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

News from Nelson – September 2011

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is fit and well; Jan & I are fine here… and no spring colds as yet!

We went to a bonfire at Jimu’s place at the head of Roses Road on Saturday night, and were told that, according to Alan B, the last time it snowed in our area was 1963. So our snowfall was a once in 50-ish years event. Speaking of the bonfire though, we had a good catch up with some of our neighbours, and met Hugh and Jackie, who have taken over Alan and Dawn’s place. Kev & Suzie had some great roasted goat (Jan suspects that he may have nearly snaffled the lot as it was just to his taste).

All the gravel that had been in a pile on the north corner of the garage since the house was built from left-over back fill and drainage needed to be moved. We decided to spread it around the building platform to metal the surface. So Jan hired a digger from Ken R around in Sunrise Valley and moved it all into little piles which I raked out. Now there are hardly no patches of bare clay anywhere, and which removes the treacherous slipping risk in the rain. And just in time too – it rained on Sunday (which I think was our first rain since the snow fell in July).

My health seems to be cruising along; I am trying to walk every day with the dogs. I got all enthusiastic and got a pedometer to try to hit 10,000 steps per day, but after wearing it for a couple of weeks, on the weekend I lost the damn thing as I was raking gravel over the building site. I will have to go and buy another one!

Magda came to visit us on Saturday – and took away a little chest of drawers which had been languishing in the cellar. I would like to get a couple of old kitchen benches with cupboards underneath them at some stage to go around the cellar walls; but we need to get rid of another couple of old bits of furniture and the telly, all of which are still taking up space. Then the cellar will be functional at last.

Jan has had a promotion: he is now the Engineering Manager for Nelson Pine, looking after both electrical and mechanical engineering. He is getting a mechanical engineer and an electrical engineer to help him out, which will be a big relief. His mechanical engineer is due to start shortly, but he needs to start the selection process for his electrical person.

I have lots of marking coming up in the next couple of weeks – but my students appear to be working well and getting their projects completed to a good standard.

And here I am, STILL with half a Diploma in Career Guidance assignment to finish! I really need to get it done this week because I am getting edgier and edgier about it. I pre-empted the ghastly avoided assignment by sending off my one pager to my Master’s supervisor already. Of those two new case studies I told you about last time, one about Ray Anderson from Interface Inc is complete, and the other on Adidas’s perfect PR storm is half done. And I have some more in mind.

The ‘new’ laptop has a new battery from http://www.laptopbattery.co.nz – all for a very reasonable price and overnight delivery!

Our best wishes to Tina on her speedy recovery from surgery!!!

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing the birthday people a wonderful year ahead: Bob, Warren, Doug, Helen, Andreas, Leigh, Max & Karen, DJ, KT, Uta S, Robert dB, Jenny L & Bertie.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – August 2011

Hi everyone,

Well, we have had snow since I talked to you all last – it only hung about for three days, but it was pretty surprising none-the-less. See photos below this posting for how pretty it was (nothing like knowing you won’t have to cope with it for long, it won’t be a mucky thaw and it won’t refreeze!).

I am recovering well from my surgery. I am back lecturing today, so the month off seemed to go pretty quickly. I go to see my specialist for my follow-up appointment tomorrow. Should be all OK – I feel good. Jan’s finger is slower to heal, but I think it is also doing as well as it should be. He keeps complaining about not being able to go to volleyball :-)

Over the past month I consumed about 15 books and 6 talking books. It was wonderful. I also got my papers for this semester pre-planned, all the materials printed and everything ready to start tomorrow. I have been in touch with a number of students, and will start to meet them all tomorrow too. I am ready to get back into it. However, I will make sure that my students carry all my printing for me.

Jan managed to get an old laptop through work that had died, and we swapped my crapped-out-laptop memory and hard drive into it, so I now have a laptop again. The next project is to get a new home PC, as this is one is four years old. Time for something newer & speedier; and I didn’t want to have to replace a PC and a laptop in the same year, really.

We missed Fleur & Neil’s party (significant birthday) because I didn’t think I would be able to do two hours over Takaka Hill to get there, then a few hours at the party, then two hours back again. Hopefully they all had a GREAT time. But we caught up with Kevin & Sandra for a LOVELY dinner at their place on the weekend. Jan was most impressed as he got to watch the Rugby (which he had completely forgotten about). All good all round.

