28 Kendall St.,
      Charlestown NSW 2290
      12th. December 1999
     

Dear People,

      Best wishes for the festive season and let's hope the next millenium lives up to your expectations. One writer said it seemed like time was standing still. When he was young, people would talk of what it would be like in the year 2000, and 30 years later they were still talking of what the next millenium would bring. He said we didn't seem to look into the future as much these days, as if the year 2000 was some barrier that stopped speculation. Just think, if we had 3 feet and 3 arms, with 3 digits on each, we'd probably use a number system based on 9 instead of 10, and next year would be an unremarkable 2662 AD., and there'd be no millenium hype. Evolution has a lot to answer for.

      I hope you all had a rewarding year, ours has mainly been a good one. The only real downer was Poss's brother David, who lives in Darwin, broke both his heels in a work accident early in the year and can no longer walk properly or do his old job. He is covered by worker's compensation, and is having surgery to recover some mobility, but it is a blow to someone who was basically an outdoors person. He is surprisingly philosophical about it, hopefully he will find something else to do which he enjoys. Poss's parents, Norm and Dawn, are still living with him so he hasn't had to handle it alone. He gets around with crutches and uses a wheelchair, can drive OK, and is expected to walk a bit easier once all the sugery is complete, but may still need crutches.

      Sandra and Joanne have both changed boyfriends since the last letter, Joanne was thinking of working on a cruise ship and moved home last Christmas so she would not have problems leaving at short notice. Ryan her boyfriend also moved home to Yamba, so they went their seperate ways. Jo then decided that maybe a cruise ship really wasn't what she wanted and she enrolled in calligraphy again. She picked up extra work at the garage which gives her enough to live, and she is still caring for the next door neighbour's children in the afternoons. Unfortunately they are no longer our neighbours, they wanted a bigger house so have moved about 3km away. Geoff and I got along well as he is a computer person also, and Poss and Anne hit it off so it was sad to see them go. The house was bought by a young couple as an investment, and is rented. The new neighbours are OK but it's not the same.

      Jo is enrolled to go back to university next year, and also at TAFE to do librarianship. It's not clear how she is going to juggle these and work, but she seems to think it's not a problem. It's heartening to see she wants to study again, being a checkout chick at a garage might be an income, but it's not much of a career. She didn't stay partner free for long, she was friendly with the son of the owners of the garage where she works. She and Scott went out a few times and then became 'an item'. He is a nurse, currently doing home care visits, and also plays in a band.

      Sandra returned in March from Japan, after her year of teaching english in a girl's school. She had mixed feelings about the year, said she was glad she had taken up the offer, but it had its highs and lows. She arrived back and started university straight away, as she had already missed a couple of weeks lectures. This doesn't seem to have had much adverse effect, she passed her year with creditable results. On her return, she went back to living with Leif her boyfriend. However the year apart must have opened a gap, as they didn't settle into a relationship and lived as flatmates. When the lease was up, Leif wanted to move into a single bedroom flat near the city centre, so Sandra contemplated moving home. Poss and I were not impressed, especially as Joanne was still at home after 7 months, even though it was supposedly a temporary return. After some discussion it was decided they could buy their own house, and could move there.

      Sandra had some money which she hadn't expected, it was her accumulated superannuation and long service leave from her job in Japan. We received a letter for her about a month after she returned, and written on the outside was Y360,000. When she opened it, it contained that sum in banknotes, about $4000! The Japanese have great faith in the postal system it seems. But even with that money, the girls didn't have enough for a deposit and legals. So Poss and I refinanced our house and raised the money to buy a two bedroom house near the university. We 'rent' it to the girls, but when they have the income they will buy the residual from us. At present the 'rent' more than pays the repayments so Poss and I aren't out of pocket and the girls have their own house. After three months it seems to be going OK so we might have a win-win situation.

      It's not clear how Sandra's social life is going, she doesn't seem to have become 'an item' but on the other hand she always has someone to talk about. She seems happy enough so whatever she is doing is agreeing with her. Oh, well, something to write about next year maybe.

