Interview with a member of the Oaklands Toastmasters Club

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I am husband of over 12 years and a father of a four year girl. I was born in Aranui, Christchurch and have lived in South Africa and Sydney, Australia. I have done the whole tri-nations tour. I work in IT doing computer security for Datacom and their customers.

Josh giving a speech at the Oaklands Toastmasters Club

Why did you join Toastmasters?

I noticed that when I was job hunting, even in IT, being able to speak smoothly is more important than the technical skills and experience in computers that I have. I appreciate how Toastmasters has encouraged me to grow and has taught me many things about speaking both in theory and in practise. When I was recently asked to speak at a school expo to parents and students, I could call upon my Toastmaster skills to explain and present topics and idea competently.

What would you say to someone who is interested in Toastmasters?

Everyone should consider it. “No man is an island “. Good communication is the foundation to good relationships. Toastmasters gives you a safe playground to test and learn communication skills and you will be better for it.

What surprised you about Toastmasters?

Toastmasters is extremely supportive and there is a strong give-it-a-go attitude. Every meeting is highly respectful and no one laughs at mistakes and everyone encourages each other to grow in their skills. Even after I froze when speaking, I was commended for getting up and I was given constructive tips how to improve for the next time.

What do you think Toastmasters brings to Halswell community?

Toastmasters are an established and proven learning ground for communication.

With every meeting, Oaklands Toastmasters builds confidence, social connections and skills, which is, what every community needs.

What is the Funniest / best speech you have done or heard?

There are many funny speeches and everyone gets an opportunity to speak each week. One of the stand out speeches for me was about global warming delivered by Darryl Gibson, it was backed up with a projector and slides. It was a very thought provoking and moving topic and was delivered with skill and intention.

The Posture Pandemic

We are living the digital revolution which may go down in history as the worst influence to date, on the posture and structural health of the human body. In the past “normal posture” was a beneficial, positive expression of the human bipedal upright physique but as technology dominates our spare time, work and study environments, there is a rapid decline. Unless we do something fast, to re-educate our minds, re-train our body and re-integrate the correct neural pathways which influence our posture, the number of people presenting with problems which can be related back to postural issues, will grow exponentially. We have a major health issue on our hands. Do we wait to see the long-term impact or do we act now?

Ideal posture is standing tall, upright, rib cage lifted from the navel, pelvis half way i.e. not tucked under or sticking out and standing evenly on both legs. If a plum line was hung from the ceiling as a guideline, from a side view, it should run through our ear, the mid aspect of our shoulder, the middle of our hip joint and to the outer ankle bone. Holding our body in the ideal posture should require the least amount of muscle effort to maintain and minimises stress placed on our joints and supportive soft tissue structures such as ligaments and tendons.

Abnormal and potentially damaging stresses and strains are put through our body when we adopt poor posture, the effect of which becomes more significant the longer we stay in these poses or the more repetitively we adopt them. Long-term damage can be done and we lose the ability to use and move our body correctly, potentially leading to further problems or making us prone to injury during sport or a simple daily movement. It makes sense that the more our posture deviates from correct alignment, the greater the impact and the harder our body must work to keep us in balance.

We all know what good posture looks like. Don’t we? Yet TODAYS’s normal is far from the optimal, biomechanical design. A significant percentage, perhaps even much of the population, display examples of postural dysfunction. When normal no longer equals ideal, we have a problem; not just an in the home problem, or an at school problem, no longer a within the confines of an office space problem. We have an everywhere problem; driving in the car, waiting in a queue, walking down the road, even sitting in the waiting rooms of practitioners, like myself, who are dedicated to helping halt this metamorphic postural catastrophe. It is happening everywhere and the impact is a concern.

In times gone by younger generations could look to their elders for examples of good habits who had postural education taught through schools or handed down through speech the “stand up properly”, “sit up straight” delivered with varying tones of authority and degrees of nagging frequency. Let’s look at the elder members of today’s society; a far high occurrence of physical, dynamic body movements within their daily work and lives and questionably greater respect and value placed on what may now be considered old fashion values for “proper” body carriage. What example do we set for our children now? I have seen adults with aches and pains from postural issues for years in practise. Then it became teenagers which concerned me but when it now regularly becomes little kids, I’ll be frank, I start to panic!

