28 Kendall St.,
Charlestown NSW 2290
10th. December 2001
Dear People,
So how was 2001 for you? I think we’ve had a great year, hope yours was as good. Can’t say the same for the rest of the world, with the events of September 11th et. al. still heavy in the news, and Israel and Palestine at each others throats yet again. Even Australia is not quite as lucky as before, with HIH, One-Tel and Ansett pushing the economy sideways, an election which gave us the choice of having an utterly boring faceless government or an utterly faceless boring government, and a highly unsatisfactory refugee problem. Woah, didn’t mean to offend anyone there, just a bit of age rage. Hope you are all interested spectators to all this and are not directly affected. It all seems like so much hollywood it’s hard to grasp that real people are dead and hundreds of thousands of people are grieving. One can only hope that from such a low base, the only way is up.
I guess the big news on the home front is my redundancy at the end of June, didn’t work for three months and still don’t have a real job (despite several haircuts – which BTW* are becoming somewhat less relevant these days). I indicated to people at work back in February that redundancy was not unwelcome but at that time it was made quite clear that I was useful, and unlikely to be made redundant. So when redundancy came it was a big surprise. I was told one Friday morning that my services were no longer required, I could go home if I wished, just like that. Well, what a mixture of feelings, still indescribable. I rang Poss to tell her, she got the right spin as she came home with a bottle of genuine (French) champagne. But I had to go back and ask why someone who was so useful a few months before was now scrapheap material. Well, my immediate boss had the call on who stayed and who went, he picked me as he had lined up another job and didn’t need to deal with replacing me. Hoped he was doing me a favour (which at this time I believe he did. CSC was my least favourite employer yet, and by a big margin.)
Doors close and doors open. I discussed with Poss some time ago what we should do when I finally leave the workforce. It was clear we should leave the current house, 5 bedrooms is overkill for a retired couple. But where to go. My dream has been to have a retreat somewhere, preferably self sustained [solar power, rainwater tanks, away from it all]. Last year Poss and I saw something approaching the ideal, near Cooranbong, with solar/wind power. I bid up to $200K at auction, it was passed in, then the owner asked $265K, well beyond our means [200K was pushing the envelope...] Poss then indicated she was not too sad to see it pass, she wasn't sure she could live permanently in an isolated place. So back to the drawing board.
Eventually we hammered out a plan which was to buy a smaller residence in Newcastle, and at a later stage look into the 'retreat'. So after a bit of searching we purchased a tiny terrace in Islington, with the intent of renting it out for a few years. It is a standard lounge/dining downstairs, 2 bed upstairs, kitchen and bathroom an afterthought at the back. It had recently been recarpeted and repainted so there was little to do, but we did have security doors and grills fitted as the area is a bit dubious. However, it is less than 2 minutes walk to Hamilton station, to Beaumont Street, and to major bus routes. Beaumont St. is restaraunt heaven, with 54 eateries within 10 minutes walk. There is no offstreet parking at the moment but it has rear lane access and there's just enough yard to squeeze in a carport. The whole block is a mere 117sq. m., but that makes for minimal maintenance and the ability to lock it up and leave it for a few months.
The next part of the jigsaw fell into place much sooner than expected. The day I was made redundant was the day I was intending to start 3 weeks holiday. In January Poss organised 2 holidays around the University holidays, the first in July in Coffs Harbour. By amazing coincidence our niece Michelle announced she was pregnant and would be due around then. Michelle lives in Nana Glen and Coffs is her nearest hospital, 30km away. Isobelle was born 2 days after we arrived, so we were on hand. So also were Poss' parents who travelled down from Darwin for the event, and stayed in the accomodation we booked as our children and relevant other halves were not able to all be there at the same time so there were 2 beds spare.
Poss' sister Barbara was also out from America to see her first grandchild, and was making noises about buying a house nearby [and did so, eventually settling on a place at Emerald Beach about 20km north of Coffs and nearer Nana Glen]. Poss and I thought we'd spend some time looking at properties to see if there was anything appealing, and with a bundle of redundancy money burning a hole in my pocket we ended up buying a 200 acre lump of bush about 12km inland from Corindi Beach [about 40km north of Coffs]. There's nothing there except the side of a hill and trees. With a bit of clearing, it should be possible to get a respectable view of the coast from the block. It has no power, no water, and not very good access so turning it into 'the retreat' is going to be a real challenge. However, life should be anything but boring. It should be a picturesque location, there's some cliffs on the western boundary going up, between 10 and 50 meters high. There's an area of bangalow palms, but mainly lots of tall timber. We are thinking about camping there for a few days over Christmas/New Year but how we get the gear in and out is still a bit of logistics to be solved.