Jan went with Kathleen, Frits & my Mum to the NSO a couple of weeks ago; they al really enjoyed the music.

Bonnie is great – all the dogs had baths and toenail-trims on Sunday, and she was so good. Fliss would have liked to have unscrewed her feet and have hidden them somewhere if at all possible, while Coco shrieked with every toenail we cut (wus). 

I am now on my last assignment for the DiCG. At last. So I have been taking a little break and doing some research for my Masters instead.

Speaking of Jan not being very motivated for his Certificate in Horticulture; he has decided to withdraw. He thought there would be a lot more practical show & tell stuff in it; he is not very interested in the theory. So he has gone to see the Programme Leader to explain. His brassicas seeds nearly all germinated though!

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Merrill, Moose, Julie C, Paul T, Mike W, Tessa W, Erik & Neil L.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – July 2011

Hi everyone,

We have had lots of rain! It really feels like winter now with thunderstorms and snow. We certainly aren’t collecting lots of energy from the solar arrays at the moment, and the dogs are clustered around the fireplace!

Well, things have moved quickly since I updated you last. Jan’s dislocated finger is healing slowly; it is still a bit swollen and sore. Jan is very impatient with the speed of his recovery, but I think that he has forgotten that it is going to take six weeks to come right after the last time he played volleyball – so he needs to give it another four weeks yet before it will be largely better…. and the fact that he played after two weeks from the injury may have slowed his recovery even more.

I went to see my specialist at lunchtime on Friday 24th June, once he got back from his holiday (and after bludgeoning my way into an appointment through his receptionist – I did buy her a box of chocolates as a thank you) and got a surgery date; for the following Tuesday morning. We were going to Christchurch on Saturday, back Monday night.

Right. So in the carpark outside, I rang our Health Insurer and got an approval number, filled out the surgery forms and dropped them off at the hospital straight afterward. Then I realised that perhaps I had best go & stock up on library books and various other things that I might need for the following month that I would be out of action! So Friday afternoon was spent shopping and planning – and letting my Heads of School know at NMIT. At least I had finished all my marking & compiled my results in case the surgery was able to be done quite quickly (just wasn’t expecting it to be quite that quick!).

Christchurch was great – we caught up with Jenny, Trace & Erica, Bertie, Pat & Marjie and their brood (can’t believe how much they have all grown!) and Gary and Karen. Jenny, Bertie and Trace drove us around to do various things; we got to see Warren & Trace’s new place (which we hadn’t seen before), Bertie took us on a tour of the city, which was scary but interesting, and Jen drove us around on a tour of nurseries for a seed and plant pot search. It was lovely to catch up with everyone, and there was only one aftershock that we felt (a wee one on Saturday lunchtime – about a 4). Jan got to watch rugby on Sky :-)

Jan’s course on Monday was deadly boring, and my laptop crapped out at 10am, so all the work that I was planning to do that day while Jan was at the course was kaput (we later found out that the motherboard was fried – apparently a problem with that model… and only 3 years old. Pah!). Never mind, at least I had brought three books with me. So I read them all!

Monday night we got home, I did washing and organised everything ready for the next day going into hospital. Surgery went well, no complications, other than the usual vast amounts of anti-emetics they have to give me. I had a full abdominal hysterectomy, but they have left an ovary so I won’t need HRT (they tried to leave both, but one was damaged by the fibroid crushing it, so they decided to take it out as well).

However, 20 hours after surgery I was even more dizzy and sick, so they gave me a “scopaderm” anti-nausea patch, which I proved to be allergic to. My eyes swelled up, my throat closed and I got sores and blisters. Very exciting. Needless to say, they have made a note on my file not to use these patches!

Once that was removed I got better by leaps and bounds. I had taken 11 books and four talking books to hospital, reading 10 of the books before I came home (couldn’t listen to the talking books as the laptop crapped out). I got two newspapers every day and read those too (and did the code cracker and the word builder – but I was slow to begin with). I had lots of visitors, bringing good wishes, cards and flowers. Jan came every day, which was great – and in the opposite direction to home so added to the complexity of his life.

