Cathy.
Well, here we go again, another year
has rushed past and we're left reeling and wondering where it went!
We're
still here in
Mike
is still happily working for the
Australian Transport Safety Bureau- he'll tell you what he's been up to
later.
I
have been studying Human Nutrition at
Canberra University part time this year and whilst I have enjoyed it
immensely
I wasn't looking forward to the further 4 years of full time study I
needed to
do to complete the undergraduate degree and then specialise in public
health.
However, I have recently discovered that I can do a nursing conversion
course
to get myself a nursing degree taking less than a year as the 3 units I
have
studied this year all count towards it. I can then go straight into the
specialist nutrition subjects as a graduate taking another year, and
then I'll
be finished- cutting 2 years off my original plan. This is brilliant,
and I am
now waiting to find out if I have been able to transfer to the
Sam,
now 6 and 3/4 , has nearly completed
his first year at school and is now thoroughly happy, although he found
it
quite hard to make friends at first. He is reading amazingly well and
is
developing his father's sense of humour and impeccable logic…aaaagh. If he can intentionally misinterpret a
situation he will, and he apparently surprised his teacher when asked
to think
of a number less than 8….. Sam's response was 'minus one million'-
technically
correct of course but not quite what she was expecting! She is retiring
at the
end of this year- I think it was all too much!
Abi,
nearly 5, has had a lovely year at
preschool and is growing up quickly. She is very ready for school and
already
joins in with their classes when I help with reading on Fridays. She's
been
borrowing books from the school and has progressed very well with her
reading
too. She no longer says 'eloprane' instead of aeroplane but is still
very cute
and knows just how to twist daddy around her little finger- Sam cries
and gets
angry when things don't go his way, Abi just smiles sweetly and asks
for a
cuddle!
We
have been neglecting our long bike a bit
this year, what with study and school and a few nasty bouts of sickness
that
knocked us all out over the winter to the extent that we were rarely
all
healthy enough to take it out. Hopefully we will ride more over the
summer. We
did go on a special ride to commemorate the 100th anniversary of
Federation in
May, and were filmed by a news team travelling along beside us.
However, we
didn't make the news, possibly because Sam kept shouting out "what's that furry thing on top of your
camera" in a very loud voice! (Referring to the boom microphone, of
course).
We
now have 5 chickens, Jo and Issie are
our 'big' hens, however, Jo is the only one laying at the moment as
Issie was
struck down by a nasty bout of worms and is still recovering. We also
have 3
chicks, Charlotte, Amelia and Henrietta, now 7 weeks old and fully
feathered
and just venturing out into the garden with the big hens for short
periods. We
nearly lost Amelia at 2 weeks when she cut her leg and it became
infected. We
took her to the vet and got antibiotics and she healed up beautifully,
although
her treatment cost 10 times her purchase price!
For
several days whilst she was sick she
had to be isolated from the other chicks as they were pecking at her
wound.
However, we discovered that chicks do not like to be left alone and
when
separated she would commence a plaintive cheep cheep CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP, getting
louder and louder until she was picked up. We had to resort to carrying
her in
a sling around our necks where she sat quite happily and watched what
was going
on. She went with us on a Preschool excursion to a farm, and to the
local
shopping centre and was even 'chick sat' by our neighbours when we
wanted to
eat out on Mike's birthday!
It's
been a fairly quiet year for visitors
but my Mum & Dad came out in September / October bringing an
amazing dolls
house with them
that Dad had built. It has been a huge success and is played
with constantly, it is also the envy of all Sam & Abi’s friends,
with its
electric lights and rotating base. A huge amount of work went into it
and poor Dad
spent much of his time fixing little things that 'just came off in my
hand
Grandad!'
Mum
& Dad had planned to come in April,
but Dad developed angina and so they put it off for a few months until
they
knew he would be fit to travel. His symptoms are well controlled now
although
he has to take things a little more slowly and has cut down on some of
his
commitments, which is good.
Mike's
parents, the Fossils are supposed to
be visiting us in February, however, unfortunately, in October Jean was
a
passenger in a car that was hit head on by another car and she suffered
a badly
broken arm, severe bruising and back pain. She is still mending and has
quite
restricted movement in her arm. She and Dick are considering whether to
postpone their visit for this reason and we should know soon what they
have
decided to do.
