Happy Christmas 2018 and New Year 2019

2018 has been a very enjoyable year for us, and things are looking up again. We have had some fun times. Here are a selection of our 2018 best moments in photos...Click on the following link to view:

https://1drv.ms/a/s!AryAPWiR6imyjm9veKMnPDQErdJJ

Jo has recovered her strength, her hair and re-connected with her favourite pastimes (still wine and golf). Without the drugs, wine tastes much better and we have a target to drink as much of the cellar as possible before her taste buds are killed again. Without steroids, the golf has been less exciting; drives are a bit shorter, but she still manages to feature in the prize giving (with monotonous regularity) even off 7 handicap. Her latest trophy was 10 kg of champagne ham.

Sarah has expanded her set of craft and outdoor hobbies and the list now includes pottery, candle making, woodwork, stand up paddle boarding, swimming, kayaking, golf, cycling and pack rafting. She is not much good at any of them – but enjoys them all immensely. Certainly, the pottery has proved much source for mirth. If only there were 48 hours in a day she might be able to fit in everything and master something!

Cancer has changed our view on life. Age has also had an influence! Life is the sum of what we choose to think, eat, feel, act and react, move and rest. We try to be positive and to influence as much as we can to stay healthy. We have changed our diet, adding turmeric and magnesium, reducing the amount of sugar and increasing fruit and vegetables. Stretch, yoga classes, and massage have been introduced as we try to be calmer and more focused on fixing the aching body. There is no point in getting frustrated with anything anymore; we just have to know our limits, get on with life and enjoy as much as possible for as long as possible.  But no, we have not yet given up alcohol, cycling, chocolate or coffee. There are limits!

We have always crammed in multiple activities, combining this with travel; now we focus on bucket list items. Here are a few we managed to tick off in 2018.

Jan 2018: The seemingly never-ending renovations of our house in Queenstown finally finished.

Feb 2018: Around the Mountain (175km) bike tour in 2 days - Jo on an ebike carrying all the bags; Sarah doing it the hard way but luggage-free and in Jo’s slipstream! We ended up at a large sheep station where we were able to have a shower (in the staff quarters; we must have looked a sight so they took pity on us) a fabulous dinner and catch a steam ferry home.

April 2018: Made it to the capital of NZ (Wellington) to meet Robbie and Marti and staying with Phil and Paul. Sampled theatre, museums, galleries and island trips.
We finally made it for a long weekend at Easter to Stewart Island, staying in a friend’s Bach (like a beach house but better equipped). Great bush and cliff walks, fresh air and seafood. Decided that Muttonbird would be a once in a lifetime dish. This is a bird that is very very fatty and tastes strongly of fish. A Maori delicacy.
We also enjoyed visits from the Humble-Ryan Clan as well as Jessica (celebrating her ^%th birthday).

End of May 2018: Back to Europe. As Jo was given the all clear to travel for 4 months, we decided to empty and clean our beautiful cottage, Graces Barn, in Arrina, Wester Ross, Scotland. We were due to complete on the sale soon after, but ran into some Crofting Commission and Scottish Land Court issues. After agreeing a sale, it took us 14 months to sort out the legal side. As we write we are hoping to put the whole saga behind us and complete on the sale. Anyone who tells you the Scottish system of buying and selling houses is so straightforward and simple - is a liar. It would be hard to design a more archaic, byzantine, tortured system of commerce. But moving on.. We squeezed in a visit to Scone Palace on the way and caught up with Wee Devi, John and Betty Yarr for afternoon tea and scones (the must do thing at Scone)

June 2018: We started our new renovation project, Cowgill Grange, in Cowgill, Dentdale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This is a really beautiful dale – if a little wet! On our first night after acquiring the house we arrived at 8pm one drizzly June evening (after a 9 hour drive from Scotland), opened the door to be greeted by a strong stench and tumbleweeds of hair billowing down the hallway. The previous owners had left the place in a dreadful state of dust, grease and damp. We wanted to cry. We headed to the village pub for dinner; arriving at 8:35pm to be told that the kitchen closed at 8:30pm. Not an auspicious start. Fortunately, we had already lined up a team to help us but a 4-week makeover turned rapidly into a 6 to 9-month project involving builders, damp specialists, electrician rewiring the whole house, new central heating system, new bathrooms, new kitchens, complete redecoration. We spent our first month of ownership organising the work, stripping carpets and wall paper, and filling 3 vast skips with rubbish from house and garden. We managed some evenings with Michael and Eric - our neighbours. As a weekend respite from clearing grease and dirt we managed to catch up with Hank, Gillie and Janie in Sarah’s old stomping ground, the Cotswolds. We walked with Hank for a few miles (one afternoon and one morning) of her Cotswold Way fundraiser/ challenge, and enjoyed dinners in Winchcombe and Broadway (the “Lygon Arms”, naturally). We also managed to catch up with Ozzy and Clive one Saturday morning in Kendal. And after many years caught up with Sarah's cousin Siobhan Kelly and her partner Jon. We also managed a couple of days in London and caught up with Angela, Jeremy and Clare, and Teresa. Seeing friends and family (somewhere in the UK) is clearly one of the benefits of living in Yorkshire!

