28 Kendall St.,
      Charlestown NSW 2290
      15th. December 2003
     

Dear People,

      It’s the time of year again (so soon?) to wish you the best, and we hope 2003 has been kind to you. I think we can say it has been kind to us, lots of ups and few downs. The major happening in Poss and my life is we live in a child free zone. Yes, Nicole has made the big move and now we are 5 [Poss, me, the cat, and two more cats we are looking after for Joanne]. Of equal significance, Joanne and Sandra are engaged, with weddings next March and May respectively. If that were not enough, Emma (daughter from my previous marriage) expects to make me a grandfather in January.

      My father was known by some as “gunner” Cashin, as he was gunner do this and gunner do that. I’ve inherited well, we were gunner do something with the block, gunner renovate the small house in Islington, and gunner rebuild the Holden 1-tonner this year. As I have not been working (for money, that is) since April, it seems a poor result that none of these things have reached fruition. I decided to quit work to concentrate on the Holden rebuild and subsequent house renovation, but significantly underestimated the time required.

      We started the house renovation planning in January, but it took a while. The house is small (about 90 sq m), and it took many iterations before we came up with something we both agreed was workable. Fortunately we had some input from an architect acquaintance that steered us away from some really bad ideas and put forward a few things we hadn’t considered. At the end of March we took the drawings of what we wanted to a draughtsman so we could get suitable plans for the council. He was very nice but unfortunately had my work ethic so we didn’t get the final article until July. These were submitted to council, who had some reservations as we asked for a few things that don’t meet current planning guidelines. We argued that these were either consistent with the architecture of the street (mainly early 1900’s), or were required to fit everything on the block (117 sq m!). Fortunately the council was flexible and the plans were passed as submitted in the middle of October. Hopefully we will start work in January.

      Most of my time has been occupied by the “1-tonner”. I decided (foolishly) that it would be a good idea to strip it down to nuts and bolts and rebuild it. It is amazing how many things there are in a vehicle, how much crud there is to clean out after 25 years, and the amount of work required to clean/paint/replace everything. It has probably taken more than 1000 hours to date, but I am hoping there is only a day or two left as I’d really like to have it registered before Christmas. With luck the hard work will pay off with a reliable vehicle that doesn’t need work for a few years.

      Poss is still house cleaning four days a week on average. As I’m not working, we are eating into savings to exist so she is literally putting the food on the table. One of Poss’s favourite clients moved to Sydney and sold her house to Marcia Hines and partner. Poss really liked the house and has let Marcia know she would like to continue cleaning it. At the moment they have another cleaner but she might move on, we’ll see how it goes. Poss could quit but our finances will run in the red until we move to the renovated house and sell this one – the sale should pay out all the mortgages and yield enough for us to go on with phase 2 – the block. However that’s a year or more away so still just concept, no clear plan. Until then Poss’s money is coming in very useful and I think she likes the contact with other people.

      Apart from Nicole, the girls all seem to have settled down and are planning ahead. In February Sandra was admitted to the bar and became a fully fledged lawyer. She is still with Peter Evans and associates, the building where she works has the oldest working lift in Newcastle, nearly 100 years old – I looked at it and took the stairs. I gather she doesn’t do much work in court, mainly research for other people and some conveyancing. Adam is with a bigger firm and likes court work, so is often in court over some matter or other. Last year I wrote that Sandra and Adam were planning to go to the UK, or if not then Plan B was to buy a house. It seems that they were not mutually exclusive options as they bought a house in Cardiff (about 10 min drive from here), moved in September, and are planning to go to the UK in May on a working holiday and extended honeymoon. Adam’s firm is encouraging him to get some overseas experience so are happy to give him time off without pay. I haven’t heard what Sandra’s firm thinks, but I believe they are not so keen so her future may be elsewhere when they come back. Their house is an 81 year old weatherboard (4 months younger than the lady who lives in the house behind) and is less than a block to the local shopping centre. It is medium size, with 3 rooms that could be used as bedrooms, and separate lounge and dining. Sandra and Adam moved from a one room flat but have been able to fill two of the possible bedrooms with “stuff” – books, computers, photocopier, drum kit and other miscellanea. Where it all came from is a bit of a mystery.

      Joanne and Scott are also planning to go overseas; they plan to leave in July, visiting Easter Island, South and North America, UK and Europe. Joanne continued as last year, working as a garage checkout chick on the weekend, casual library assistant during the week, and completing her Arts degree. I guess before she goes overseas there will be a graduation to go to, she found out today she had a credit in the final subject (French). I’m not sure what she will do on her return, she is quitting the garage work in a few weeks and will continue the casual library work until they leave. Joanne was living in the “Sandra and Joanne” house but it is now for sale. Now the girls have completed their studies and are going separate ways it has served its purpose, with the buoyant house market they should get a tidy profit. Scott is also part owner of a house, Joanne has moved there until they go overseas at which time it will also be sold. Unfortunately the other owner and resident of the house is allergic to cats so Jo’s cats have moved here. The cats are not allowed outside and climb on everything so we have had to partition the house so our ornaments have a chance to survive. When Joanne and Scott get their share in respective properties they plan to buy one of their own and at this stage they hope Nicole will move in and look after the cats.

