bioneural.net » Bruce + Simone

Back in Britain

Bruce + Simone — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:56:56 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Our year abroad started in China and finished in Australia. In between we spent most of our time living and working in Wellington, the City at the Heart of the Edge of the World and the capital of New Zealand. Having written our last post from New Zealand we've now returned to our previous address in Chesterfield (near Sheffield, in the Midlands) where we've found that some things have changed, and some things never change. For all intents and purposes Project Koru has run its course, although we would like to think the essence of our experience will endure. A brief recap It's been an eventful year travelling to, living in, and returning from New Zealand. Here's a recap, 12 images spanning 12 months: This YouTube video requires Adobe Flash Player. Arrival It was a chilly and damp day, with that oh-so-familiar grey sky, when we arrived into Manchester Airport. We return to some beautiful scenery, and look forward to re-acquainting ourselves with old favourites such as Curbar Edge. Simone anticipates bearing witness once more to the dramatic change in seasons that she missed in NZ. Simone's mum had made arrangements with the neighbours to leave a colourful pot of pansies on the doorstep. Said neighbours left a chill-bag containing basic supplies at the back door. Our friends in Matlock got the Smart MOT'd, taxed, gassed-up and parked outside the house ready for use. Our house minder had catalogued all our post, and our intermittent house guest had done a good clean. Thanks everyone; it was ...

Last post from New Zealand

Bruce + Simone — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:46:27 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

We've left Wellington and will shortly leave New Zealand and begin our journey back to the UK via Australia. Project Koru, our "year out" from life in the UK, has essentially run its course. Watching Wellington's harbour disappear from the rear view mirror as we turned into the Ngauranga Gorge for the last time was a sad moment for both of us. Wherever we go next, we'll always be Wellingtonians, as the city at the heart of the world's edge has left a permanent impression upon us. We'll miss Wellington, we've no doubts about that. We had hoped to stay, as Wellington seemed to hold reasonable answers to a few of life's basic questions. What to do? One of the primary reasons for embarking on Project Koru was to allow Bruce to make a difficult decision concerning his career. Would general practice (GP) in New Zealand be a viable alternative to the same in the UK? Should he re-train in a non-clinical discipline such as public health, or leave medicine for IT (where everyone we know personally seems to be under high pressure). The opportunity to try out GP here helped Bruce be clear about his desire to move away from clinical work, and in this respect Project Koru was an unqualified success. Bruce decided on public health as a new career path, complementary to his experience in primary care and medical informatics. Simone was quite happy to continuing working in her chosen speciality of family planning and reproductive healthcare. Where to work? Bruce applied ...

A place to live in Wellington

Bruce + Simone — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 05:51:41 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Although we had pre-arranged accommodation in Wellington for the first month, we almost immediately began the search for a place to stay in the longer-term. We used the Internet to look into a number of options prior to departing the UK, and had decided that renting was the most feasible and the most comfortable proposition. Finding a place thus meant having feet on the ground, and the urgency of success was dictated more by Simone's impending full-time work commitment than anything else. Here we share a few insights into the process of finding a rental property. Options The broad options you might consider for longer-term accommodation of course depend on your personal circumstances. They may include: House sitting; A house swap; Renting (discussed below); Buying (a realistic option if you plan a long stay, as it can be cheaper to mortgage than rent); Boarding (especially for shorter working trips; perhaps a colleague can put you up?). Renting It's helpful to have a "wish-list" in mind when making a shortlist of properties to consider; this will eliminate many so that you can concentrate on viewing those with real potential. Adverts will usually contain enough details to allow decisions based on: Location (e.g. distance from work, shops, transport, etc.); Number of bedrooms (do you want space for an office, guests?); Weekly rental (how much are you prepared to pay?); Level of furnishing (e.g. fully furnished, white-ware only). Note: Rental prices don't include GST; GST cannot be charged when letting property as a private dwelling, so what you see is what you pay. Wander around a neighbourhood that ...

