Yes, it's six years today since I proposed to Bronwyn... it was at the top of Mt Cooper in Titahi Bay, in the morning. We drove up, Bronwyn blindfolded, and walked to the top of the hill overlooking the sea to discover a picnic breakfast waiting for us on the apparently deserted hill (thanks for the hand with that Andy!) Fortunately she said yes, because I didn't have any other options up my sleeve! : )
I had a great day at work today. Rather than doing the fun things, like completing my video editing project, I knuckled down to work on my reports which were due. It was a pleasant surprise when I went to tackle the first one, to discover that I'd already dictated a draft of it a couple of weeks ago! All I had to do was correct the final details and print it out. I dived into the second one and eventually dictated a draft for typing. Steeling myself, I decided to attack the third of the three outstanding reports... and was amazed to discover I'd actually written three-quarters of it a couple of weeks ago! With a bit of momentum I knocked it off as well. It's so great to finish the year with a clean slate. This clearly indicates that having a faulty memory and a good work ethic will lead more happiness than the other way around!
Anyway, Happy New Year everybody! And after seeing their party on TV, Bronwyn and I have decided: next year in Edinburgh!
Monday, 30 December 2002
Today I finally received word from the British Psychological Society, regarding my Statement of Equivalence application, which they considered on December 12th. I was expecting a fax, but instead received a thick packet of documents in the post at work today, including a letter containing the following:
"The Committee notes that you have undertaken a training which fulfils some, but not all, of the requirements of a UK training in clinical psychology. Specifically, the Committee notes that your academic programme has not included coverage of professional issues in the context of the UK."
Well, no surprises there! They continue:
"Therefore, in order to be awarded a Statement of Equivalence in Clinical Psychology and to register as a Chartered Clinical Psychologist the Committee requires you to undertake the following Parts of the Society's assessment:
Part I: To submit one extended essay, in four parts, on professional issues.
Part II: To undertake 65 days of supervised clinical experience providing services in an area of your choice as a period of acclimatisation to the practice of clinical psychology in the UK and to submit a Report of Clinical Activity, a Log Book and an Evaluation of Clinical Competence form pertaining to this work."
I am ecstatic and could not have hoped for a more favourable outcome under any circumstances. From what they have not said, they indicate they have accepted I have all of the areas of clinical experience necessary to be Chartered in the UK. This is usually the primary barrier to New Zealand Clinical Psychologists moving to the UK. Frequently they will be required to obtain a period of experience (usually 65 days) in some particular area in which the committee feels they are weak, such as perhaps Intellectual Disability work. This may mean the person has to take time off from their job in the UK in order to work in another service or hospital to obtain that experience. In my case, I can work in an area "of my choice", which means in practice I will simply work in the job that I obtain. This is an excellent outcome.
Saturday, 28 December 2002
Christmas for us has been spent with Bronwyn's parents and both sisters staying with us, and it has been good. Carolyn headed off yesterday afternoon, as she is going on a New Years holiday with her friends. David and Jenny will still be here until Monday, with Stephanie the last to head off, back to Christchurch on Tuesday morning. It is dawning on us that this may well be, no, most likely will be the last time we see her before we head off overseas. Depending on our final travel route out of the country, it's possible that Monday could be the last time we see them too. As such, this has been a special time. Tuesday morning's first genuine goodbye will probably mark a turning point for us on the road to realitychecksville...
Delaying any connection with (everyday) reality though, the five of us went to Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers tonight. Loved it. I've actually never completed reading the Lord of the Rings, and somewhere either at the end of tonight's movie, or possibly I think in the first part of the next one I'll start hitting unknown territory. That'll be interesting! Quite glad in a way that some of this story remains unknown to me. I can see myself reading the books not too long after seeing the third movie however.
We'll be in Palmy for New Years, as I'm on call for the 1st and 2nd so have to be within 20 minutes of town. I'm not expecting to receive any calls however, so that will be a good chance to enjoy some catchup on tasks that have been on hold with guests for the last week. I'm working Monday-Tuesday this week again, with Friday off like this week. We're looking forward to our BBQ next Saturday too, down at Carey and Robyn's in Titahi Bay. We hope this will be a chance for us to catch up with a number of Wellington friends that at this point we might not otherwise be able to see. It's a wide-ranging invite: if you'd like to catch us with us, you are now officially invited! Email us for details...
