Quiet Crazy Week

For a week with nothing planned, this one ended up being pretty busy and eventful. It started off with a letter from the Physiotherapy Board arriving in the mail, with my name on it. Yay! Well, at least that's what I thought until I opened the damn thing. It was all downhill after that. The letter did not confirm my registration. On the contrary, it stated that I have not proven competence in the area of Cardiopulmonary Physio and that I have 3 options: Submit more evidence (my 23 page paper was not sufficient), take a competence exam (a practical exam on a real patient, with an entire textbook of info up for questioning), or withdraw my application (but not get my $600 back). After discussions with the Dean and the Cardiopulmonary professor, I decided I should submit more info and see what happens. The Dean is also trying to get the board to give me a special scope license which would enable me to teach but not treat. Hopefully that works out. In the meantime, I'm going to be using my creative bone to come up with more evidence of my competence. At least I am not alone. I have met several other people who have had their registrations denied for the same reason. So basically, nothing is resolved and the game goes on.......
On a brighter note, Craig and I checked out 3 flats/houses this week, settled on one, and got a phonecall thursday that our application for the house was accepted! It's a 2 bedroom, 1 study house with an open kitchen/living room and a log burning fireplace. Also, a nice patio in the back, a small one in the front with steps down to a grassy yard, and a basement for storage. It's being remodeled right now so we'll have brand new hardwood floors and carpeting. It seems to be exactly what we need and we're excited to move in, hopefully next week. The house is on the exact other side of the city from where we are now, so we'll have a new area to explore but can still walk to work. Keep checking for pics of the new place!
Other than that, we were busy at work this week with our school hosting a Research and Disability Colloquium. Craig was busy with graduation on Friday and Saturday. He got to wear his borrowed maroon academic regalia, which made him look like a Harry Potter wizard. I guess that would make me his witch? A good one of course. Anyway, he attended some more Maori festivities on Friday, and then we went to the Dean's house for drinks Friday evening. Saturday, Craig attended graduation tea and awards ceremony and then his duties were done.
Saturday night, we met our friends at a Japanese restaurant called Jitsu for dinner. It was pretty good, but not as good as our favorite, Jizo. On Sunday we were invited to a BBQ at another faculty member's house to celebrate her PhD. The drive there was made interesting (and long) by the Santa Parade for which the main street in and out of city center was closed down. This meant that crossing it to get up the hill to the party was not easy. By the time we finally arrived, everyone had eaten, including dessert! We were lucky though, they re-fired up the grill and served us the best german sausage ever, with leftover cucumber potato salad and a bean salad. It was, you got it, Yummy! Craig and I plan to order some of the German sausage for ourselves. The usual grocery store sausage here is inedible.
After the party, we came home and started planning our Christmas/New Year's trip to the North Island. Lots of fun in the works! And, since it's light and warm out til nearly 10pm now, we took a nice night-time walk in the park. It's really feeling summery now :)