On Saturday I came home, and have been very quiet at home since. I have no trouble working quietly at my computer, and my WorkPace software makes sure I take regular breaks. I have had two lots of cautionary tales – one of infections and one of a prolapse – to ensure that I take care and convalesce slowly. Magda, who had a hysterectomy three years ago, came to stay for a few days last week, helped out and kept me company.

In the last week of July I plan on returning to light work, and will start lecturing again on 1 August. I have everything ready to go for that, and will organise some students to pick up the printing as I am allowed to do NO heavy lifting for six weeks. And boxes of student resources are very heavy!

So for now it is just pottering about. I have done lots of admin things and have even started tidying up some old filing. Until this week, I didn’t really feel yet like tackling anything new, so have been doing routine things in the office that take little brain power.

On the weekend I got some kind of mild gastric attack, which had me in bed for a couple of days, but by Sunday night I was feeling OK again. All good.

Jan has been doing the cooking and so on, but this week I am feeling a bit more up to things, so am starting to take things on again. I will definitely be careful about the lifting, and having lots of rests though.

Kathleen has been out to visit, and Nik is threatening to come out with Ash too. Jan & John went to see Jennifer Ward-Lealand in concert at the gala opening of the Winter Festival (I couldn’t sit for two hours). Jan is also going with my Mum to the NSO performance this Saturday – as a spectator, as he decided that the rehearsal schedule would be too hard to fit in along with my recovery. Again, I won’t go - sit ting for two hours, along with the hour and a half in the car to get both ways wouldn’t be wise (see? I am being careful).

John has headed off overseas again, and we have Bonnie with us now until September. Coco is very happy to have her running mate back again. I went for a walk halfway down the driveway between rain showers with them all yesterday, and they were mightily confused about why we had to go home already!

This week I hope to get back to doing some study - I have only three assignments to complete now, then I am completely finished. I would like to get those done before the end of July, and I see no reason why I shouldn’t be able to manage that – one assignment a week for the next three weeks sounds reasonable. In August I need to put in a one page proposal to my supervisor for my Masters; we have already discussed some ideas, but I just need to start fleshing it out so I can get approval to start.

Jan is currently germinating brassicas seeds as his first Certificate in Horticulture assignment. He keeps complaining about not being very motivated; I wonder if he would have been more motivated if I had done it with him.

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Thomas S, Fleur, Kelly M, Moose, Merrill & Julie C.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – June 2011

Hi everyone,

Hopefully you are all fit & well?

We have had a few probs of late; for example, Jan dislocated his finger at Volleyball. He decided, after having snapped it back in himself, then getting all light-headed and having to lie down for a bit, that he might take a week off. Bear in mind that this was the first time he had played volleyball in the better part of two decades.

So after he went back to playing again after a fortnight off, he thought the ouchiness of it deserved an outing to the physio; who promptly told him that he needed to rest it for six weeks at least. Jan was also told that he needed to remember that he was not so young any more.Needless to say with a flag like that one, he was back playing the week after. And his finger still hurts :-)

As for me, I appear to have what is known in local parlance as a fibroid, and will be having a chat to a specialist to have it removed once said specialist gets back from his lovely, long European summer holiday. My GP thinks I will definitely need abdominal surgery, so I will keep you posted.

So, we have been keeping busy. I have only 10% of my diploma in career guidance to go (can see the end!), but I have started negotiating my Masters programme, to start next March. I have a supervisor, and a rough thesis. More on that as it comes to hand too.

Jan has started on his Certificate in Horticulture, and has been going just down the street from Nelson Pine to do all his courses. It is very convenient for him… and I am so glad I didn’t do it – I would have been like a one armed paper-hanger trying to fit that in as well. He had to miss a pruning exam this weekend just gone as they were rained out (and boy, did it rain!).

Montrose Drive still looks great. Our tenant is still asking for little projects – he is currently putting in new drainage core and gravel behind the spa room. We need to go & buy some more cobble-stones for the spa room – but then they will probably install them for us!

Ellie’s Dad died last week, which was really sad. The funeral is today. Big zen thoughts going her way!