Moving country with excess baggage

Bruce + Simone — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:26:08 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Moving your life? The whole idea of packing for a year abroad is daunting: where do you start? How do you overcome personal baggage allowance restrictions when three pairs of your favourite underpants won't last a year? What is involved in sending baggage unaccompanied? How do you minimize the chances of things going wrong? Allow us to share our experience. What is Project Koru? The code name of our "great escape" from our adopted home in the UK to spend a year living and working in New Zealand. You can find an introduction to the project here together with an explanation of why we chose the koru as the symbol for our journey. Preparation We were taking a holiday in China for three weeks prior to arriving in New Zealand. We thus had to decide what should come with us to China while the rest would travel directly to NZ. The China list was easy—based on our standard holiday packing list—but the NZ list was more complicated. What you might take can depend on several things: Are you renting furnished or unfurnished? We had to guess whether certain items would be supplied or not in the fully furnished accommodation we hoped to find. Is it a convenient excuse to "upgrade" electronics or renew your wardrobe? Maybe put anything you didn't wear in the previous year in a pile for Oxfam. Is it cheaper to airfreight (potentially both ways) than buy the item again? Can you actually get a replacement in another country? Are there things of personal or ...

Recapping our first month in NZ

Bruce + Simone — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 08:00:07 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

We've just seen the back end of our first month in Wellington. The city already feels "comfortable" and we are confident we'll enjoy our time here. Not everything has gone exactly according to plan (does it ever?), but then there have been no major upsets either. Our biggest initial hurdles were around interim accommodation and parking while we sought somewhere to live in the longer term. If you're planning a similar adventure and need short-term accommodation and parking, we suggest you book (week-by-week) into a motel. What is Project Koru? The code name of our "great escape" from our adopted home in the UK to spend a year living and working in New Zealand. You can find an introduction to the project here together with an explanation of why we chose the koru as the symbol for our journey. Accommodation As previously mentioned, we wanted to arrive in New Zealand with somewhere to go. Specifically, we wanted a centrally-located and fully-furnished apartment to accommodate us (and Bruce's parents) while we looked for somewhere to live longer term. Since we were 12,000 miles away from our destination, advance booking was always going to be something of a cat-in-the-bag. We liked the look of the Century City apartments at 332 The Quay, on Wellington's Lambton Quay. Location was the one aspect we could accurately gauge from afar. We couldn't have rented a more convenient place to base ourselves if we'd tried, being very near the Willis Street end of Lambton Quay. Pretty much everything was ...

China's natural scenery

Bruce + Simone — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 07:05:16 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

We travelled to China in Sep/Oct 2006 with CTS Horizons. The first part of our itinerary focused on China's waterways and gardens. The second part of our itinerary focused on China's history and ancient capital. This third part of our itinerary focused on China's natural scenery, taking in the Yangtze and Li rivers before concluding in the rather unnatural glass and concrete cacophony that is Hong Kong. Yangtze River Thu 28 Our first night aboard the MV Katarina was disturbed by generator noise reverberating off the boat moored alongside (bring earplugs if you can tolerate them!). We woke to low cloud and mist that persisted for the rest of the day. This meant that we got little more than an impression of the size of the Three Gorges Dam, the ship locks and ship lift, as we could barely see the gigantic structure through the mist. Twenty eight billion dollars sounded like a lot of money for a block of concrete. In the end it is estimated that it will provide only 5% or less of the national electricity consumption, but other purposes include improving navigation and flood prevention. Displacement of millions of people with the loss of their livelihoods, and the destruction of ancient cultural treasures and natural habitats, were mentioned in passing. Who else but the Chinese would undertake a project of such gargantuan proportions? During a buffet lunch back on board we commenced sailing upstream towards the first of the three gorges. In the early afternoon we entered Xiling Gorge. ...

China's history and ancient capital

Bruce + Simone — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:24:55 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

We travelled to China in Sep/Oct 2006 with CTS Horizons. The first part of our itinerary focused on China's waterways and gardens. This second part of our itinerary focused on China's history and ancient capital, with a visit to the terracotta army in Xi'an then The Great Wall and Forbidden City near/in Beijing. The third part of our itinerary focused on China's natural scenery. Xi'an Fri 22 As we drove through the agricultural region surrounding Hangzhou to the airport, we noted the particular style of architecture favoured by the wealthy farmers in this region. The houses were typically three-storied and would accommodate 3 generations—not counting the ashes of ancestors which were kept in a pavilion on the roof. The roof itself was topped by a decorative spike with a ball at its base. Surrounding allotments grew corn, mulberry (to feed silk worms), and various vegetables; there was no livestock and the only animals raised were fish. The airport was very modern and our domestic flight to Xi'an afforded us more leg room than our international one. The cabin crew were introduced formally and bowed to the passengers before commencing a passable in-flight meal service. Xi'an is evidently less prosperous than Hangzhou and Shanghai, and probably would have been rather dusty but for the rain. On our way to the West Gate of the City Wall we passed by a number of imperial burial mounds. About 300 new cars add to the traffic every day in this city. Notably the government has introduced a regulation ...