      Beth completed HSC last year but not with a high enough score to get into a B.A.(Communications studies) at university. She enrolled in most of the subjects as part of a standard Arts course, and the M&C people said if she gained a Credit average for the year she could apply to transfer into the course. Well, she managed a distinction amongst her credits so there is a high likelihood she will be able to do her chosen studies. She has taken to university life like a duck to water, doesn't seem to have any trouble with the work and has a full social life outside. She has become a 'Good News Week' groupie [the TV show, started on the ABC but now with Channel 10]. She has been to Sydney numerous times to see the taping of the show, watches all the shows and has taken to recording it on VCR and copying selected parts for long term saving. It seems there are quite a few like minded people, they chat on the internet a lot, and this weekend she went to an informal get together in Gosford with people she had met via the internet. They had a video fest of GNW and DAAS (Doug Anthony All Stars) shows, and a good time was had by all.

      Beth's clarinet playing continues, although it doesn't play as large a part as in previous years. She still plays with the two orchestras, and has played with the pit orchestra of more stage shows. The most recent was 'Annie', which was a very professional production and contradicted the old adage of 'don't work with animals or children'. The dog performed creditably and the children were very talented.

      Nicole is in the middle of HSC, with good results in her year 11 exams. She has her social ups and downs, seems more sensitive to things than the others, or maybe she doesn't bottle it up as much. She is still queen of the internet, and spends a lot of (maybe too much) time chatting to other people. I don't know if it is a bad thing, and I don't want to make her a misery by arbitarily restricting her. The only thing I know has suffered is her piano practice, but we have a 'new deal' on that. She has decided to drop dance and continue music as an HSC subject. The piano we have is old and dodgy so we have hired a good piano for the next year, and Nicole has committed to more practice and so far is keeping to the bargain. It is early days but I think she likes playing and was frustrated by the old piano, the hired one is much easier to play and sounds a lot better.

      Poss and I are muddling along the same as ever. We didn't find the common interest we were looking for last year, then several months ago Poss's volleyball team was short on players so she asked if I would play again. So I'm back playing volleyball (badly) with Poss and Sandra, and three friends from work. We have an enjoyable and sometimes productive game, it isn't competitive but it's fun and an easy way of keeping those sluggish muscles working. Poss is still playing tennis with her Tuesday group, but I've become a bit of a sloth. I have been trying to fit in a lunchtime walk at work, managing maybe two days a week.

      The year doesn't seem to have been busy, but in review quite a bit has happened. In February, the paving of the swimming pool started, and looks much better for it. Like every building project, it didn't run to time. The paving man thought he could fit it in before going to have a knee reconstruction, but of course he didn't. So the weather and knee strung it out for nearly two months. Fortunately it wasn't quality swimming weather so nobody really minded.

      I have been accumulating leave faster than I take it, at the moment it stands at 14 weeks (includes Long Service Leave - the first ever time I have stayed in one place long enough - cheer, cheer). Anyway, I also had accumulated frequent flyer points from work which had to used or lost, so I took time off and spent a week with David and the In-laws in Darwin. This was just after David was cleared to drive after his accident, and he had nothing better to do than take me to the sights. It was a great week.

      Darwin is certainly different. I was expecting something tropical, but the vegetation is quite scrubby. When you consider it is dry for 6 months, it takes a special plant to last that long without water. Then when the rains come, it comes in large quantities and washes away any loose soil. So the plants all survive without water and without soil, so they end up a bit scrubby looking which is not surprising really. It is also the land of the white 4 wheel drive. These were definitely the dominant vehicle, with cars mainly in evidence in urban Darwin but quite the minority otherwise. David lives 50km from Darwin city, but the edges of Darwin merge into a series of 20 acre blocks which stretch down the highway for about 70km. Darwin city is actually on a narrow peninsula, and the main population centre is Palmerston, which is the opposite side of the airport and 15km from Darwin city. It is urban for another 10km then the blocks start. The in-laws live on one of the blocks, it is very rural, kangaroos wandering past the house at night, snakes in the budgie cage, plenty of wildlife crashing around at night.