I have just finished nearly all my marking – I only have 13 exams still to grade, which are being sat tomorrow, and even my moderation for one paper has gone out for external review. Because of the surgery threat, I am trying to get everything ready even earlier than normal for next semester, as it sounds as though I might be out of action for a month (surely I can still do computer work though…? Anyway, we will play it by ear). I have everything ready to go for most of my papers for next semester, so I might send everything to the print shop this week so I can’t tinker, either.

Next semester I have 140 virtual Leadership students, some flesh Leadership students; some video-linked Marlborough and some flesh Applied Management project students; and some flesh Sports Communication students. I have told Nic about my possible surgery, and he thinks we will be able to work it all out. All good.

We volunteered at the Founders Book Fair, and had a hoot (and I bought some books); but we didn’t get to go to Shelley & Kevin’s because Jan dislocated his finger! Dawn equally cancelled her land-warming party out at the Glen because it was far too soggy for a bonfire to light, so hopefully we will get to catch up soon.

Speaking of rain, it has been raining rather a lot here. We went into Nick & Gary's the other night for a great night of pizza, wine, rugby and their Vietnam photo shots, and got stuck on the Nelson side of the first ford at midnight for an hour or so, waiting for the river to come down enough so we could cross it (doesn't it look tiny in the daylight? You can see the tide-mark as to where the water was though - and it was swift, and full of logs...). And it STILL kept raining. 

Wendy & Gerry has had a wee girl (congrats, congrats!). All are well - and will probably be out adventure racing in five minutes! Tina is now officially a Kiwi (congrats doubled!). Our buddies in Christchurch are coping with the shakes (and double-triple-quadruple congrats to them).

This coming weekend we are off to Christchurch trip for a stay at the Sudima. We hope heaps of you will be able to swing by and have avo tea with us on the Saturday :-)

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to my mother, William de B, my Aunty Jill, Colin C, John H, Jörg, and Thomas S.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – May 2 2011

Hi everyone,

Hopefully you are all fit & well? We trust so :-)

We have been keeping busy, though we had a fairly relaxing weekend just gone. Our architect asked us around for lunch on Sunday which lasted for three hours and was heavenly; sitting in the sun outside with good food, good wine and good conversation.

We went to Montrose Drive to see the house, and it is being so well looked after. Our tenant is actively looking for little projects to do. The spa room looks great now that they have re-roofed it.

Since I last wrote, I have caught up with Kel again with Ellie; we are trying to get our act together to meet each fortnight & have a chinwag at KaPie (the NMIT student’s ‘local’ café just down the street). So far so good!

Jan is now practicing for the next NSO concert, and for a Greenhill concert. From him being out each night at orchestra practice in the week leading up to the Beethoven concert (which went well, by the way), he is now out on Mondays at Greenhill, Tuesday at Underwater Hockey, Wednesday for NSO, and now wants to plan Thursdays for Volleyball at the Moutere Rec Centre. Hmm. I suspect he will run out of steam on Wednesdays.Jan played the Studer viola in the Beethoven concert and really enjoyed the sound.

John pulled the pin on the South Island tour because of the rain, so sadly Jan missed out on sharing the motorcycle tour. Then it fined up! 

Good sunrises out our way recently:

I have just been marking again; my research teams have submitted their final reports, and have gone a bit overboard. Nine research teams should have submitted about 85,000 words between them; I had 146,000 to mark. Reading and critiquing that lot took quite a long time, but the standard was also good and everyone passed.

Last time you may remember that I had been asked to teach an online Leadership course next semester with 140 students. I have decided to do it, as I will be working with another lecturer who is familiar with this particular programme. I have worked with Nic before, and it has gone very well. I will need restructure the assessments to reduce the assessment load though.

We think we have matched the paint for our porch, so we can paint it. Once that is done, then it is only tying off all the unfitted lights before we can apply for our Code of Compliance certification from the local council. However, aside from the paint match, we have no other progress! Photo: house from the top of Christian's hill next door

Next weekend we are volunteering at Founders for the Book Fair, going to a party at Shelley & Kevin’s and spending a day at home studying!

