Work, holiday and family

10 th International Scientific Conference »Continuous development of nursing in society and its contribution to health promotion« to be held on 8 June 2017, in Bled, Slovenia Conference held in the beautiful country of Slovenia, with stunning views over Bled, supported by the Angela Bo škin Faculty of Health Care . Many countries were represented including: Ireland, England, Scotland, United States of America, Slovenia, Serbia and Kosovo. An interesting conference regarding the development of nursing and nursing roles, with a number of presentations related to dementia and dementia care. An engaging and interesting conference, which ended with the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Angela Monika Rybacka presenting on the development of the role of activity coordinators within acute hospital settings to support patients with cognitive impairment: Dr Jo Brooke representing the Oxford Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Research on the round table...

32nd International Conference of Alzheimer's Disease International Kyoto, Japan My second time presenting at this conference, always an amazing energy and buzz, which is so inspiring. Brilliant to have my son with me and to see him equally inspired 😃 Learning loads and meeting amazing and inspiring people, and the conference lunches are one of the best I have had yet. Bit of course learning about culture at the same time! So busy... accidentally said to my son "I really need a holiday" the look on his face 😂😂 I wondered if work you mind if I just kept travelling - clearly researching/writing while I went...

Vampire Cafe, Ginza, Tokyo I have come to understand that Tokyo is an amazing city with culture meeting the modern age. Thanks to my son and his girlfriend I have visited many places that I would not have attempted on my own. For example that parks, shrines and temples. But, also the other side of Tokyo and electric city, animal cafes (very very strange), maid cafes (at which point I went home!!!!). I have a favorite cafe that I wish to share, but before I do, I would like to stress I have been working and sight seeing and unfortunately over the past few days I have been rather unwell (hence my lack of posts), however following a couple of days in bed and no running for over 5 days :( feeling much better :) My favorite cafe is of course the Vampire Cafe, some pictures below, and in one I think I look a bit demonic myself:

Tokyo, Japan I have had an amazing day with my son and his girlfriend exploring Tokyo, well particularly one part - Ueno Park. The culture of Japan meets the new capital. During the day we meet some locals that happily stopped and explained some of their rituals to us, just a spontaneous act of kindness. I have added some pictures, which do not do this place justice at all, looking forward to exploring tomorrow. So caught up with this city, I haven't done any work today (although the Uni is officially closed today), but for those that know me that in itself is amazing, although I managed a run 😂😂😂😂

St Heiler NZ Next stop on our travels around Auckland. An amazing bay, I was out running with the locals again this morning, such a great experience. The views from our apartment are stunning, and decided to be very English and have a cup of tea post run!! But also,was good to catch up with an ex-colleague from KCL days and we still have a lot of synergy in our interests, looking forward to further collaborations. However, Katie did suggest I tried the local produce..

Titirangi Today, we have left central Auckland and traveled 11 miles to Titirangi. Our clifftop cabin is amazing along with stunning views in both directions. I have been sitting outside watching the tide flow out while analyzing some qualitative data... slightly distracted (by the view that is). Hoping to meet an ex-colleague from my Kings College London days tomorrow, who just happens to live here, not quite sure how that happened, but rather excited. I am not sure my pictures do justice,  but at least they provide a feel for the place.

Rangitoto An amazing day, walking around Rangitoto, the youngest volcano in Auckland (600 years old!). Great walk to the summit, lava caves and around the now island (following a 7 km run of course). My granddaughter did amazing and the word games we have played hopefully are educational! I of course walked in flip flops, which is clearly appropriate, but I have walked up and down Snowdon in Wales, in such shoes...  I have attached photos, but not sure they do NZ justice: