News from Nelson - July 2010

Hi all,

Wow - I can't believe the last month went by so fast!

We had a fantastic time on holiday. Paris was fab - we would definitely recommend the tiny apartment we had to anyone. Close to the Louvre, 200m from the Chatalet metro hub, well supported by a neighbourhood supermarket, greengrocer, patisseries, great restaurants; just perfect. We walked pretty much everywhere. Hot, but not too hot, and lovely fine weather.

Germany. Wow - how do you pack three weeks of holiday into a paragraph... Kenzigen, Freiburg, Ulm, Eppingen, Polheim, Treysa, Edersee, Langen, Frankfurt - all fantastic. Jan got to spend some time with both of his grandmothers, who were both very, very pleased to see him. There is so much to thank everyone for - our stay was made so easy by the efforts of the whole family. It was wonderful to catch up; we were so well hosted by everyone, starting with Rainer & Regina, by Eberhard, Uta, Oli & Katrin & the Paechs, by Andreas and Katrin, by Holger, Katalin, Achim and Katrin (ably assisted by Heidi, Buddy & Julia), by Eberhard, Thomas and Bettina, by Simone and Michael. Eberhard organised a wonderful hosted three day family weekend at Edersee starting with Thomas' birthday party on the Friday night at Waldeck, followed by a gathering at Thomas & Bettina's house at the Edersee on Saturday night and completed by a trip to Peterskopf on Sunday. Most of the family was there, so we got to see everyone we hadn't seen already, and some of those whom we had seen, again (we also got to see Gerhard & Claudia at Oma Friedel's). I got some targeted shopping in, thanks to Uta, Andreas and Justine and Gareth! We had a good catch up with Justine & Gareth - and I got to have a play on Gareth's new iPad (very styley!). Freiburg was a really interesting city to visit, and Justine & Gareth had made a great choice of hotel. However, Germany was boiling. Four to ten degrees hotter than Paris - and it got hotter as time went on... that didn't encourage us to be too active, though we tried.

I was trying to think if there were a few highlights of the trip - and I can't settle on a few. The whole holiday was just great - if anything, my overwhelming impression is one of warmth. Warmth from everyone we spent time with, all of whom hosted us so wonderfully, took care of us and treated us as though we were special people. It was pretty humbling.

So; thank you ALL for making our holiday such a wonderful experience. We had the very best time, and would dearly love to host you in return in New Zealand, if and when you come.

So we got back after a long but uneventful flight - a bit longer than it should have been as we first made up time, then seemed to have a new delay on every leg; thunderstorm at Frankfurt, reboarding through a different gate in Dubai, someone in our park in Bangkok, something else in Sydney. We missed our connecting flight to Nelson, but we were booked on the next one easily enough. We were met at Christchurch by Tracey & Erica to take any luggage we were overweight on, but AirNZ was kind to us & pushed everything through. So we had coffee instead!

We got home to 3 degrees, hot pumpkin soup, and the fire going. Magda had done a great job of literally keeping the home fires burning while we were away :-)

And now we are back into the swing of things again. Jan is still battling tiredness, but I have slotted back in quite well (surprisingly).

Our current project is to get our Code of Compliance from the Council, so we had a meeting with the builder & the architect this week. The builders still have to duct in the range hood and install the stainless steel backing for kitchen hob, and fix another couple of things that the architect has flagged. We still have to permanently fix the gas bottle outside, finish the exterior lighting and hook up the other 23,000 litre water tank.

Kathleen & Frits came out to visit us last weekend, which was great. They brought lunch, and we had a very relaxing afternoon in their company. They are off on holiday soon - flying to Melbourne for a few days with their daughter Amy, then onto Rome, then taking the train to Vienna, and on to Amsterdam. It sounds as though they will have a wonderful time too.

Jan is now one of my students (his work is being marked by another tutor). He told one of his colleagues at work that "She seems to know what she is talking about". Nice recommendation! For my CAT qualification I will be completing my last assessment on one unit next week (review panel participation), and I have had my proposal approved for my management case studies, which I have started pulling together.

Today I chair the first of my Founders Heritage Park Committee meetings, which will be good. It is a strategic planning workshop which will be really useful.

Jan's cousin Oli has the whole photo thing sorted. He has a great website that he uploads photos to for sharing, and has such a good eye and camera that his images are as good as they need to be right after the click. I have already downloaded some of Oli's great shots of the weekend at Edersee. I have been trying to edit and stitch all our photos from our trip, but I simply have not had enough time. I have done some of them, but still need to spend another whole day going through them. Not sure when I will have time for that. As soon as I do, I need to send a CD to Justine & Gareth as they have sent me one of their shots... as well as post a couple here every newsletter of the good ones.

We are expecting our next weekend to be full of house-oriented things... a change is as good as a rest, they say :-)

Take care & alles liebe!

