Every year as par for the course, everyone in our office gets the option of having their birthday off so this year rather than going to the beach, the movies, dinner and then hanging out in the sunshine of late November I asked my bosses if I could defer my leave till January. I’m off to diabetes camp!

When I was a kid my parents would assign x number of carer support days to the diabetes society or the hospital (I don’t know if they still do that or an equivalent of it these days) who, in turn, would use the money to fund camps and activity weeks via a loophole in the legislation. Me and heaps of other kids, who you would end up seeing at least twice a year in Canterbury where I grew up, were treated to skiing weeks, tramping, camping, rock climbing, travel (with some top-ups) and other stuff with the added benefit of medical care on site while our deserving parents enjoyed a week off the constant duties which we now know so well. January will see one of these camps on the North Shore of Auckland and when Nic told me about it I thought to myself that it was about time that I made an effort to get involved. So, in January, Nic and I will be haning out with some cool kids comforting the homesick, climbing, swimming, playing games, tramping and generally having a blast with a bunch of cool people on the North Shore and I can’t wait!!

I’ll let you know how it all goes of course but my advance predition is that it will be veyr cathartic, challening, engaging, will broarden my mind and hopefully, be inspiring. I mean, I remember being a homesick 8 year old meeting a lovely lady called Liz Trow who took the time to lend me a hanky and her shoulder while I was busy blubbering about missing home and then seeing her year after year until she and her entire family became very close friends. I can only hope that I’ll be lucky enough to get the opportunity to be able to play that role for someone else which, I suppose, is the whole point of things like this. The sense of community, support, possibility and normality that often eldues us in our day to day lives.

You can count me in!