We have booked a Christchurch trip for the end of June (25-27). We are flying down and staying out near the Airport at the Sudima. Jan has a course there on the Monday (27), so we thought we would stay there & hopefully bludge on you Christchurch people to come & see us or pick us up. We have two days & nights to spend with you guys; if you want to organise a get-together somewhere, we would love to come :-)

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to my mother, William de Beer, my Aunty Jill & Colin Coke.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – May 2011

Hi everyone,

We are keeping well; I avoided Jan’s cold & he is now completely well again.

Our builder finished off a whole load of jobs; the hob backing and extractor fan cowling, fixing studs for pictures, floor-mounted door stops and framing for the top of the bookshelf.

We went out to Robbie & Janet’s place a few weekends ago, and stripped their walnut catchment. We lay them on mats in the lounge until they were completely dry, then packed them up in the cellar for winter. We also picked up Robbie’s motorised 500 litre sprayer unit, which we have used a couple of times already.

I have caught up with Kel a couple of times, once with Ellie, who used to be Kel’s manager at NMIT in the International Dept. Kel has a new project to work on and is looking forward to getting her teeth into a truly international project. It should be great. We have also pledged to try and catch up far more often... and as Kel is working remotely most of the time, we should be able to do that.

Jan is still practicing for the next NSO concert, which is rushing to meet him on May 21^st, but has borrowed a viola to try from Adrian Studer, a Swiss instrument maker who lives in Nelson (and who has a very impressive CV, supplying instruments to many of NZ and Australia’s top string players). Adrian is away for several months, so Jan will get a good chance to trial it. I think he should get a new set of strings for both violas and play them side by side often to decide whether he likes the new one enough to warrant the purchase. Jan got me to listen blind and tell him which sound I preferred on a few pieces. I picked the Studer viola each time. It sounds lovely – a very mellow, warm, liquid tone.

Our Montrose Drive tenants have replaced the spa room roof, and we need to get in there to pick up the old roofing material for disposal; but it has rained on & off for about a week now.

Jan had the opportunity to join John Fitzwater on one of his trial tour runs along some metal roads which was planned for Thursday, Friday & Saturday last week. John has an American PR person who was coming out to look at the trial back-road tours to write them up for US publications, and Jan decided to join them. They were going to do back roads between Nelson, Maruia and Hokitika with some stays in B&Bs along the way. However, because of the heavy rain, there are some river crossings that would be too dangerous. John has taken Michele down south instead, where the weather is much kinder at the moment. Jan is hoping to join them when the rain breaks, but sadly it looks pretty settled at the moment.

Frits is looking much better; he is back swimming, walking and talking about resuming running. Their Easter Saturday party was great – Dutch friends of theirs, Ardri & Hans, and two cousins of Frits’ from Holland, and Amy. Amy is looking really well and I felt a huge DeBoer flashback listening to conversations on either side of me in Dutch.

Speaking of a DeBoer flashback, it was Magda’s 50^th Saturday week ago and Jan & I had dinner with her and Tjibbe & Gea at Bouterey’s. The food was divine <sigh>. I have heard from Erik and he & Jackie listed their place with a real estate agent to test the market, they sold it in the same week with no plan of what they would do should it sell. Now they have all sorts of changes on their horizon as they have sold their country house & are moving into a brand new one near Rangiora.

Julie, Magda, Christél, Ray, Sandra, Jan & I caught up at Julie’s for morning tea on Easter Friday, and got to spend some time with Siobhan and Sterl. I had forgotten that Christél used to flat with Riccardo, and Julie had arranged for him, Dutch partner and their little boy to be there, which was unexpected! They are still living at Founders, and loving it. I think Christél and Ray had a great time, and it was interesting to meet Christél’s friend Sandra from South Africa. She seemed to enjoy her Kiwi holiday :-)

My study break was full of marking – four lots of assignments completed & passed back to students. I got one assignment knocked out for the Diploma course, and was asked to sit in on the Diploma in Career Guidance advisory meeting (which I did last week). I have some concerns about how the course is run, and fed that back to the meeting so they can better meet students’ needs.

I have also been asked to teach an online Leadership course next semester, which I am considering. The trouble is that (a) I don’t enjoy online teaching as much as I enjoy face to face work, and secondly, I will have 140 students. I am leaning towards “No, ta”. I need to talk to the Head of School about it.

