Snow at Roses Road

Hi all,
We had a bit of snow overnight!
Despite the somewhat crisp aspect to the day, we are all good here. The dogs are finding the crunchy cold wet stuff underfoot a little puzzling though.

Another pearl

Ah, reading. It makes you laugh sometimes:

"...and the wife starts bleating about unconditional love. What's that supposed to mean, eh?"
"It's American for putting up with crap from your children".

Walters, Minette (2007). The Chameleon's Shadow. UK: Macmillan (p. 144).

The book is fairly pedestrian (see, I am being good & having some rest), but that was a bit of humour.

Delicious Quote from "Plumb" by Maurice Gee

"He might have been too upset" I said.
"Nonsense. He's a Tory"

Gee, Maurice (1983). The Plumb Trilogy, book 3: Sole Survivor. NZ: Faber and Faber. p. 198

That made me laugh today!

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

Richard Little on robot legs

Today on National Radio's Nine to Noon, Richard Little speaks about his work as an inventor, helping transform the lives of some paraplegics using a robotic exoskeleton. This is a fascinating talk on applied scientific research that is happening right here in New Zealand. Check out the podcast at http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20110525-1012-feature_guest_-_richard_little-048.mp3

Using LinkedIn for Career Placements

Hi All,
Hope you are all keeping well, and the weather is as mild for you as it has been for us :-)

Apparently there is a growing trend for graduates in the UK to use LinkedIn to kickstart their careers. Liz Holland from the Career Development Association (CDANZ) posted a link to an OnRec article about two surveys of  UK graduates. Read "Graduate job seekers more likely to utilise social media than rest of UK job seekers" at http://www.onrec.com/news/graduate_job_seekers_more_likely_to_util.

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

Crop Dusting

Hope you are all keeping well - we have a lovely autumn cruising along here.

Our neighbours, Ian & Cath, had their pasture limed on Saturday morning via crop dusting plane. We had a ring side seat on the action :-)

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

Kathleen talking on marine collagen

A friend of ours, Kathleen, has been speaking on National Radio about her research with Plant & Food Research at http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ocw/ocw-20110317-2134-Adding_Value_to_Hoki_Skin-048.mp3

Preserving & Agee Jars

Hi all,

We are all well in Nelson & hope you are all enjoying your season!

So far this year we have done 70 bottles of preserves. Stewed apple, apple juice, stewed plums, pear quarters, beetroot and tomato purée have rolled off the Rosepine production line and have been lovingly stored in the cellar.


One of the local horticulturalists opens their tomato patch up to the scavengers once their tomato crop is past its prime - for 70 cents a kilo. Last weekend Jan & I picked up about 35 kilos and made tomato purée all day Sunday (thanks to Bunty giving us the scavenging tip-off!). I have another 18 kilos of nearly ripe tomatoes in front of the sliders in the lounge that I picked yesterday, turning fire-engine red in the sun. I will preserve them on Sunday when they are nice & ripe.

So this is just a quick request. We are looking for Agee Jars and/or rings to do some more preserving (either green or gold-sized jars/rings). We want to get a good stock ahead for next summer, and need to pay a friend back for 20 jars that we borrowed. We are interested in any amount. 2, 3 or 100. If you have some old rings lurking in the bottom drawer and no jars left to match them with, we would be happy to take them off your hands.

We are happy to buy jars if anyone has some to sell - though they probably need to be relatively local (or have some easy personal courier method to us in Nelson!). Drop us an email or flick us a text if you can help on 021 998 846.


More news next week :-)

Sam & Jan

Earthquakes, Nuclear Plants and Carbon Credits

Awful news about Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant problems. In the past day Japan has experienced a lot of strong aftershocks - in fact 38 over magnitude 4, and three over 6 (check out http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php and http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/). Some of the earthquakes are as shallow as the one in Christchurch on Feb 22. A shaky day.

What a terrible combination of disasters for a country to have to deal with; thousands homeless, winter, little power, roads out and no way to get food to the survivors. Our poor Cantabrians seem lucky in comparison.

Interesting from my safe seat in New Zealand that the earth's rotation has been shortened by 1.8 microseconds and earth's axis moved by 25cm... but pretty damned awful to be feeling the effects of it on the ground in North East Honshu.

While John Key said in a UN address in 2009 that there is a 'growing regard for nuclear power in New Zealand', I think that the additional risk of a post-earthquake nuclear power plant failure has been clearly demonstrated in the unfolding situation in Japan. Nukes may be carbon-neutral, but they aren't safe when the world is being rocked on its axis. Perhaps GE should add as a rider to their plant sales collateral "Earthquake-prone countries need not apply".

News from Nelson - March 2011

Hi everyone,

The Christchurch earthquake continues to dominate our news, along with the situation in Libya. Petrol has risen by about 13 cents per litre in the past couple of months, but oil companies have kept the price in Christchurch as it was in an effort to make things easier on Christchurch residents.

Jenny L came up for a few days with her brother & sister-in-law as a rest from the failed Christchurch infrastructure. She came to stay here for a night, and it was great to see her. She was itching to get back down to Christchurch though, and check through her house thoroughly. The Uni is opening again on March 14^th.

