by Amber Ramoo

First, a bit about me

I am a 52-year-old married mum of two teenage boys.  I have exercised on and off since my teenage years, especially jogging.  I found exercise has always been my “go to thing” if I had any spare time.

Exercising from a young age has helped me in many ways especially as an older mum.  Having the ability to take part in many physical activities with my young sons, who didn’t see age and expected you to just join in, but I do draw the line now at trying to keep up with two teenage boys!

Being an at-home mum had many treasured enjoyable times but, of course, like all things, had its challenges.  To combat those times, I would go out for a run in the fresh air, the endorphins (feel-good hormones) would kick in leaving me ready to take on the more mundane duties of the day ahead.

Adapting exercise to suit your lifestyle

As I have aged, incorporating and adapting exercise has become part of my lifestyle. Benefits are huge and noticeable in everyday activities like carrying heavy shopping bags from the car into the house become easier. Most people have their own daily challenges, not only physically but emotional too.  This is where I feel exercise can help in people’s lives, giving them the tools to face their daily obstacles and challenges.

Therefore, I wish to share my experiences with older women so they may tap into of my lifelong learning and recent training.

Imbase – improving fitness

I obtained the New Zealand Certificate in Exercise to allow me to operate as a Personal Trainer and Mentor and chose the name imbase for my business name as it is an acronym of increased mobility, balance, agility, strength and energy.

Imbase encapsulates the main areas of our physical fitness that start to decline as we age and affect the quality of our lives, but the good news is, we can work and improve on these areas substantially along with our general wellbeing.

Getting started

You have a choice to come to my home or I can come to you.  To get you started we shall

• arrange a meet and greet
• discuss your goals
• complete a Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire and a Pre-Exercise Screening form.

I shall then carry out a series of tests including flexibility, muscular strength and endurance, static balance, mobility and cardiovascular.

To show my commitment to you, so that you may have a medical check-up, if need be, this consultation shall be free of charge as a gift for you.

The second session

At the second session you shall be given the test results and a prescribed exercise programme based on the test results, your individual needs, abilities and goals. As everyone is different the programme shall be personalised to you.

The exercise programme will comprise–

• a warm up of gentle dynamic stretches
• body weight exercises, appropriate to you
• a cool down of gentle static stretches.

I will show you how to perform the exercises in a safe and beneficial manner.  The programme will be well planned and changed as you progress, and varied to make it more intense and can include resistance bands or weights, it’s entirely up to you.

This shall all be carried out in a quiet, safe, private, relaxed setting near the beach. It’s never too late to start exercising and regain what you once had!

MISSION STATEMENT

Supress the ageing process through Increased Mobility, Balance, Agility, Strength and Energy using a sustainable personalised exercise programme and adopting balanced nutrition for life.

Amber Ramoo, Personal Trainer

021 1072353  Imbase@sabsnz.com

Although this reads like an advertorial, the subject and the encouragement to partake in activities justifies this exception to our normal non-commercial stance. –Eds

Last Tuesday evening at the Support Hub, a second meeting of the Waikanae Health Advocacy Group (WHAG) took place at which four speakers addressed the 20 or so attendees on more detailed aspects of the topics raised at the meeting in February in the Memorial Hall.

One of these topics was how those needing services at the Capital & Coast District Health Board’s hospitals in Kenepuru and Wellington get there.  Obviously, in serious cases, that’s what the Wellington Free Ambulance as well as the Westpac Rescue Helicopter do; but for non-urgent cases, that ties up the resources needed for urgent situations and other options need to be looked at (including whether a trip there is actually needed — can paramedics or just a phone/Skype conversation sort the issue out?)

Last June, the Capital & Coast District Health Board began trialing a Kenepuru Hospital shuttle connection to and from the Porirua railway station for Kapiti residents without independent transport travelling to and from appointments at Kenepuru Community Hospital or Wellington Regional Hospital. It has operated from 7 am to 6 pm every weekday, departing Porirua railway station hourly, at a quarter to the hour, from Station Road East (through the underpass to the city side where buses depart). It brings users back to the station after their appointment.

Details of this are on the CCDHB website here

— what don’t they want you to know? …and what will be next?

The unseemly haste at which PM Jacinda and her cabinet are riding roughshod over proper process has to raise these questions.

First the (alleged as questions exist about it) video of the Christchurch gunman on his rampage was banned by the Chief Censor on Monday, followed yesterday by a similar ruling on the ‘manifesto’ that was e-mailed by or on behalf of the gunman to the media on 15 March.

Nearly everyone knows that PM Jacinda (and probably many of her MPs) are left-wing globalists who in 2017, among other things, stated that they wanted many more ‘refugees’ (read migrants from Third World countries) here, and a week before last Christmas signed NZ to the UN Migration Compact, the intent of which is an unrestricted flow of such migrants to First World countries.

The effect of her government’s censorship bans will probably be to make many who were mildly curious before want to see them to satisfy their now strong curiosity.  The official justification for the ban on the manifesto which contains no images, except some line graphics of standard topics (such as “anti-imperialism”, “workers rights”, “responsible markets” “ethnic autonomy”) on the cover is that “…the document is crude and promotive of murder and terrorism.”