      Most of the sightseeing was local, with one long trip to Katherine george. I enjoyed it all and wished I could stay a bit longer, but I guess that leaves something for next time. On the way back we flew over the centre of Australia, a stark and fascinating series of bare ridges and gullies. I'd like to go and see it close up.

      We had a couple of weekends away courtesy of Rostrum, the speaking group of which I am a member. There was a regional final at Port Macquarie in August, then the State final at Mudgee in October. Both were good excuses for a weekend away, especially Mudgee where we stayed in a B&B with the emphasis on breakfast which took a good hour and a half to wade through. We had an organised tour of the vineyards, they seem much more friendly than the Hunter people, maybe because they don't have as many Sydney people looking for an excuse to write themselves off. Apart from that, a few Swans games in Sydney is about all the travel we've done. We are stepping up the pace a bit in 2000, we found a time share in Tasmania where we could swap our weeks, so will be going there late March. We also intend going to the timeshare in July. After that, who knows, I will get another 4 weeks holiday in September so maybe another trip then, keep tuned.

      We've also had some visitors, Barbara (Poss' sister) and Gordon were out from America in August, spent a few days here on their way back from Darwin. There doesn't look to be much chance they will come back to live in Australia in the near future, if ever. We also had a FIRST EVER visit from English relatives in November. My parents had quite a few brothers and sisters, with numerous progeny. However, Christine Brack (nee Cashin) and her husband Terence are the first to visit (in 40+ years) from 'the old country' so it was a something different. They were on an organised world tour and could spare one night to visit us. I'm not sure if they were able to take everything in, we did a lot in 30 hours, but hopefully they will take good stories back and encourage more family to come. At the moment, we have a friend of Nicole's, Michelle, visiting. She is ex Newcastle but lives in Melbourne - she and Nic are still friends after being school friends more than 5 years ago, interesting how relationships can survive.

      Another change for the year, the old Peugeot was declared defunct. But it gave such good service (450,000km of which we did 230,000 in 13 years) that it has been replaced with a younger, more sprightly Peugeot - a 1990 405Mi16. It has not yet done 100,000km so should serve for many years. It is quite modern for its age, ABS brakes, multipoint fuel injection, central locking, climate control air, 16 valve engine etc. Fortunately, it has a few things not quite right so I am happily dismembering it at every opportunity to fix the rattles and squeaks. Joanne also moved on, she bought a 1985 Toyota Corolla, low km and bulletproof. Hopefully she will get plenty of life from it. I bought the Datsun 200B off her for $600, toying with the idea of resurrecting it for Beth and Nicole to drive for a year. I've got a month to get it roadworthy so maybe it is a lost cause and will go the way of the 504 (Peugeot). Poss' old clunker is still running, I was reading back copies of this letter when we bought it and I was predicting engine failure then. But it still rattles on like total disintegration is a few hours away and nothing comes of it.

      As far as work for Poss and me is concerned, it's more of the same old same old. I had a brief stint in Melbourne early in the year, sorting out a problem. Since then it's been pretty quiet. The steelworks shut down in September, but it had little effect on our IT people. There were plans to take all the IBM mainframe work and give it to an external company, which would lead to a loss of jobs, but that proved uneconomic in the end. As some of you may have heard (but I can't tell you) things may be different next year. But again I don't think the Newcastle operation will immediately be affected. I'm not keen to do anything until Nicole has finished High School, but this time next year, who knows.

      One last bit of information. We've made a move to have a permanent e-mail address. From now on, you should be able to reach us by mailing xxx@cashin.net (where xxx can be anything). e.g. family@cashin.net, poss@cashin.net, etc. There is a www.cashin.net site as well but don't expect there to be anything much to look at for a month or two.

      As always, love to see any of you who come this way. Good fortune for the New Year
The Cashins: Klu, Nicole, Beth, Joanne, Sandra, Poss and Alan.