Tuesday, 24 December 2002 Christmas Eve
I was at work today and was quite happy to be there! We finally completed and as far as I know signed off the Therapists' Collective Employment Contract today. This completed 12 months of negotiation on a contract that expired on 1 January 2002. We also finalised revisions to the Psychologists' section of the contract, revisions that predated these negotiations and that I had first re-drafted in 2000. It's nice to have that done!
I also premiered to a handful of ElderHealth staff the first of two training videos I'm producing there before I leave. It was edited in iMovie with "clean but effective cuts and transitions, adding captions, credits and royalty-free theme music to create a professional package" (disengage advertising mode!) It's been a fun project and (if I can comment on my own work) has turned out nicely. We're hoping this will make this training more accessible to inpatient ward staff in particular, who will be able to access the training on their own timetable, thanks to the videos. I'll be editing the second video over the next couple of weeks, and it is shaping up to be at least as snazzy as the first one! : )
My iBook, despite sterling performance on the above tasks, appears to have developed a fatal logic board problem. It is still functioning partially at this point but firewire is gone (fortunately after downloading all the video footage last week) and the iBook is intermittently crashing when it wakes from sleep also. A replacement part has been ordered under extended warrantee but in the meantime if this site goes dark for a while you'll know we've sunk completely. On that note, apologies for the bizarre problems from the server-side of this site over the weekend, which along with family events kept me busy enough to prevent an update being published. In a rash celebration of correcting errors, I've also gone ahead and spell checked the site!
Finally, at this Christmas season it has to be said that signs are not good for peace on earth. Pray for peace this Christmas for all people, and that this may continue into the New Year. We certainly will be...
Merry Christmas everyone.
Saturday, 21st December 2002
Last night the phone rang at 10:55pm signalling the beginning of my job interview, which continued until 12:20am... I felt the interview went very well and the position that is available sounds interesting. Phone interviews are an interesting phenomena; since they couldn't see me, I sat at my computer and typed notes on the things they were telling me about the hospital and the position. On about three occasions they said that my answer to their previous question also answered their next question, which is always a good sign I feel. They are now seeking reports from my referees, while I will be seeking guidance from an even higher source about whether this is where we should be. Considering I am keen to work with a team of neuropsychologists, I was as you can imagine interested to hear from them that they are either the largest or perhaps the second largest team in the UK.
Family descended today. Bronwyn's parents had arrived last night during my interview, but were asleep by the time I finished. We headed down the coast to Waekanae this afternoon for a Christmas event for the extended family on Bronwyn's Dad's side. Met her two sisters there too, up from Christchurch and down from Wanganui, and as I type this we are in the process of driving them back to Palmy. We'll have their presence till tomorrow and then from Tuesday evening for the rest of the week.
Friday, 20 December 2002
Even I am now admitting that Christmas is nearly here, though I've been in denial for the last couple of weeks. A sure sign of such seasonal goodness is the fact that we were invited to three parties for tonight alone. If only we could save one of the events for when we really need it, like in June or something...
We won't be staying late at those parties though, because at 11pm I've got a job interview... Hmmm... 11pm on the Friday night before Christmas. I suspect this may rate as the least convenient job interview I ever have. Still, colleagues of mine who have been asked to have telephone interviews to the UK in the early hours of the morning would scoff at my 11pm attempt to impress. The job itself is excellent, and it'd be great to be offered it, but we currently have major queries about whether we want to be based in London.
[Only for the truly geeky:] Today I appear to have found a work-around to the problems that Internet Explorer for Windows has with CSS2, so this site should now look almost the way it is supposed to when viewed from a Windows machine. It still looks better on a Mac, but then, Macs themselves look better so that's only fair. I've also enabled comprehensive site traffic tracking via RE_INVIGORATE, who provide a free site tracking service. Very cool... I am confident it will reveal that I am the only one who reads this site, other than Nick Trugly, and he's nearly as big a geek as I am... : )
Thursday, 19 December 2002
It was a good day! I arrived home today to find that, after about three months of waiting, my Griffin PowerMate had finally arrived. I won it quite some time ago for nominating a site for the "Web Site of the Week" on Your Mac Life, a weekly internet radio show that I regularly listen to. There appears to have been a mixup at their end, but they finally shipped it 9 days ago after I sent a further query. Prior to that I'd been thinking it might have been coming surface mail and so I'd been (uncharacteristically?) patient! Bronwyn is rather amused that I think it is so cool. In any case, it's here just in time to be used on my current iMovie project, a training video I'm making for staff at the hospital. I'd already been planning to do the bulk of the editing for that on Monday and Tuesday next week, so I've got lots of opportunity to play!