July, August, September 2018: Our house in Italy was a welcome respite from housework and renovations. Whilst the UK and other parts of Europe roasted, fortunately, summer in Le Marche was not as hot.
We enjoyed as always the cycling, swimming, gardening, eating, meeting old friends and attending the Macerata Opera. We also had a memorable few days in each of Florence and Venice, visits from several friends (Jude and David) and family, and enjoyed some exploratory wine tours with Kjersti, and our first sea-borne trip on the Adriatic with Monique, Robert and M's mum. It was paradise!

Trips further afield included driving north via the Dolomites and Munich in order to attend, finally, the Wagner opera festival in Bayreuth. 3rd time lucky – and we actually made it this time. But it proved quite a challenge: sitting in 30C ++ without aircon on very hard uncomfortable wooden seats for 5+ hours. The plus side was the mediaeval castle we stayed in nearby, the company we kept, the interval activities - stein and bratwurst and an opportunity to cool down by paddling in icy waters (frocks, hitched up).

The Rossini opera festival in Pesaro is always a highlight; it is becoming something of a fixture for us. The singing gets better and better each year, and it is such a festive town, with amazing weather, lots of swimming in the Adriatic and good food.

October 2018: Back to NZ. The Currans visited and NZ put on a splendid show of mid-winter weather with fresh snow most days. Despite the resumption of trips to hospital, we managed to fit in the Central Otago Rail Trail overnight (150 km) again with Jo in the front on her e-bike taking the luggage and the brunt of the wind. This is really a spectacular off-road cycle route. We whizzed over to Sydney for a few days to catch up with our mates there, to visit the Blue Mountains and to see the always impressive, if rather crowded, Sculpture By The Sea. This time in hurricane conditions, which only adds to the drama of the sculpture and venue. Afterwards we flew up to the Gold Coast and took part in the Noosa triathlon as the Tea Ladies with Bev Brady and Simon Collins. None of us could remember whose silly idea it was to enter – actually we were each convinced it was the others’ fault. Sarah swimming 1.5km (in huge seas), Jo cycling 40km and, last minute substitute for Bev, Simon running 10km – both in sweltering heat. Sarah and I swore never to do it again. Watch this space. Fortunately, we were able to relax afterwards with David and Krysia in Buderim.

December 2018: Sarah headed off to Fiordland (one of the wettest places on the planet) to spend a week eating dehydrated food, not washing, walking and packrafting. She loved it.
Jo opted for a relaxing weekend in Auckland catching up with Wendy Ford and Robbie and Marti.

We are now preparing for Jo’s parents, Barbara and Joe, for their first visit to New Zealand. It will be a family festive season.

Finally, having slowed down (a bit for Sarah; a lot for Jo) we have been able to better appreciate the wildlife, plant life and flowers of NZ.
The cabbage tree is flowering beautifully. This is supposed to be a sign of a hot summer, although we have not experienced it yet.

The NZ Christmas tree is the Puhutukawa tree (red blossoming all over Auckland burbs) here next to a Norfolk Island Pine.

Back home in the garden. we have nurtured plants from seeds, watched the cherry trees shed leaves, grow buds, blossom and turn green again;

best of all have been the blackbirds. Every morning they fling the wood chips off the borders on to the path in the hunt for food (Jo painstakingly throwing them back again) They built a nest in our wood store, hatched 3 chicks and waited patiently, feeding them grubs until they could fly. Early one morning, we awoke to louder than normal tweeting; the fat Queenstown Hill tabby tormenting the last surviving chick (having killed the first 2) We chased her off but do not know for sure if the third chick lived or not. We hope so.
Meanwhile, the hedgehogs come and go; the fat cats hunt the quail chicks; quail are very trusting or stupid; instead of flying off, they just run across roads, round and around in circles or just back and forth. The feral goats pay nocturnal visits and eat whatever new shoots they can find on plants (mostly on our roses).  GRRRRRRR!
The possums jump all over the trees and now and again we find a dead one on the road outside. Where is the possum lady, when you need her?