When I start needing to adapt spinal rehabilitation techniques for kids so that they are a bit more fun to do and start going down the “sticker reward chart” avenue to encourage my young patients to help me get them out of pain by doing their home exercises, I say STOP. We have a major issue here and it is our responsibility as adults to recognise and acknowledge this NOW. Admit it, the problem of bad posture is not going away and there is no indication of its dilution. The clear majority of adults with chronic issues now did not have problems in their childhood. SO when the adult problems start appearing in childhood, what are we to assume THEIR adulthood will look like? We need to wake up and realise we as adults are helping create these postural habits so let’s shape up, get determined, lead by example and help create new habits.  

It is the responsibility of practitioners with training in this field and passion to create change, to get out there and share our knowledge. Let’s open doors to create opportunity to educate, motivate and inspire our young people. If you’re in, I’m in too. Let’s make a change. Let’s change the postures of the future one family at a time. It is easy to do.

If you know a posture that needs our help call us at Little Spines, Longhurst Chiropractic on

03 595 0050. Dr Maybelle Heng or myself, Dr Andrea Dawson can help you make a change.

Halswell Community Garden

Do you love to garden? Do you like company? Come and share with like-minded people at the Halswell Community Garden.

Don’t let lack of space or knowledge of growing things stop you from being involved in gardening. The Halswell Community Garden welcomes people with all levels of knowledge. The garden works on a communal basis. If you help in the garden, at any level, you can share in the bounty it provides.

 Tucked in behind the Vicarage restaurant and accessed via the domain or St Mary’s church, the community garden is a thriving food producing area. We meet regularly on Saturday mornings from 10.30 when we do our weekly harvest, and people are welcome to work in the garden any day they want to. It is spring and there is lots of work to do for a summer harvest.

Even with the wet weather there’s a lot of work already done. We have moved the two ‘spare’ beds over, one has been sprayed and filled with compost and the gooseberry bushes that were taking up space elsewhere have been moved over into it. 

Some early potatoes have been planted, the asparagus are a bit slow in their new bed but it can take a few years for them to come away. We have moved two of the Feijoas to better conditions and the bed that the Kindy had last year has been moved as we want to put a hard surface there to put the two bbq tables on. That will be a big job as we need to have the area framed, some dirt dug out then some hard fill put in. We’ll need people power for that.

We have blueberries and blackcurrants to put in a bed but these will have to wait now as they are already in flower. The irrigation is yet to be installed for the beds, again we’ll need some more hands. The boundary needs weeding again.  The green crop has been dug in but it needs digging over again. That will make a good bed for root crops. Our new greenhouse is ready for any cucumbers/tomatoes that come our way.

Are you growing the New World “My Little Garden”? Don’t know what to do with the seedlings when they come up? Bring them down to the community garden to grow on. Come and help – weed, plant, chop, fill, anything you can do and you’ll get to share, not just the results of your little part, but everything that the garden produces over the season.

For more information, contact Ellen: loadersande@xtra.co.nz, or pop down to the garden on Saturday morning.

Halswell Community Hub

 In Feb 2017, Halswell Community Project with CDN Trust and Kiwi Church, put a proposal to the Community Board and Council for the Old Library Building at 381 Halswell Road that we believed would be beneficial to both the community and the Council. 

The end result is that we took over the lease on the building in June this year.

We plan to establish a collaborative community approach to the use of the old library building and car park providing local groups with much needed office space, space to hold activities and store the materials needed for them as well as opening up opportunities for other creative uses such as community art spaces, drop in centres and more.

So far we have set up office space, a large usable community space, an interview room and an information hub where people can drop in and find details of local clubs, organisations and businesses, a coffee morning and a Youth Hangout.

We are keen to hear from people and groups in the community who might be interested in holding meetings, classes, activities or groups on the site.

We are really excited at the opportunities having a Community Hub offers and look forward to working with many people to make it happen.

The Hub is open most days so drop in and chat with the team or find out about whats going on.

Office Hours are Monday - Thursday 9am - 12noon

We’re excited to build a bigger and better community… with YOU! With your help, in our new location we will engage and inspire more people to make Halswell a vibrant, connected community! More space to do more cool stuff!

For more information or to find out how you can help or book the space contact Kate on 0204 127 6083 or halswellhub@gmail.com

Large Community Space

Open Office Spaces

Giant Chess Set made by Halswell MenzShed

Information Board

Familiar Face: Dr Sandra Hicks

Dr Sandra Hicks is very familiar face to the people of Halswell because she has been a  GP here for twenty years. The popular doctor has just retired from  her position at Halswellhealth.



