News from Nelson - January 2019

Hello, everyone,
I hope that 2019 is treating you all well.

Jan went to the US on 2 January and is now in Grayling Michigan until 13 March. He is starting work at 6.30 each morning, leaving at 6 with a car-load of colleagues, and getting back to the hotel at 6.30 in the evening (12.30pm our time). They are doing somewhere around 70 hours per week, working 7 days.

The temperatures are pretty grim: mostly in the minuses, with the coldest temperature being about minus 36 C, thus far. He has had a cold which he is now recovering from, but is usually in bed by 2.30pm our time. We are using Messenger to stay in touch, usually talking on our Monday, Wednesday and Friday at around 12.30 or 1pm NZT.

 He has sent me some video which I have compiled of him driving around the area (as it is too cold to be outside):

Last week in January in Grayling, at the plant, and then the drive home (2.40 min):

(if this doesn't work, try here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bzAUTCo3XKZkREuv5)

Sunday, late January, from Grayling to Gaylord and back again to buy warmer clothes (6 min):


(if this doesn't work, try here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Tz8pZhxnQLC5TrTf9)

As the 'polar vortex' is coming in, last week of January, the drive from the plant to the Ramada in Grayling town centre (2.50 min):



(if this doesn't work, try here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xrf4pjoTDbxgat3f7)

A couple of times a week something breaks here, and I have to get a neighbour in to help me (they are all going to start evading me, I am sure). Even simple things like trying to get onto our roof without someone to hold the ladder becomes dangerous when you are on your own and your closest neighbours can't see or hear you. I asked my neighbour Simon to come over when there was water running on the roof. He found to find that the top off the pressure relief valve on the hot water system was missing - and that it may possibly have been missing since it was installed, as it was sitting neatly on the top of bolt, like it had just been put aside for testing. Because it has suddenly started leaking, it may well have blown the wee spring and ball out of the top, but at least Simon found the top and put it back on. A plumber call is now needed for Monday, because - of course - this happened on a weekend.

There is a surprising amount of stuff that works perfectly with two of you, but which doesn't work when you are on your own; even more so when have two dogs trying to 'help' you. I think Finn will stay away from the wheelbarrow now that I have partly run him over though...

I got a truck load of gravel delivered last week, and have been barrowing it around the house to cover the lack-of-lawn (technical term for weeds). We had put shell around the house four or so years ago, unfortunately over weed matting so the shell never compacted and kept sliding. With this gravel, I am trying to decide if I pull the weed matting up and let the gravel compact down with the remains of the shell, or if I leave the weed mat down in the hope that the gravel will sit on top more heavily and not slide away into gaps with the matting shining through. Quandary. However, I now have a piece of work in progress with an all-weather path to the clothesline, which is good (though I need to make some more concrete tiles)... without weed matting. My mother always used the tail end of a jug of boiling water on weeds, and I might try that too.

It has been very hot, with a bit over a week of 30 degree days. I bought some outdoor furniture off TradeMe (sort of NZ Craig's List) so, at long last, there are places to sit outside in the shade. West in the morning, East in the afternoon. I got some excellent bargains - some of which needed repair, but that was part of the enjoyment.

Since Jan left for the US I have been into NMIT for my first meeting of the year, I went to pick up all my 'new' outdoor furniture purchases, and went to John F's birthday party.

Sharon & Ian invited me out for lunch at Moutere Hills Vineyard, which led to a Danube cruise being booked for November which should be quite fun.

Jan & I are also heading off to Fiji in July for the Naenae 50ths, and there is talk of me going to the US in May. However, I suspect that the latter won't happen. In teaching for two organisations, organising deviations to delivery (and deadlines; and dog and house sitters) has to be arranged well ahead. As there seems to be little structure around Jan's start and finish dates, leave, time in lieu etc, I am already suspecting that there will not be a magic conjunction of planets which allows me to tee up cover, sitters and to get a flight at the last minute... !