China's waterways and gardens

Bruce + Simone — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:49:10 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

We travelled to China in Sep/Oct 2006 with CTS Horizons. This first part of our itinerary focused on China's waterways and gardens, visiting Shanghai and neighboring cities connected by the Grand Canal. The second part of our itinerary focused on China's history and ancient capital. The third part of our itinerary focused on China's natural scenery. Shanghai Sat 16 Sep/ Sun 17 We took the train to London St. Pancras, costing a mere 12 pounds per person in an almost empty First Class carriage. As promised, just before we pulled up to the platform the taxi firm called to clarify meeting arrangements. The next hour we spent touring London, passing famous road names one after the other, before making a final 15 minute drive on the motorway to Heathrow's Terminal 2. What a great way to get to Heathrow (vs. driving or confined in a bus); we'd do that again! We were an hour queuing to check in, but security was no where near as taxing as we had anticipated. Bruce's camera backpack thankfully made it into the size tester, with a little shoving. He tossed an unopened decongestant spray at the security check; the pharmacy in the departure gate area must have greatly appreciated the increase in profit brought about by the ban on fluids, as customers were forced to buy the same products again at inflated prices. The "one item of hand luggage" rule was then mocked, as folk did their shopping and brought onboard an extra bag or three. China Eastern Airways ...

Touchdown in Wellington

Bruce + Simone — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 08:46:19 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Well, we're here. We survived China. Just (Bruce decided he'd try sleeping one night in the People's Hospital of Yangshuo... more on that later). What is Project Koru? The code name of our “great escape” from our adopted home in the UK to spend a year living and working in New Zealand. You can find an introduction to the project here together with an explanation of why we chose the koru as the symbol for our journey. Meeting the parents We arrived in Wellington at 2 pm on Saturday 7 October. Mum and Dad met us at the airport in Wellington, which put on a typically blustery day with unseasonable cool temperatures. We were tired from the flight so arriving at an unheated apartment was something of a thermal challenge after 30 degrees in Hong Kong. By prior arrangement Mum & Dad had obtained access to the apartment that morning and had done some basic shopping. It makes a big difference when you can unpack and/or crash out without having to run around like headless chickens trying to obtain supplies. Simone had her special request for spaghetti bolognese fulfilled that evening for dinner; 3 weeks of Chinese food was quite enough for both of us! Our temporary apartment We rented a modern two-bedroom apartment in an art-deco era building (1934) on Wellington's Lambton Quay. The building containing our apartment This was arranged before leaving the UK, via the Internet, to ensure we had a convenient base of operations for the first month. Not cheap, and not as ...

Gone to China

Bruce + Simone — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 20:48:30 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net doi:tSglPpAB7a8nfM :

Every journey has a beginning, and we are soon to begin ours by traveling around China for a few weeks, before carrying on to New Zealand. What is Project Koru? The code name of our "great escape" from our adopted home in the UK to spend a year living and working in New Zealand. You can find an introduction to the project here together with an explanation of why we chose the koru as the symbol for our journey. Thanks and farewell We are in the throes of packing and disconnecting form our usual routines. Bess has emigrated to Germany and we understand is making good progress training her new servants. The computer has to be boxed up and soon we will unplug from the net; it's probable we'll be out of contact for a month or so. Thanks to those of you who made it to our farewell gatherings in Frankfurt and Chesterfield, and to those who sent good wishes. We've meet and worked with some fine people during our time thus far in the UK, and we look forward to seeing you again on our return. Auf Wiedersehen. A good journey to you all. Site housekeeping The site will hopefully stay online during our absence; filters and a guest administrator should keep the comment spam to a minimum. IOTW (image of the week) posts will continue, as Bruce has been organized enough to pre-write a number of posts and set WordPress to publish these in-absentia. He hopes. Unplugging in... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1