News from Nelson - August 2017

Hi everyone,
I hope you are all in good health.

As I mentioned last month, my semester started well, and the students are now well underway with their projects. I have a great team of supervisors, and we are all only directly supervising 9 students each. Whew: it is like night and day compared to the beginning of previous semesters. Some students will still struggle, but I hope that we can get them all to 'competent' level. We have good library and mentor support for the international students, and enough of the mentors are coming to our weekly supervisor meetings to share the knowledge around about exactly what the expectations are. 

In addition to the FutureLearn courses I told you about last month, I started another MOOC this month which ran for four weeks through Berkley on Academic and Business Writing. It was an OK course, and I did learn some new things. This is all in support of getting a couple of academic publications submitted toward the end of this year... though I am running out of time, rather!

My family celebrated my brother's birthday at Nahm, a Vietnamese restaurant along the waterfront. They do lovely food - and there are good options for people with all the restrictions I now have in order to avoid migraines (and the migraine avoidance is going very well).

I was at the hairdressers when Katherine and Craig walked in, on a spur of the moment weekend trip to Nelson. We caught up with them for dinner at E-Street (East Street), a local vegetarian restaurant. A serendipidous meeting and a lovely night out.

Jan is starting to need a bit more focus... and is borrowing my magifying glasses! He suits them better than I do though :-(

As usual this month, although the mornings were crisp we had some gorgeous clear days. Lovely. And easy for Bonnie to cope with a good long walk. The cancerous tumour on her leg has been very slow growing (thank goodness) and it is not yet impeding her at all, nor is it causing her any pain. As Jan keeps saying, "She doesn't know she has it, and we aren't telling her"! Boo has been taking herself off for walks during the day. She doesn't seem to have been getting herself into trouble, but it does remind me that there is an element of "Well, if you don't take me for a walk, I will have to take myself" which is spurring me to take them both for a walk morning and evening, regardless of the weather.
 

Jan is going to sell his motorbike and get a BMW later this year. John is in charge of the advertising, sale and new purchase. The BMW should be here early December, but will depend on what John manages to find in Europe between now and then.

It has taken us a while, but we have started to buy Oaklands milk. This is A2 milk (read more on this here), locally produced, and we self-fill our own bottles in a Latreria machine (very cute!). It has cut our plastic recycling down significantly... the best plastic being the plastic you don't buy or use. You get a wee 'token' - like a key fob - which you slide into the machine and the chip holds your balance. You load funds onto it by putting notes into a slot. The milk is very nice: not homogenised, and doesn't go off as quickly as the supermarket milk does.

We had afternoon tea with my Mother a couple of times, and visited Uncle Norman as much as we could in the nursing home - Kensington Court in Stoke. He is continuing to be plagued by ulcers and is steadily growing more frail. My Mother has not managed to visit him very often as she has had a couple of colds, following on from her pneumonia in June. 

While Jan is enjoying only working three days a week, I am sensing quite a bit of edginess in him. He has started to play in a quartet on Monday mornings, but whether that will be enough to structure his week will remain to be seen!

Until next time

Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - December 2016

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the December edition of our family news... a fairly quiet month, which must come as a surprise to all of you :-)

It was Di M's Dad's memorial service early in the month, and my folks and I went to farewell him properly.

John has arrived back from the UK, and is staying with us until February, as the cottage in Waimea West has been rented out. Bonnie was beside herself to see him again.

Ian & Sharon came out for a weekend to go through our Nullarbor photos and videos. Ian and I spent the Saturday afternoon putting together a Momento photobook of our Nullarbor train journey in August, which I have since turned into a flipbook. This can be viewed here.

We caught up with the Cools's at our place for lunch in December, which was great. Renate always brings such GOOD cakes (though I simply admire their flawless construction now as I can't eat them - because of the no sugar, no grains thing).

Speaking of that, at this day of writing, 3 January, I am 210 days migraine free. I have also learned that even a small-ish amount of sugar will give me a headache.

Let me explain. I pretty much had a continuous headache since I was 11 until mid-May 2016. I would stop having a headache just before I got a migraine (actually, when I told the just-ex-neurologist from the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board - DHB - that, he basically told me I was imagining it. Cute).

From Angela Stanton's work (here), I am now aware that, as a migraine sufferer, I seem to have a fructose-glucose-sucrose intolerance, just a small amount will give me a headache. Justine kindly brought some Kendall Mint Cake out from the UK for me when she came in November. If I have one piece, I now find that about an hour later, I get a headache. So I salt (following the Stanton Migraine Protocol) and it goes away. I can eat a third of a piece with no ill effects at all, however.

