JBs' Sabbatical Stories

 So we have finally made the move to Sydney - arriving yesterday! This blog will be a round up of news since my last blog back in March. It might be a bit briefer though as we're swimming in the bureaucracy of moving countries at the moment.  Knee update The knee is holding up incredibly well and much better than expected. The last few days have been a bit testing with lugging baggage etc but in reality I'm almost back to pre-knee-falling-apartness! I've been swimming regularly and doing heaps of reformer pilates to strengthen it. I seem to be almost even in strength on both sides now but can't bend the new one quite as much as the other one. However, I can kneel for a bit (enough to do various yoga exercises anyway!) I'm not quite off the anti-inflammatories but these are much reduced. Ultimately -it's brilliant and so much better than I'd hoped for. Sydney so far seems less hilly, but still hilly so I'm hoping my recovery continues! Visiting the UK Wit

So yet again, I have to start with apologising for the very long delay between posts (my last was in November!) So much has happened since then... and so much more is about to happen.   We're moving!     After months of uncertainty and frustrating job applications, Jonathan has a new job... in Sydney! He finished his previous role mid February and has been doing various bits and pieces since but got accepted for a 12 month contract with ongoing potential for a big hospital in South Sydney. We're now ploughing through the endless amounts of paperwork to get a visa so don't have a start date yet. We're anticipating it will happen in about 2 months but are unsure at this point. Depending on how it works out, we may end up coming back to NZ after 12 months as we can then get permanent residency. However, we might stay in Australia if it works out and it's feasible. We're keeping an open mind. Thus, I'm sorting out removals etc in the meantime. I don't have

 I know -it's ages since I last updated this blog (March to be exact.) The reason for the delay is partly in the title - limbo. As I write this mid-November 2022, we are unsure of our plans after February 2023 as Jonathan's current job finishes then. It's been an uncomfortable year in many ways but mostly as his position hasn't worked out. It's difficult to continue going to work when you know they don't want you to stay long-term because "they didn't train you". Despite this, he has jumped through all the hoops and is now officially on the vocational register (i.e. they recognise him as a consultant within the country), a member of the specialist college of intensive care (no mean feat - most doctors have to restart their training here) and he's even become a paediatric advanced life support instructor. Did I mention that he also completed an echocardiography postgraduate qualification too (never being one to be an under-achiever!) So, now he&

Introduction I've finally managed to tie in some annual leave with some work travel and have some adventures in the North Island. I'm dividing this blog by different areas I visited and there should be more photos than usual this time. Enjoy! Taranaki This is a region in the south west of the North island, above Wellington but off the beaten track a bit. The main city is New Plymouth which is quite a cool place even though everyone we asked about said it was beautiful but hadn't been there! I drove down to teach some postgraduate nurses on one of the courses we run. My colleague, Reuben, was meant to be running it but had become a dad for the first time 2 days earlier so I'd offered to cover. After the course, I drove over to Palmerston North which is towards the east coast to deliver some covid-related training to the hospital there. I'd gotten to know the staff there via zoom over previous training sessions on non-invasive ventilation so it was lovely to actually