Jonathan has a new calling, as secretary in the Young Mens organization.
Jessica has been driving Jonathan to CPIT and staying as his “note-taker”. I think they are enjoying it. Jonathan is doing really well in his course in preparation for academic study.
One day we were getting things sorted out for Jonathan to take his braillenote and computer to CPIT (Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology). We couldn’t find the cable to connect the two. Mark managed to borrow one but it was all a bit fraught. We were talking about it in the evening and Jonathan came out of his room holding out a supermarket plastic bag, asking if that was it. Mark had a look and it was. We were all so pleased, and Jonathan was so proud to be the one to find it. It had been sitting on a shelf and I’d been looking in more obscure places. It was a lovely moment where the blind boy finds something his sighted parents couldn’t.
Jessica and William, Raiko and the fleas
Jessica and William have had trouble with infestations of fleas. A couple of times we have minded their kitten while they have “bombed” their flat to kill everything off. The next-door neighbour (in the same house) has thirteen cats. Steps are being taken to deal with the problem. Their kitten is very cute.
Mark
Mark is busy with his calling and work and taking Jonathan to the gym.
University
There is a “change proposal” out to lay off three more Operations Research teaching staff, after two took voluntary redundancy. It doesn’t make for a good atmosphere at work. Sadly one of the people in the cross-hairs is the other director in Creative Heuristics Ltd, Shane Dye. I went along to the meeting with him as his “Support person”. The process has been long and appallingly badly done, with wrong information and incompetence. We hope he will be able at least to keep his job part-time.
Pearl Walker
For a few years now we have been giving Pearl Walker rides to church and various activities. We got a phone call from Sharon Prouting on Saturday morning to tell us that Pearl had died. I felt sad that she was gone, but happy that it was so peaceful for her. She died in her sleep after feeling a bit unwell the day before. She was in a rest home. We had arranged for Jessica and William to take her to church as we were now in a different ward. She had been getting increasingly frail, and it was nice that she was able to keep coming to church until the end. I helped dress her, and found it a rather lovely experience. There were three other sisters there, and we worked together well.
Pearl was a wonderful example of making the most of life. She was a very positive person and always grateful for the little we did for her. She and Milton were baptized when their daughters were teenagers. They had some great adventures together travelling.
Apps
For an experiment we put Rogo for free for a weekend. We had over 6000 downloads, nearly half of them in China, but there were no on-going sales as a result. In the meantime we have sold our 100th AtMyPace:Statistics so we went out to lunch to celebrate it.
Blog
I am enjoying writing my weekly articles, and am building up a nice little following. You can read it here. The aim is to become known as an authority on the teaching and learning of statistics and operations research. Then people will want to buy my app. (And maybe have me as a keynote speaker or a consultant.)
Nicola’s head
I’ve had trouble with my neck for some time. I had an idea it might be to do with my graduated lenses, so I got some glasses especially for computer work. What bliss!
Then part way through February I started losing my balance. I didn’t actually fall over, but felt as if I were going to. I thought it might be to do with changing glasses all the time. In the end it turned out to BPPV, or Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. I was fortunate, though, as I didn’t really have vertigo, and definitely no vomiting or even nausea. It got fixed in March. While it was bad it was difficult to get up in the morning, knowing I was going to feel strange as soon as I turned my head.
Nicola’s calling
I got a phone call from the Executive secretary to see Bishop Clendon. I was quite surprised when I was called as Primary President. This is my sixth time. I had to staff the Primary entirely from nothing, which was quite good really, though I still don’t have all the teachers I need and one is leaving. The children are very bright and lively and it is a bit of a challenge.
Mimi
When I was in Auckland in December I met a young woman from Germany at Burgerfuel and invited her to stay when she came to Christchurch. I got a phone call from her and picked her up from the backpackers. She stayed a bit over a week, in the back room that used to be William’s. She helped us stack the firewood. It was nice to meet someone from overseas who likes Christchurch as much as we do, and grieved over the damage too.
Earthquakes
The earth has been a bit quieter this month, with only a few noticeable aftershocks. You can forget for days at a time about the destruction, if you don’t go near the center or east of Christchurch. The paper is still full of it, but you can have whole conversations without mentioning the earthquakes. On the anniversary I watched the memorial service on television, then went for a walk with my mother at Halswell Quarry.
We had a lovely outing with several families from the old Avonside Ward and went for a walk up the Rakaia Gorge, then back to the Baileys’ for a barbecue and watched a movie about the Willie and Martin handcart companies. As always I am in awe of what a beautiful country we live in.
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