Last day of the visit

Busy day today. S had booked all of us (except J) for the Auckland Observatory children's holiday programme. It was a bit swoopy and in your face during the made for modern children video of our solar system, as shown and described by an alien travel agent. The night sky in Auckland was superb. Then (after a bit of play for the children in the Space Room) they demonstrated some home made rockets.

Made using plastic bottles, he demonstrated how high it would go with just pumping air under pressure into it. He then put in some water, before then putting in air under pressure. Forcing out the water, threw the rocket up much faster and higher. A wonderful demonstration and using simple stuff. Nothing harmful. No matches. No explosions.

Next for S and me, was to go home briefly. There, I had the telephone conversation with the Director for ADHB mental health services about the position of Medical Director for the service, which she had approached me about. I have to acknowledge that I was not looking to become an employee again almost nine years after resigning from a different DHB. 

What appealed was the task of drawing everyone together to provide modern psychiatric services based on current best evidence and practice guidelines. What persuaded me was that in response to me expressing ambivalence about becoming non-clinical, I was told that the post was to be 50% clinical, and they were happy for me to look to developing mood disorder services.

Today I said yes.

Then, the whole family went to the Sky Tower and up to the 52nd level Orbit Restaurant for a late lunch. The revolving restaurant allows fantastic views of the city. The food was great, the coffee was terrible (S described it to the waiter as disgusting, which is strong words for a person who rarely complains).

Back to the apartment where Tsuken put on his gi for a photo shoot. His camera settings were better than these, so I got a better photo of him with his camera. However, I like it, and it shows a very big part of his life.

They are back to Sydney tomorrow.