Had two farewell events for the same staff member at work today, a morning tea with our team, then a separate lunch with the Psychologists from across the hospital. Bronwyn and I are now about to head out to a dinner for the same person. What can I say, she was a valued team member! Even though I like my jobs I'm enjoying thinking that I'll be the next one to leave. Actually, I thought I would be the next one a while ago, before she announced her (quicker) departure. The team booked my farewell event in their diaries today too: a farewell breakfast. I'll no doubt be having the bacon, banana and maple syrup pancakes or french toast, as usual!
Wednesday, 18 December 2002
The western world is too stressful. I'm struggling to find the peace in the Christmas season, as I attempt to juggle the many demands on time at this stage. I am looking forward to finishing work on the 24th of January, but there is much to be done there to make this possible. I'm taking the Fridays around Christmas off so have a couple of five-day weekends but have a huge amount of stuff to do in preparation for our planned heading overseas. Despite some things being well on the way to departure (eg. we've given notice at our jobs quite a while ago) neither Bronwyn nor I have jobs in the UK yet and thus we don't have visas. It is hard to make plans to depart when, at the moment, we couldn't actually go even if we were in other ways ready to. Two brief updates: Still no word from the BPS, though they must have made their decision last Thursday. Also, I've got a job interview this Friday, at 11pm New Zealand time (10am British time).
The most momentous global event this week is that Nick and Hayley's web site has finally gone live. They'll no doubt be adding more content over time, but the design is stunning and has left me with lots to think about in terms of where I'll be taking this site. I've got plans for further major changes in the site design (you can hardly call what I've thrown together so far a "design"). On a related note, by the way, I know from my work PC that this site doesn't render properly on a Windows 2000 machine running Internet Explorer: the navigation bar on the left appears munched at the top of the page. I'm fairly convinced that it is due to mis-rendering of the style sheet by IE on Windows rather than my code, but I'll have to see what I can do about that. In any case, if you're having problems with the site I'd appreciate hearing from you about what is happening.
Sunday, 15 December 2002
Well, after no updates since Thursday, I'm finally able to put up the entries for the last couple of days, having finished my first overhaul of the site. This is reflected in the change in the site from HTML to XHTML. It's a technical change that doesn't make much difference at this stage but will help me to make the site better in the future. I've also redesigned the page today, adding the navigation bar down the left hand side, which will become more useful when there is more to the site to view!
Apart from doing this site update, and going to church this morning, I haven't done much today. Plenty of work I could/should be doing, but I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to work 24/7, despite the number of things we need to do. Nice to take another day to play instead...
Saturday, 14 December 2002
Despite grand plans of genuine productivity today, I made the most progress on two tasks that I hadn't anticipated doing. Bronwyn bought me an original piece of art for our anniversary, something done by a local artist here, and we had been meaning ever since then to get it framed. We finally took it in to be framed this morning, and will have it back by Christmas apparently.
Since we were in the framing mood, I dug out something that I've been meaning to do for nearly 18 months. When I was in Los Angeles one of the places I visited was the J. Paul Getty Art Museum. I spent most of my time there on the Architecture tour; the building itself is a US$200 million work of art. However, I was most taken by one van Gogh I saw there, his Irises, painted in 1889 when he was in a psychiatric hospital after a period of serious mental illness. I purchased a print of this picture at the Getty, and today we framed it so we can finally hang it at home. Beyond its obvious beauty, I see this painting as a challenge to those who stigmatise people with mental illnesses.
Friday, 13 December 2002
I was on duty at work today, which meant I had to handle any crises that came through the door. I believe in response to a request to the man upstairs, I didn't have to deal with a single phone call or contact in the entire day. I was thus freed up to complete one of two reports that I've been feeling the weight of needing to complete for quite some time. I hope to make a significant dent in the other over the weekend, all going well.
Today I also took the opportunity to make a surprise visit to Monrad, and stayed for about half an hour to see Bronwyn leading school singing there for the final time. School singing has been the highlight of her week at Monrad, and she's had great success in teaching funky songs and getting everyone joining in. It was nice to be able to share a little in the experience before she finishes up there.
Bronwyn went to a Youth Group BBQ tonight, taking along with her a number of the 11-13 year old girls that she's been working with this year at Rock Solid. This is their last event for the year. Bronwyn's really enjoyed working with this age group outside of school, and hopes to again get involved in similar ministry at some point in the future. Not before we've both taken a good break, though, and got well settled into wherever it is we're going to end up.
