Dear

        I asked a few people who received last years form letter what they thought of it and the response was overwhelmingly positive (BHP speak for 'they liked it’) so it seems reasonable to send you more of the same.  You may remember we left off where Barbara and Gordon (Poss's sister and bro-in-law) were coming for Christmas (‘89), bringing Joanne back from America.

       Joanne arrived with an American accent and settled in very quickly considering she left from Armidale and arrived back to find we had sold her home and were now in Newcastle, Gordon organised her off the plane and onto a train in Sydney.  She was in Newcastle for only 3 days until we all set off for Scotts Head for holidays.  Barb and Gordon came up 2 days after Joanne and we were thinking of going that day, but there was sadly a monstrous bus crash at Kempsey so they stayed the night and we all went the next day.

       Christmas was a great success as it was the first time Poss's family had been together for many years.  I unfortunately did something nasty to my back (cause unknown) and watched most of the proceedings from a prone position. Poss and Sandra got strep throats on Boxing Day and Poss was taken to hospital as she was quite crook.  Fortunately it was as quick in going as coming and everyone was right in a couple of days. Another memorable day was a trip to Coffs Harbour on the 28th Dec.  We went around the redeveloped Big Banana complex and about 1:00 pm were buying fruit when we heard of the Newcastle earthquake.  At that time news was patchy and talk was of 100s killed.  I couldn't think of one person I could ring and the phones were out anyway so we relied on the news to keep us abreast of developments.  Fortunately the reality was better than those first reports although 12 people died, 9 in the collapse of the Workers club extension (the original club built in the ‘30s survived with little damage).

       The damage was mainly north of where we lived, and west of the city centre.  I returned to Newcastle on the 2nd of January and the extent of the damage was amazing.  Even now there are buildings ringed by barricades and are unusable, after nearly a year of rebuilding.  At first, things didn't look too bad but as buildings were pronounced unrepairable they were pushed down to prevent accidental collapse and the streetscape looked like the aftermath of a war.  Many areas were sealed off for weeks while the cleanup went on.

       The house we are renting suffered only minor cracking.  A few ornaments had fallen from south facing positions, and some books from bookshelves.  The only casualty was a tiny wooden duck whose beak was broken off and lost.  The cracks were fixed many months later by cutting out the broken bricks and putting in new ones.  There were about 80 bricks in total but it took the workers 6 weeks to do the job,

        I thought that there would be problems at the steelworks but production was stopped for only 14 hours.  Most of the damage was caused by lack of electricity which stopped many of the machines handling molten and hot steel. Structurally the works survived well - most of it is on reclaimed swamp land and it was theorised the pliable nature of the ground absorbed some of the shock.  I returned to work in an almost normal environment on the 3rd Jan. Although many buildings had large cracks all over they were declared sound enough for occupation.  The cracks were later filled with Araldite, my favourite glue.

        Poss and the children stayed at Scotts until late in January, enjoying the reasonable weather,  I hosted Max Tychsen, a friend who was moving from Armidale to work in Newcastle,  Max had originally rented 24 Tancredi St from me some years before and we continue as friends.  Max is a ceramicist (a high falutin’ word for potter I believe) and teaches ceramics.  While at Tancredi St, he met Pam and they have lived together for some years now and have a little boy (but I digress).  Max eventually rented at Summerland Point, a community near the south of Lake Macquarie and about 50km from his work,  Pam joined him some weeks later and they still live there although now in a different house.  Our families continue as good friends and very few days go by without a visit one way or the other.

       The year really began in February; Joanne had the horror of starting High school without knowing anybody and having never visited the school.  She very quickly settled in and has formed many friendships.  Our cash flow was not great and Poss decided to get some part time work to supplement things.  She started cleaning a house in Bar Beach once a week, and by word of mouth got three more jobs so is now cleaning three times a week. She is still enjoying it as it gets her out of this house and she gets to talk to other people regularly.  We also decided to rent out the house at Scotts Head as it was not a reasonable proposition to go there on a weekend as we did from Armidale.  The trip takes nearly twice as long and is up the Pacific Highway which is one of the more notorious stretches of road.

        Because Poss was no longer doing her aquarobics and weights, and I was not renovating anything, we did a lot of walking.  Over the weeks we wandered all over Charlestown and found a new subdivision.  We thought it looked pretty good and decided to buy a block of land there.  The block we finally chose is a 1/2 acre on the side of a hill (precipice??) with access ways to two streets but no street frontage.  It has the capacity to be a relatively private place in what really is a cheek to jowl urban development. It is about 1km from where we are now so will be convenient during the building phase.  The block was bought 'off the plan' i.e. no services in place although they are all there now.

       Joanne went off to a school camp in April and returned a day early as they got rained out.  Most of Autumn and early winter was wet wet wet, and it is only the last three months that some parts of the backyard have ceased being a soggy mire.  April was also Nicole's birthday and as a present we all went to the Moscow Circus.  We all enjoyed it thoroughly. It was quite spectacular and very professional.