It is amazing, but none of our friends appear to have been hurt. The only people we know of who have lost their house are Dave & Jo L (but they & the kids are all OK). Everyone else seems to have come through in good shape.

The central city will take a long time to return to normal; first of all the people of Christchurch need to decide if they wish to rebuild the CBD in the same location, or if it should be relocated to firmer ground. Repairs will apparently cost about $20b.

Photo: 3News (2011) from http://modernsurvivalblog.com/earthquakes/another-quake-rocks-christchurch-new-zealand/


Tessa is now up in Auckland, and is planning on settling there. She is staying with Mike & Kara while she organises everything –she has a preschool position already and is about to move into a house-share in Botany Downs.

Like the rest of the country, here in Nelson we have had a bit of rain, and the temperatures have fallen from some 30 degree days to some cooler temperatures.

In the past few weeks we haven’t really got any work done around the house, as Jan is practicing for the next NSO concert (which is in a fortnight), I am busy teaching a full-time teaching load this semester, and we have been doing lots of other things on our weekends.

We dropped off a trailer-load of firewood to Montrose Drive and picked up a trailer load of green waste from them – man, have we got some great tenants thus far. They seem to be treating our house like their own, and really taking care of it inside and out. It is wonderful.

Last weekend we helped out with the Weet-bix “Tryathlon”, which is a triathlon for primary school children. It was a great event, with nearly 1400 children sea-swimming, cycling and running (and only 4 accidents). I organised a group from Rotary to help out as marshalls on the cycle course, and made banana cake & coffee to bring in for our Rotary helpers team. It was great fun to take part and help the kids complete the event.

We also had Robbie & Janet’s birthday party at their farm in Tapawera - a 'cowboy' party. Luckily both Jan & I have hats, check shirts and boots, which made the whole dress-up aspect really simple. The party was in the woolshed, complete with a really good covers band who played nearly the whole time. It was a really good night, and we caught up with all sorts of people. Fleur & Neil were there and we had a great chat to them, as well as a surprise catch up with Nathan I.

Jan & I also volunteered to help take down a set of water fountain installations from a Nelson street display. There was a competition for these ‘water works’, with the winner getting a prize of $3000, and all the pieces were purchased. The one I liked was a stone sculpture of a man & a dog in a dingy on some rocks, which has been bought by a local pub (the Free House), to go in their beer garden. The fountain is a jet of water that squirts up between the man & dog, as if their boat has been holed. Very cute.

We also went with Sandra & Kevin to the Crusaders vs Waratahs rugby match at Trafalgar Park – moved to Nelson because of the Christchurch earthquake. It was a great opportunity to see a really good game at a very low cost ($32 for both of us on the embankment - plus loads of Stephanos pizzas to keep our strength up!). We would love to be going this Friday coming for the Crusaders vs Brumbies match, but we have friends coming over for a BBQ & movie.

We now have 50 jars of preserved apple puree, apple juice, pear halves and stewed plums in the cellar ready for the winter. I had to borrow some jars off Kathleen to get us through, so now I am trying to buy more Agee jars so that I can pay her back for the loan. Thank goodness for TradeMe and the Buy Sell Swap!

A group of us caught up with Jen C for breakfast the other day – she and some other members of her Friday painting group have an exhibition on at Kaimira Estate for a month, which is pretty exciting. She is thoroughly enjoying Golden Bay, and is now a mad contract Bridge fiend (to the point of having stood for Vice President of the bridge club). The damage from the late December floods is still being repaired.

I have also managed to catch up twice with Kel A – which must be a miracle in the space of a month! Duncan is in PNG, she is splitting her time between Welly & Nelson, but is off to the US in April for a break.

Oli took some fantastic photos at Oma Friedel's 96th birthday in Feb. A couple to share with you below:

This weekend Jan is going to hire a small digger so we can fill in the dirt around our big water tanks (and I can get my clothes line in on top), 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. We have also ordered our next lot of fruit trees for the gully.

Fliss didn’t have anything stuck in her throat; she had laryngitis! Bonnie then got an eye ulcer, and we spent two weeks back and forth from the vet for both of them. I emailed John & said that it was like a dispensing ward here with all the various meds that had to be administered at each meal time! Fliss is now pretty right, and Bonnie’s eye is slowly coming right.

John got back last week, and is reunited with Bon dog. He heads away in another ten days or so for his last tour for the season, and Bonnie comes back for another stint of ‘home away from home’.

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Melissa, Brigitte, Sandra W, Mike D, Jen C, Frits, Duncan A & Dilani.

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

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Update on Christchurch family & friends

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch yesterday has caused a lot of damage. The shock was only 5k down (very shallow) and only 10k away (three times closer to the city than the September quake), with an epicentre in Lyttleton. The September earthquake was 30k away and 10k down, and even that quake was much shallower than we usually experience in New Zealand.

So far all our friends & family in Chch are OK, post-earthquake; only losing doesn't-matter-stuff, like small breakables and their nerves :-)

 My sister Barb, Tessa, Aunty Diana & Uncle Eddie are all good. Just breakables ...and mess.

