I can’t take any credit at all for the topic of this post because I stole the idea directly from a comment made by James on the post about my pending CGMS initiation where there was some banter about T1’s flying microlights in NZ being legal which got me thinking…..

…what jobs can’t diabetics do in NZ?

I don’t know about the actual legalities of all of the list below but I can imagine that there would be a few issues with:

Pilots (not microlights though!)
Professional drivers (freight etc)
Surgeons?
Police officers?
Fireman/firewoman (professional)
Air traffic controller?

That’s just the first few that came to mind but does anyone actually know what the deal is with…

Continue reading »


Ahhhhh, where have the months gone? It seems like a long time ago, plus a short time ago I was giving my farewell speech at work before stepping out into a planned four weeks’ maternity leave which turned out to be just two.

I’d planned to return to work by June/July (this AKL mortgage ain’t gon’ pay itself unfortunately), but an opportunity came up which I couldn’t refuse, so as this post goes live I’ll be turning up for my first day back in the land of the employed. I had actually planned to return to the ad agency I was working for, but as it happened, they only had an opening for full-time work, and I didn’t want to…

Continue reading »


I received an email from a reader recently, as follows:

I’m a Type One diabetic and several years ago I worked as an afterschool childcarer at a primary school in Herne Bay. My boss organised to have everyone come to her home for a work meeting. I was the first one to arrive and “boss” began to talk about the up coming childrens holiday programme with me. The boss said I wouldn’t be able to come along to the ”outings” of the holiday programme and I was quick to ask why? She replied and not exact words, because of my having to test and I may not be focused on the care of the children.

This reply was extremely annoying and…

Continue reading »


I just had something of a collection of diabetes incidents, all within about half an hour of each other.

-       In client meeting, at client premises…. My pump post-prandial alarm goes off to take a test. I open my pottle of strips and discover it empty – a-haaa, that’s why there’s a spare pottle in my bag though y’see! I get out the spare pottle which was in my bag and realise I’ve tricked myself…. It’s an empty one.

-       Then, about four minutes later my pump alarm goes off…. It had gone off that morning because I had less than 20u of insulin left so I’d got a vial out of the work fridge to get it to…

Continue reading »


Despite being an 80’s child, this post most definitely isn’t a reference to the band of the same name (pictured here) it’s about starting a new job and the adjustments that kind of a move takes.

It’ been a month since I had my first day now and I absolutely love my job. The people are awesome, the location is incredibly convenient and the work is great but all that aside, I’ve had some interesting things crop up as a diabetic person over the last 4 weeks which I reckon are worth blogging about.

When I left my last job I ended up having to take two weeks off for various reasons to get some things organised, visit family…

Continue reading »