       A drawback of living near the coast is that cars rust.  The Peugeot had been lovingly cleaned by its previous owner until the primer was showing.  In Armidale, this had developed a light brown haze of tiny rust spots over a period of years.  A few months of Newcastle air turned the haze into a lurid brown encroachment of the barcoo rot (or something like it) and a source of some worry.  It was sent for a respray, which has turned it into a gleaming silver chariot (at considerable cost).  Eight months later there is no sign of rust and it gleams on, so the investment at this stage seems justified.  It continues to be reliable and comfortable transport although more modern vehicles have an order of magnitude more refinement.

       We still also have the HD holden, and the barcoo rot has gripped it thoroughly.  The registration runs out soon and I am not intending to reregister it. With regret it is for sale, but at a price which I secretly hope will deter people and I will push it in the garage and restore it at a later date (who's that laughing in the background...).

        Joanne dropped gymnastics on her return from America, but Nicole has taken it up.  There is a PCYC at Windale which is about 2km away which offers several sports.  Sandra, Beth and Joanne go once a week to do trampolining.  Beth also does recreational gymnastics after the trampolining session.  Nicole started recreational gymnastics but soon moved into the competitive stream.  In June she entered her first competition and did so well she received passing marks on all apparatus (better than 7.0) and got a placing on uneven bars.  She has continued strongly through the year and has moved to the next level.  Before leaving level 1 she competed in Sydney and gained a first on bars and third overall which was an excellent result against girls up to 4 years older.  I was encouraged to return to judging so sat in on one competition and judged at two. To accustom myself to the routines (which changed last year) I went to the training sessions and got sucked in to doing a bit of coaching.  I imagine this is quite amusing at times to onlookers as I often try to demonstrate what is to be done, with sometimes bizarre results.

       We needed to pay $20,000 in July for the block of land which we negotiated in March,  This had seemed a formality at the time as we were selling a block in Armidale and the contracts were exchanged in January so we felt the money would arrive in plenty of time.  The weeks passed and settlement didn't seem to get closer.  Things got really dodgy in the end but on the appointed day for payment, the Armidale purchasers settled.  Poss was in Armidale so went to the solicitors there, collected our settlement and banked it.  Three hours later I removed the money in Charlestown and handed it to our solicitor who had it couriered to Sydney in time for settlement there.  It all worked finally but it was a nerve wracking few days.

       Winter in Newcastle was as expected a milder affair than Armidale, and the locals assured us that it was colder than usual.  It was certainly rather dreary with not many sunshiny days, but we had heating in the evening only, rather than the 24 hours needed in Armidale.  Sandra played hockey at school and was selected for the school team.  The team played in a knockout competition in which they eliminated all comers until competing in the final rounds at Tamworth in September.  There were four finalists and her team was fourth.  This was no disgrace as they were the youngest team, mainly year 9. The other teams had some under 18 state representatives and were formidable opposition, mainly year 11.  Poss went to watch the finals and rushed Sandra back to wa1k the cat walk, along with Joanne, in a school fashion parade that night.

       There were no great events in spring, although the calendar is sprinkled with little outings,  Poss and I managed six days in Canberra as I attended the DECUS (Digital Equipment Corporation Users) seminars in August. We have also been to Sydney a number of days, it is very convenient.  In mid November we took up the offer to stay overnight in a resort hotel in Sydney free, on condition we listened to a time-share resort sales pitch.  The wrench of having to sell Scotts Head (so we can build here) was on our minds so we were sucked into buying a week at a time-share resort in Coolangatta.  I am still dubious of the sense of it, but next year’s letter will probably let you know.

       Academically, the year has been a good one all round.  Sandra was the most awarded student of her year even though she slacked off a bit in the last semester.  Joanne was second in her class and admitted she could have done better.  As it was she competed well in the promaths competition coming 44th in the state for her year.  Beth received a string of excellents and goods as did Nicole.  I did three subjects in first semester toward my B.Bus, which was quite a trial, but forced by some unfortunate course changes - it was that or do a lone subject and do 4 subjects in 1991.  In second semester I did a single subject and the results are not yet posted (I passed the three in semester one).  I now have one subject to complete the degree.

       That brings us just about up to date.  Poss left on Friday to spend Christmas with her sister in America - she has been planning this for most of the year. I will be working through, except for the mandatory computer centre shutdown from Dec 22 - Jan 2.  The works is still rolling steel so I will be carrying a pager for some of the period in case the production computers play up.  The children are staying with me this week, they are able to look after themselves and are planning to keep me fed. On the 22nd I will take them to stay with Poss’s parents at Stuarts Point, and will stay myself returning on the 27th.  Poss's brother is getting married on 12th Jan in Ipswich and I am thinking of going although it is a long drive.  If I go, I will bring the children back (they will go up with Norm and Dawn) and we then have another week to wait for Poss's return on the 20th.

        If Poss had had her way, this letter would have been done much earlier and she could then have exercised a bit of editorial power.  As it is, you have mostly my half of the story, and past experience shows that my recollection of the facts is not reliable.  But I am not one to let the facts get in the way of a good story, you'll just have to come and see us to get the real truth (or ring us, the phone is (049)43-9389).

       We all wish you best wishes for Christmas and the coming year (and after that too...).  We have enjoyed pretty good health this year and hope you all have also, and that you continue to do so.  We would love to see any of you for a visit or just passing through.

Love to you all from  Alan, Beth, Joanne, Nicole, Poss and Sandra.