My brother and I picked up some new furniture for my mother, which 'may need some assembly'... to find that "some" assembly meant entire assembly. I think we spent four hours contorted into some interesting shapes and swearing at drawings. However, all the parts were present, and we put together two new Danish-style lounge chairs with footstools, and a new Danish-style table and chairs. All very light, small, and makes her wee house look a lot more spacious.

I sometimes catch up with some of the neighbours when I am walking the dogs, and a few of them have dropped in for coffee. As it has been so baking, I am going at 7am before it gets too hot, and again at 8.30pm as it starts to cool down. Other than that, I scoot into town to pick up groceries, milk, veg and to clear the post office box once a week or so.

While we have had a couple of friends come out and get firewood earlier on in January, until we have some significant rain, I am not letting anyone else come. The fire danger is now extreme, and it will take a good bit of rain to correct that.

I have half my courses entirely prepared and ready to go for 25 February. The remainder are about halfway through. I have tried to get into writing, but am finding it hard to settle. I am not enjoying Jan being away.

The neighbours down the road are having a party next weekend, which I am going to. Warren is coming for a visit in March, as is Justine, then Jan is back mid-March.

A friend of ours, Paul Tunley, sadly passed away a few days ago following an illness. We miss you, cardigan man :-(

'Til next time


Sam

News from Nelson - August 2016

Hi All,

A few of you have been mentioning of late that you miss our news updates.

My workload has significantly increased over the past two years, which is why - I think - some things have had to slip. However, family connections should not be one of those things, because I think it's important.

But at the same time, I have have been doing a bit of research on what helps people get through the PhDs, and funnily enough, a key thing is simply writing. So in order to hone my writing muscles, last November I signed up to a website kept by a couple of Californians, called 750words. The idea behind Buster and Kellianne's website is that you write 750 words every day, and that kickstarts your creativity and builds your writing habit.

So since 11 November last year I have kept a daily dairy, and have written lots of my business blog posts through this mechanism. iin other words, I have been writing up what Jan and I have been doing, but I just haven't been posting it to our family blog.

I have given myself a metaphorical kick in the backside, and am going to aim to upload our news every two months as two short 'monthly' written updates write updates rather than creating videos or posting images (because it takes less thinking time, and is therefore 'easier'). I will, as usual, send out the email links to you once more as soon as I've uploaded.

So. What follows is a link to each month which you can click through to all that we have done this year since I caught you all up last in January, with August's news below these links:

• February: Westport to spectate at the Buller Half Marathon, PhD derail, Frits's birthday celebration
• March: harvest time and Taupo
• April: mega-migraine, visitors, puppy yearnings and movies
• May: Concert, friends, dogs and nature
• June: Wrist surgery, lunches, lakes and Uncle Eddie
• July: Victoria leadership lecture trip, driving, mid-winter Xmas, orchestra, new Uni

This month Jan played in the Stabat Mater, a mass for peace, with the Nelson Civic Choir:

Jan caught up with Gary and Karen when they did the Queen Charlotte track in Marlborough recently, along with Max and Karen, Tracey and Erica:

Towards the end of the month we flew to Sydney, then hopped on a train, and travelled four days across the Nullarbor to Perth. Why would we do that? A friend of ours, Ian, was having a pretty significant birthday, and had always wanted to do the trip. Ian and Sharon were going, and had asked a few other people if they wanted to go. Jan had always wanted to do a longer train trip, and I was reasonably keen, so we teed it up.

The timing meant I had to miss a week of lectures, but I had planned that week in back in May, so there was no problem. I set tests and tutorial work for the week so the students weren't disadvantaged.

We started in Sydney with a delicious birthday dinner for Ian at Essen, a German restaurant close by UTS (and just down the road from the Mercure, where we stayed overnight).

The next day, Sharon's cousin Glenn took us out for lunch to the Sydney Fish Market, where we ate far too much gorgeous fish, and I finally tried Barramundi. A bit too soft in texture for me, but Jan loved it. 

