NZ Bound

I got a text message last night asking if I wanted to attend a Ministerial briefing meeting today, and if I did, to wear a suit. I don't habitually wear a suit. I would probably wear one more often but the weather has been off-putting. I hate wearing suit, overcoat and all that jazz – I'd rather [...]

I don’t know what the rest of you iPhone users think, but the headphones that came with my iPhone 3G were pretty dire and have developed the widely experienced fault of going completely dead on the right side. My lovely work colleagues from my last team at the Department of Health got me a voucher [...]

On the 14th of March this year I am running a 10km race in Regent’s Park to raise money for the international humanitarian medical aid charity, Médecins Sans Frontières. This year there will be around of 250 us running – university students and members of the public from in and around London.
But that is just [...]

Argh, I’m sick of this grim winter. Cold, cold cold every day. Enough already. At least the days are getting noticeably longer – about 28 minutes per week at the moment which is heartening at the beginning and end of the day. There is something quite deadening about getting up and going home from work [...]

You can see from the left sidebar that I have been tweeting about running and work and life in general. The integration between Facebook and twitter that is possible – and Audioboo too for that matter means that I seem to be able to manage these three types of communication on a much more frequent, [...]

I find myself sitting in bed in London this Christmas eve – very different to arriving in Whangarei at Kate’s parents’ house with my friend Rob, this time in 2008. Different side of the world, opposite season, and very urban compared to what is pretty rural in New Zealand.
And much has happened this year:

I have [...]

A whistle-stop trip back to Wellington and NZ for two weeks for a bit of work for Massey University and MCDEM, as well as catching up with my old Ministry of Health colleagues and H1N1-buster counterparts. The trip couldn’t have gone much better from a professional point of view – the workshops went well, though [...]

My inner government geek is getting nourished at this residential course I am attending at the National School of Government in Sunningdale, near Ascot. The course is designed to give a detailed working orientation into the machinery of Government that is the parliamentary democracy of the United Kingdom. Much of it is taught here in [...]

I don’t talk about my relationship with Kate much on here – mainly because she prefers her relative obscurity on the net. But I am very happy to post that we got engaged on October 25th in Paris. It was a cold day, with a queue that looked around 3 hours long at the Eiffel [...]

I think I need to see a doctor and / or a physio. I’ve had something of a sore hip for a couple of weeks now and I think I need to get it looked at. I tried a week of no running whatsoever, and a gradual re-introduction to a bit more running, but I [...]

A busy couple of weeks at work as the swine flu vaccine programme finally swings into action as the European Medicines Agency  (EMEA) license the vaccines and the manufacturers actually start delivering vaccine. They’re in the distribution chain now and will be delivered to the their destinations from this week onwards. Work has been very [...]

Cold. Expensive as hell. And I didn’t think people were all that friendly. In fact, Kate got positively shoulder-barged out of the way on a couple of occasions on the street. Not sure if they were natives or tourists, but hey, we’re leaving with a less than friendly impression of the place. Don’t get me [...]

Although I’m a big fan of the iPhone, I don’t think it’s fantastic as a runner’s tool – especially now I’m starting to run a bit longer and further. I was running on Sunday and my battery for the iPhone was only at 37% after leaving fully charged with RunKeeper Pro on the whole time [...]

I seem to be spending quite a lot of my spare time traveling. Either to and from work, or some kind of weekend activity. Unfortunately, quite a lot of the latter trips are tedious detours because the state of London and it’s transport infrastructure is so shockingly awful for a city of it’s stature. I [...]

It has been some time between posts, hasn’t it? That usually means that time has been at a premium. What with Kate arriving in London and setting up our lives here, that has certainly been true.
What can I catch you up with briefly  before I make a better stab at keeping the blog up to [...]

Almost a month has passed and it’s been so busy. Work continues in my new role, and I’m off to Amsterdam for a long weekend break with Kate early tomorrow morning. She has just completed two weeks working for Barking PCT which has been really challenging at times, but getting better.
Will post more with [...]

If you’re wondering why I’ve been so quiet, it is because I’ve been so busy. The new role, and getting used to the new way of doing things at the Department of Health for the UK Government based here in London is taking some getting used to, let alone commuting again. The commuting isn’t so [...]

Finally sorted it out – will be joining the UK Department of Health Pandemic Influenza Immunisation Team in London, starting 20 July. Again, more later.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks in the USA. First, visiting my old school friend Saideep and his lovely family in Philadelphia, and then a ‘Mental Health in Complex Emergencies’ certificate training course for 9 days full-time (plus a weekend off) at Fordham University in New York City. The highlight has to be the [...]

The last time I was in London in June was in 2004. That’s quite a while  since I had a summer in the UK. Having left NZ for at least 5-6 months before I get to go back, it feels quite surreal. Especially leaving Kate. I am so looking forward to having her arrive in [...]