Christchurch in June 2012

I started June in Auckland, visiting Kings College. I went for a walk in the early morning and enjoyed seeing the world wake up in Auckland. It is so different from Christchurch in its flora and fauna – it could be a different country. The visit to Kings was pretty much a waste of university money, but I enjoyed it, and had a good chat with the head of mathematics about our new venture.

Jessica and William’s cat, Reikoh got run over, which was sad. They had had a lot of challenges with that little kitten. They bought a budgie to replace him, who is noisier, but cheaper and better behaved.

Anna, Jessica & William at Ferrymead

My calling as Primary President is going better. I have reliable teachers for all the classes, and they are enjoying their callings too. The children are great, and fun to be with. I have excellent counsellors.

Our extended Christchurch family at Ferrymead

For Queen’s Birthday we took Jessica, William, Jonathan and the six Browns to Ferrymead. We were disappointed that there wasn’t any steam, but apart from that it was a lovely day. Those children are so lovely to take anywhere.






This is the month that I finished paid employment by another person, I hope forever. On June 11th I had my last official day at UC, though I did supervise an exam and the marking a week later. I went home with a big smile on my face. My farewell present from the department is a barbecue. I took a photo of it in the snow to take to the morning tea.

Nicola with her Golden Handshake barbeque with snow falling

We had a good dump of snow on the day of my farewell morning tea at Uni. There were still some brave souls who made it out, and Thuy Van made us a lovely cake. (There were three of us being farewelled, though the other two will be on short-term contracts for a while.) I was meant to go to Auckland on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the Careers Expo, but with the snow, many of the flights were cancelled so I only made it up for the Saturday. I had a really enjoyable day, helping teenagers and their parents to make decisions about their future. I found it pretty funny that I was helping to promote UC in my last week of employment there. I got to have dinner in the Koru club. That is definitely the way to travel. That is my third time in the Koru club (Air New Zealand lounge) at Auckland airport. If I have to do lots of travel in our new venture, I am going to join.

We now have a new website – www.statslc.com. It is the Statistics Learning Centre. My new email address is n.petty@statslc, though I have been able to keep my university email (and library access) so the old email address still works. If any of you are interested, enrol yourself and let me know and I’ll put you in a course. Our medium term goal is to be the leading provider of high-school statistics educational resources in the English-speaking world. Our first product will be out in October in time for the end-of-year exams. I got a bit of a shock when I discovered the curriculum is changing quite a bit for next year. However I then realised that it was a great opportunity, as the teachers will be feeling a bit lost, and we will be able to help them. There is a Tom Petty song called “The waiting is the hardest part”. I think that is true of this venture – but really there won’t be too much waiting.

The iMac has been out of commission for a month now, with hard-drive problems. It is getting a bit nerve-racking, as it is less than a month until we go to Melbourne, and I want to put together a slide show. Fortunately I have the Dell which we bought from uni, and the old Acer laptop. We have just bought Jonathan a new notebook computer as his laptop died. (After considerable palliative care!) His braillenote has gone “soft” so we are trying to get him a braille display to go with his iPhone and notebook and then he won’t need a braillenote. It isn’t cheap!

We are still getting the occasional strong aftershock – one over 5, and a few over 4. But we are generally feeling more normal. It’s interesting how long it takes, and the 5 did set me back a little. I feel much safer in Christchurch than anywhere else with buildings. I would not be relaxed in Wellington.

My first couple of weeks of self-employment saw me doing lots of catch-up domestic tasks, like getting Jonathan’s WINZ stuff sorted out, and his application for Jazz school. It is so good not to feel anxious that I am not doing enough to justify my salary. I really enjoy the work I am doing for the company. I also have some work for Wiley publishing company, but I limit that to one day a week, and reward myself when I get it done. I try not to think of the money draining away, but rather that we are living off the redundancy until the income starts again. If by February there is not a reasonable income stream, I will look into other options. I am constantly grateful for the wonderful opportunity that has come my way. People are generally worried when I tell them that I was recently made redundant, but it is such a blessing.

My mother has found a place where she would like to move to. It is Windsor retirement village, and is very convenient and has the right combination of price and amenities. It also has full graduated care, so she can feel happy that she never needs move again. There is quite a long waiting list, but that is okay as she doesn’t need to get out of her house until about April next year. And even then I can’t imagine CERA will kick her out if she is still waiting for a unit to come available.

We celebrated Mark’s birthday observance by having my mother, Jessica and William for dinner, with roast lamb. Just as Mark was picking them up in the car, the power went out. Fortunately I had the meal all cooked, so I put on my head-torch and put the gravy on the wood-burner and kept going. It was really nice that William had to finish class early because of the power-cut, so was able to be there to have dinner with us. The power came on just as we were sitting down to eat. It was a lovely family time. I gave Mark a copy of the first season of Sherlock, which has to be the best television we have seen for a long time. It is so well written and acted and produced – a quality piece of work.

Jonathan went to a YSA ten-pin bowling activity. He was well looked after by a group of lovely YSA girls, and did better than several of them. I took him and picked him up, but he was there on his own. It seems like a small thing, but it was great for us. I hope we can do something like that with the Pettys in Melbourne next month.

A team 'punching' at a checkpoint

The Heights of Winter Rogaine was held on the 30th June, and we continued to visit the farms to help get it set up. On 2nd June we went up and checked checkpoints that other people had selected, then the week before the rogaine we put out flags and ‘punches’ at the checkpoints. It was such a wonderful thing to be able to walk around beautiful farmland and enjoy the scenery and the exercise and the company. I think setting a rogaine is more fun than doing them, as you get several outings instead of one, and you don’t have the time pressure. Having said that, we just about ran out of light every time we went out there!










On the day of the event itself we got up really early to be at the venue by 7:30am. We didn’t leave until about 10:30pm. Mark took some great photos and
(see them here http://www.flickr.com/photos/creative_heuristics/sets/72157630444879280/ ) helped with the parking and I helped with the start and finish of both events (6 hour and 12 hour.) We went for a two and a half hour walk after lunch. The end of the 12 hour event was 9:00pm and the competitors were arriving with frost on their packs. I was wrapped up in layers of merino and a goose-down jacket and gloves and two hats and it was still REALLY cold. It was bearable as it wasn’t raining. We were SO lucky with the weather, which was clear for most of the day, and dry for the week before so there was much less mud than there might have been. There was a great dinner back at the hall for everyone, then we drove the hour back to Christchurch and I sat in a hot bath until my core temperature approached normal again. I had a really good time, and it was a great feeling to know that we had helped over 400 people have an enjoyable day.

The Start/Finish for this year's Heights of Winter Rogaine

And thus ended the first half of 2012 – a few months of waiting and finishing. How exciting the second half is going to be!


Watch this space.
Much love to all
Nicola, Mark and Jonathan