I have been experimenting a bit with other things. I have found my limit for boysenberries. I had 12 boysenberries with plain whipped cream. About an hour later I got a headache (not a migraine). I salted to correct, and the headache went away. The next day, I tried 6 boysenberries. Got a headache an hour later. Salted. Next day, I tried 4. No reaction, so I now know I can eat 4 boysenberries a day without effect. That is my sugar tolerance... not a lot, but at least I know I can have some.

And I can still eat dark chocolate, providing it really is dark without much sugar. Mmm. Whittaker's Dark Almond...

We went up to Welly for Tina's birthday, staying at Jeremy's place. We went out to see Hartmut and Uta on the Friday night, then caught up with a load of friends - Hui-Ping, Mike & Birthe, Katherine and Craig, and Sam & Moose - at Prefab for Brunch on the Saturday morning (a GREAT place for food and coffee).

Jan & I also went to Te Papa and had a scout around at the Gallipoli exhibition.

It was great to see Jörg, Tony and Tanja who had flown in for Tina's 50th birthday party, as well as catching up with everyone else. John D did a great piece of verse about Tina, and both Jörg and Otto did speeches (Otto's was very polished for such a young man!), as well as a couple of Tina's school friends (Maryanne and LT).

Lara and I talked about fitbits, as she was keen to get one with her Christmas money. I talked about how I use mine, and how I find it useful, and where I find it not so useful. She got one for Christmas, and is now starting to use it. She is coming down later this week, so we will share how we are finding the technology works for us.

Jan had his first week with the DHB, and has enjoyed the difference. He is now enjoying the first Christmas - New Year period that he has had off in a long time. 

I got approval as a PhD candidate at Griffith, though I will have to have my proposal and a peer reviewed publication before confirmation (which will be 12 to 18 months in). It is an interesting idea, ensuring that there is already one publication out of the proposal before confirmation. Good hedging, on their behalf, and I can only see it as a benefit from my end too. An early test of ideas, rigour and method. 

Jan & I had a very quiet Christmas: we got in some boysenberries and sloughed around being lazy. watching movies and relaxing on our own. Jan also couldn't resist getting the chainsaw and the brushcutter out, and felling half a dozen pine trees ready for winter. It was Christmas Day that I learned that 12 boysenberries are too many for me.

Boxing Day we drove down to Christchurch and picked up Boo from Erik and Jackie. Boo is a retired show dog who, at seven, was needing a new home - Gr Ch Quasar Tit for Tat: or Boo, for short. While we were there, we had a BBQ at Wendy's place, with Geia and Tjibbe, so caught up with almost the whole family.

Boo seems very cruisy thus far - she and Bonnie seem to be learning to get along pretty well, but like most things, it will take time to find out how well. She is starting to get called Boosephine. Or Boozilla.

Sam and Moose came to visit while they were in Nelson, which was lovely. Gary and KB came to visit briefly, and took Jan away for a morning as their driver so they could go kayaking on the Motueka River. A great time was had by all.

We also hopped on the bike and went to Murchison to see Gary and KB for dinner at the Lazy Cow: and I invented a new game that I have dubbed "Rephrase Scrabble". When we arrived at the table, there was a wooden board with scrabble letters on it, saying "Six thirty, Karen". I grabbed it and reorganised the letters into different words, took a photo, and passed it to Jan. Each of us took a turn. It was really, really fun.

So on New Year's eve, we did the same thing when the party started to get a bit quiet (I asked people for a phrase to get us started - I got "Good as gold, eh" but I substituted 'aye' as it gave a wee bit more flexibility! My rules ;-D). We didn't have so many people here this year for our party: Stu and Anne, my folks, Glenys and Kevin, John, Nane (a young German woman who is spending 6 weeks travelling around NZ, the Cooks and Australia, and who came to stay with us over New Year), Jan, Renate, Kilian and Sarah, and a few others came for dinner and dessert: then we had a later influx of Rose Road people - Margot and Michel, with their relatives and children, and Ian M. However, we did manage to stay up until 1.30am :-)

New Year's day dawned a little cloudy, but was fine as the day progressed.

As mentioned, we have Otto and Lara arriving later this week, which will be great. Then we have lots of time for relaxing, and, in my case, thinking and writing.

Happy birthdays to Christian O, Kevin J, Andreas S, Tanja, John F, Nicki, and Tamara.

Take care, and we hope to catch up with you all this year!