Wherever you are today, we hope that you have a great holiday season, with fun, friends, and family.
We look forward to hearing your news.

Best wishes for a very happy Christmas and a healthy and happy 2019.

Lots of love
Jo and Sarah
xxxxxx

Sarah and Jo's Christmas Greetings 2017

Looking back on our year in 2017, at first it seems to have been an “Annus Horribilis” due to Jo discovering pulmonary embolism on her lungs, followed closely by the diagnosis of Myeloma (a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell) It is treatable but currently incurable.

Jo is 9 months into a 14-month treatment plan and has written a separate blog on the experience so no need to dwell on that here. In case you are interested and have not already got the link, her detailed account of the treatment, life generally and loads of photos can be found at http://canibeatmyeloma.blogspot.co.nz

So it has been rather a more eventful year for us both but particularly for Jo than we would have hoped for!  All that we had planned in 2017 had to be cancelled. Planning ahead is all very well and good, but we have decided to do more things on the spur of the moment in 2018, unless we have more certainty on Jo’s health/ability to travel.  Quite frustrating for Jo as a project manager trying to map out the adventure in the months ahead. Hopefully we will both be back to more rufty tufty and less pushing the MTB uphill in 2018.

On second thoughts, when all the negative stuff has been parked, processed and faded into distant memory, it has been more a glass half full sort of year as we have still managed to have adventures, explore more of NZ magnificent countryside, towns and cities, meet new people, learn new things and enjoy ourselves.

We are both busy and positive and always manage a belly laugh at least once a day. Being able to smile at the ridiculousness of life really helps.

When reflecting on the year, we both independently selected Jo’s wigs episodes (trying them on in the shop, wearing them at home and Sarah wearing them when we go out) causing us the most laughter.

Closely followed by Jo wearing her beanie whilst driving the car.

Simon Collins even got in on the act.

We very much appreciated visits from friends during the course of the year,

starting over New Year with Kjersti, Cecilie, Bev and Simon and continuing throughout (Marti and Robbie, Linda A, Carolyn) ensuring our spirits were kept up. 

We know it is a long way for most of you and no cheap airlines exist in this part of the world. Luckily for us, we have also developed a really fabulous group of friends here. We also discovered that winter in NZ is actually really good.

Very cold, dry with plenty of snow and sunny clear blue-sky days.

Autumn and winter are Sarah’s favourites in NZ, but summer and spring are pretty good too!

Jo missed Europe entirely this year but Sarah managed a few weeks away in May/ June – to get Grace’s Barn on the market, to check out Casa Cesara and to BBQ at Austwick Hall.

As a result, the live classical /opera and theatre culture was limited this year. Thank goodness for the internet.

Long distance travel has been limited to short flights for Jo; an enjoyable long weekend in Auckland with Marti and Robbie in March (pre-chemo) and a fabulous visit to Sydney and the Blue Mountains

in early November (post stem cell transplant) crammed with activities and visits to friends when Jo was feeling really well.

We enjoyed the sculptures by the sea - even those with strange visual effects.

Having to visit hospitals in Clyde, Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch also has its upside, as we have managed to explore much more of Otago and Southland countryside.

The most time away from home was spent in Christchurch in August/ September when Jo had her stem cell removal and return. We stayed in a hostel over the road from the hospital, next to the beautiful botanical gardens.

Fellow cancer sufferers and family hung out there so sharing the communal facilities was always salutary. Nevertheless, it was comfortable and super convenient.

Sarah’s culinary skills were tested due to Jo’s total lack of interest in food and a very small kitchenette. One night she rolled out the pizza dough on the bedside table and even roasted some pork belly! Fortunately, sourdough bread is still being made on a regular basis (favourite with fennel and poppy seeds) and Jo has recovered her appetite for oysters, wine, blue cheese and steak.

Christchurch is an interesting city as it is recovering from widespread mayhem caused by earthquakes in 2011. 

Enormous efforts have been made, successfully, to bring the city to life and to encourage the arts with lots of sculptures, graffiti, theatre and restaurants.

Closer to home, Sarah been learning how to make gorgeous pottery and to expand on her woodwork skills (cabinet making, bowl turning, making a stool) and is always aiming to achieve something stunning. Lucky for Sarah, she has a fantastic woodwork teacher in Wanaka (Simon King) so patient and always happy to share all his tricks. However, it is hard when you have spent most of your life not doing practical things. Measuring accurately is a real challenge! Pottery is easier but there is a limit to how many misshapen, thick set mugs can be accommodated!  Candle making is back on the to do list for 2018 to accompany the sunset drinks on the balcony perhaps?

