Hello March--Fall in Waikikamukau

If your movie of Dunedin were filmed this fine Saturday morning, you would have captured a fine clear sky and brilliant sunlight on your way to the bustling farmers’ market by the historic RR station. Panning to the hills that provide a glorious backdrop to the deep blue harbor you would hear some marvelous sounds. There is another remarkable sight providing this unusual soundtrack—small groups of pipe bands amassing for the second day of the NZ Pipe band Championships. I must have seen fourteen or fifteen different groups warming up and rehearsing in parking lots on my way through town to the market. Nearly 50 bands from throughout New Zealand and Australia are vying for glory in the championships being held in Dunedin this weekend.

March 1st was the official first day of Fall in Waikikamukau. We celebrated with five fantastic, warm days in a row…

March 4th was the night of a fantastic, clear full moon…soon to be (or already?) eclipsed in your part of the world

The Kiwikirks are doing pretty well. The kids have now been back in school for a month. Lily is very excited about being in her school orchestra and has restarted her ballet lessons. Wim has started exploratory German (for half the year, French will then be tried out), has resumed his Mandarin with a small group outside of school. He has also recently returned his flute studies. (We are happy about that because he initially refused to continue with the flute—having been so emotionally attached to his teacher in Northampton (?)) Both are happy with their new school teachers. Wim has his last year's favorite teacher--the homeroom one--for numeracy and is doing well in art. (At the moment he has decided to go to design school and work for Lamborghini when he grows up...)

Tessa and I are both playing in the next Southern Sinfonia (orchestra) concert in two weeks, we had a preliminary rehearsal last night...I played in my first concert with this group over the weekend. Several other little concerts are coming up for me on top of that so I have a lot of music to practice at the moment. I have a second student besides my adult one, a fairly advanced, talented student who is also studying violin with Tessa. She has only had one lesson so far so it's not clear how serious she is...Tessa has a few more students...so things are picking up a bit for both of us in the department of pedagogy.

On the drive to Wim’s first school ‘social’ (Thursday night) with a couple or the girl’s schools, Wim said to Tessa “Oh…I don’t know whether I am ready for this leap into maturity…staying out at a dance until 10…” He came home and reported having danced with 33 different girls. (Granddad’s comment—isn’t that a bit promiscuous?...was a joke we believe…)

final bulletin: your correspondent has now been granted permanent resident status!