Originating from Timaru, Sandra had a doctor for a dad and a nurse for a mum. Undeterred from the clear message from society at the time that "girls are nurses, boys are doctors,"  Sandra had her heart set on being a doctor, from the age of five or six.

Fairly practical reasons motivated Sandra towards becoming a general practitioner. Sandra and her husband Murray had their two daughters early in their marriage and  GP work provided a more flexible work option.   Sandra began her career working at Christchurch Hospital, then spent four years in California, followed by some time with Family Planning, some GP locums and eight years in general practice in Hei Hei.  After that, Sandra came to work in Halswell and has been here ever since.

Sandra has loved general practitioner work because of the great variety and the long term relationships.  "There are times when you really do make a difference in people's lives, sometimes by making the right diagnosis, sometimes by just affirming the person before you and how they are making their own health choices or life choices," explains Sandra. "I have also loved working with the people that I  have worked with," and the feeling is mutual; the staff at Halswellhealth warmly describe Sandra as "passionate, intelligent, and caring."



As well as a demanding  daily work schedule, Dr Sandra found the time to be  very involved with the political aspects of medicine. Sandra found the work to be "fascinating" after initially being shoulder tapped to join the local branch of the College of GPs (RNZCGP). She became chair of the local faculty and then was a delegate to the national RNZCGP council. She followed that with 10 years of service to Pegasus in a number of committees and was also on the Board. During that time, she was a member of the IPAC council and on committees charged with giving health sector advice to ACC and the Ministry of Health. Later she served  on the board of the New Zealand Medical Association for many years.
 


Another huge achievement for this busy doctor was being an integral part of the establishment of  Longhurst Health.  The building of this health centre was initially driven by Dr Hicks and her colleagues Dr Sarah Marr and Dr Phil Jacobs.  With the population expansion here, more facilities were clearly needed. The doctors thought it would be a good idea to build a centre with adjacent health services  from the beginning, rather than waiting for the services to grow up gradually around the medical centre, as had happened in Ensign Street. Sandra, Sarah, and Phil were joined by pharmacists Doug Stanton and Karen Frater and dentist Vivienne Levy as co-owners of the building. They met together every week for a very long time to bring it to fruition.  The building has allowed our medical services to continue to have a sense of community, by bringing  in many local, established health care providers in on the project.


When not working, Sandra has enjoyed entering some multi sports, running, kayaking and a little bit of cycling.  She also enjoys reading and the arrival of grandchildren has rekindled an interest in knitting. For the last eighteen months, Sandra has spent Fridays looking after her grand-daughter and hopes to spend more time with her and her young brother in the future. Sandra and her husband often visit California where their other daughter lives with her family. They have also travelled to Canada, Mexico, the UK, France, Italy and  Switzerland.




Retirement is presenting  Sandra with new opportunities.  She is learning Italian in anticipation of a planned trip. After a long and busy career, she is looking forward to having time to "just  sit" but also to "get fitter again, to do some two to three day tramps, and to travel some more," and then you realise Sandra won't be " sitting" for long, as her energy and enthusiasm are so evident. Other doctors tell Sandra that "she will be bored and that she needs to keep her registration up in order to do locum work." Sandra is still pondering that decision.




Sandra has been a very hard-working GP who has delivered professional excellence in her practice, been committed to medical politics  and   been a large contributor to the Longhurst Health project, which is a huge asset for the people of Halswell. Sandra will be missed by her clients and by those who have worked with her.  We wish her all the best for her retirement and her well-deserved break.

Familiar Place: Halswell Commons

Recently at the Halswell Community Project 's AGM, Simon Morlock, of Danne Mora Holdings, spoke with enthusiasm about the Halswell Commons development situated on  Halswell, Henderson and Sparks Roads. Danne Mora Holdings are behind the project and it is easy to see where Simon's enthusiasm is coming from. The focus of the Halswell Commons is best urban design and with providing an environment where connected community can be made.

320 new homes are planned in the first stages of the development and are for a cross-section of the market. There is a mix of house sizes and styles, ranging from mews cottages, standalone townhouses, apartments and large family villas. The house designs offer privacy, good light, sun and maximise private space for outdoor living and all of the homes will be energy efficient.

Of the 320 homes, 22% (70 homes) will be offered under the government first home buyers initiative and of those homes, 32 will be offered on the basis of a shared ownership model whereby the home-owner provides the usual cash deposit, take on a mortgage they can afford and where a portion of the purchase price remains owing, the Wayne Francis Charitable Trust will fund the shortfall and take a proportionate share in the ownership of the property. Buyers are not locked in and can buy out the trust's share or could sell their property, making way for another young family to move in. There will also be another 39  homes priced in an affordable range.