Jo has been focused on encouraging tradesmen to finish the renovation work, furnishing and launching the flat for Airbnb rental and to tending the garden on and off, when feeling up to it. Thankfully after 2.5 years, we finally finished all the renovation work in November. The rental of our little flat is going really well and the garden is looking lovely – apart from all the herbs being scoffed by very noisy quail last night. Jo doesn’t lose her temper very often, but got very focused on fencing the herb garden, so much so that it now looks like a prison for herbs with no door. Fortunately, we have wire cutters.

Golf has featured a lot in the past year as Sarah wants to get her handicap down whilst Jo’s goes up from lack of playing. Sarah’s test for a good day has progressed from how many golf balls she can find, to whether or not we manage to recover our green fees per round and has it been a big enough walk. Overall for 2017 we are in credit and we have had a lot of fun along the way. Sarah’s new toy is a remote battery-operated “trundler” (English term is trolley). So, you still walk. But the trundler does its own thing with remote guidance only. After playing with a 9 and 12-year-old in a competition recently – both of whom had electric trundlers – Sarah realised you do not have to be over 60 to have one. The youngsters were even riding on theirs. The golf pro told Sarah he would void the warranty if she did that. Unfortunately, after 1.5 games of golf the trundler has stopped working! And yes, I did charge the battery.

Sarah’s will business is ticking along and the index for the book has been written. That was actually done late one night when she had to explain to HK Immigration why she was away from HK so much. Writing and researching a book, of course. It worked – Sarah now has her HK Permanent Residency.

Sarah was expecting to do a lot of ex gratia wills work through the cancer network but this (unfathomably) has not materialised. Neither has the knicker-ripper novel promised several years ago. How she is going to combine sex, wills and legal stuff is beyond comprehension, but I suppose John Grisham has done it (and fact is sometimes stranger than fiction).

We are writing this letter as we approach midsummer. It is already swelteringly hot here (think BBQ on balcony to lake and mountain view) Sarah has not yet swum in the lake yet with wetsuit

but has just invested in an inflatable SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) to float around on the icy Lake Wakatipu. (about 5C even when the air temperature is 30C).

We had hoped to kayak on Christmas day, but as we have reluctantly just agreed to sell Bumble our yellow Nissan Juke and will be carless for a few weeks whilst we wait for the next one to arrive (a Land Rover Evoque – Jo wants to call her FuFu but jury is still out). We can’t get the monster kayak down and up the hill we live on as it’s too heavy to push up again. We may just have to walk up a local mountain probably Ben Lomond or go for a cycle instead.

In 2018, we are hoping to make it back to Europe towards the end of June for 2-3 months and very much look forward to catching up with many of you then.

In the meantime, we look forward to hearing from you and wish you a wonderful Christmas and Best Wishes for 2018.

Lots of love

Sarah and Jo  

xxxx 

Happy Kiwi Christmas 2016

Kiwi Christmas greetings. Hope that you are having a great holiday wherever you are and whoever you are with.

New Zealand (Jan-April & December)
We are back at home in Queenstown, starting and ending the year in our latest renovation project. Work has almost finished on 2 floors of the house with the ground floor (garage and flat) to start in 2017. It has been a test of our resilience, patience and determination, but the house is worth some TLC for the views alone. Come and sit on our balcony and be mesmerised. Tradies generating endless dust or promising what can never be, slips away from the mind amidst the bliss.
My favourite sunset (January)

This is an awesome place to live, with so much to do and see. Sarah up above Queenstown 1 Jan 2016

We headed north in February, to the Abel Tasman track with Marti and Robbie.  Despite work with a physio, Hopalong (Jo) could not carry a full back pack (artificial hip hates pressure) giving everyone else an excuse to get a porter for the bags. The only way to trip-along in future

The end of the Abel Tasman


Back on the bikes near Queenstown, we biked our own Lord of the Rings scenic tour via a place called Paradise and another via Walter Peak station.

There are more sheep than people in this part of the South Island (despite over 2million tourist a year)

Sarah also tackled the Motatapu MTB race in March, but having finished in good time, decided that was not enough so rode home another 35km (completely in character). After a frantic 4 months of tradies every day starting at 07:30, we ended our time in NZ, with Camilla and Linda visiting for a marathon 6 days of golf in the Central Otago Classic (surviving dust, no curtains, no heating). At least golf meant more of a lie in!

Tibet/Tiger Leaping Gorge (April/May)
We are not sure what Joey Kwok said to her sister Deluth to convince her to go on a walking holiday with us, but Deluth did brilliantly despite not having had the trip explained fully (especially the rough walking and steep slopes!).