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson - June 2010

Hi all,

I think we are nearly in the same state of unpacking as we were last time I wrote; we still can't get our cars in the garage and have a bit under half our stuff still in cartons in the cellar & garage. That's because the wiring in the office still isn't finished, which is holding up putting the rest of the furniture in place (so there are still a few cartons of office gear in the garage not yet unpacked), and we still need some shelves in the linen cupboard (so the linen remains unpacked), and, while Michael Bender is about to get the bookshelf completed - so I can unpack the 20-odd cartons of books in the garage - we won't have time to take delivery of it before we leave for our holiday. When we get back from and have a dry weekend, we will move Jan's workshop gear out of the garage & seal the plasterwork outside the garage & in the entrance way. Unfortunately, every weekend there has been rain at night, so the plaster is too damp to seal.

Because we haven't managed to seal our plasterwork, we have decided to flag trying to get our Code of Compliance from the Council until we get back. The builders are going to duct in the range hood and install the stainless steel backing for kitchen hob while we are away. Jan has nearly finished installing the stair tread covering, and we still have to permanently fix the gas bottle for the hob outside. And I found out today that Jan will have to get the exterior lighting installed for our CoC as well. Trying to get that done this week when Jan has orchestra practice tonight & Underwater Hockey tomorrow night would just be madness.

However, the photo voltaics are working well. Despite rainy winter weather, we are currently shipping power back into the grid, and are generating as much power as we are using. It will be really interesting to see how much we generate in summer when we get sun for over fourteen hours each day! If we are going to feed back more than we consume, we may not add any more cells on the roof. Not until NZ gets a much better attitude towards paying for private generation, anyway. There is still a bit of a wait on getting a meter - we are using a borrowed one until our real one arrives.

The dogs love the fireplace! Snuggled up close by each night & cooking in the heat :-)

I have had a couple of trips to the Salvation Army and passed unneeded things onwards for recycling, the next trip is tomorrow. I have sold quite a bit of stuff on TradeMe, and still have a pile of saleable items in my office, waiting now until we get home from holiday.

We are still getting a few visitors (we thought no one would visit us, 40 mins out of town), but Magda has come three times, Dawn & Martin, my folks, Graeme & Julie Pahl, John & Jo, and Neil Murray have all called in. Jan's NSO concert went really well, and was very well received by the audience - nice write up in the Nelson Mail (see image).

We had a stormy day on Saturday & I took some photos east & west of the sky (see photos). We get some lovely views up here.

It will be a busy week for us both still, but we are both working hard to get everything done so we can head away with clear consciences. Jan is still very busy at work. He has no idea what will happen to his projects while he is away, but suspects that things will just not get done. I just sent my moderation pack off for my Leadership paper, and, once my Applied Management marking is finished, need to prepare materials for moderation. My Applied Management paper for next semester has already been set up & sent for printing (phew). However, I still have to get my report written for the Results Committee, as I won't be at the results meeting, and get the first two topics reviewed & printed for my Comms paper, next semester. We get back on the afternoon of Friday the 16th, and I start lecturing the next Tuesday. Not much time to organise anything in between!

I have nearly completed my second-to-last CAT unit; getting some really nice feedback from the tutor, and being told at the end of my presentation that I had passed (being told straight after the end of an assessment is a rarity, he told me). The review panel also gave me some great feedback. I have one more assessment to do, and that is to sit in on an academic review panel, but I can't do that until I am back from Europe. I have one more unit to do, and have just negotiated an independent learning contract for that, to research, write and publish some management case studies (which I was going to do anyway, so get some credit for it). All good, then I will be finished - probably at the end of this year. Yay!

Last Friday my year as Rotary President ended, and I handed over to my successor, Paul Rosanowski. So that is one reasonably big thing off my responsibilities list, which is just fantastic. However, the Chair of the Founders Heritage Park Committee stepped down last week, and nominated me as his successor, which I have accepted and the remainder of the Committee has endorsed (which is a much smaller thing!). I am currently looking for another board appointment, but haven't seen anything that really does it for me yet, and that I can add value to.

We leave for Europe next Monday, for a few days in Paris, where we have an apartment near Le Louvre. In Germany we have 5 days in Freiburg, three with Rainer & Regina, then to Ulm to see Uta and Oma Lieselotte, then Andreas & Katrin, then Holger and family, then to the Edersee for the Schütte family celebrations, Treysa, and lastly Simone & Michael before we fly out. We will catch up with most of the German contingent at the Edersee, which will be fantastic :-)

Magda is house-sitting for us the entire time we are away (awesome person that she is).

Take care & alles liebe!

 

Sam & Jan

News from Nelson - May 2010

Hi all,

I think we are still in the same situation as we were last time I wrote; we have maybe half our stuff still in the garage. However, the wiring in the office is still unfinished which is holding up putting the rest of the furniture in place (so there are still 20 cartons of office gear in the garage not yet unpacked), the (so we can't get cars in), and some shelves in the linen cupboard (so the linen remains packed in cartons), and Michael to get the bookshelf done - later this month - so I can unpack the books. But the wardrobes now have rails in them, so it is just now us having time to unpack our clothes from the cartons; and the builders have now moved their gear out of the shed, so once we have a dry weekend, we can move Jan's workshop gear out of the garage.