Thursday, 12 December 2002
Today is the big day when the BPS discusses my Statement of Equivalence application. This is probably the single most important step in our going to the UK, on a par with getting a visa to enter the country. All going well I may hear an outcome sometime next week.
I took the Heap/Troughtons to the airport today, sending them off for both work and then Christmas in Christchurch... Didn't occur to me at the time that the next time I go to the airport it may be me getting on a plane, for a slightly longer journey. Just thinking about it again reminds me how unreal this whole plan is to me.
I have a job interview next week, for a position at St George's Hospital in Wimbledon, London. The interview is 10am London time/11pm New Zealand time, which is fine, and better than the early-hours-of-the-morning phone interviews some of my colleagues have been subjected to in the past. It's a good job, though we haven't entirely resolved in our minds about the London question at this stage.
Wednesday, 11 December 2002
Tonight Bronwyn and I attended our last ever fishtank event, an end of year Christmas BBQ. It doesn't seem like five years since Chris and Lauren, Geoff and Adrienne, and Bronwyn and I started the pre-cursor to this group, "The Student Thing". It's been a wonderful group to be involved with over all this time, and has been a growing experience for me. I'll miss many things about this group, though I think we're leaving at an appropriate time. It'll be good to recharge the batteries a bit more next year too.
Today we interviewed and appointed my successor for my job at ElderHealth. It is encouraging to see such a capable person moving into the job, to continue to support the team from a Psychology perspective. It seems that she'll even be able to start a couple of weeks before I finish, unusual at the hospital, meaning I'll be able to hand over things directly even.
Monday, 9 December 2002
A busy day, which ended with coffee at the Heap/Troughtons. We are in denial that they are going away on Thursday, and leaving us to fend for ourselves in Palmerston for whole weeks on end. Work is now moving into a series of completions, as I scheduled the beginning (and end) of the last new task I'll be taking on before I leave. I've started to realise that one of the main things that is making finishing at work challenging is that I chose to attempt to complete lots of big projects before I finished. Worth remembering for next time perhaps.
Sunday, 8 December 2002
Bronwyn had an early start today, heading out at 7.50am to two church practises for parts of the morning service, held in different locations. This morning we bid farewell to Rgt Rev Rob Yule and his wife Chris, who have been at St Albans
for the last 16 years.
Spent the afternoon with Geoff and Adrienne, for the second part of the afternoon "generously" showing Geoff how to edit images from their new digital camera. It's such a chore having to play with high tech toys. :)
In the evening we headed out to Nero's Cafe for Bronwyn's final work do for Monrad Intermediate. I guess I can't speak for her, but I haven't said a true "goodbye" to anyone yet, in the sense that none of it seems that real. I guess at some point we'll start realising that each event will be the last time we see people, at least for a while, but it hasn't sunk in yet...
Saturday, 7 December 2002
As time passes, pressure to complete everything here continues, while at the same time needing to prepare things for heading away. It may sound silly, but I hadn't anticipated just how complicated it would be to emigrate! I imagined it as being the equivalent of shifting house at the same time as taking an overseas holiday. In truth, it's more like trying to re-run your entire adult life again over the course of a couple of months, re-learning everything you've taken for granted like tax systems and banking, and having to again go through the trials of proving your qualifications and getting professional registration.
In terms of registration, it now seems that things are finally going to be sorted with the British Psychological Society. Rather than having to wait until February 17th, when their committee meets next Thursday they will consider the final stage of my "Statement of Equivalence in Clinical Psychology", the key step in my registration to practise in the UK.
Having headed down to Wellington last night to celebrate with Bronwyn's family at the engagement of her cousin Sonja to David, we had a busy day today finalising a Christmas project (can't say more at this stage!) with the excellent assistance of Nick and Hayley. Also managed to catch up with friends Kerry and Sharon Price and met their baby Daniel for the first time. It was great to get some tax advice from accountant Kerry, and to feel like we now know where we are going with one more aspect of our departure. For the record, we are relocating indefinitely to the UK. (It's important!)
Tuesday, 3 December 2002
Since we'll be heading off overseas early next year, I've decided to keep a diary of our travels. We did this on our last trip and found it really helpful. After initial encouragement from Mark Grace I've decided that even though I'll probably be the only one to read it, I'm going to keep it online. So here it is! It's a good excuse for me to finally get my head around HTML if nothing else...
I hope to improve the look of things considerably over time... Everything I know about producing web sites, I learnt in the last 48 hours. If you know anything about HTML, or if you find part of the site doesn't work on your machine, I'd be interested to hear from you...