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - July 2016

Hi everyone,
At the beginning of July, Jan and I went up to Wellington to attend a leadership lecture at  Victoria Uni from a set of Fullbright scholars and Sir Peter Blake Leadership trust award recipients. It was very interesting, and hosted by my old Master's supervisor, Brad Jackson.

Jan had to come with me to be my left-hand man, as I would have been unable to have gone without his assistance :-)

We got picked up by Brigitte & John, with Otto, and had a cup of coffee and a chat at the Ibis. We walked from there down to Vic law school for the lecture (and they gave us lots of canapes). 

After the lecture we got picked up by Jeremy, and taken to see his new place. We met DeAnne, and got a chance to catch up with Lara. All in all we had a very tight schedule, but we managed to fit in lots of visits.

It was great to go to the lecture, but my arm was jangling fit to bust by the time I got back to the hotel, and by the time I got home again after the trip.

A pity we couldn't see Tina, Hartmut and Uta as well, but there was such a short time. We could perhaps have caught up with Tina for breakfast, except I had already arranged to meet Brad at Astoria for breakfast, to talk about  PhD options.

Brad thought that I should try Griffith University in Brisbane, and that I should continue to pursue the idea that I worked up for AUT, rather than undertaking my original career leadership idea. Griffith apparently has a good - and growing - global reputation. As I had not considered Griffith before, this will take some investigation. 

Brad was quite dismissive of my original career focused PhD: and I think he has a point. This is a "safe" idea that won't rattle any cages, nor will provide the amount of challenge that my sports governance one will. 

After breakfast, Jan went to meet one of the HR people at WorkSafe (New Zealand's health and safety government watchdog). He wanted to find out more about the organisation, and DeAnne had put him in touch with someone to talk to.

Despite the Wellington trip away, I have been taking things very quietly. I have read a book a day since my surgery, which has been really wonderful. 

Jan has decided to take the opportunity to become a certified electrician, and is starting his coursework this month, with his final exam being in November, and a practicum in the first week of December. He is also hopeful of getting into a health and safety certification course, NEBOSH (and I've no idea what it stands for), which will be held in September and October. He is currently on the waiting list for that.

The Nelson Symphony Orchestra had their mid-year concert: America, held in the Nelson Cathedral. This was a very interesting programme, with music that was quite expansive and sweeping. Jan has also volunteered to play in the Nelson Choir's production of Stabat Mater, and in Nayland College's school production of Annie get your Gun (with performances in the first week of August).

We caught up with Glenys & Kevin for an afternoon of eating, drinking and talking (surprise, surprise) which was very entertaining. We also had dinner with Jenny, Tracey and Erica. 

We also had a mid-winter Christmas at the Hofman's which was great: we had "three lights"; three light courses - nibbles, soup, and cake for dessert. I had made a Nigella Lawson Christmas cake last year, but the recipe makes two, so I had put one in the freezer. I pulled that out and defrosted it. We took a sugar cone, and brandy, and turned the 'bladder' of Peckhams mulled cider into a burnt caramel, clove and cinnamon heaven. The nibbles were just fantastic: all the things we don't usually eat.

And no-one was too full. It was a really good night, with lots of laughs.

I drove for the first time three weeks after my surgery. to see the hand physiotherapist, for exercises and wrist support. my surgeon had said that I was OK to drive, and despite my reservations, I drove the automatic. The hand physiotherapist told me off quite thoroughly, saying that I should not be driving until the surgeon had signed the bone off as being healed. 

However, despite the driving, I got a good report from the physiotherapist. I have good mobility and had no pain at all from the session - she was very conservative, and focused on only what I could do until I started feeling a small amount of resistance. She was very happy with my mobility and movement, and gave me three small exercises to do five times a day each. My challenge was that they all needed to be done v-e-r-y slowly! She only wants to see me once my surgeon has signed me off, which will be next month. 

After I saw the hand physiotherapist, I went to catch up with an old friend, Di, who was able to drive us around that day, while we had a good gossip, drink coffee, and acted like we were ladies of leisure. 

So once more, Jan had to drive me into work, as I started teaching on the 18th. At least in the first week, I only had two lectures, as one of my other classes didn't start until week six, and the other was online.

By the last week of the month it was six weeks after surgery, and although I hadn't seen the specialist (because he was too busy off skiing and swanning around the world to conferences), I started driving again. Much easier.

