Snapshot: ROSEMARIE WHITE

Past: Growing up in a large family on a farm in Canterbury was an excellent introduction to the world, says Rosemarie. First, you had to be able to receive and transmit on six channels to get any air time, and you had to marshal arguments quickly and persuasively to succeed with competing claims. Being female, you also had to develop other skills to offset your strength disadvantage — although the ACC would now frown on a seven- year- old tootling along on an elderly Ferguson tractor to shift sheep or collect a vital component from the implement shed. The questions, Why won’t this go? There must be a reason. How can I fix it? were the most useful strategies for survival. Present: Rosemarie now has her own vintage Ferguson tractor, coaxes it back to life regularly and won’t let anyone drive it on the sand: salt water equals corrosion, folks. Her Christmas reading of the account of Ed Hillary’s voyage to the South Pole on a convoy of tractors left her astounded — she knows how underpowered these Fergusons are. Future: Now far from the farm, the perennial questions, Why won’t this go? etc are still the overriding thoughts. They’ve been usefully applied equally to fixing a truck in Kurdistan during a gun battle and the malfunctioning dishwasher in the NZ Life & Leisure offices. It’s Rosemarie’s main idea behind the Well & Good columns, which she writes each issue. First the science and then the practical application. How can we apply scientific research to our everyday life? How can we improve our health, at home, every day? She’s a firm believer in the Japanese theory that taking charge of one’s own health and consciously doing something about it every day helps in many ways.