he will be home for a couple of months (though this time off has not yet been confirmed - sigh). With spring being well advanced, the weather was good enough to get out and have coffee at a couple of local cafes, even with the dogs.
Thanks to Warren, and with Jan being home, the tunnel house is almost complete. The gravel base was laid, the frame has been secured to tar-painted railway sleepers, and those have been fixed to the ground using reinforcing steel rods.
I say almost because unfortunately the glass louvres for the window at the back arrived broken. The company is re-sending them, and they should be here this week coming. At least I will be able to fit these on my own!
My old office desk has been re-purposed as a planting table, but I need to find some old plastic drums or mussel buoys which we can (a) have off the ground to avoid too much bending, and (b) fill with compost and use for planters. But I need to have the irrigation system worked out before we start that, and, realistically - as we are going to be in Europe for a month - all that is best to wait until we get back at Christmas.
While Jan was here he put up a fence around the vege garden which is HOPEFULLY dog proof. I have planted out Lebanese cucumbers, courgette, Rapunzel, spinach and tomatoes. The silver beet has bolted already, so I am busy converting that into dog veges and freezing it for our house-sitter to feed the dogs while we are away.
It was great to have Jan home, but also horrible to have him go again so quickly. It seemed like five minutes before I was saying goodbye to him at the airport again.
As usual, the weather and the views have been lovely:
Our Europe trip is now organised, and we both arrive into Munchen on 23 November, then catch the train to Ulm, arriving late afternoon. We leave Ulm for Budapest on the evening of 26 November, then - after much Christmas Market river cruising - we end the organised part of our tour in Prague on the morning of 10 December when we meet Justine. We have a few days in Prague seeing the sights, then head off to Stuttgart where Jan has a training course on the 13th. We leave from Munchen to return to New Zealand on the 21st.
As we will not have a car, we hope to see as many of you who can get to Ulm or Stuttgart to see us. Please get in touch if you can make time to come to us: we would love to see you.
Back to you all with the next update in another month.
Sam (& Jan who is back in the US)
