Dear People,

The Europeans got it right! Sensibly they stuck Christmas in the middle of winter, nothing much to do, let's liven up the long nights with a really good party. So in July we've got the Queen's Birthday when we have fireworks night and now you can't buy fireworks anyway. The academics are telling us that Jesus was born in the spring, so why don't we shift the Queen's Birthday to September (maybe Paul was born in September, use his birthday instead, the only good reason for a republic I can think of), and shove Christmas in the middle of winter where it belongs! That way, instead of sharing good party time with gift buying and letter writing we can balance the load -- buy, write and have a few ales and hot tucker in the middle of winter when things are a bit slow, and have the usual party period unencumbered in Summer.

Well it hasn't happened this year so I am dashing off a few lines in between other happenings. We have already moved through the unofficial QNI reunion BBQ (more later), the Lakeside Gymnastic Club display and presentation night, the Crotchets and Quavers concert and windup lunch, the CCS Christmas dinner, the BHP-IT family Christmas party (not to mention the windup parties for Poss's tennis and Beth's tennis and trampolining). Still to go is the Volleyball team BBQ and the section champagne breakfast, a couple of school presentation days, and no doubt a drink or two with friends. Life's tough.

Generally it's been a good year for us. We have acquired another cat, this one a neutered tom a couple of years old. It belonged to friends who have growing children and they decided the two don't mix, so we got the cat (don't think we need more children). It is fairly good natured, healthy, and hasn't got squashed on the road in the 5 months since we got him, so maybe we will have him for a while. He was prenamed KLU (no, it's the KU klux klan) and we have stuck with it, even though we haven't received an explanation for the name. He has the amusing trait of sleeping just about anywhere - middle of a path, in the grass, under the bed, on the bed, on a desk and so on.

Sandra wanted the cat the most, and at present she has plenty of time to look after him. She got a Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) score of 97.4 which was a bit short of the first round medicine TER of 99.2. However, she was one of the few to get a second round offer, so started at Newcastle Uni in March. She was a bit taken aback by the quality of the students, less than half are school leavers and many have qualifications already (In '95 it is expected they will only accept tertiary qualified entrants). Although the work was demanding, she liked it and was coping well.

However, Newcastle (sensibly, it seems) involves the students early in hands on medicine, with many hospital visits. And Sandra discovered that she was very depressed by being around sick people all the time. After discussing the problem with various people she decided that she would quit, which she did mid-year. Unfortunately, medicine has no curricula in common with any other course so she was stranded with nothing to do but wait till '95. She is enrolled in Arts/Law and is thinking of doing Japanese again.

To compound her problems, she had a chest wheeze which seems to have been with her for years on and off. It certainly was bad during early '94, she was quite run down. The problem was finally diagnosed in July as mycoplasmic pneumonia. This was not what people had been treating her for, so once the medical regime was changed, she recovered with no apparent relapse since and has been considerably brighter. Unfortunately, her woes are not over as she had wisdom teeth surgically removed some weeks ago and the wound is badly infected. She goes Friday to have it opened up and treated.

On a brighter note, she and Joanne started Karate classes in April. It was not to Joanne's liking so she dropped out after a few weeks. Sandra however has thrown herself into it (is there a pun there?) and is doing four classes a week. She has progressed through the first half of the rainbow of belts - white, yellow, orange and now green. She hopes to get blue early next year, then it is a hard grind to get brown (in several flavours) then ultimately black (in a couple of years, maybe).

Joanne, the problem child of last year, is transformed. She has been studying steadily and has been rewarded. She is the top student of her year, first in Chemistry, Maths and French (although French wasn't too hard to come first, as there is only two doing it). She is reputedly receiving awards for top female science student in the Hunter region and a Newcastle Uni award for top female Chemistry student in the Hunter, and has been invited to a chemistry workshop in January, live in, all expenses paid. Her ambition is to do better than Sandra - a goal of which I take a dim view but I'm not arguing - whatever gets her going.

