Our private blog, keeping family & friends up to date with my exciting (!) life in Tasman, New Zealand and Jan's work back and forth between Nelson and Whangarei...
Hi everyone, Another month has ticked by - so fast! - and, as usual, we have been busy.
Jan has been doing an international certificate in Health & Safety, so has been down in Chch twice for the NEBOSH courses related to the qualification, and again for his final exam. Now he just has the assessment to submit tomorrow night, and hopefully he will be complete.He caught up with a few people while he was down in Christchurch, including Gary and Karen, Megan, Bertie, Jenny (who stayed with), Dan and Rochelle, Tory, Pat and Marjie, Murray and Leigh and Julie and Murray:
I went down to Christchurch to present some of my research at the Career Development Association conference at Ara at the beginning of the month. I also stayed with Jenny, and we went shopping! We also tried a couple of different restaurants (Moroccan, and Thai), which was really good. My conference presentation seemed to go pretty well.
In the middle of the month I reprised it with the Nelson Marlborough Branch of the Association.
Jan and I went to the reopening of the Suter Gallery on 2 October. Boy, that building upgrade was a long time in the making: somewhere around a decade.But worth it, as the place looks fantastic. We got a tour of the facility, and a preview of the latest exhibitions. And found our names on the wall as benefactors, which was quite cool.
We caught up with Magda & David at Ambrosia in Richmond, which was great. And, at long last, I've put together a photo album for their wedding. It's their wedding anniversary on 28 November, so is rather timely, as the poor guys have been waiting for almost a whole year for me to get my act together!
Jan & I have been watching the US series, Mr Robot. While I enjoyed the first series, series two proved quite a disappointment. By episode three it had lost me, though Jan persevered to the end. The other interesting watch has been the two Morse series prequels: entitled "Endeavour". Not bad.
The Stanton migraine protocol that I have been (roughly) following since May seems to be working. No migraines now for 150 days and counting. This has been achieved by cutting out pretty much all carbs - except potatoes - and having as little sugar as possible. So limited alcohol, andnext to no bread, crackers, oats andseeds. Only one coffee per day, and no tea. It was pretty hard at first, but I just had to ask myself what I would rather have: a lolly/cup of tea/dessert or a migraine. No choice, really. The bonus is you can have lots more fat and salt. If you are interested in knowing more about it, read Angela's book here, or apply to join the FB page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/219182458276615/
We caught up with Gary and Karen in Nelson - they came up for Gary to compete in the Abel Tasman Challenge. Karen went coffee drinking ;-D
Justine came to stay for a few days. We went shopping. I bought new boots (which I love) from Whitwells. So did Justine: bright red suede boots - gorgeous!Justine, Betty, Peter & I had lunch at Toad Hall, and Justine captured a piece of Motueka toilet wisdom:
We did quite a lot of shopping, 'did' the market, had breakfast at Panama, had fish and chips at the Smokehouse and a beer at the Golden Bear, BBQd, visited Dawn, and enjoyed the coming of summer. We had a lovely time, and it was over all too soon. The best thing is that she is likely to be back in our neck of the woods next March or April, so we will be able to catch up again then :-)
One of Justine's purchases: a Jill Main Pohutukawa & Wild Rose cuff
I took Tracey & Warren's daughter Erica to make a necklace for her birthday at the Bead Gallery. I suspect that I might have had more fun than she had! Warren has been biking in Vietnam:
Kim and Geoff came up to Nelson for Kim's birthday. They came to stay for a couple of days - with Baxter - which was lovely:
I am still waiting to hear whether there are any changes needed for my PhD application. One of my referees had trouble uploading their referee report, so that has stalled the process.
Mid-month, Jan & I caught up with Sharon & Ian at Jellyfish in Mapua for lunch to talk about putting together an album to celebrate the Nullarbor train trip. I had made a video of the trip which I showed them... and filmed their expressions as they watched: . Happy birthdays to Marjie, Sandra, Amy, Uncle Norman, Dawnie, Lara, Justine, Jeremy, Donna, and Neil this month!
Hello all, We have had yet another busy month. Jan has been studying flat out, and I have been trying to find time to getmy PhD application prepared and into Griffith University. It is now submitted, andI only need to wait to hear whether I will be accepted, or what changes need to be made. Jan and I went to the Gecko Theatre for a movie a few weeks ago, and watched "A Month of Sundays", which was a really nice movie. OK, it was largely focused on death, but it had dignity and gentle humour. I liked it. And we had a nice view of the moon, Mars and - I think - Jupiter on the way:
We went to Jellyfish at Mapua for lunch on Jan's birthday, which was really nice. Max and Karen, Erica and Tracey, Mike and Donna, my folks, Dawn, Kathleen, Frits and Amy all came. We had a very good time.
One Friday night we caught up with the Cools's for dinner - easy-care fish and chips from the Upper Moutere Takeaway straight over the road. Fabulous. But Renate still made a fantastically delicious birthday cake for Jan that we all ate far too much of.
Getting some nice sunrises now:
The Subaru has been in and out of the garage with a steering pump issue... which turned out to be a blocked hose, in the end. That was after a reconditioned pump had been fitted. Ouch.
Jan has been down to Christchurch for the first half of a health and safety certification course, and has caught up with quite a few of the Cantabrians. He has been staying with Jenny, and goes back down in a couple of weeks for the next half, followed by an exam the day after Labour Day.
I go down to Christchurch next week for a conference (I am presenting on some research that myself and a colleague have been doing on employer use of cybervetting), and I too am staying at 'Hotel Ladley' :-)
Speaking of Jenny, she, Tracey & Erica have donethe Abel Tasman track. Jan & I picked them up at Marahau, after they had walked down from Wainui Inlet. They had had a great - and, despite the rain over Nelson-way this week, a dry - time. Well: maybe from Jen's point of view, an "OK" time!
Luckily, in the last week of the month, I had study break, which has enabled me to do some of that research for the CDANZ conference (to be delivered next week), and get on top of the administration tasks.Both my research and Sports PR students are now mostly well on the way with their projects, and I have finished with lectures on those papers, so now only student mentoring and marking remains. While lectures still continue for my Leadership paper, the load-lightening on the other papers helps to gain a bit of free (well...free-er!) time.
Our road has been graded, and, although the weather has not been that dry, our driveway is now looking pretty good.
Jan, my Mum and I went to the Nelson Symphony Orchestra's "Solo Spotlight" concert, where eight very talented young performers entertained us. It reinforces that here are some very committed young musicians and singers out there, and it was a privilege to be able to listen.
Happy birthday to Bertie, Robert, Becks, Jenny, Uta, KT, Ana Silvia, Guy, Barb, Kelly, Erica, Julie, Tracey, and Hartmut. We are really looking forward in November to seeing Holger, Dieter and Gudrun: can't wait! More next month :-)