We went to Alex and Caroline's Wassail celebrations this month, pulling in all manner of English traditions including the Black Morris to bring on the fruit for the coming year. Kev the Farmer sang a couple of songs again (he has such a good voice). Glenys and Kevin came along too, and we had a good chat about our planned weekend at McLaren's Bay next month.

We caught a movie at the Gecko Theatre in Motueka - Our Kind of Traitor - which was quite good. No major twists, but a good movie. We realised that we don't go to the pictures often enough, so have made a resolution to try to get there at least once a month.

I did a bit of digging and found that Griffiths was 39th in the world for sports management, so figured they could be really worth a look. I also realised that Graham Cuskelly was a professor in the business school at Griffith, and so I emailed him, and, despite being overseas, he replied straight away. So it appears that I may have my supervisor. 

Just like that. A new home across the Tassie for my project too.

Sam (and Jan)

News from Nelson - May 2016

Hi Everyone!
The study break arrived at just the right time late last month for me to catch up on all my marking, due to losing so much time from the migraine I had. Since then I bought Dr Stanton's book, and started applying her "Stanton migraine protocol". I usually get a migraine a month, and this month only had one very small migraine (it was very light, and basically meant I went lay down for an hour). Everything else seems pretty normal now.

However, I am not eating any fruit, am limiting carbohydrates (both of those to reduce glucose), along with taking a magnesium supplement. I have hugely increased my salt - I was only eating about a quarter of what the protocol requires before I started. My taste for coffee is still missing in action.

Jan had a concert this month with the Nelson Symphony Orchestra at old St John's. It was entitled "A Night at the Opera", and featured a soprano, a spinto soprano, a tenor and a baritone, with 16 orchestral pieces taken from 10 operas. It was a really great night of music and performance. Tracy and Erica came with myself and my Mum.

I tried a new take on Uncle Eberhard's chocolate mousse recipe: I made caramel and sea salt mousse for the after party. And because it was made with dark chocolate with very little sugar, I could eat a little of it (ha, ha! Ulterior motive!).

Jan photographed this strange and spectacular rainbow from his office window:

We have had a few very spectacular dawns, which I have captured:

Some of my international research students had a lunch to celebrate their project progress thus far in the semester, which was really nice:

While I am not really feeling quite sociable as I used to - I wonder if that's an after-effect of the migraine? - we are trying to ensure we catch up with our friends. Jan feels more sociable than I do, which is a change. We caught up with the Cools's at our place for a morning tea, had a dinner with John and Aniko (who is here from Hungary) at Rose Road, and went to Tracey & Erica's for dinner with Jenny, and had a farewell dinner for John in Richmond as he has now headed back off to Europe for the winter. 

This means that Bonnie is now back with us for the winter, which is great. As John has been living down in Waimea West for the summer, Bonnie has been with him for most of the time, and we have been dogless. It was particularly awful when Jan had to be away on some training trips, and I was completely alone. 

The time is coming for a new puppy...! 


Sam (& Jan)

News from Nelson - April 2016

Hi everyone,
John had suggested that we download a Canadian movie called "One Week", about a guy who finds out he has cancer. We did, and watched it. It was interesting, and I particularly liked that it was messy, and didn't have a neat ending.

On my birthday we went to dinner at ChokDee, where I had a lovely green curry, and then on to a musical at the Theatre Royal, called "Legally Blonde".

It turned out that one of my research students was the voice coach for the show, and he did a great job. However, we were sitting in the front row, and the noise was deafening. I felt almost assaulted by the decibel level. I started getting a really bad headache during the show. By the end of the show it was a killer.

Then on the night of April second, I got a migraine where my sight didn't come back afterwards. Jan took me into hospital on the Sunday, and they hospitalised me for a few days and ran tests. Of course, they couldn't find anything wrong, aside from the fact that my blood pressure was steaming high: with no idea whether this was a symptom or a cause.

Me either. 

My sight slowly resolved over the coming 21 days, which was a total pain in the butt, and as I have trouble focusing, I couldn't read or watch films (thank goodness for my iPod or I would have been SOOO bored). I would find that I got dizzy as the day progressed, and would have to have a nana nap. I was not allowed to drive until I got signed off by the ophthalmologist, which was done at the end of week three.

Crazy & a bit scary (though scarier for Jan). 

The result: not a stroke. No brain damage (ie, nothing showed up on the CAT scan that was any different to the scan I had done a few years ago). Everything seems to be functioning normally. My eyes went back to normal. My cholesterol is normal. My blood sugar is normal. 

As a fix - even though they have no idea what is wrong - they have put me on lots of blood pressure medication, and watched it like hawks to ensure was rock-solid normal for several weeks (I had to email in my daily BP).

