Updating the MacEwan Family Tree

I am currently updating the family tree both online and offline as a resource for the future generations. I am unsure why I am doing this as I will have no descendants but it does keep the brain occupied. I had heard stories growing up about J.B. MacEwan marrying Mary Fisher and her brother  (Frank) Francis Marion Bates Fisher being a Mayor of Wellington, . With a name like that there can't be many matches on Geni.com so when I found a match and added him to me tree job done? Oh no stories from mum (Florance Perress MacEwan) and the names of relatives of FMB Fisher just didn't match, so after much researching I found a match for other members of the family and even an old family tree written in my grandmothers handwriting (Ivy Heather MacEwan nee Kerr). I am leaving a lot of name bread crumbs so if some other sole is researching these names they might be able to find my link. I wish you luck.

Here is today's historical find Ian & Heather MacEwan's wedding. You can see my work on the family tree here have a look we may even be related. Updating the family tree was meant to be just add photos to the entries with no photo but as I searched and added. I gathered more and more photos of family members not on the tree not only descendants but ancestors as well. This then lead me to many stories about the family that will be lost if not recorded before my mothers generation depart this world. So I am gathering the stories as text, images, videos and audio to edit into a e-book

Rhuematiod Arthritis - Feldenkrais Session 7

Today's session was focusing on the pelvis and doing the wave ankles - pelvis - neck. The idea is to get your co-ordination and spine moving the exercise is a bit of a brain teaser. The best result today was when I was asked how does that feel now. You know when you get that question and you really think "well it is just the same". Well I didn't need to make up a story it did feel different and I could explain how it felt. The exercise was to relax and lie on the table and the result was I could actually relax the muscles and I could feel more contact with the table. I have spent so much time with my muscles so tight with the fear of pain just letting go was impossible, but not today. Actually today standing had become more natural. I could just stand without thinking tighten that muscle, lean slightly forward. I could stand relaxed, slouched or at attention which one is best. Although the Feldenkrais exercises aren't massive or strenuous you do feel some soreness after the sessions. Due to more movement and less pain when sleeping I have been able to sleep a full 4 hours where as before I would sleep for an hour or less and wake up in pain get settled again and sleep another hour. We also did steps which is just taking a small step forward previously I was fine on the left side but the right side was a struggle today either foot leading was fine. The feet are now more flexible and I can walk on tippy toes and do calf raiser exercises both of these were impossible before.

Rhuematiod Arthritis - Feldenkrais Session 6

Today's session we focused on feet, simulating standing on the inside and outside of the foot. Then rotating around the heel then the toes. The brain teaser today was not looking at your feet and pointing them straight ahead. Then look at the result after you have done all these movements the direction they are pointing is different to what you think it should be.  The way you perform these exercises seems to be important like the pelvis exercise it is easy to move the pelvis forward and backwards standing up as you just relax the muscles and gravity will do the rest, but when lying down you have to tell the muscles to pull and relax to get the movement you want. When you are growing up you learn a movement then the body just does it naturally without any conscious thought, age, injury or illness change this and that thing called pain takes control you forget or don't move the way you used to after a while it becomes a habit. I think this is why doctors ask you if you are sleeping at night. It is an indicator when my illness was at its worst I was sleeping very badly I could not roll over without conscious thought at one point couldn't roll over at all. The brain had taken control and said don't do that it will hurt after a while the movement was lost. I think I like the Feldenkrais sessions because they have a physics/mechanical background that I can understand. The joy that you get from lifting a coffee cup, taking a step or sitting without pain is hard to describe and measure.

Noticeable achievement: Can sit for long periods with knees bent 90 degrees and feet flat on floor with feet pointing forward!

Rhuematiod Arthritis - Feldenkrais Session 5

Today's Feldenkrais session was very interesting another brain teaser. Christine put a towel rolled up on the table and got me to lie on it. I thought well I will crush that and feel nothing, well I felt I was balancing on a fence we did a couple of movements and worked out that one side of my body was more moveable than the other then I rolled on my side and Christine removed the towel I then lay back down. Wow I felt like the table had bent, apparently this is how the brain interpreted of feeling in the back. This was the beginning of my understanding of the brains listening ability to your body. From this day doing the exercises was more about control and feeling the response  

MacEwan - Hingston family tree

Over the Christmas period we here at Balewan had a lot of family visitors.

Balewan house Summer 2016/17

 Bal meaning home and Ewan being a family name so home of the Ewan's not unlike Mac meaning son of. So MacEwan is son of Ewan. Our first visitors were Uncle Nev and Aunty Jeannette who are always good for a story, either telling one or creating one. Then my Uncle Bill (86years old) visited and talked about family history on Geni.com and my sister discussed family history with him. I hadn't logged in to Geni for 10 years and noticed that it had not been updated and most family didn't have a picture. After all this family talk i thought it would be good to at least have an image for the person. Mum had mentioned tidying up the photo albums so of I went getting images for the 80 or so family members. Soon I had uploaded 120 images and added 40 members to our tree. It was all bringing back childhood memories of aunty this and uncle that but they weren't on the tree so even more people were added. It came clear after a while that the images meant very little without a story, obviously the family photos on the tree had their own story and the photos of weddings and funerals also had their own story but there were the other photos that had no meaning without a story. I had sporting, location, holiday and object related stories. My challenge is to record all this information I have gathered. As you can tell I am not a writer so it will not be a book to record these stories, but I would like the stories to be told by the people in the photos

Rhuematiod Arthritis - Feldenkrais Session 4

After a break from Feldenkris sessions due to my change in medication and decline in health and an increased inflammation of joints we are back and making progress again. Today's session we worked on the feet contact with the floor and to simulate walking. I think the movement is called the wave, but basically to walk properly without plodding you need to touch the ground with your toes (and feel it) then the ball and then push your pelvis forward then lift the foot, landing on the heal rolling on to the ball and toes then repeat. Sounds so simple but if an injury or lack of feeling in the feet then this can become difficult. I think the best exercise we did today was sitting on a chair and lifting each buttock and walking forward in the chair, it showed me how you need all your body to move and flex for a movement to be achievable. Although I thought I was standing up straight I saw a photo of me and I was still slightly hunched. I think this shows the power of the brain, I don't like looking at photos of myself because I am scared of what I might see and if I don't see it. It is not real so I am standing up straight. I know this is stupid but I think it applies to a lot of situations in life and I don't think it just applies to me. Generally I am feeling better and improving in mobility. I continue to do exercises at home but I am walking less as a test to see if it helps the ulcer heal. The ulcer has split in to the north and south island the south looks like it will heal up quickly lets hope!

Smart Homes - WEMO Belkin automation

I started on a smart home project today, with the purchase of a WEMO power outlet
If you are setting up one of these devices follow the instructions very carefully, don't just plug it in and hope it will connect. The manual is not very detailed. The set up principle for setting up is as follows;

• Power device in a good wifi area of your home and wait for the lights to settle, go make a coffe or bake a cake
• Use smart phone to connect to WEMO device like you did for your WIFI router
• Run the WEMO application it should go through various setup procedures again wait then wait again

 If the setup fails you can try resetting the devicein my experience the WEMO device seemed to remember the WIFI router even after resetting and I needed to rename the router as a last resort.

I am using the WEMO power outlet to add a entry into a calendar when the electric jug is boiled