News from Nelson - May 2018

Hi everyone,
Another month rolls around, and here we are, officially heading into winter. The fire is now on most nights, it is dark in the morning, and then dark at dinner time! Our house remains warm and cosy though, thanks to the high levels of insulation we invested in the building process.

Tania has had surgery, a lumpectomy and a lymphectomy, and is at home - and still working, though remotely to save her the added stress of a commute. In early June, once she has recovered from this first round of surgery, she will have a mastectomy and have the lymph nodes removed. Crikey, this is such a process for her. Thankfully once again Tina has travelled to Brisbane to be Tan's advocate, and to be our international correspondent. Hopefully everything will go well.

My mother seems to be well at the moment. She has been getting out and about a bit, having come out to us a couple of times for coffee or lunch. She had to go for a good long drive each week due a problem with her car where the reversing camera was permanently on and draining the battery. The issue took a bit of tracking down, and is now satisfactorily mended. Hopefully she will still want to come for a drive regularly, as it has been nice catching up at cafés around the district. With us focusing on paying off the mortgage over the past eighteen months we haven't been out much.

Jan has been in Auckland at a work-funded Safeguard conference, where he attended a workshop given by one of his safety gurus, Sidney Dekker (which he really enjoyed). Jan had hoped to catch up with Doug & Morv while there, but unfortunately was still feeling pretty low with a cold, and decided not to inflict his germs on the Booth family. A wise decision as he still had the cold when he got home, and it is only just tailing off now (in early June). I caught it from him, but mine, aside from losing me my voice for a few days, was gone pretty quickly. My voice was affected - I think - because the day it all started I had five hours of lectures from 8am to 1pm, and by the end of that I was down to a whisper. I was croaking for a week before I returned to normal, but that was my major symptom ...and not that much of an inconvenience.

John had left the country again, and is now preparing to ride across the USA on his trusty old Norton Commando. It has been shipped to the US and awaits his arrival. This has been one of John's bucket list items for many, many years... let the dream realisation begin!

Our neighbour, Ian B, has purchased a forestry block - but not the trees - at the head of our valley. However, Cyclones Fehi and Gita felled a number of the trees, and the tree owner is currently felling them. This means that Ian will be able to renew his pasture sooner than he had planned. The loggers have been working all month, starting at 5.30 every morning; but not on the weekends, which is nice. They have been doing major repairs on our driveway, having put in two new culverts already, and packing out the softer sections with loads of rock. We will have a very solid pan once they have finished... and all without ny of our own expense. Mind you, I have had three flat tyres this month, so perhaps not entirely without expense.

I caught up with Tracey a couple of times this month for coffee, and have had Warren and Erica come to stay, and Erica on her own. When Erica and Ollie came to stay, we took the dogs right up to the top of the felling area, watched Men In Black and had homemade fish and chips for dinner. Jan lost his broccoli plants (eaten by rabbits or birds), but planted some more under netting on the Western side of the lounge where the tomatoes were. Amazingly Ollie caught a bunny in the front enclosed garden while he was here. Jan now agrees that we need to tear up the front garden netting and re-lay it around the garden beds alone, as there is incontrivertable proof that the bunnies are getting in. 

Warren and Jan put in a base for Jan's set of recovered steel stairs to be footed on, which is what they are admiring at the top of the bank. We aim to have a party at some point where we get our guests to collectively lift the steps into place.

It is cold enough for winter shoes, and the Fluevogs are out again. I do so enjoy them, though am a bit sad this year as New Zealand's only retailer, TimelessSoles in Tauranga, is closing. They are apparently not getting the option to purchase much of a range and it is being limited more and more as time goes on, so have decided to pull the pin.

The limes and lemons are growing well this year: too fast for us to eat them. I might start taking them into work and selling them.

Tessa had her 30th birthday this year (seems outrageous!), and brought Izzy to Nelson to help her celebrate on what would have been my Father's 84th birthday. We had a memorial lunch in his honour, complete with ice cream sundaes, at Smugglers, followed by a shindig at Quebec Road. My voice was non existent, but I still managed to build castles with Izzy using the box of blocks that Mike had made for him.

Jan has completed his first Graduate Certificate in Safety Leadership paper and is waiting to hear if he has passed or not. He is about to enrol on the next paper. He is also currently practicing for two concerts: the NSO's Vienna concert, and then the reopening of the Nelson School of Music (which is now been renamed the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts - NCMA - for some totally obscure reason. People will keep calling it the School of Music until they change the name back, I would imagine).

I have been keeping busy too, with vocational opinions, teaching, research and study. My lectures have now finished and marking is yet to come. My research students are all well-underway with their projects, collecting their primary data, and I am currently almost finished planning for semester 2's intake (where I will have around 50 students enrolled at present and so will need to manage a team of four supervisors - two of whom are new and have never done a paper like this before... that will be another challenge).

Finally I have rewritten my research review article, and will resubmit it to the Australian Journal of Career Guidance early next month. My PhD research proposal is on-going, well-supported by an excellent Skype session with my supervisors mid-month. My next draft is due back to them mid-June, which should go OK as I have time to get the changes made before the last avalanche of marking descends.

Finn continues to grow, still very lean despite shovelling food into him, and now getting very strong. He is a sweetie though:

...and once more the sky has been providing us with a feast for the senses:

I have decided to go dark on Facebook. I will repost the family news on FB, but will not be monitoring, replying to or reading any threads. If you want to read why, my reasons are here. I will still use Messenger, and will repost articles and the family news, but other than that, expect silence.

This month between study and both doing our taxes we have watched Broachchurch series 3, which was very enjoyable, and firmly recommended. We have also watched a Spanish movie about a 'secret agent', called "Anacleto". It was slapstick but quite funny. I have discovered the books of Mavis Cheek, which I am finding a little like an uneasy marriage of Wodehouse (whom I like) and Danielle Steel (whom I don't). They are worth a read if you can get them from the library - as I am doing.

Hartmut and Uta come to stay next month, which will be lovely. 

Righto, time to do my GST. More next month :-)

Sam (& Jan)

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.

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)