We had always wanted to go to Tiger Leaping Gorge (probably since the movie) but even this place of incredible beauty is being over-run by construction. Trip blog is here if you haven’t read it: https://afewdaysintibet.blogspot.com. Low point was the airport food at Kunming - we gave "locust bacteria stew" a miss.

UK and Italy (May- Nov)
After a whirlwind tour of London, seeing friends for walks and dinners (Gillie, Ozzy, Hank and Blick, David and Jude) and culture (standouts were "Elegy" at the Donmar and "Red Barn"at the National) we whizzed past family in Upshire, Martham, Yorkshire,  Portpatrick and Graces Barn ending up in Manchester to see the non staged version of The Ring at the Lowry Centre. This was fantastic; nothing to distract from the glorious music. It enhances the quality of the sound to have the orchestra on the stage rather than buried underneath.

It was another fabulous few months for us in Italy, with amazing weather, vegetables in abundance and new skills to be tried. We extended our Italian vocabulary to include: candle making, ironmongery, palette furniture.

We also had a bumper crop of Antipodeans visiting.








Jessica, Danny, Lily and Henry from Sydney managed a quick visit; civilised dinners

(only the honey bees nesting by a 1st floor window to contend with)













Robbie and Marti survived the earthquakes in August, despite us leading them up a mountain close to the epicentre (behind the mountain range)

We stayed in Norcia (birth place of St Benedict) which has since lost its Abbey due to tremors.
Although we live 100km/60m away from the first earthquake, the house shook continuously for days.
The second was closer. We were lucky that we had no major (structural) damage. Others were not so fortunate. It was sad to see so many people displaced from their homes; old buildings were not safe to enter/go near let alone live in. All the aftershocks can best be described as creepy.

Before leaving Le Marche, it started to snow in mid October.

This is the view from our house in late autumn sun shine.

We managed a last minute weekend trip to Rome to see the Edward Hopper exhibition. He often paints lonely empty places, brooding and suggestive; you can see why the house in the movie "Psycho" was based on one of his paintings.

It was a strange year of change for us. Our friend Marcello died of a heart attack early on in the year. Jo's Mum and Dad both had hip replacements (one planned, one not); they moved house for the first time in 40 years and asked us to help pack/unpack in Martham. Barbara was begging us to stop work by 6pm on day 1.
Sarah is now expert in both types of conveyancing (legal and transportation).

Sarah spent 2 months studying for a STEP will and trust professional qualification, requiring 3 x 5000 word essays (meaning Jo did too; we will make a lawyer of her yet!).  We had yet another attempt at understanding the incredibly complicated administrative procedure involved in renewing an Italian health card (as European citizens, we are eligible, although this may not last) but ended up in the same place as we started; none the wiser but with a lot more documents with official stamps on them in the bottom drawer. Its only been 10 years since we bought a house there.
Although shocked by the Brexit decision, we can appreciate the reasons.


We were lucky to catch the early winter sunshine and autumn colours at Austwick Hall.

Congratulations to Michael and Eric for winning the Good Hotel Guide Editor's choice award for the garden in 2017.









We just managed get out of Scotland in November, as the snow froze over the roads.



Scotland is glorious in sun and snow; sadly no chance of golf in these conditions but 'The Marriage of Figaro' in Inverness was great compensation/entertainment.

On our travels south, we squeezed in a few days in Bangkok with 4 rounds of golf (spending hours in traffic jams) and meeting up with Simon Pearson. Followed by an excellent Ring cycle in Melbourne.

We end the year how we started in back in Queenstown. This is the place where  Christmas trees are…free. Just walk up Queenstown Hill and chop one down. If not they will get poisoned as they are not natural to NZ. Just like Broom…Here are the two Queenstown witches with their broom sticks on Sunday 18 December.

Trees targeted for removal in the background…












Traditional Christmas food in this part of the world is Ham; trouble is they only come in huge sizes. 4.5kg this year. Of course we have had to buy another recipe book specialising in Ham and ham leftovers. Its a hoot, with lots of gems. Here is an example (chef reviews a ham recipe): "He gave me that withering look, the one Frenchmen probably practice in the mirror to let you know that no matter how much you study their language you'll never get the subjunctive right"

Our New Year will start 12-13 hours ahead of Europe and 2 hours ahead of Australia.
We will be able to celebrate In New Zealand time, Australia time (with Bev and Simon), Norwegian time (with Kjersti and Cecilie) and Uk time.


Hope that you have a great Christmas and all the best for 2017.

Time to plan your trip to visit us soon whether in Italy or in New Zealand.
Once one renovation project is complete, you never know what we might take on next…and where…

Lots of love
Jo and Sarah

xxx