Landscape design has been well thought out. One green space will have the heritage home that is currently getting a million dollar upgrade. It will be used initially by the developers but ultimately by the community and not for profit sector Throughout this park, will be information boards describing the history of the building, the people who lived there and the land. There will also be a  community garden and weekly farmers market.


Healthy living practices are encouraged with the creation of living streets with orchards, shared vegetable and herb gardens. Residents will have front door access to shared green space and a network of off-road pathways for pedestrians and cyclists. These facilities aim to create a strong sense of belonging.

Even, governance is a communal affair. The residents are to take control of the management and use of the shared open spaces. A residents' society has been formed so that the residents can develop a higher level of amenity in their surroundings. There will be also a Commons area which is an open space for recreation and community events. This will include a storage building, a community courtyard, a play, sport and entertainment areas.


Reinforcing the theme of community, the developers have chosen a collaborative approach with local organisations such as The Residents Association and The Menzshed and The Halswell Community Project. Cultivate is playing a larger role as they are establishing the community gardens, developing and maintaining them and then, engaging the community with the gardens and overseeing this.


Eleven hectares of Halswell Commons land will be part of seventeen hectare commercial development, which is adjacent to the heritage park. A new town centre with a main street and civic square is planned; not the usual mall. It will have 45,000 square metres of retail space to be built in stages of fifteen to twenty years. In the opening phase, a supermarket, a number of hospitality outlets and retailers will service the local community. Announcements are to be made in the usual manner as they occur.

While, of course, success and viability is important for property developers, the altruistic motives of the planners are quite obvious in this project. They have asked themselves the question of what is it from modern research into well-being and happiness that could be incorporated into their housing and landscape plans. And while, huge change in the area will inevitably lead to other changes, we look forward to watching these plans come to life.

Familiar Face: Claire Russell

If you have been to visit Rice Cube the international meeting on Friday nights at South West Baptist Church, in Balcairn Street, you will know the familiar face of Claire Russell who has been leading this group since 2011.  Around 60 people turn up each Friday night, with ages ranging from 3 to 70  to eat together, play games and to study English.   

Claire has a huge heart for international people in our community.  She believes this stems from her childhood experience of growing up in Rotorua and going to a predominantly Maori school.  This was her first experience of a culture "different from her own".  She also witnessed the bus loads of people who came to visit the area from overseas.

Now, in her third decade,  it seems that a lot of her previous work and studies have helped prepare her for her work at Rice Cube.  After completing a degree at Canterbury University in Education,  Claire  taught overseas in Korea for three years. She has also taught English As a Second Language in  Christchurch and also did  a six month stint in Fiji doing missions and social development work.  In additional to all this,  Claire has completed a Theology degree at Laidlaw College.

It was more by chance that Claire got involved at Rice Cube, though.  During her time in Korea, she met a girl named Kylie and then met her again in Christchurch. It was Kylie who asked Claire to co-lead Rice Cube in preparation for taking over the responsibility as she was heading back overseas.

In taking on this role, Claire has found it to be very rewarding.  She  says that she is a person that loves to connect people and that is what Rice Cube is all about.  It brings people together of all ages, and people who are new to a country often struggle with loneliness.   "As a group, we offer support and friendship and the environment is very inclusive and welcoming" enthuses Claire.

2016 brought some changes to the  Rice Cube gatherings.    Last year the group spilt in order to meet the  needs of the different age groups.  On Friday nights the adults and families meet at Halswell site from 6pm – 8.30pm  and the   teens meet at the Spreydon site of South  West Baptist Church from 5.30pm – 8pm.  Claire would also like to highlight other new local opportunities for international people here:  English language classes run on Wednesday mornings 9-11am at Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre for   $4.  This follows on from the success of the classes that were started in Wigram a couple of years ago. And secondly, there is now a  huge amount of resources available for the international community at the new library.   She suggests that people go into the library and ask what is there.


Apart  from organising Ricecube,  Claire is also a pastor at South West Baptist church  which sees her busy in other roles.  When she gets time away from it all,  Claire likes to read, go for walks and holiday  in her camper.

