excess babbage

We came back to New Zealand with a fair bit of gear... As well as shipping 1.284 cubic meters of stuff on a boat, we had packs, and we managed to inherit extra stuff in Australia. Wo we arrived in New Zealand with some 58kg of checked-in luggage and mighty heavy on-plane bags. But no amount of security scans and luggage checks revealed our secret—we also returned to New Zealand carrying Excess Babbage.  : )

That's right. Bronwyn and I are excited to be expecting a baby in early October! This wasn't the reason for our return to New Zealand, but it sure fitted in with the fantasy of the “tidy life”. But yes, we knew the about the baby before we left London... In fact, we had an early scan at St George's in the week before we left. Even at 2.1 cm long at that stage, the radiologist was able to point out to Duncan arms and legs, body and head, and even a clearly beating heart on the video screen. It was amazing! Bronwyn's impression of the quite rapid scan was considerably less clear, but on two occasions since we've been able to hear the heartbeat. Wow. Bronwyn is clearly showing now too, even noticably changing shape every few days. Our book tells us the baby is now 14 cm long. Bronwyn is hoping however the baby will be more her birth weight (3lb 12oz) than mine (9lb 0.75oz)!

While we'd been looking forward to the prospect of having babies after we returned to New Zealand, we've realised how vast the gaps in our knowledge are. Despite this, we're pressing on in mostly ignorance, aided so far by an uneventful pregnancy absent even of any morning sickness. Bronwyn seems to be taking after her mother in that respect. We are feeling blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who are such great parents to their own children, that we can take as role models.

We've another scan in a couple of weeks. There is debate about whether to find out the sex of the baby. I never thought I'd want to know, but now I'm here... Meanwhile, Bronwyn does not want to know whether it is a boy or a girl... Well, not yet, anyway!

equivalent

So reads my Statement of Equivalence in Clinical Psychology certificate, received in the post today, via my brother's house. And so, the best part of three years after I started the process, and a fair bit of pain later, I am pleased to report that I now am now accepted as absolutely and fully qualified to practise in the UK: Duncan Babbage, PhD, C.Psycol.

Which will be great, should I ever be there again. D'oh.

commuter lifestyle

To those who've been looking for news, we've been a bit submerged with developments of late. I can't promise we're back to a regular broadcast schedule, but at least we're back!

As I wrote about last month, I've accepted a position as a Consultant to the Massey University Psychology Clinic in Wellington. I started work at the Clinic last week, so am in my second week now. I'm working out the specifics of how I fulfil the needs of the role as I go along to some extent, as I've been brought in as additional to current staffing, rather than replacing someone with a clearly defined post. The last week has seen the usual to and fro with various departments, as I get computer access, email accounts, and various employment paperwork sorted. In all domains this is a re-activation for me, since I was previously employed by Massey for a three-year period that ended six years ago. Apparently all my details have been in hibernation in the system, just in case, so it's back to the same email address, login name, and so on. Meanwhile I'm getting into gear with working on initial research and admin projects in the Clinic.

We're currently living on the Kapiti Coast, an area north of Wellington city famed for better weather, characterised by less expensive housing, and home to my brother and various cousins, uncles and aunts on Bronwyn's side. We're temporarily based in a family-owned rental property here while we're trying this area on for size. It means a fairly hefty commute for me, some 1hr 45mins if I do the lift to the station-catch the train-walk scenario... It's not all downside though. I'm quite pleased to have a 35 minute walk each way as part of that—I don't get much exercise any other way—and the view on my route along the Wellington waterfront is pretty spectacular on a good day. And I read on the train. On some days I'm catching a lift with my brother, who lives up this way and works some days from his city office. That's good. Overall though we're still weighing up whether this is going to work for us.

Meanwhile, another tie to this area may be Bronwyn's work. She's been offered a two-term position as the Music teacher in the local secondary school, a maternity leave cover position. She's seriously considering this, and will be meeting further with the school staff and principal tomorrow. It'd be great to have her working just round the corner... So it may be a total reversal of our commuting roles in London, where I had a 20 minute walk to work, while Bronwyn often hiked 1.5 hours across town. What goes around...

fiordland

We've spent the last few days in Te Anau, nestled in the Fiordland National Park, a World Heritage Area. It has been outstanding. On Wednesday we climbed Key Summit, a moderate peak surrounded by impressive cousins. It is the staging point for the southern end of the Routeburn Track, one of the southern “Great Walks”, and also has the distinction of being a three-way watershed, with water running off into five rivers that run out variously to the South Island's east, south and west coasts.

This part of the country has 200 rain days a year, with an annual rainfall of 8m. They have had times where 80cm of rain has been recorded in a 24 hour period. We were therefore prepared—mentally and in terms of clothing—for a partially submerged holiday. But the weather has been glorious. From Key Summit we had undiminished views of Lake Marion to the west and a panorama of mountains. Gorgeous... After our three hour hike we drove the spectacular road out to the now somewhat over-touristed (by New Zealand standards) Milford Sound. It was beautiful, but the coachloads of tourists and regular sound of helicopters overhead suggested we'd made the right choice for our following day's activity...

Which was to take a day-long boat trip out on the other fiord, Doubtful Sound, which is much less accessible. An initial 50-minute boat trip over Lake Manapouri leads to a major hydroelectric power station accessible only by the lake. In order to build this station a single road was built, over the hills to the remote Deep Cove, the inland extremity of Doubtful Sound. The two companies that run these trips have buses, brought in by barge, whose sole function in life is to shuttle passengers between these two spots. There is, after all, no where else to go. From Deep Cove we boarded another vessel with and the 12 other passengers and our guide, who piloted both boats and drove the bus.

Doubtful Sound is breathtaking... steep bush-clad hillfaces and sheer cliffs drop into deep waters. We cruised beneath bright blue skies, seeing pods of both Dusky and Bottlenose Dolphins as well as Blue Penguins, Fur Seals, and Sooty Shearwaters (Mutton Birds). The weather was so calm that even in our small boat we were able to travel right out to the open Tasman Sea, turning back to see why Captain Cook considered the rock-strewn entrance of the Sound too “Doubtful” to enter. We had a wonderful day and I am so glad to have finally seen this remote part of New Zealand. What a great country!

halse accepts chernishov checkmate

In a move that surprised no one on Saturday, Stephanie Halse conceded the game against Michael Chernishov, thus accepting the match and posting a final result of Chernishov-Chernishov checkmate. A review of the game, which extended over two years, indicated early strong movement of the Queen, with no suggestion of any defensive play on the part of the supposedly opposing King. The midgame was characterised by long-distance piece movement, particularly on weekends and holidays. Recently the focus of the game has been on a cluster of squares in the southern region of the board. While without doubt the final result represents a Chernishov victory, analysts noted end stage moves indicated the match essentially amounted to a mutual surrender. This is a game they'll be talking about for years.

Congratulations Stephanie and Michael Chernishov... it was a great wedding. Welcome to the family, Michael!