And what do you do at 5am on a Sunday morning in
Christchurch? You put on the coffee,
turn on the TV and watch football. Real
football (soccer). Between ESPN and
Skysports we get a ton of European games, Champion’s League, English Premier
League and La Liga . Sunday was a true
bonanza as we also got the Final Four basketball games.
In the realm of NZ tv sports I appreciate Rugby, enjoy
Cricket (if you’ve got a day to fill) and can’t fathom why anyone would create netball and furthermore, put it on tv.
On the non-tv/enterainment realm, my routine these days has
precluded running. Middle age malady,
plantar faciatis, strikes and in the interests of not being completely stupid
I’m taking a little time off. Apparently
running on the Mount is not helping. I
tried running for a week after finally figuring out a route that was not
completely Himalayan and after realizing the shooting pain in my heel was not
getting better, thought the doctor might be in order.
My introduction to the New Zealand medical system was pretty
unbelievable. Between my heel and the
need to get my presecriptions set up getting a doctor’s appointment was only a matter of time. One of Beth’s colleagues recommended a doctor
and I called to make an appointment. I
called on a Thursday morning at 10am and explained we were new in the area and
I wanted to see if the doctor was taking new patients. Based on my American experiences I was
figuring maybe she was and maybe next week for the appointment. The receptionist told me she has an
appointment at 11:15 and 11:30 that day.
Welcome to New Zealand.
I get to the doctor for the 11:30 appointment figuring that
I’m going to spend 20 minutes filling out my medical history and providing
insurance information. I’m greeted by
the receptionist who hands me a blank piece of paper (no form, just plain white
scrap paper) and a pen and asks me to write down my name address, date of birth
and phone numbers. That was the complete
paperwork.
I then meet with the doctor, explain my medical history and
the medications I’m on. One of the
medicines I’m on for my asthma is very expensive in the States even with
insurance. The doctor logs on to her
computer and checks their National Prescripton Database. In minutes she can tell me the NZ equivalent
and costs.
In NZ all costs are up front, you pay at the time and then
you get reimbursement from your insurance.
The cost for my appointment, $38NZ, blood work - $7.50 and I qualify for
a free flu shot. The cost for a three
month supply of one of my medicines is $3, no prescription card and the
pharmacist has it ready in five minutes.
My biggest disappointment was that after finding out that
the pain in my heel was plantar faciatis, that I needed to make an appointment
with a Sports Medicine doctor. In NZ,
sports medicine doctors are specialists and an appointment to see them is $150
and there is a two week wait. The good
news is rest is helping.
On the coaching front, life has been interesting. First and foremost, I completely enjoy the
team I’m coaching. The season started
two weeks ago and we had two practices before our first game. In the interests of getting a bit of
background, I asked players their preferred position as I tried to figure out a
line up and system. The exercise
revealed that I had six strikers, four inners, one defender and one goalkeeper;
not the foundation of any system found in modern hockey.
Everyone I’ve met has told me this was going to be
re-building year and being the naïve optimist I sometimes try to be, I’ve
thought to myself, we’re going to be ok.
Two practices and one long pre-game tactical meeting and our first game
starts. Ball gets in to our circle in
the first 30 seconds and only by the grace of God and their player kicking the
ball in to the goal are we not losing.
Within two minutes, we don’t have to worry about that as we give the
ball away to one of their girls who says thank you very much and rips a shot
into an empty net. 67 minutes later, we
lose 9-0 and never get the ball inside their scoring area. Not a lot you can say after that.
The goal for our second game was improvement and a re-think
of what we know, what we’re able to do and what the best use of our training
time is. We lost 3-0 last week and it
was a complete moral victory. We are
extremely young and not very deep as a team.
I realize that I need to be patient and positive with them. In our first game we talked about how we’re
going to make mistakes and it’s all about how we respond to them. It’s the story of my life. We have a two week break between games for
the Easter holiday and another chance for redemption April 15.
Finally, I got to see a glimpse of the future. While we’re still waiting for the boat with
our belongings to arrive, ice hockey season started in Christchurch on April
1. I have a team and went down to see
the rink and introduce myself. The rink
is interesting. While there are boards
and glass around the ends, the protection above the boards along the length is
fishnet. Good thing there are no spectators. I don’t want to form instant judgments after
watching one period hockey but the standard was better than I thought and my
goal is still recreational.
That’s it for now, Kaikoura awaits.
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