News from Nelson - September 2018

Hi everyone,
Sorry for the long hiatus since updating you all: but I will go through and post the news month by month, despite the fact that the date is now January 2019.

At the beginning of September we got the terrible news that Jan's cousin Simone had been widowed. Her husband had been unwell for some time, but the news that Michael was gone was a terrible shock. Andreas and Simone are raw, but coping. We hope to see them in December when we are thinking we will go to Germany.

My work continued to be busy with this semester's students getting their projects underway: thought I would have to say that I had higher numbers of students at risk this semester than ever before. The supervisory team has been working really well, however, and are all doing a great job to lift the student game in double-quick time. We had one supervisor pull out, and the rest of us redistributed that supervisor's workload, but that seemed to work out OK.

Jan is still not enjoying his work, so has started firming up a commissioning job for German company, Dieffenbacher (which builds particle board, MDF and LVL plants and equipment). We don't know much yet about how long he is going to be away for, but he is thinking that he is likely to be away for two months at a time in the Americas, nor do we know a start date yet. Sometime in the New Year. I am not at all happy about it, but Jan is keen.

Argentina - the Pumas - played the All Blacks at Trafalgar Park here in Nelson. The Port Company had tickets which staff went into the draw for: Jan got two tickets. It was a great game. The weather was cold, but we were all dressed for it, and the crowd was partisan, but fair. We had left my little nana car over at the Port offices, so we walked to the park, then were able to simply walk back and drive home without the traffic over over 21,000 people all heading home at the same time affecting us too much. I almost lost my voice from shouting :-)

I am still working on the one year wardrobe challenge, and have rediscovered the outfit I wore to Lara's naming ceremony, which must be nearly sixteen years ago!

 Finn is growing like a weed, but still remains full of the joys of the world. He is a very happy dog to own (mind you, he has yet to hit those canine teenager times). Aunty Boo is keeping an eye on him, and keeping him in line. She runs a very good line in distraction tactics when he is misbehaving.

Jan & I had to clear out the ford closest to us a couple of times from the winter storms. Of course, all the working photos are of Jan, as someone had to take the photos...! From water level quite high with crap all over the fence...

To unblocking the drain under the ford...

To unblocking the drain on the uphill side...

To the ford going back to normal level and tidying up the last of the clumps of debris.

We got invited to a dinner at Shelley & Kevin's place, which was total foodie heaven. Shelley took on my dietary restrictions with gusto, and cooked things which I could eat, which was just bliss. A great night, with ex-Sealord colleagues Dawn (and Neil), Shelley (and Kevin), Karen & Tom, with much wine drunk! Even better, my old canteen of silver cutlery got a new home, as I realised that Shelley had the same service. My cutlery has been sitting in a carton in the back of the laundry for ages, and seeing the joy she got from using hers, it was an easy donation to make :-)

Jan went to Australia this month to attend a seminar run by his safety guru, Sidney Dekker. He said that the seminar was great, and he learned a lot. Interestingly enough he had a burst blood vessel in his eye while he was in a lecture session, seated between two paramedics who then checked him for all sorts before saying it was just one of those things. Couldn't have been in a better place for that kind of thing to have happened! He stayed with Tanja while he was there, which was nice for them both. He is currently working on his final essay for his Health & Safety course.

I have started a Maori cultural familiarisation course through CDANZ, which has been good, and have done a couple of Institute of Directors courses as well. I have been too busy at work to finalise my AJCD article changes, and realistically won't get to that until January now.

This month Jan also had an NSO concert, Opera Mania, which was be the last concert that the NSO will have at Old St John's. At long, long last the Nelson School of Music will be reopening next month. Opera Mania went well, with the Anvil chorus being repeated as an encore at the end. It was very, very good, despite a small dollop of Wagner!

My wee nana car crapped out this month: the first time it has ever broken down. The alternator died on us, on the way home (right outside the Richmond branch of the garage I use). Jan got in touch with a former colleague and he rescued us, gave us a loaner car, and we were off. However, this is making me think that it is time to start thinking about a replacement: it was first registered in 2006, now being a venerable 12 years old. I would really like an electric car, but I don't think they have the range yet for our driving requirements of up to 130km a day without a recharge. I will have to buy a second-hand electric car, which will have already lost some of its range. Also, Nelson has very few charging places - all of which you have to pay for. While I may be able to recharge, it will require an extension cord and a 'willing' power socket. Something to think about, anyway.

Plans are firming up for our German trip. It looks like it will be December. We will update everyone as we know.