Last time I told you that I have ambitions about painting the porch, ordering the string lights and making a planter unit for my herbs. They are still on my list. Maybe next time. We still need to put up the outside lights for the entrance way, but can’t do that until the wall behind it is painted. At least I have bought a test pot of paint to trial the colour, so we are getting there.

The push is on to get our Code of Compliance certification from the local council. Once we have all our wiring complete, we are ready to get the council in to inspect the house (for fitness for habitation!). Jan has completed all the wiring in the garage, and put up the last two spotlights in the stairwell and entrance way. We still have some bare wires hanging out of the ceiling in the living area, awaiting the string lights that Jan has put off ordering (to spread the cost). We have one set, but need three sets… however, Jan may just put some batten holders in place to keep the council happy, then replace those when we order the new lights later on.

We are also trialling a solar garden light, but unfortunately it goes out after about four hours. I would like something that lasts a bit longer, so we will keep looking... it would be good to get a solar sensor light of some description, but I don’t even know if such an animal exists!

Coming up it will be all attention on the NSO concert for Jan, and marking research projects and prepping next semester's materials for me. I am well over halfway through the Dip Course, but I had hoped to be finished by this time, so I want the mid-year break for study. Ah well, we can only do so much!

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Lars, Tessa, Adam D, Aunty Diana, my father, John D, Adrian C, Megan, and my mother.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson – April 2011

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all fit and well; Jan has a cold which I have just managed to avoid thus far. However, I am sure that I will no doubt succumb in due course.

Last week we had the window people back to measure up for shutters in the spare room, so we can better control the heat in that room in the summer. Our builder is coming tomorrow to finish off some jobs, like putting up the backing on the hob, the cowling on the exhaust fan, putting up some hooks, putting in some fixing studs and some floor-mounted door stops. Last Saturday we finally bought an extended piece of flex for the dining table light, and Jan fitted it on Sunday. I have also managed to glue proper felt surface protectors on the base of all the furniture, and throw out the bits of wool-block which had given all our furniture the appearance of wearing ghastly grey fluffy slippers for the past year.

Jan is currently practicing for the next NSO concert, which is Beethoven on 21^st May. They are doing the 5^th (which will be quite fun). John Thompson (first violin) is leaving in May for a teaching position in Auckland, but will return for the concert itself.

Our Montrose Drive tenants continue to impress us. The garden looks fantastic and Jan is due to pick up the third trailer load of green waste tomorrow. They are currently helping to replace the spa room roof (he is an ex-roofer) as well. Long may they last.

I have discovered that you can’t preserve pumpkin puree in jars. I suspect it is because of the amount of starch – sugar – in root vegetables, but am not sure. The jars that I preserved fermented after two or so weeks. So we will buy pumpkins and keep them whole in the cellar instead (as we will rarely have room enough in the freezer). Through TradeMe we got in touch with an older couple who are planning on building a smaller house – initially I picked up 34 jars from them. They contacted me to say they had another 95. So now I think we are pretty much set until our own fruit trees come on stream.

Frits appears to be recovering from surgery slowly, still having quite a bit of pain, but slowly coming right. He is back at work full time. He & Kathleen are in Christchurch this weekend visiting John, so hopefully he has coped OK with the drive. We will see them all next Saturday night for an Easter Saturday party.

Ian who has also had surgery (hip replacement) seems to be going great guns. He emailed me to say he has walked into town – with sticks – but is improving by leaps and bounds.

Jan hired the little digger, and moved the mound of dirt towards house a bit more, so I can plant some screening plants between the office and the shed. We also put sawdust over the mound, and planted it. Moose, Sandra, Kevin, Gary & Karen, you will be pleased that we have at last planted your house-warming presents and are really looking forward to seeing them grow! Jan has also cleared the drains, and dug out the culvert in the bottom of the gully. We didn’t get to fill in the dirt around our big water tanks, as he needs to first put in a retaining wall. I think he is hoping to get our plasterer to help him with that.  That means that we still down have our clothes line in. Never mind, we will get there eventually.

