Watson’s Christmas Newsletter
2003
Greetings
to all,
This
year has raced past, despite the fact
(or perhaps because), we had a fairly quiet year.
This
has been mainly due to me doing a full
time post grad diploma in Public Health Nutrition which has used up
most of my
available time. Mike, Sam and Abi have all been incredibly supportive
and
patient with me and there was a collective sigh of relief from the
whole family
(me included) when I finally finished my research project 2 days ago. I
am now
running to try and buy and send overseas cards and presents in time for
Christmas, sincere apologies if this doesn’t make it in time.
Mike here:
Remember, that Cathy finished her nursing
degree last year. This means that this
is her second university qualification.
Despite the above whingeing,
I have thoroughly enjoyed the diploma: I’ve
learnt all sorts of fascinating things, however Mike keeps grumbling
that I’m
spoiling food for him by telling him what’s in it! The research project
I
mentioned was a small data analysis project where I attempted to
determine if there
were any differences in fruit or vegetable consumption between 16-18
year old
adolescents drinking different levels of soft drinks and fruit juices.
Needless
to say it was all more complicated than I had anticipated, but I did
find
differences: the more frequently soft drink was consumed, the less
vegetables
and salads were consumed, I can’t prove that soft drink caused the
reduction
though it was more likely to be related to junk food consumption along with
the soft drink! – There was lots of other interesting stuff but this
isn’t the
place for it!
I
start work full time in February; I have
a place in the Graduate program at ACT Health. I don’t know how much of
my
nutrition skills I will be using yet, but it should be good experience
as I
will be rotating around 3 different departments for 10 months,
hopefully I will
be able to identify where I want to work permanently at the end of that
period.
The
children have been growing and becoming
more accomplished, as you would expect. Sam is now 8 and Abi is 6. Both
have
been learning piano this year and Sam is really doing well and enjoying
it. Abi
has found it a bit more stressful but is also doing well. She has been
sick
quite a lot this year, she has a viral infection, similar to Glandular
Fever
which is causing her abdominal lymph nodes to swell and give her a
stomach ache
lasting several days and reoccurring whenever she gets a bit stressed
or
run-down. She has just returned to school after being home sick for 10
days
with high fevers and a persistent cough, tests for whooping cough and
influenza
were both negative and they the haven’t determined a cause. Poor kid,
she’s had
a miserable time but she’s up and bouncing again now thank goodness.
Sam
is really getting into maths, he’s
decided that he’s fed up with the simple maths they do at school and
has swiped
my ‘advanced year 6 maths book’ (which shows how good I am at maths!)
and he
now takes it to bed to do illicit sums when he’s supposed to be
sleeping!
(definitely the Watson genes!)
Abi
loves anything artistic, she draws and
writes beautifully and wants to be an author-illustrator when she grows
up (her
words). Neither of them are super co-ordinated when it comes to
sporting
activities, not a major surprise given their parentage, but they both
love swimming
and messing about in boats and climbing trees and riding bikes so
that’s great.
I
overheard a conversation between the
children a few weeks ago which went as follows: Abi.. “I think Harry
Potter’s
mum and dad must have been so nice because they died to save him”
Sam
(in a disdainful voice)… “Oh that’s
nothing, ANY parent would do that, even mum and dad would”
….
I’m not sure whether to feel flattered
or alarmed in case we have to live up to expectations!
Abi
was 6 in January and had a ‘Disco’
party- unfortunately it was planned for 18th January which as many of
you will
know was the day that all hell broke loose in Canberra with bush fires
destroying about 400 houses. We were incredibly fortunate not to lose
our
house, we were on and off high alert in our area for several days and
it was
all very stressful, Mike wrote an account of our experiences, it’s on
our
website here, if you
haven’t already seen it. Thank you to everyone
who called to check that we were ok, it was great to know you were
thinking of
us. In hindsight, we were OK, but you don’t know that you will be OK at
the
time. We were wondering at times whether our house would be burned
down. The
drought that contributed to the fire conditions now appears to be over
but we
are still on water restrictions as the dams are not back to capacity
and much
of the stored water is unusable due to contamination with ash from the
fires.