At 2pm we rocked up at the train station, and were shown to our berths. Despite being small, the cabins contained all you needed, and were more spacious than I thought they would be. We had four days of enforced idleness, looking at the world going past. Jan had some study to do, and I spent a couple of hours each day reading and writing my PhD research methodology. The rest of the time we were playing games, walking up and down the train, talking to people, taking photos, and listening to books and music... and eating.

Man alive, they fed you well. Everything was included: snack food, morning and afternoon tea, coffee, teas, cocktails, bubbly... wow.

We stopped at Broken Hills for three hours on the first full day, the next day for the afternoon and evening in Adelaide, then Cook on the third day for half an hour, followed by dinner under the stars for a couple of freezing hours at Rawlinna (and pretty much only sitting down), then no stops on the last day until we hit Perth. 

We were supposed to do a walking tour in Adelaide, but we found that they were going to take an hour and a half to walk a couple of kilometres, so we cut out of the tour and did our own walking tour through the CBD, just meeting up with the rest of the company at the Adelaide Wine Centre, in time for dinner.

The  age of most of the passengers looked to be 60s to 80s, so I felt rather too young. They were all nice enough people, but it did feel a bit like a retirement village.

For me it was an OK experience. Jan really enjoyed it. I found it a bit too confining, as there was not enough opportunity to walk around on the third and fourth day; although I had really thought that it would be Jan who felt that way, not myself.

One of my work colleagues, Sue, has done the Trans-Siberian, and said that that was a great trip. That might be worth doing. She and Steve had stayed at Lake Baikal in the middle of the trip, which I think saved them from going stir crazy from the confinement.

When we got to Perth, we met up with Robyn, one of the Nayland old girls. Robyn used to work with my father at MAF, and used to play hockey for Waimai. She hosted us, toured us around Perth, and had us to stay at her place. We got to see Kings Park, South Perth, Fremantle, Victoria city and up the coast to Woodvale. We had a lovely walk along the new waterfront development in the CBD. It is going to be quite spectacular when it is finished. The bell tower on the waterfront has used bells imported from St Martin’s in the Fields in London for its carillon. It is also going to cast a new ANZAC bell as a ‘great bell’ shortly, which will be quite cool. 

It is a very picturesque place, with lots of green areas, and some really interesting development. It has been hit by the mining downturn, but I think that is something that is affecting all of Australia at present. 

I will create a movie from the trip photos and video sometime soon, and will post it below. For now though, just a few key photos:

Our flight home was pretty uneventful - aside from neither of us being able to sleep. Oh, and the movie that Jeremy was in - A Letter for Hope - was on the AirNZ film list on plane when we flew home (I was so excited)!

I will be down in Christchurch in October, as I am presenting some research that a colleague and I at NMIT are doing on employer cybervetting. Staying with Jenny.

Jan too is in Chch in September and October - a week each month for his NEBOSH course. I am sure he would love to catch up with as many Cantabrians as he can :-)

My sister is, I think, heading off to America in November, and I assume that sometime soon after that we will get a date for the wedding... with hopefully enough time to arrange good flights to Maryland to help celebrate.


Sam (& Jan).

Long time no post! Pictorial news from Nelson, June 2014

Hi all,
It has been a very busy quarter, and I have not caught up with anyone or anything of late. In fact, I don't think I have had as long a silent time on family updates in well over a decade.

So, because I am still busy, this time we will just do a quick pictorial update.

Happenings: weddings & birthdays

April: Mike & Donna's Wedding in Rarotonga

May: Father's 80th birthday at the Boathouse, with Uncle Lin & cousin Kim attending, plus all the other known reprobates

And some additional photos of cousin Kim's stay:

We went to John's Birthday in Wellington

We went to Sharon & Ian's 30th Wedding Anniversary:

Jenny Ladley made us plant plants (at last):

And we went down to McLarins Bay in Squally Cove last weekend with Glenys & Kevin:

Our next events are: June 28-30 Wellington for Sam (CDANZ planning retreat); July 4-6, Morrinsville for Joerg's 50th; July 8-15 Otto & Lara coming to Nelson; July 12-13 for mid-winter Xmas at Roses Road.

Proper news next time, at last!

Jan & Sam