Jan got the drains cleared just in time; it rained heavily last Friday. It was good to see the drains running free. Friday was the end of the first teaching term, so students are all on study break for two weeks. I had managed to get all my students on all courses to hand in assignments on Thursday & Friday, so I have a good week’s worth of marking. That will keep me occupied for the coming week. Then I have a couple of assignments to get knocked out for the Diploma course.

Jan’s motorbike training course went well. When he got home, he told me, to my surprise, that I had 15 minutes to pack an overnight bag. We went into Nelson and checked into the Rutherford, where we were staying overnight, then went to Mint for dinner (which was fabulous). We strolled back to the hotel, and ate chocolate in bed, watching crap telly, had breakfast at Lambretta’s and lunch at Founders Brewery with my family and Magda. A very nice birthday weekend. John & Magda dog-sat. 

The house is greying off now as the timber weathers. Eventually it will fade back into the hillside as all the timber silvers, and sit very quietly on the landscape. Fliss is also looking grey!

Christél and Ray arrived yesterday, and Magda came and joined us for dinner here last night. Christél & Ray are heading to Golden Bay for a couple of days, but are coming back to us on Friday. Julie, Magda, Christél, Ray, Jan & I will all catch up at Julie’s for morning tea on Easter Friday.

Next up, Kel gets back from the US, and I will catch up with her on Thursday. Jan & I are heading out to dinner for Magda’s birthday at the end of this month with Gea & Tjibbe.

As well this coming weekend we are going out to Robbie & Janet’s place to get some walnuts and have a look at Robbie’s 100 litre sprayer unit (thinking about uses in the gully). And I have ambitions about painting the porch, ordering the string lights and making a planter unit for my herbs. But we will see.

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Glenys, Sharon, Magda, Fran, John I, Lars & Tessa.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

News from Nelson - March 2 2011

Hi all,

In the past few weeks we have managed to get our builder up to look at some jobs. I would imagine that we will see the builders back to do the work once the weather starts packing it in (nothing like having some nice, dry indoor work when it’s not so nice outside).

Jan’s NSO concert went well. The pieces were a bit challenging, but in general they were delivered well. There was a good review in the newspaper (though the presentation of the programme got slated!).

Montrose Drive appears to be peopled by saints. These guys are just great tenants… I suppose we were due for a break on the tenant-front though.

Preserves are ploughing along well; I picked up another 70 Agee jars in the past couple of weeks. Of course, we are now just about out of things to preserve, but getting the jars gives us a great head start on next year. We now have well over a hundred jars of preserved tomato puree, pumpkin puree, stewed apple, apple juice, pear quarters and stewed plums in the cellar ready for the winter. I have managed to pay Kathleen back the jars we borrowed as well.

Speaking of Kathleen, Frits has had surgery on his back, and is currently recovering at home. He seems to be coming along OK, but isn’t sure yet whether his back feels better or not. I guess by next week he will have more of an idea.

Yet another person having surgery is Ian, who has just had a hip replacement done. He seems to be recovering well by spending plenty of time spreading humour around.

Glenys & Kevin came over for a night & we watched a couple of movies; some wine went west, and boy, was it hard getting going the next day! We had a great time though - and it made us realise that we do this kind of thing way too rarely.

The little digger that Jan was going to hire a few weeks ago had to be postponed, so that is happening in a fortnight. That means we can fill in the dirt around our big water tanks, put in our clothes line, and move a mound of dirt over a wee bit between the office and the shed so we can plant some screening plants in autumn. Jan is also talking of clearing the drain down the road before the autumn rains start.

Speaking of rain, our water tanks are still full. It is amazing to be at the far end of summer and be almost at full capacity. We are also still getting credits from our PV panels, so all in all this house doesn’t cost too much to run.

John has finished his last tour of the season and picked up Bon dog last night. Coco and Fliss are both a bit lost without her.

This Saturday Jan is doing a motorbike training course, and then we are going into Nelson for dinner. On Sunday we are having a family lunch at Founders Brewery, which will be great.