      Beth is still partners with Andrew, he is a trainee primary school teacher with at least another year of study to go. They moved a couple of times during the year, and are now living in Islington about 4 blocks from our renovation house. Andrew is now caught in the Cashin “keep it in the family” web, he is training with Joanne to take over her weekend garage job in the new year. Beth now works regularly at the bread shop, and I think has put her career aspirations in the film industry on the back burner until Andrew has a teaching posting and they know where they end up living. She has enrolled at TAFE to do a course as a preliminary to being a chef, so she may go a completely different direction instead.

      Nicole has abandoned academic pursuits for now, although if the other girls are any guide, this may not be permanent. She was working at Joanne’s old garage (in Swansea) on Saturday mornings, and completed a (finger and toe) nail technician course in the first semester. She then started work at the same bread shop as Beth, this allowed her to quit the Saturday job. She also got her driving licence, which was to me something of a milestone – I see it as the last responsibility of a parent to their children. After that a parent can sit back and watch, and lend a hand when needed. Nicole’s social life has been chaotic, I don’t think at the moment she has a boyfriend. But she is into clubbing and burning the candle at both ends, just like every other 20 year old. We had strongly hinted that as she was an income earning partygoer that moving out of home was a good option. The opportunity came when Beth and Andrew made their last move, they were looking for one more person so Nicole now lives in their back bedroom. The other resident is Sam(antha), a long time friend of Beth’s from school. Sam is partially blind so Beth sometimes gets perks as “carer”, free travel with Sam on public transport and free entry to some events. Anyhow it seems Nicole has taken to life without parents like a duck to water, a good thing as she wasn’t keen to take the step.

      Poss’s family is doing OK, her parents recently visited after travelling from Poss’s brother David’s place in Queensland, to Melbourne then after us to visit Poss’s sister Bronwyn who had her fourth child (Elly, born premature but by all accounts doing well). It was good to see the outlaws (in-laws) but one has to wonder if this was the last big trip for them now Norm is into his 80’s. But they were looking healthy so maybe not. We visited them and David a couple of times in the last year, they have been welcomed into the Coalstoun Lakes community with open arms. It is very heartening to see them settle in so well, there are so many places where you can be an outsider after 10 years, but not in Coalstoun Lakes. David is getting plenty of work driving, he is still troubled by his broken heels but he doesn’t let it slow him down.

      Poss’s sister Barbara has been over from the USA a couple of times to check out her grandchild and the beach house. Barb is aiming to “never see another winter again”, a goal that has moved closer to reality as husband Gordon’s company has gone public, and that means Gordon can sell up and retire. I think retirement for Gordon means working less than 80 hours a week so it will be interesting to see what happens. At least he is likely to spend more time in Australia so we might see more of them. He intended to visit earlier this year but company business kept him in Boston, he even bought the plane tickets, finally used them a month ago and he had the first decent holiday in who knows how many years. He spent most of the time at the beach house, but took time out to stay here a night and let us catch up.

      Healthwise it has been a pretty good year. Poss found a dermatologist that identified the cause of the thickened skin on her hands and feet. This has been an annoyance to her for many years as it cracks and bleeds and is sometimes very painful. She is now on a course of tablets that have just about cleared up the problem, but have their own interesting side effects. The literature that comes with the tablets makes thalidomide look good, there are a couple of pages of possible side effects. One is increased sensitivity to the sun so Poss has to cover up when outdoors. Fortunately the dosage is not high, the same tablets can treat other problems that require much higher dosage. And the good news is that on the last visit Poss was advised she could lower the dose as she has flaky skin, she thought a vestige of the previous condition but actually an overreaction to the tablets.

      I have been troubled with sore neck and back, some X-rays and several visits to a physiotherapist confirmed I have osteoarthritis in the back, neck and shoulder. The solution is to use it or lose it so I need to do more, not less. At the moment it does not affect my life and has just been a niggle but I figured if we pay big bucks for health insurance then why not use it. Last year we were walking most mornings, Poss is still getting up and walking before 6:00 religiously but I sleep in and only manage one or two walks a week. But there is plenty of physical exercise working on the 1-tonner so I figure I’m still doing enough. Poss and I still play volleyball each week, we are in the grand final this week, I think as a result of there only being two teams that have gone the whole season. That is unkind on the rest of the team, several of them play in another comp so they carry Poss and me – probably because Poss manages the money. We also recently started playing social tennis again. We try this every now and then but usually have to withdraw after a few months due to various aches and pains. But now we are aware of what is causing it (Poss also has some aches) then it is possible we will work through it and continue on. It is definitely hit and miss, just an excuse to get out in the air each Sunday.

      We are still working once a month on the Kooragang wetland rehabilitation project. A few years back I wrote the group had planted 50,000 trees. We are now in the vicinity of 100,000 so half way to the 200,000 goal. Although it seems only a short time since we started, Poss and I are regarded as long time volunteers, as we have been to over 40 volunteer days. The regeneration is amazing, what was paddock only 10 years ago now has trees 15 m tall, and a flourishing understorey. Some of the drained land has been opened up to tidal flow, and the mangroves are moving in to re-establish the wetlands. There are also some artificially created frog ponds that have established frog populations even though they were dry during the drought.

      So much more to say, so little space. Look after yourselves and have a good 2004. As you can see it is shaping up to be a big one for us with weddings and renovation.

The Cashins - Parents: Poss and Alan; Progeny: Nicole, Beth, Joanne, Sandra; Pets: Klu, Mika & Nero (Joanne’s cats), Thomas (Adam’s cat)