I have sold a load of gear on TradeMe already - the old washing machine, microwave, vacuum cleaner, and some other kitchen equipment and double-ups. I will organise the rest of the gear slowly over winter, and anything that doesn't sell will simply be donated to the Salvation Army.

Both decks are finished, and look great. Our photo voltaic cells have all been installed on the roof, but we are still waiting for our meter so we can feed power back into the grid. Apparently there is a bit of a wait on this. Our fireplace is now fully functional and we have had it on twice thus far. We haven't really needed it, as it is not that cold yet, but we wanted to test it out. It seems to be working as we would expect.

To get our Code of Compliance from the Council, there are some tasks that have yet to be completed; plastering and sealing the plaster on the blockwork, ducting the range hood, installing the stainless steel backing for kitchen hob, installing the stair tread covering, and permanently fixing the gas bottle for the hob. Once we get those things done, we can apply to have the house signed off. Jan doesn't have to install the string lights for the lounge to get our CoC, and we won't do that until we are back from Europe.

We have also had lots of visitors since our last update - Steph Jackson, Max & Karen, Christian, Dawn & Martin. We also went to the Nelson Choir's concert last Saturday at the Cathedral - we sat with Kathleen as Frits was singing. While I am writing, Jan is practicing for the next NSO concert, which is Saturday week. I am looking forward to hearing the whole orchestra play.

Jan remains busy at work. NMIT & AUT teaching is still going well, and I am currently working on a presentation for for my second-to-last CAT unit, which I deliver to my chosen audience on 28 May.

We have more or less finalised our plans for Europe, including 5 days in Freiburg, three with Rainer & Regina, then to Ulm to see Uta and Oma Lieselotte, then Andreas & Katrin, then Holger and family, then to the Edersee for the Schütte family celebrations, Treysa, and lastly Simone & Michael before we fly out. We will catch up with most of the German contingent at the Edersee, which will be fantastic :-)

Take care & alles liebe!

Jan & Sam

News from Nelson - April 2010

Hi all,

We are still partly moved in. We have maybe half our stuff still in the garage, as we are waiting on the wardrobes to be finished (so can't unpack our clothes), some wiring in the office to be finished which is holding up putting the rest of the furniture in place (so there are still 20 cartons of office gear in the garage not yet unpacked), the builders to move their gear out of the shed, so Jan's workshop gear is still in the garage (so we can't get cars in), and some shelves in the linen cupboard (so the linen remains packed in cartons), and Michael to get the bookshelf done so I can unpack the books.

I have added to the six cartons of kitchen stuff to be sold on TradeMe - which I will organise slowly over winter.

We have Hartmut staying here at the moment. He has been working on all sorts of projects, but especially a clever compost bin that slots together using our waste timber. We were going to 'ceremonially' add the first compost to it today, but it rained, so we will do that tomorrow morning - have a compost bin warming! Jan has a huge list of jobs that he has discussed with Hartmut, but I don't think either of them realised that the list would take a month, not a week, to complete.

We have put the range hood in place, but haven't yet sorted out the added cowling that it needs, or the stainless steel to go behind the kitchen hob. Things have been so busy that there just hasn't been time yet. Michael Bender has ordered materials for the big bookcase for the lounge, and that should be complete sometime next month. We have a front deck, but ran out of decking for the rear one, so the builders have moved on to another job for the present. We have taken the last of our eucalypt to the timber yard & hope that this will be enough... we will have to wait & see when it has run & when the builders come back to finish off.

Paul Bowe, Alan H (ex-Nelson Pine sparkies) and Alan's wife Vicky came up last weekend and helped Jan with wiring up island bench, and the garage. The wiring is pretty much done now - there are some data sockets that are incomplete, and Jan hasn't yet ordered all the string lights for the lounge, but we have done enough to get by on, probably until we are back from Europe.

We have been to a BBQ down the road at Jimu Grimmet's (on the corner of Roses Road and Rosedale Road), and we are buying our organic veges & goat feta from the Lees down the valley. Becoming part of the community :-) We have also had lots of visitors - Kathleen & Frits came out for dinner, as did John & Jo, and Alan & Vicky. We are also expecting Steph Jackson to arrive here today, and stay overnight.

Jan remains busy at work, but is off at a course today. NMIT & AUT teaching is going well for me, and I have even managed to complete my second assignment for my second-to-last CAT unit. I also have a couple of new fledgling business clients, which is very interesting work.

Jan is currently practicing for the next NSO concert. He has been enjoying the pieces, even though he hasn't had much time for practice yet. He is fully intending to make plenty of time, so some of the huge list of jobs around the house just might need to wait (making music is such an excellent use of time, and good for the soul!).

We have developed the first draft of our plans for Europe, ending at the Edersee for all the Schütte family celebrations, and including 5 days in Freiburg, three with Rainer & Regina, then heading off to see Andreas & Katrin for a few days, then a couple of days with Holger, then Edersee, then and Simone & Michael & flying out. The first draft will be with the German contingent shortly to check that you are all going to be home & available :-)

Jan & Sam