Lots is happening in April; Christél and Ray are coming down at Easter, and Magda, Julie & I will all catch up with them (it will be great to get together again). Kathleen & Frits are having an Easter Saturday shindig at their place, and Jan & I will head in for that. Kel is off to the US for a flying family visit, and I will catch up with her when she gets back, 3/4s of the way through April. Jan & I are heading out to dinner for Magda’s birthday at the end of April. Our Rotary exchange student, Nathalie, has her parents visiting her from Belgium, and there is a BBQ at our club Secretary’s place so they can meet us all (and double-check we aren’t leading their daughter astray!).

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Murray H, Birthe, Gerhard and Glenys.

Right, I think that's it. Catch you again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Excitement! Cars in the Garage!

We had a productive weekend clearing all Jan's workshop gear from the garage and putting it into Jan's workshop. Now our cars & the motorbike are at long last in the garage. It is brilliant!

News from Nelson - November 2010, mark 2

Hi everybody, 

 

I hope you are all fit & well. The weather has been fantastic here, but we need some rain. It keeps raining in Nelson, in Golden Bay and out in Tasman Bay - just not here...

Jan's concert went really well on Saturday night. The music was great and they finished on a really high note; Arnold's Four Scottish Dances, which skirled the concert to a conclusion. We celebrated our wedding anniversary at home with breakfast on Saturday before Jan headed off to his last orchestra practice.

Like the Nelson family in Wellington, I am having trouble shaking this blasted cold, but it is finally going now. It has just been a bother at night, with my nose blocking when I lie down, but the last couple of nights have finally been easier for sleep. It hasn't been bothering me during the day. Jan still gets a slightly sore throat at times, but it still hasn't come to anything more.

We have heard about a guy a couple of kilometres away who is pulling out his vineyard - he was a contract grower for Hermann Seifried - & heading off to Oz. We went around to see him on Saturday to see if there was anything that we could use for our place. We think we will buy his 2000 litre black watertank to use as a new header tank. Then one pump fill will last over a week (instead of the three days at the moment), but better than that, being black, we won't get so much algae in the water - we are getting lots of photosynthesis through the clear plastic of the one we have at the moment. He also has a load of half round posts that we can use for the cross planks in our retaining walls, and he may have a container for sale which would be great for more storage space. We seem to be running out of room to keep equipment quite quickly.

We have got Montrose Drive ready & on the market. It is listed at http://rwnelson.co.nz/cgi-bin/clients/rwnz/profile.cgi?webid=NEL20121&gid=24476. There was an open home on the weekend which Susa thought went well; we will wait & see if there are any starts to negotiation or offers, before we think it went well!

My folks & my Uncle Norman called in yesterday for afternoon tea, which was great. We caught up briefly with Kathleen last weekend, and celebrated Uncle Norman's birthday with my folks, Mike & Donna, and Donna's sister Tanya and her husband Charlie two weekends ago.

Jan & I also went to a business after five function for the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce, where we got a preview of the new NMIT Arts & Media building, which has been constructed almost entirely from Nelson Pine LVL (see it online at http://www.nmit.ac.nz/schools/artsmedia/artsandmediabuilding.aspx). We had a long chat with the architect as we got a tour of the building, which was really interesting. I have also been out for a farewell dinner for NMIT's Business Degree programme leader who is sadly heading off to pastures new.

In the next couple of weeks we are going to a private tour of the museum's Haven Ahoy exhibition with Nelson Pine, and going to the Chamber's Christmas Party. Oh, and we have a couple of dinners to go to as well, and a classical concert in Motueka. 

I have been through all the assignments, activities and forum requirements for Dip in Career Guidance, then made a matrix of what had to be done, and the date each bit was due by. Then I went through and put a date that I would like to get each bit done by, to ensure I get the whole thing cut by next June. So far I am on track, having finished my first unit - only 15 to go! 

Jan's work is still very busy, but the orchestra practice ensured he kept his work hours reasonable. I am not sure if he will be so punctual in leaving work at a good time now that he can stay as long as he likes once more. Time will tell.

Wellington people - let us know if you will be home on Christmas day avo; we would like to come & visit you if you are.

• Congrats to Tessa who has passed her first assignment in her Diploma with distinction :-)
• And before I write again, happy birthday wishes need to go to Jeremy, Neil, Donna, Janet, Jamal & Tina

Take care & alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young