Er, um — couldn’t that be said also about books like What is to be done by Vladimir Lenin, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, or for that matter the Koran which has some quite violent passages, often quoted by Osama bin Laden?

The contents of the 74-page ‘manifesto’ were split into two parts — first an explanation of who he is, his background and his motives. The second presented his views on the topics mentioned above.

Severe overpopulation and rapid population growth in the Third World and its effect on the environment and world climate was a prominent theme, as was his belief that massive migration from the Third World to Europe and New World countries will replace the indigenous culture and heritage of those counties.

It’s rather hard to argue with that, one would have thought.  Of course, the solutions presented were mostly violent ones: for example, how to achieve an addiction-free society — go out and shoot your local drug dealer… ah, no.

It isn’t just the Christchurch shooter who has those views, however, they’re very widely held sentiments in society.

The manifesto needs critical analysis and a lot of refuting which can be easily done; but you can’t now, at least not in NZ because of the ban.

If Jacinda thinks that banning it and ignoring it will make it go away, she’s wrong. Even worse, it’s highly likely that these bans aren’t the end of it and there will be draconian restrictions by her and her government on Freedom of Speech.   As one of our readers says, “Just about everyone now will be too frightened to say what they feel or think in case they are branded a racist and or put on a terrorist suspect list.”

Note that as usual, views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of your editors.

By Ann David

Nathan Guy gets the message

Members of the Kapiti-Horowhenua End of Life Choice Society presented MP Hon Nathan Guy with a petition at his Levin office on Friday 22 March.

The petition asks Mr Guy to vote YES to the second reading of David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill.  The request was made in the name of 961 residents in the Otaki electorate.

If this Bill is successful, it would allow New Zealanders to ask a doctor to hasten their death under certain strictly controlled conditions.

Choices for the terminally ill

Under the terms of the Bill, a patient would need to be terminally ill with a prognosis of less than 6 months or with a grievous and irremediable medical condition.

In either case, the applicant would need to be “in an advanced stage of irreversible decline in capability” and “experiencing unbearable suffering that is unable to be relieved in any manner tolerable to him or her” at the time of signing a written request for assisted dying.

Two separate doctors would have to confirm that all of the eligibility criteria are simultaneously present, that the patient is mentally competent to make the decision and does so uncoerced, of his or her own free will.

Doctors’ options – future and current

All doctors will have the right of conscientious objection, meaning that if they do not want to participate in assisted dying, they can simply decline.

A survey in 2018 shows that 37 percent of doctors want assisted dying to be legalised along with 67 percent of nurses.

As it currently stands, a doctor who hastens a patient’s death at the patient’s explicit request faces criminal prosecution and imprisonment for 14 years.

This is irrespective of the hopelessness of the condition, the gravity of the irreversible decline in capability and the degree of suffering.

The views of signatories

The 961 signatories to the petition signed up at market stalls and in shopping malls.  Many had heart-rending stories to tell of loved ones who had died protracted deaths of great suffering in hospitals, hospices and rest homes.  Others saw this simply as a matter of a human right to self-determination and protection from enforced suffering.

The second reading of the Bill should take place sometime between now and July.

It would require a majority of 61 Parliamentarians to vote it through to the next stage, otherwise it will fail and be withdrawn.

by Roger Childs

The recently revived Kapiti Historical Society had its best turnout so far at its 26 February meeting: 23 members heard John Robinson’s interesting exposition on the link between Waikanae, Te Atiawa and the 1840-60’s Taranaki conflicts.

The next talk also features a similar period, and the life of a fascinating woman who is sometimes overlooked because of her better known husband – missionary Octavius Hadfield.

Kate Williams was the third daughter of Northland missionary Henry Williams and she married Octavius at Otaki in 1852.

Herself a descendant of an early missionary family from Hawke’s Bay, Sheila Williams will speak next Tuesday on Kate Hadfield – Missionary Wife. Sheila worked for many years at the Alexander Turnbull Library and then lectured in librarianship at Victoria University of Wellington.

The talk will be held on Tuesday 26 March at The Kapiti Uniting Church, 10 Weka Road, Raumati Beach. Gold coin koha entry.

The Society aims to have interesting speakers every month or two during 2019. The April session will feature John McLean talking on “Captain Cook; His Life and Voyages” on Tuesday, 23 April. John is the author of Captain Cook for Young People.

(For further information on the Kapiti Historical Society, contact Roger Childs —pamandroger.childs@gmail.com or John Robinson — jlrwaikanae@gmail.com)

As expected, PM Jacinda initiated her semi-automatic firearms ban, but the statistics below contained in an OIA response last December and reproduced on the Police website show why until last Friday there wasn’t an issue.

The next terrorist (and Islamic State have called for an attack in retaliation) will need to obtain an assault rifle illegally, use bombs (the most popular choice for Muslim terrorists overseas) on drones or in a truck, or just use a big truck to mow people down as has happened in overseas cities like Nice, Berlin, Stockholm, Barcelona, London…

Hmm.  Is Jacinda going to fix the real reason last Friday happened — big time security intelligence failure?