CAVERSHAM PHYSIO NEWSLETTER (No.28), January 2016
Happy 2016 everyone,
No doubt you have all been loving the gorgeous weather as much as we have! It’s been lovely walking, running, cycling etc weather, and it’s great to see so many of you out and about. Long may it last, but having said that, a bit of rain each night for farmers too would keep us all happy! The heat we had in December was just amazing, and I thought I’d better capture it on film, just so we don’t forget about it in the depths of winter – the car verified it at 35 degrees in Caversham, Dunedin, December 2015 – WOW!!!
Even Ben’s time in UK is a record for warmth – I think the warmest December for a century! However, I’m sure the winter jersey we sent over for Christmas will come in extra handy sometime soon! At least it’s made getting around nice and easy – his Christmas was spent with Dunedin friends and their antipodean flatmates in Wimbledon feasting on traditional fare, and then for New Year they took the train to Edinburgh and had a fabulous time “first footing”. We really enjoyed seeing one of the crew (Jesse Muir) just before Christmas when he came back to Dunedin briefly. The rugby and lifestyle over there seem to be suiting you Jesse!
We farewelled Clare at the end of 2015, who has been working with us in our clinic since we started here 24 years ago, and before that with Anne McAuley in her clinic beside the chemist – ie over 30 years spent looking after Caversham patients – Fantastic! We had a lovely evening where some of her patients and colleagues over her time with us gathered at the clinic, to enable us all to celebrate with them her wonderful career here too. Clare has been our support person throughout, enabling us to have regular family holidays, and we will miss her extremely capable and reliable care of everyone who walked in the door. We have all been very lucky to have had her for more than a quarter century!! Picture shows Clare with Stan and Margaret Hughes, previous owners of Caversham Pharmacy, and Laurie and Anne McAuley who celebrated with us all too.
We have been very lucky again in our replacement for Clare as Blair Martin, who will be known to many of you from his time at King’s High School and Otago athletics where he still holds records for middle distance events, is returning with his young family to live in Dunedin in the next few weeks. Blair has had a practice in Sydney for the last 8 years serving New South Wales’ cycling, running and triathlon community. He has specialised in bike fitting, running analysis and physiotherapy for mountain bikers/runners, charity cycling and running events. His former work involved work in a clinic based within a gym, where he got great experience working with all types of injuries. He spent 6 years prior to that working in the work rehabilitation field, conditioning patients to be work fit and recover from injuries sustained whilst at play and work.
Blair graduated from Otago with a BPhys in 1996, and after working in New Zealand for 3 years headed over to Australia to further his running career under a Sydney coach, having already represented NZ in middle distance. He won the Australian Half Marathon champs, achieved various NSW titles, and has silvers in NZ 10k, 5k and cross country. He moved into triathlon, after a sacral fracture, and then to cycling, and in 2007 was the NSW Elite State Road Cycling champion. He has also assisted on, and ridden, the Tour de Cure, which raises funds for Australian cancer charities and research projects. His boyhood dream of riding the Tour of Southland was realised from 2007-2009 and it was during those years he started his “Body Mechanic” business in Sydney to assist others overcome injury, using various programmes to analyse gait, function and form to achieve optimum bike set up, running technique and recovery.
Blair arrives in Dunedin on 25 January, with Heather and their two children Ruby and Alexander, just in time for Ruby to start at St Clair School. Heather is also an elite athlete, representing and coming 4th for NZ in Triathlon at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, and only 35secs behind the winner! A very talented family! Ruby has already done a fun run with Blair, and Alex started to walk at race pace from 1yo!! Dunedin is lucky to have them. We look forward to having lots of fun working together and continuing to work hard to see all our patients return to work and play as fast as possible. Blair will be helping Geoff with Pilates classes too, which in Term 1 at least will be on Mondays/Tuesdays, as Fiona is taking 2016 off due to the arrival of her 4th child this year.
Just before Christmas Geoff and Barbara headed off on our surprise weekend to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Geoffrey had booked us into Hanmer and we had a great 4 days exploring the pools, bike tracks and restaurants! What a lovely place to be, and a welcome pre-Christmas break for us both. We went up in the yellow submarine, which didn’t require AA assistance once, and we were also pleasantly surprised to find a wee red Fiat 500 (original) on our travels one day too, so we felt right at home!
We returned to the horrific news of the ghastly assault in Ross Creek and hope it is not long before that horrible person is caught. It is such a beautiful part of our city, used by us all, as it is so accessible and peaceful, and this crime must not be allowed to taint this treasure. We were pleased to join the enormous numbers at the support walk and run held just before Christmas, and our thoughts go out to the innocent runner, who was out there exercising, as we all like to do, minding her own business on a beautiful summer’s evening. Thank goodness for dogs at Ross Creek, as luckily the one that came along that evening caused the man to run off. As warned by police, do make sure you only have one earbud in if you are listening to your music, and until he is caught ideally run with a friend if you can, and just keep getting out there – more people exercising, less risk! Millie, our pointer, and I are there often – it is just so peaceful, and such a well-used place – we are very lucky to have it.
After enjoying a wonderful Christmas feast in Wanaka, we have been loving lots of exercise with friends and it has been great to see patients utilising the bike rack in front of the clinic more often too. Roger (pictured) is a regular cyclist – going out most early mornings on his electric bike. Do come by bike if you can too – it’s a great way to incorporate exercise into your day by commuting.
Here are Sheryl, Karen, Barbara and Dot on our Saturday morning harbour ride – another great place to ride! We are very lucky to have the track around the harbour – if you have not tried it yet, do go and explore.
Not long until Pilates restarts: Term 1 starts after Waitangi weekend on Mondays and Tuesdays (15th and 16th Feb) this term: 5.30 and 6.30pm, so do get in touch ASAP if you are wanting to join us this year, as we are finalising the groups now. Our walking group on Tuesday evenings started on Tuesday 12 January – if you are interested in joining us, also get in touch, as over the summer months these walks go from start points other than our clinic, just to give a bit of variety. We walk for an hour and a bit usually, on a mixture of terrain.
The preparation running and walking groups for the Cadbury Dunedin half marathon will commence again in June to have you ready for September. Also Dunedin’s Park Run, held each Saturday morning at 8am from Croc-o-dile café in the Gardens is great, so think about joining that 5km walk or run.
Wishing you all a great 2016, have fun at the Masters Games and hope to see you all at the GO BY BIKE Brekky 10 Feb in the Octagon-fresh fruit salad, cereal, croissants, fresh coffee – YUM!!, so plan to bike in there 2016.
Geoff and Barbara.
clinic@cavershamphysio.co.nz; 4877323
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