Jenny was outside having coffee at the time, and was shaken but not stirred (not sure how her house is). Warren & Tracey have lost their caravan and chook-house to a falling boulder, but they are OK - Trace has headed down to Waimate. Pat is getting back today from overseas, and he, Marjie & the sproglets are thinking of heading up to Nelson. Bertie spent the night at her folks' place before heading home to clean up the broken stuff (minor). Dan is OK. Paul & Bridget are OK - and Paul's shop is less smashed up this time, as the epicentre was further away, and at home his chimney was toppled in the September quake, which was a bit of a bonus in a weird way).

Kathleen & Frits' son & nephew are in Chch but both are OK and helping out people around them who need assistance. We haven't heard directly from Megs but have heard through the grapevine that she & hers are alright. 

We haven't heard anything from Gary & Karen, or Yi & Paula, but are assuming that no news is good news... Hopefully everyone at Streats is OK too.

In Nelson we have had very minor disruptions to phone and power systems; power due to the fluctuations of supply through Christchurch, phones due to overload. Neither of which are remotely bothersome for us, except when we are trying to get news of people we care about.

 

Anyone who hasn't heard from friends or family should call 0800 RED CROSS. Important response information is posted at http://canterburyearthquake.org.nz/. For those of us not in Christchurch, news can be found at http://www.stuff.co.nz/ 

Our best wishes go out to everyone. Call us if you need us, and feel free to come & camp.

News from Nelson - February 2011

Hi everyone!

The weather has been hot & sunny, with an hour or so of light drizzle last week – just enough to wash the dust off the roof into the water tanks. We are doing well for water though; our tanks are still half full.

Waitangi weekend was the start of the Adam Chamber Music Festival, and we saw five concerts between us. The music was great, and the Hermitage String Trio from Russia was just fantastic. Last weekend Jan had a whole weekend of music as on the Sunday he also had a full day workshop for the NSO.

Despite having bought some wall-plugs, none of our heavier pictures have yet made it to the walls, nor have our bathroom mirrors. I am quite tempted to ask the builder if he can put them up, to take them off Jan’s list. We’ll see.

The Montrose Drive tenancy is going well so far. Fingers Xed for the long term.

My study stalled for a bit; I have got an extra paper to teach in Semester 1 this year, and have been getting it ready instead.

Jan has been going to Underwater Hockey, (twice this year now – the Adam Festival got it the way a bit). He is thinking about playing in the South Island Masters Games which will be held in Nelson in October this year, so is pretty keen to get to the pool every week.

He has also signed up for all the NSO concerts for the year, and I have signed up as a  “Friend” and booked my concert seat all the way through. My mother has done the same, and booked the seat next to mine, and Kathleen & Frits have also signed up.

The Sarau Fair was really nice; we bought an updated version of “The Road to Sarau”, a history of the area written by our architect’s wife. The fair started at 4, and carried on into the night, which is a great idea for high summer. It was very relaxed, and we found we knew a lot of people there.

Last Saturday night we had Gary Rae’s 50th birthday party at the Honest Lawyer, which was fun. It was a 60s fancy dress theme – Jan went as a hippie & I went in psychedelic gear (we raided a local fancy dress shop which had some great costumes). Nik was a Mary Quant dollybird and Gary was a mod! I think there was only one person there not in a costume, so everyone had really got into the spirit of the thing. Wendy & Wayne were there – and we had a good catch up with them – along with Hugh & Julie B. Jan had a long chat to Paul Dalzell from Nelson Pine – and only part of it was about work!

On Sunday while Jan was at the music workshop, Magda came out after church with some plums and cooking apples from Gea. We had a lovely afternoon having lunch and pottering about, and after she left, I got the Agee preserver out and spent three hours stoning and bottling the plums (only 5 jars for my trouble, and terribly stained fingers!). On Monday night Jan & I did 7 & 1/2 jars of apple puree from Gea’s cooking apple tree.

So this weekend we are swapping some Cox’ Orange seconds from our local friendly apple man for a bottle of wine, and we will be apple processing to the max. One day’s full on effort will keep us in bottled fruit for a year – and we know exactly where it came from and what it has in it. And very low air miles :-)

This Sunday Jan is off for a mbike ride with Derek Sherwood, which will be fun for both of them.

Fliss is at the vet today as she appears to have something stuck in her throat; Jan dropped her off this morning and we will hear through the day what the problem - and the solution - is. Coco, despite having Bonnie here, is quite lost. I took her for a walk this morning and she spent her whole time wanting to run down the road after the car (despite Jan having left half an hour before).

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Kathleen, Kenn B, Pat McL & Kent.

Right, I think that's it. All the very, very best for the next few weeks.

Until I write again - alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Parkour

For a look on the light side, check out Parkour Training founder, David Belle's BBC ad at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMAr8y-Vtw, or some younger Brits in Parkour play at St Johns in Oxford at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wDMnKpEMfM.

If, like me, you really like the music in the background of the St John's vid, it is Professor Longhair's "Big Chief", from the 2000 album "New Orleans Funk".