Mike here:
Our brilliant watering system connected to
the washing machine is working very well, so long as it has a little
bit of
maintenance. I have recently extended it
however, in that now our shower water also goes into the sprinkling
system. We have to shows this system to
our neighbours, so that they do not think we are cheating with the
water
restrictions! It is surprising how much
water gets used and thrown away with normal activities: we probably get
through
100 litres of water showering the family.
There haven't been so many daft antics this
year, I think that the main new thing has been getting a piano and
encouraging
the kids in their lessons. The results
have been fantastic and I am continually amazed at how they are both
progressing.
Life seems to have been very busy this
year, however, there doesn't seem to be as much to show for it as
normal. I have been very busy with work,
Cathy has
been doing her university thing, and the kids are old enough now to be
very
busy with their own exciting adventures.
We do now have a second tandem, a very handsome Dawes, about 20
years
old but with only 100 kilometres on the clock.
I ride it to work quite a lot because it is such a nice bicycle,
even
though there is only me pushing it.
There has been no significant progress on the Lan
d Rover, I am ashamed
to say.
I
have been busy at work, with a couple of fatal accidents in the
first half of
the year, and since June I have been running a new research cell, which
is
meant to be using investigation reports as its raw material for
subsequent
trends and analysis. The reality, however,
is that we have had a number of other jobs to do. The most
spectacular by far, was a large
exercise in which we simulated an airliner crash. We had many
dead and injured, and a long
trial of wreckage with engines and propellers scattered across the
countryside. Over 30 different organisations
and 300 people were involved, and the size and complexity of the whole
process
was quite staggering. In hindsight, it
was huge fun. The reality of the
preparation was not: I had sleepless nights for the six weeks leading
up to the
exercise and a lot of worry, but it was worth it in the end. 
Sam
had a very successful 8th birthday with
a Harry Potter party in March, so much so that he wants to have another
one
this year. Mike rigged up a ‘Sorting Hat’ in which was secreted a
walkie-talkie
and we called the children to be sorted into houses: it was priceless
to see
the look on Sam’s face when the hat ‘spoke to him’: he didn’t know
about that!
Mike here:
Unfortunately, Cathy has
forgotten the most important birthday of the year; namely her own
40th.
We had a Sixties party, with a number of
friends, dressing up, and all the right kind of music and tacky
food.
It was amazing how much it all came back! I even behaved
sometimes: it must be a sign
of advancing years. Needless to say,
Cathy still looks absolutely fantastic, and is still occasionally
mistaken for
21.
Yes
I had forgotten about that -short term
memory loss perhaps? We also went along to the Red Cross Ball at
Parliament
House in September as a late birthday present-amazing evening,
beautiful
clothes, beautiful décor, wonderful entertainment and lots of rich
people
spending lots of money, quite an eye-opener!
The
chickens are thriving, we now have 7 of
them including 3 chicks, Hermione (white) aged 10 weeks and Fluffy
(black) and
Hedwig (brown) who are 3 weeks old (no prizes for guessing where the
inspiration for their names came from!). 
In
January we spent 10 days at our
favourite camping spot ‘Delicate Nobby’, Sally joined us for a week of
that
which was great – we were very pleased that she was with us when gale
force
winds threatened to turn our shade tarpaulin into a kite in the middle
of the
night: Sailing experience was an invaluable asset as she and Mike
confidently
lowered it and stowed it away safely whilst I cowered in the tent
‘looking
after the children’. Hannah and Sam our neighbour’s children came with
us and
the kids all had a great time.
This
year we are going to Lilli Pilli (on
the coast about 3 hours away) on Christmas Eve for about 5 days and
then we’re
heading over to
Anyway,
have a happy and safe Christmas and
pity us stuck on a beautiful beach, enduring the warm waves washing
over us and
building sand castles- it’s going to be hell!
All
the very best, with love from
Cathy,
Mike, Sam, Abi and the Chooks
xxxxx
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