Buying the block took all our cash reserves so I reluctantly went back to work in October, after we had the second holiday this time at the Gold Coast. It wasn't really Poss and my choice of location, but we thought the progeny would love it. They probably would too if any had turned up but they were all too busy, so we rattled around in a sleep 6 apartment for a week. I was feeling poorly most of the time with a back strain, so although it was a relaxing break we've had better holidays. I've chosen to give programming a go, I used to enjoy it and I figured I can choose to do something I like rather than something that pays better. Since this involves a measure of retraining I've been working for a pittance for 10 weeks, developing a package which may or may not have a buyer. The crunch comes in the next few weeks, if no buyer then no job, and my backer is out of pocket. However there is distinct interest from potential clients so hopefully it will develop into something more permanent and rewarding.
Our children move from strength to strength, Sandra has worked most of the year as a conveyencing solicitor [after saying she was studying law for interest and wasn't intending to practice]. She is working in Maitland, which when she started required a 50 minute drive either way. When we bought the terrace in Islington she took great interest as she could travel by rail from Hamilton, and so she and Adam [still together] moved in as our first tenants, and Sandra's travel is now 40 minutes and she doesn't have to drive (and it's cheaper than petrol). She did her college of law studies this year, so she can get a certificate to practice law. Haven't got the results yet but she thinks there will not be a problem. Soon she and Adam are moving back to Adam's parents' house to housesit while they travel. She is looking for work nearby, otherwise she'll be back to travelling 50 minutes again. Don't know what we're going to do with the terrace after that, deal with the problem when it happens.
Joanne has finished her library assistant's course, her results were brilliant and she might be top of class but she's not confident. She has been on the casual list for Newcastle libraries, and has been working on and off, juggling that with her studies. She has continued with her weekend garage checkout job, on average she has had one day off each two weeks. She has been saving so she and a penfriend from Canada (whom she has not met) can go travelling around in the new year, for 6 or 7 weeks. Her relationship with Scott continues (when they have time, he's in a band and also works as a nurse). She is still living in the house she and Sandra are buying, she was alone for a while but now Beth has moved in.
Beth was obviously meant to be a uni student, she looks the part, walks the walk and talks the talk. She parted company with boyfriend 2 a while ago, moved home for a few weeks but we discouraged that and she moved in with Joanne. Boyfriend 3 appeared at about the same time, Andrew is interesting, musical [as is Scott and Adam] and works as a volunteer announcer on the community FM station. Beth had no exams, all her marks are by assessment. The results are imminent, she thinks she did well in film which is her chosen field, she wants to be a film editor. Our house became a film set for a couple of Sundays while she and her group worked on an assignment which we have yet to see.
Nicole breezed through her first year of Information Science, a distinction and the rest credits. She is still at home, the lure of live in relationships has not yet happened. But she had a boyfriend for most of the year, it started as an internet relationship but became a face to face but not an easy relationship as he lived more than 20km away and neither can drive. It all fell apart a few weeks ago, then Josh appeared on the scene. However today it seems Josh and Nicole are going to be 'just good friends' much to Nicole's dismay after a fairly short and intense partnership. What next we wonder.
Poss has taken up going to the gym this year, and has lost 10kg. She says she feels a lot better, but is starting to inshrink (the opposite of outgrow?) her wardrobe. She and I are still volleyballing on Fridays and planting trees on the occasional Sunday. She is not redundant, still cleaning houses. Much of the same old same old really.
Poss' brother David who lived in Darwin finally got a lump sum payout for his broken heels, and bought a house on a 3 acre block at Coalstoun Lakes in Queensland. The parents have moved with him, we drove up to see them a few weeks ago, it should suit as it is a good growing area, and an hour's drive from Bundaburg.
We still have the cat, the cars, and lots of spare space for visitors. No real plans for the future (except the obvious from what you’ve already read). Day to day life has been quite stimulating enough lately, thank you. Best of wishes for you and yours, may the future bring you good fortune and happiness. And keep those emails coming: family@cashin.net
Regards to you all - The Cashins: Klu, Nicole, Beth, Joanne, Sandra, Poss and Alan.
* BTW - Internet speak for ‘by the way’