However, I think now that the high blood pressure was a symptom. As my sight started to come back, I started reading lots about migraine and found this researcher in California who has developed her own migraine protocol. Dr Angela Stanton's hypothesis is that migraine sufferers have not evolved enough to cope with modern stimuli, and our brain goes into over-drive and overload at times of high stress. It does a "run away and hide" thing, which is now no longer an appropriate physiological response to our environment. I am officially a throw-back!

Thus the overload from the show, combined with my currently heavy workload, might well have triggered a massive migraine attack. 

To correct this, Dr Stanton goes right back to cell chemistry and works on balancing inputs: getting the right amounts of salt, potassium, calcium and magnesium for correct cell hydration, so that our cellular pumps work properly. If the ratio of these chemicals is unbalanced, then we become dehydrated, and she thinks this is the basis of how migraine attacks occur. She also thinks we are habitually dehydrated, because we probably still don't drink enough water.

In addition, she thinks that migraine sufferers have an intolerance for glucose, so need to eat a low carbohydrate, low salt, low fruit diet. Her research has indicated that we need a HIGHER salt diet than most other people: that migraine sufferers need about 1.5 times the 'normal' daily salt intake recommended by the FDA.

Of course, I have eaten a low salt diet since I was about 11-12... funnily enough, right when my migraines started. The 'correct' ratio for migraine sufferers should be 4700 Potassium; 3600 Sodium; 700-ish Calcium; and 237 Magnesium per day.

So it has been a very interesting month. Not good, but interesting. Also interesting was that I lost my taste for coffee. VERY surprising.

At least it has taken my mind of my PhD derailing!

I had a week off work, then was able to teach (Jan dropped me off at work). But I couldn't mark or read much. So basically I had to postpone all my marking for a fortnight until I recovered. Students & staff were pretty cool about it. 

Jan has been my seeing-eye husband for several days, taking me out for a walk and guiding me. It took him quite a while to get used to being a guide, and to calling out the obstacles appropriately early enough (no falls, luckily, as a result of poor instructions :-D).

In amongst all this, Jan and I went into Nelson to pick up Katrin's goddaughter (Toni) and her friend (Leah) from the intercity bus. 

Toni and Leah are both very nice - seeming to enjoy the Turkish kebab shop (Akbabas) that we took them to. It was so funny - our old neighbour from Montrose Drive shouted hello to us Turkish coffee and rose Turkish delight. She gave me a big hug. 

The girls, who are both pre-uni age, are on a gap year of sorts. they have been to Bali, and Australia, now New Zealand before going to Fiji and the US. 

We dropped them at Kaiteriteri for a day cruise into the Abel Tasman. I would have liked to have sent them overnight into the park, however the bunks at Anchorage were sold out before we had a chance to book them. 

I bought some new running shoes which are so colourful they nearly make your eyes hurt. Feels just right for this month! Jan & I have been doing a walk near Motueka called the Inlet loop walk which is really nice:

We took Toni and Lea into the Nelson market and up the centre of New Zealand hill, to the Motueka market in Decks Reserve and to Takaka and Golden Bay. 

We visited Anatoki salmon, the cafe at Puponga, Collingwood, PuPu springs, Takaka, and enjoyed the view from the top of the Takaka hill. 

We stopped at Rosy Glow in Collingwood, and bough enough Rosy Glow to last the winter. They are back in full production: how awesome. 

While Toni and Leah were with us, we had a barbecue John and his mum, Lilla, who is here from the UK for a few weeks. We later farewelled Lilla with fish & chips on the Mapua wharf, with Chris Ratt, Scott, and Chris's Mum - who turned out to be Ginina - Aunty Jill's friend (small world). I had a really interesting conversation with Ginina about the Misses Dodson who owned the old pale metallic blue Chrysler that their father had bought for them to learn to drive in. It turned out that they had lived down the driveway from Ginina and her husband in Rainbow Drive. See? A very small world.

We caught up with Erik and Anne at the Nelson Ladies Kennel Association show in Nelson. Erik was showing a gorgeous red baby puppy. Yes, I can feel a new puppy coming on...

I hope you are all well!


Sam (& Jan)


Anyone wanting to read some of Dr Stanton's work can go to: Stanton, A. A. (2015). Migraine Cause and Treatment. Available at SSRN 2690927. Retrieved 17 April 2016 from http://www.mhfmjournal.com/mental-health/migraine-cause-and-treatment.php?aid=7552