We
are currently planning a visit back to
the
Mike now.
Another year has passed. It is a
sign of a change to our normally peripatetic lifestyle that we don't
have as
many interesting or bizarre anecdotes from this year. We are getting to
be a
comfortably domestic family, living in suburbia, with two kids, an
average of
four chickens and nine litres of worms, (composting variety). We have
been
increasingly weaving ourselves into the fabric of
The
house over the road contains Catherine,
(Mum), Hannah age 10 and 'little' Sam, age 5. Our kids now more or less
see the
two houses as mutually interchangeable, so far as somewhere to play, as
do
Hannah and Sam. A spontaneous 'thing' started earlier in the year, when
Hannah
said that she would like to cook for everyone. Now, almost every Sunday
night
at six, all the families, and usually a few extras, gather at the
OzWattery for
a large, simple, noisy meal with kids, mess, a couple of bottles of
wine, and
such like. The kids help too, making home brewed pasta, or ice cream,
or just
having good ideas.
I
was invited to join a social volleyball
team earlier in the year. We play once a week, and for the first 3
months
didn't win a game. The second 3 months we didn't lose a game, and won
the
competition!. Such is life. It has been great fun, meeting people, and
enjoying
a game that is played for the fun of it, rather than seriously. I think
that
this is a part of the Aussie culture, because it's amazing how many
people just
play games for fun.
Work
has had its ups and downs; the fuel
contamination report went out in March, and went around the world to
those who
are interested in that kind of obscure thing. I had only got a couple
of
'ordinary' accidents in, (a "spin-in" and a "cloud full of
mountain"), when I got roped into another 'curly' investigation. Ansett
had its aircraft grounded twice, and I'm looking at why this happened,
on the
basis that things shouldn't have gone that far in the first place. It
isn't a
thrilling job, but again it will have global ramifications.
On
the strength of the fuel report, I was
sent off to Vancouver and Seattle to talk to the international
'tin-kickers'
convention a couple of months ago. I was due to fly out of
I'm
ashamed to say that the Land Rover has
had nothing done to it, there is always something else to do. Maybe
this will
kickstart me into getting a head gasket set, and doing a few things on
it.
Sam
delights in soldering things. We will
get a kit from a local electrical shop occasionally, and between us, we
will
make a crystal radio set, or a flashing star. Sam loves it; he has
learnt that
soldering irons are hot, and just managed not to cry when he burnt himself. He
wants to try 'weldering' next. Heaven help me, I've created a monster:
'scrapheap challenge', here we come!!
We
now have two canoes and a Mirror dinghy,
obtained from the usual unorthodox sources: the kids have been sailing
with
Daddy a couple of times, but rowing and paddling gets Abi scared and
Sam
frustrated; they are much happier going out with Mummy or Daddy, but
who knows
as they grow up?
They
have started swimming lessons as
summer has come on, and for the past few weeks have been swimming in an
outdoor
pool on Thursday afternoons with a couple of startlingly attractive
teachers.
They swim more by beating the water into submission than by graceful
gliding,
but they can't be bested for enthusiasm! I'm sure it won't take long,
and they
both love it. Abi in particular has got over her fear of being splashed
in the
face, and is quite happy to play submarines.
Sam's
arithmetic ability is leaping on. We
did a half quantity reicipe a while ago, (Sunday evening bash), and he
didn't
even think about working out half of one and a half cups, he just did
it!
Abi
is becoming cuter by the day, and is
practicing her wiles on Daddy, becoming a behavioural manipulator of
renown,
even if she does suck toes and blow raspberries on occasion! She dearly
loves
the doll's house they got from Brian, and is hardly happier than when
she gets
the chance to play with it without help from anyone else! Such domestic
pleasure!
Cathy
again. This Christmas will find us
camping for 3 days about 3/4 hour out of
Mobile
phones don't work there so we will
be incommunicado from 24th to 26th. I'm not sure what we'll be eating
yet but
there will probably be a turkey of some kind and definitely some smoked salmon
and croissants- we just have to work out how
to cook them in the camp oven!
So have a wonderful Christmas, wherever you are and whatever you're doing and we hope to catch up with you in 2002.
Lots of love from
Cathy,
Mike, Sam and Abi
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x x x x x
| Home|