Hi all,
Just a quick update again as we are both still flat out... yeah, yeah, I know!
We are getting ready to take all the Rotary Exchange students around the NI: Murray B who does all the planning for the event has organised our flights already, and we get into Wellington at 10.45 on the 20th of April, spend the weekend there, then on to Auckland and all points north. Karin, who came to stay with us before Camila left in January, will hopefully be able to organise the local exchange students whom we haven't yet met, to come out to our place for a weekend so we can get to know them before the trip.
The weather has been staggeringly fine for what seems like months. I awoke this morning to a very light drizzle and mist (in fact, I had to double check that it was actually raining). It will be good as the ground is quite parched and a blasted rabbit keeps finding its way into the vege garden, despite our rabbit-proof fence (ha ha - obviously a misnomer!).
The NSO concert last night was really great - not only were the pieces at the right standard of complexity for the skill of the orchestra, but they finished with Rhapsody in Blue which was an incredibly upbeat way to end the first concert of the year.
Last weekend we had a great time: we went to the Suter Gallery fund raiser on Friday night and bought a Craig Potton print of the Ureweras. Haunting. We were on a very fun table with lots of acid asides about various things which was highly entertaining. Saturday Jan had orchestra practice and sectionals. On the Sunday we trucked off into Nelson very bright & early - arriving at 20 to 6 in the pitch dark: thank goodness for headlight torches - to volunteer for the Weet-bix Kids "Tryathlon". I have organised the cycle steward volunteers for the past three years, and the team assembled was just great. Aside from a few tears and a few grazes, it was pretty much a trouble-free cycle leg with 1779 kids completing the course. We zoomed off from that to the Kahurangi Long Lunch in the Vineyard to celebrate the 2012 vintages which had just gone into the bottle. We caught up with lots of people and had a really great time sitting outside under a lovely soft canopy enjoying lovely food & wine.
We had the 10 year dinner for Whakatu Rotary Club, which Jan came along to. I volunteered to drive, but of course, by the end of the night he was sober anyway, and drove home. It was a good night with several awards given to long serving and charter members. I used the night to recruit - or re-recruit - my cycle stewards. My next project will be the team for the Founders Book Fair which is another community event which raises project funds for Founders Heritage Park.
Jan & I both went to the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce's first lunch of the year, to hear Glidepath's Sir Ken Stevens talk about his business experiences. He was most interesting in answering the questions that were asked: I wished it had only been a Q&A session because the short annecdotes and answers were fascinating.
Frits & Kathleen's daughter Amy has just returned from 4 years in Australia, in order to do some prereq papers before starting her second degree (Engineering this time). We think she will dog sit for us while we are away in the NI, which is fantastic.
We were supposed to be chainsawing today: one of my colleagues from NMIT & his wife - Mark & Nicky - were going to come out & cut wood this morning, but the rain will make it too slippery. Better to be safe! Postponements work just fine.
I have two great classes this semester - both fairly small in number, but both very active and interactive. It is such a pleasure to teach motivated and engaged students! One of my papers is video linked to Marlborough, and I have six students who 'beam in' for each class. I had a new NMIT lecturer sitting in on one of my classes to see how to manage video link etiquette. Like all things, it easier both watched and modelled as well as explained in theory then practiced.
Jan has been asked if he will take on role of the Chair of the NSO Committee, and thinks he probably will for a year and see how he likes it. I think it will be good for the committee and for Jan. Another thing to learn :-)
I am busy recording lectures for a paper that I am not actually teaching this semester, but that four students have asked if they can take early, as they want to attend another institution in the second semester. I am OK with it, but it does mean that work I had postponed until the second half of the year has to be done now.
As a result my own study has been postponed... and I am procrastinating on writing my conference presentation RFP because I am so over-faced by the quality of audience. Ah well.
We have been working in the vege garden:
we had good cherry tomatoes, cucumber, sugar snap peas, spinach, lettuce,
garlic and courgettes. We have some peppers just coming on now. A few potatoes
earlier (we didn't plant any: they just came up from where we had them the winter
before last). Sadly our pumpkins got bacterial wilt & died: our larger tomatoes didn't
thrive. They have just effectively stalled. So we picked 60 kilos of tomatoes from a local market garden (they
grow the vines outside in mounded rows) and bottled them over the last couple
of weeks. We have 60 1 litre jars of preserved tomatoes downstairs now, ready
for soups, sauce and anything else we fancy this coming winter :-)
Still going to do some apple juice... probably next weekend.
I will be up in Welly again in May, in Chch in Oct, and might well be in Queenstown in November (Jan will probably come to the last one too). The CDANZ meetings this year are all over the place, driven by conferences where we need to have a presence, largely. Will be a fun year, though I have a lot of projects I am juggling for it: leading a finance system overhaul, audit committee, website committee, communications director and magazine editor. Phew. At least the finance thing will be done soon. And the website not too far - couple of months - afterward, I hope.
Everyone is as well as expected, health-wise, here. Tessa & her girlfriend have split up, which is very sad, but Tessa seems to be coping as well as can be expected from such a meaningful relationship break up.
Brother Mike is getting married on 10th April 2014 in Rarotonga, so that will be our next trip offshore. Then there are Jan's Oma's 100th birthdays the year afterward. Sometime in there we have to squeeze in a Brazil trip too to see the Martins.
Justine, there's a wee buzzy bee print heading your way next week to say thank you for being my postal staging house! I hope the colour is OK, but it was the VERY last one, so Hobson's choice...
Right - that's it for now. Going to loll about & watch movies and play ladies today, I think. There has been rather too much high-life :-)
Sam & Jan