Rice Cube is bringing a wealth of opportunities for international people to make lasting connections. Claire says “If you  would like to have a great social night out and some great food, pop along  on Friday nights to the South West Baptist Church in Balcairn St.” If you would like to  contact her, phone 3384163 ext 242 or ricecube@swbc.org.nz

Familiar Faces: Des, Judith and Tina

Three people who have become ‘familiar faces’ at the Halswell Market are Des Kale, Judith Cain and Tina. All reside at St John of God Halswell. Here are their stories.

Des Kale, now in his early seventies, was born in Palmerston North, and grew up in Wellington. He was diagnosed with cancer on the spine at the tender age of four. Des explains his journey: "Specialists removed as much of it as they could and left some benign cancer, however in the 1960s, my legs started to go again".   After some radiation treatment, the doctors sent me home with the conclusion "there was nothing more they could do for me". Ironically, Des has outlived all the doctors who had sent him home to die.

Not held back by the challenge of living without the use of legs, Des found several work opportunities. If you own a Fisher n' Paykel steam and dry iron, it is possible that Des assembled it for you in a factory in Auckland. Moving later to Christchurch, Des worked at Tate Electronics when it was in the city centre. He enjoyed his work there, however, he didn't like having to rely on people to lift him in and out of the two-storey building, and he began to look for a new job. Des's next workplace was at a Canterbury engineering firm in the 1990s until he was made redundant during a time of restructuring.

Des moved to live at St John of God Halswell as he couldn't do things at home by himself anymore. With a natural, upbeat temperament and outlook, Des finds all sorts of ways to help others. He can usually be spotted guiding new visitors to the rooms they are looking for. Other residents have noticed that Des has "become a real part of the place".  Des will tell you that he loves being at St John of God and “the staff are fantastic".

Judith Cain had her life all mapped out. She is the daughter of the family who owned the  well-known Christchurch company "Cain's Caterers," and with that  influence had developed a real love of cooking. After qualifiying in teaching food, nutrition, clothing and textiles, Judith took a  gap year in Australia. The plan was that she would come home and take over the family business with her mum the following year. All of Judith's dreams and hopes vanished in but one moment when she was rear ended by a 4WD driver, just three months after arriving in Sydney.

Left with a debilitating back injury, Judith began an eight year road of recovery. During these difficult years, Judith determinedly, began her own clothing cutting business as "clothing was a close second passion to food". Business was going well and she began to buy up real estate as a hobby. However, at the age of 46 her life took a second dramatic turn when she received the incomprehensible news that she had Muscular Sclerosis.

Judith's family eventually moved her  to Christchurch where she lived in Edith Cavell home in Sumner for ten years. Three years ago, she relocated to live in St John of God Halswell.

Judith still loves to chat about cooking and clothing, and while finding most movements difficult, she still has some use of her hands. It has recently been suggested that she use some of her many cooking skills to help in the kitchen of the Occupational Therapy room at St John of God Halswell. "It's not over yet!" says Judith with a beaming smile.

Tina moved to St John of God Halswell three and a half years ago, leaving her home in Burnside as household activities had become hazardous for her. Tina was born and raised in Christchurch, and attended Burwood Primary, Shirley Intermediate, and Burnside High School. As a child, she can remember being in trouble for being side-tracked by reading.  She was an able student who was encouraged to sit six subjects for School Certificate, instead of the usual five. Tina thought about what would be a long term employable skill and trained to be a typist.

Marriage came next at age twenty, then, Tina had her first child, Rowena. At the age of 23, Tina received the devastating news that she had Multiple Sclerosis. Her son James was born after that diagnosis and Tina's children became her salvation and strength to face the battles ahead.

Simply finding that she had very little time to think about herself, as all young mothers do, she  focused on doing all that she could for her children. She took them to Plunket, kindergarten and school escorting them by ridingon  her mobility scooter. Tina continued to focus on her family's needs above her own, and her efforts paid off as her children grew into capable adults with careers in law and mechanics.

Tina talks of the deeper changes in her thinking. Her experiences taught her that "life is not all fun and games," and "if something good comes along, you need to take it with both hands, because the next day it may be gone."

Today, family has continued to be a large focus for Tina; she loves to go shopping with her daughter for her new grandchild and frequently visits  her elderly mum. In her free time, she makes her way through the big pile of books in her room and enjoys tending to her garden.


Sometimes, life can throw some pretty big curve balls. The experiences that Des, Judith and Tina have had to deal with, are about as difficult as it gets. We can learn so much from them about coping with the unexpected, how to live with changed dreams and how to find a new pathway that will bring a sense of fulfilment and joy.