Sam (& Jan)

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 - November 2017

Hi all,
Hopefully the year has been kind to you all: things are starting to return to normal for us, though we have been - as usual - fairly busy.

We began the month with the CDANZ Conference in Auckland as detailed in our October newsletter), and ended it with the SMAANZ Conference on the Gold Coast. We stayed with Tanja and Tony in Tan's new appartment in Bulimba: wow, what a great place, with awesome views. I had several days on the Gold Coast, commuting for the first couple, then staying for the last couple. Lars and Ann came up from Sydney on Friday night, and we spent some time with them over the weekend. Tanja and Jan spent some time together while I was away for the days. Some photos of our trip follow.

 

 

 

 

We spent some time in Brisbane, touring the city and the river; as well as a dinner and drinks at Q1 Skypoint on the Gold Coast, and a meander along the beach. We also went to Caloundra for the day on the Sunday before we came home, to see Ann's grandparents. There was a great thunderstorm that came through on our last night which gave us some fabulously moody photos. We got so well looked after we were almost tempted to stay :-)

On the plane I watched half of the second series of "Head of the Lake" on the way over, and the other half on the way back. This second series was set in Sydney, rather than in and around Queenstown. It was OK, but didn't quite hang together. I probably wouldn't bother watching a third series, unless it got rave reviews.

It was a total month of parties. Dawnie had her usual Guy Fawkes BBQ, which was great fun, followed later in the month by her birthday party at The Boat Shed, Mapua.

We had Glenys and Kevin's for Kevin's birthday dinner, which was a late night out (needless to say! It is always a late and hilarious night at the Mudcastle).

Tracey is moving into town next month: she has sold her share of Cotterel Road to Max & Karen who will now both farm full time. Erica will be going to Nelson Intermediate in 2018 - crikey, intermediate age already! - and Trace will be reinventing herself. Exciting times! We all had fish and salad one night with Tracey, Erica, Max, Karen, Jenny and John: on the first night that John was back in the country. Jenny was up for a family weekend, so it all worked out very neatly.

We caught up with the Cools's again: they came around for dessert and a movie (Hot Fuzz). It is amazing how quickly the year gets away on you though: we only live ten kilometres apart, but it is surprising how hard it can be to co-ordinate diaries.

Daniel turned 50, and had a big shindig up in his new shed. We caught up with our builder, Glenn, and his new partner (Beth) and some people from SA who are new to the district, and are beekeepers. A good night out, and a fair catch up with the neighbours. Margot and Michele told us that they are moving because Susie Lees is planning on moving back in with her new man - from the UK, aparently. That will be interesting.

Jan had the NSO Christmas BBQ at Eleanor’s place in Heron Grove, behind the old Templemore Gardens farm. They have a lovely house with a gorgeous English/Australian garden, designed for lots of shade, but all I could see was lots of work in keeping it beautiful! We took along things that I could eat - coleslaw, hummus, cucumber and broccoli, and marinated chicken. We were there in the garden for three hours... the time just melted away.

The Kanuka is flowering gorgeously.

Gorgeous sunrises again: and not much rain at all. It was so dry that we decided to put off planting most of our vege plants until we got back from Oz.

Jan has been getting the vege gardens ready for the summer, while considering that offer he was made that I mentioned last month. Negotiations have progressed to the point where contracts have been signed, and he has done a couple of hand-over days on his free Mondays. He finishes at the DHB just before Christmas, and goes to Port Nelson as Safety Advisor, starting the week before Christmas. He is looking forward to the change.

The little nana car hit 200000ks:

Along with John, Nadine from Ulm has come to stay too, and will help out John with the first couple of tours as a driver. It is lovely to see her again. She is in the spare room, and John is in the laundry!

I wound up my teaching, marking and results for the semester, and had the decks clear before heading off over the Tassie. There is still some admin to do next month, but I am pretty much done and dusted for the year, aside from supervising three full year project students who will continue their projects over summer, and attending graduation. That means I can get stuck into my PhD, which has been sadly neglected... largely due to the personal toll this year has taken with family illness and deaths.

This month's MOOC was a FutureLearn University of Reading course, "An Intermediate Guide to Writing", which was part two of the MOOC I did last month. It wasn't bad... and again, I learned something new. And then I managed to fit in another one to help me finish off my journal article: How to Write a Scientific Paper course, by l'Ecole Polytechnique on the Cousera platform. It too was free :-)

Boo looking after my Fluevogs:

And some people wear sunglasses inside!

'til next month!


Sam (& Jan)