clinic@cavershamphysio.co.nz; 4877323
CAVERSHAM PHYSIO NEWSLETTER No.30, September 2016
Hello again,
How fabulous it is to feel spring in the air again. As much as we are looking forward to spending a couple of days on the white fluffy stuff soon, the thought that winter is virtually behind us (almost) is a great feeling! We feel so spoilt having already enjoyed a wee reprieve from it during our catch up with Ben over in Europe recently, and nice to have summer and all the planning for tramps and biking now on the horizon.
It has been a busy four months since our last newsletter. You will have noticed a bit of activity in the front window on passing no doubt, and that was our Earthquake Strengthening happening, followed by a lovely reception paint job by Geoffrey. Many thanks to all our patients over the last month who have kindly entered through the rear door to find our temporary reception and waiting area there, and accommodated various interesting noises and disruption during their treatment times (see pic of Nicki hard at work “out the back” and Royce Madigan visiting our temporary waiting area during this time). Gray Bros were extremely considerate and enabled us to function with the least disruption, for which we are very grateful, and of course to finish in as short a time as possible too was SUPERB, so thanks Brett and the team! We have now achieved a very healthy percentage of new-build rating, and look forward to quietly continuing to progress doing things to our lovely old 1900 building over the next few years. We always enjoy hearing from people who have lived in Caversham for years with their stories of life that revolved around McCracken’s Store and the neighbouring retailers and personalities. We certainly value being so connected to the history of this great part of Dunedin, and enjoy helping preserve our lovely old building.
As many of you will know, we have recently returned from our great trip to see Ben – what a treat! He has been living in London now for a year, and so it was just superb to go and catch up with his life over there – HUGE thanks to Blair and Nicki and Clare for helping manage everything in our absence – you are all STARS. We started by visiting Barbara’s family in Oxford, Cornwall and Wiltshire with him, and then headed to Ireland to spend a week with Geoffrey’s family and catch up with Barbara’s former vet bosses in Co. Wicklow. On return to London we had a lovely catch up with one of our Physio School friends Rachel Depree, in Richmond, and had just such a fabulous time running on Richmond Common each day with her and Ben – hard to believe that a 2500 acre park can exist in the middle of London in 2016, but indeed it does and it is just SO beautiful in the early morning mist to see great gatherings of wild deer grazing happily in amongst groups of cyclists, runners, walkers, riders, dog walkers, squirrels etc etc. Just such a treat, and I’d strongly recommend you seek it out for exercise if you have not already been. Thank goodness King Henry VIII decided that was going to be his hunting park so we can all still enjoy it.
Pics show Ben commuting to work on a Boris bike, and then with the man himself next to the Thames!
We also explored The Globe one evening, which was superb – Macbeth was on, and luckily it was just before the Brexit rain deluge hit, so we had a warm, dry night watching (as the space is totally open to the air!). Another highlight was getting to Wimbledon with Ben – it was so nice to be able to stroll from court to court, seeing the most amazing tennis and all for just “25 quid”! It was a hot, rain-free day until the last few minutes luckily! The day was made complete with the classic bowl of strawbs and icecream with a Pimms.
Our final 10 days were spent travelling with Ben in France, which was superb. We had luckily heard about the marvellous Blue Bike Tours in Paris from Joy Shields here in Dunedin, and they were superb. We would all highly recommend you add one (or four!) to your time in Paris. We knew time was short to explore, and so in our 2.5days there, we managed to fit in 3 biking tours of various parts of the city (including biking one evening to a boat that took us up and down the Seine by night, and then hurtling back on the bikes at 1130pm – magical!), and probably the best was the train then bike tour of Versailles – which included time at a market selecting the most gorgeously fresh and tasty ingredients to make our own picnic lunch, then biking in the grounds and exploring, and having our delicious picnic in between. Heaven on earth!! We then hired a car from the outskirts of Paris and explored our way down the Loire valley to position ourselves at Limoges for the arrival of Le Tour de France, and the following day when they cycled from Limoges steeply up into the mountains. Again such beautiful countryside, and from there we meandered our way along the Dordogne to end up in Bordeaux for our flight to Glasgow, where Geoffrey attended a marvellous conference on Running Rehabilitation over our last weekend. Our final night was spent in Edinburgh with Ben, before we flew back via Dubai on our long 36hour epic, with possibly 3hours sleep if we were lucky! Certainly has taken us a few weeks to feel human again.
Just prior to our departure, we had our annual Marathon Seminar, this year with Blair presenting on injury prevention, alongside Tania Cassidy from Phys Ed School on activity throughout life, Dave Stinson on his training programmes for the September Half and Full Marathon, and Megan Gibbons gave another marvellous update on all things nutrition for maximising your success in training and on the day itself. We were pleased with the numbers on the night, and were happy to donate $98.40 from your door entry donations to the Neurological Foundation this year. The event is on 11 September, so come and join us for the last few weeks of training on our Wednesday 5.30pm walking and running groups.
Blair has been very busy doing Bike Fits up and down the country for our elite sportsmen and women. He visited the High Performance set up at the Snow Farm, then Cambridge, and just last weekend was in Invercargill, helping set people up correctly. People have also been enjoying his great running technique evaluation knowledge, and if you have not asked him already as part of your treatment, don’t hesitate, as he really enjoys that side of his work too. Congrats too to Blair: Otago Senior Men’s Cross Country champ. In August he is also working with the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s troupe who are here in Dunedin with Giselle. They have kindly offered his family to enjoy watching this time too, so it will be great to be able to observe many of the dancers in action, that he has treated in the days leading up to the performance here.
Nicki is about to head away for two months to the other side of the planet too, which will be lovely. Barbara was to be covering all in her absence (or at least trying to!) but is sadly on crutches currently, so please be prepared to need to leave messages a little more than usual when you make contact with the clinic but we will be back in touch with you asap. The boys will really have to be on their toes!! Apologies in advance though if we are just a tad less efficient temporarily.
Pilates classes are virtually full during both sessions on Monday and Tuesday evenings 5.30 and 6.30, and it has been fun to see such enjoyment in every class. You are all doing SO well, and it’s just great to hear and see the improvements you feel. It’s such an efficient way to increase your flexibility and strength, and maintain mobility. Well done everyone.
Barbara is also pleased to have her private room available again after the strengthening work was completed to be able to do a little more work with patients who have Continence problems once she is back on her feet. It is one of the most common problems experienced by women of all ages, and is such a satisfying area of physiotherapy as you can get wonderful results with our pelvic floor exercise programmes. It is a real problem for so many, but the good news is you really can make such a difference with these specific exercise regimes – just don’t put up with it any longer, as you really don’t need to!
Well that is all from us at the moment, enjoy springing into spring, and if we can help with anything, don’t hesitate to contact the clinic.
Pics of our last ride in a black cab rushing to Glasgow airport with Ben, and during our lovely celebration of Margie’s 21st with Jess and Laura.
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