She doesn't seem to have much of a physical motivation, tried the Karate, started the year with a bit of gymnastics then dropped it then took it up again and still goes occasionally. She isn't a stay at home though - there has been a bit of a turnover in the boyfriend area and quite a bit of going out. Also she is learning to drive from a professional driving school. Poss agreed to this after Sandra did considerable damage to Poss's brother David's 4WD learning to drive last Christmas, and hasn't been behind the wheel since. Joanne's instructor feels she will probably get her license after the school holidays.

Of course there is pressure on us to provide a vehicle when said license appears, and brother David "helped" me out by donating a rather clapped out unregistered Datsun 200B. All I have to do is throw money and time at it and hey presto, safe, reliable car (hoho).

Brother David featured fairly heavily in our life this year. He lived with us while he was looking for a job, and while he was here helped in moving the back yard around. I bought an old concrete mixer for $100 and we have moved just about every square inch in the yard. There is now a respectable flat area outside the back door, several terraces and a fence right around the swimming pool. There was a fence right across the middle of the yard which effectively isolated the pool and the back section from the rest of the back yard. The only way in was through a pool gate and down a rickety set of wood steps which stopped about half a meter from the pool, not the easiest way to get a mower or a wheelbarrow into the back part. Now there are no steps, the gate is on the level, and the rest of the yard is accessible but it all still looks like a bomb site -- slowly working to get it all finished.

Poss has planted some delightful flower beds and some vegetables in the bits which are finished, they are growing prolifically at the moment. Although the drought has had some effect here, the rain has been sufficient to keep things moving along. It has been quite cold though, with only a few days in the thirties so far, and still quite a few below twenty.

On the subject of cars, we still have the Peugeot, now nearing 400,000km. I got some rust cut out of it and although it has a miriad rattles is still a good goer. However, in August I was away and it gave Poss some grief in that it would not start. On the phone I told her to take it to a mechanic and get it fixed but after 3 trips to the mechanic it still had to be parked on a hill if left for any time. When I arrived back, I went to a car auction and bought a Nissan Pulsar - an unlovely little box for zapping round town. It is quite recent (87 model) and is bodily and in general mechanically sound. However it has a death rattle and blows a lot of smoke so it will probably need looking into soon. So we have gone from a one car to a three car family in the space of a few months.

When I had the time I pulled the Peugeot to bits and adjusted all the adjustable bits and put it back together and now it starts first time every time, goes like a train and is generally better than ever. Might have saved myself a few grand if I'd done it earlier. But it's nice to have the convenience of two cars again (maybe three if the Datsun can be made good).

Nicole has been in America since July, the last to stay with Poss's sister Barbara. She returns January 10. On my 50th birthday she rang me and I had trouble believing that it was Nicole, her accent was so thick. We have her American school photos and she looks different too, more like Sandra. Her school report was good and she has been heavily involved in sport; continuing with gymnastics with Russian coaches, some ice skating and also soccer. The soccer was a bit of a surprise, her coaches thought she had played before as she took to it so well. Fortunately, Whitebridge High has a girls soccer team so perhaps she can continue here if she wants to.

She has been a great correspondent, usually a letter each week. Barbara didn't write for months as she thought Nicole was doing such a good job. I have been getting quite a rest, as usually it was down to the gym twice a day four days a week. But I'll be happy to see her back, I think the whole family will. It is quite quiet with 'only' three.

A couple of weeks ago, it was down to two. Beth was in a group that went to Tasmania for a school excursion for a week. The weather was not totally unkind, it snowed on them a bit and was cool and cloudy otherwise. She brought home five rolls of film, putting me to shame as I would take that many in a year. She had a great time, said the group was well behaved. She especially enjoyed the Cadbury factory and has been sampling the product a lot.

This year Beth has been quite active in between her stints in front of the TV. She has a delightful group of friends, who seem to be quite level headed. She has continued to play clarinet in the school band and the Crotchets and Quavers band, with a lesson each week. Her teacher encouraged her to sit the AMEB exam which she passed. She is now getting the occasional piano lesson also, picking up from where she left off five years ago. She also is continuing tennis and trampolining, is intending to begin playing competition tennis but drop trampolining as it conflicts with one of her band practices. She is also doing well at school, she has enough merit certificates to get a gold certificate.

Poss has been much the same -- I write that every year and ask her if she wants to say more but she is quite happy with her tennis, volleyball, cleaning, gardening, reading, school council, help out at various activities and be a wife and mother. Also she has changed her eating habits and lost lOKg - looks great. After messing up her 40th birthday and trying to ignore her 41st and getting serious aggravation for my incompetence, a mighty 42nd birthday party ensued, with caterers, flowers, cake and the works. And Poss pronounced it satisfactory so I guess we are expected to do the same or better next year.

One thing Poss has been asking for since we arrived in Newcastle is a trip to the Blue Mountains. One Monday evening we were discussing it and I booked accomodatlon for the following weekend at the Hydro Majestic. It was a magic weekend - it was warm and sunny and there was practically no wind. This was in stark contrast to the previous weekend when there were blizzards and snow. The Leura garden festival was in full swing and it also was the 125th anniversary of the zigzag railway. The falls were a bit disappointing as there basically weren't any, but the views were magnificent, the food was excellent and a good time was had by the two of us. The offspring (not really children anymore) are quite capable and even trustworthy enough to leave to fend for themselves, so Poss and I are tending to get away more with less or even no family.

We returned to the Coolangatta timeshare for the mid year holidays. We left Sandra (who was still studying) and Joanne (who was so obnoxious the year before) to their own devices, just taking Beth and Nicole. It was a very basic drive up, veg out, drive back affair unlike '93 where we took an extra week. Sorry to all those people north of Brisbane, who we really would have liked to see. We did get out to see friends from Armidale days Ron and Clare Schofield who have settled near Warwick. They have a huge rambling building with heaps of space and we ended up staying the night because a tiny stone had punctured the car radiator and we didn't notice until just after we left when the temperature went up and up. It was too dark at the time to do much else but turn back, an excellent decision as instead of a mad dash back in the evening we had a good sleep, an excellent breakfast and the women chatted while the men pulled the radiator out and fixed it - then a leisurely drive back in daylight in the country.

Last year I wrote of my mother's declining condition and I am sad to say she is worse now. I visited her in September for her 78th Birthday, she is thin and losing the ability to move about. She seemed quite healthy but her mind is poorly, she has difficulty communicating. I get the feeling, when talking to her, that the mind is still working fine but what goes in and what comes out gets scrambled on the way. Stepfather Dig is doing a heroic job looking after her, he is not the most sprightly person himself now. Mum and Dig have decided that mum will stay at home as long as practical, she has been to hospital and gets very disoriented and distressed.

I have had a busy year. As mentioned last year, I had an infection and it is only since I have recovered I realise how sick I was. Thankfully it seems to be totally cleared up, I have not seen a doctor for quite a while.

My work has taken me outside Newcastle quite a bit. I have been to Brisbane and Townsville several times, mainly on contract to Queensland Nickel (QNI). I had one long spell in Townsville and Poss flew up to spend a weekend there, a very pleasant couple of days. I am now described on my business card as an Integration Consultant, which I tell people means I know a little bit about a lot but not enough to be a specialist in anything. Most of the work is with office PCs and the systems that go with them; Mail, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Databases, and access to mainframe systems. It is a busy field, no time to get bored. It seems the company thinks I do the work OK, I got bumped up a rung in the ladder and am now a Level 10 after being a Level 9 for 5 years.

Thanks for bearing with me through another 'how great the kids are' letter, but they really are a source of pride. We've had our ups and downs this year but it has mainly been up. We will be off to Poss's parents for Christmas, just for a day or two. Then in March, Michelle (Poss's niece) is getting married in Coffs Harbour so there will be another family get together. I am now owed 7 weeks holiday which by next July will be 10 weeks - there are tentative plans for a Big Trip but as yet it is still just a dream, something to fill next year's letter.

Season's greetings to you all - although our friends are spread far and wide we know that we could visit any one of you and the conversation would take off from where it was years ago. Our house is always open for visitors, if you are in the area please drop in, stay a day or two.

Have a good one.