42 Young St.,
Carrington NSW 2294
8th. December 2005
Dear People,
I’ve just watched the “grumpy old men” Christmas edition, one thing they hated was mass produced Christmas letters such as this one. One GOM said he binned them unread, he was so offended. I’m tempted to send a copy to him just so he can have a good grump. In defence of the mass produced letter, if I didn’t do this you’d get a ‘Merry Christmas, we’re fine, hope you are too’ Christmas card and that would be it. This way, you can choose if you wade through it all or just look at the card.
If you glanced at the address and said, ‘oh no, I wrote to Harrison Street’, do not worry. We still use 20 Harrison St, Cardiff as our postal address, it is daughter Sandra and husband Adam’s house and we collect the mail regularly. You may also have deduced that Carrington is not Islington where we were renovating, and said we would be now. I did say May 2005 was an unrealistic occupation date, and I am sad to say Christmas 2005 is also unrealistic. When asked when we will complete the renovations and move in, we are currently saying either ‘this time next year’, or ‘Christmas, but don’t ask which year’.
We moved to Carrington in May, when Sandra and Adam returned from the UK and wanted their house back. This house (Carrington) is daughter Joanne’s house, and while Joanne was overseas daughter Nicole was living here with Josh her partner and a guy called Pete. When Nicole heard we would need to move she said ‘why don’t you move to Carrington, I would like to move out’. This seemed like a good idea at the time, as Carrington is only 2km from Islington, much closer to the renovating. Josh and Pete moved out to make way for us, and then Nicole had a change of plans.
It was not entirely Nicole’s doing, Joanne in her world travels was nearing the UK and her husband (Scott) was getting homesick. So it was arranged that Scott would come back to Australia, Nicole would join Joanne in the UK, and the sisters would ‘do the UK’. Nicole didn’t want to move her stuff out then go O/S, so it remained here. Nicole returned safely but with no money so couldn’t afford to move. She now has worked for a while, has funds, and expects to move out next weekend. I guess this is all good practice for Poss and me, as we now have moved from a 5 bedroom house to a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom house. Our final destination is a one bedroom house so we are easing into it. One thing I really miss is this house has no off-street parking, nowhere to fiddle with cars or anything else. A man really needs a shed. And this is currently being written on an enclosed veranda, there is nowhere in the house big enough to set up a computer desk (well, two as Nicole has one).
Although the house is a bit small, it is well situated. I often ride Scott’s ‘pushy’ (bicycle) to Islington along a bike track that follows Throsby Creek. It is a pleasant ride and takes about 10min, only marginally longer than by car. Carrington was once an island in the Hunter river, but was joined to the mainland using ships ballast sometime in the 19th century. There are lots of fine old houses and other buildings. One elegant structure that intrigued us for some time was built as a hydraulic power station. Water was pumped at high pressure from steam driven pumps to operate wharf machinery such as cranes. This was an advance over having lots of little steam engines everywhere, but sadly was just before the advent of electric power so was quickly superseded. The river frontage of Carrington is still mainly for loading ships, but the Throsby Creek side is all residential near us and becoming quite upmarket. It is a short walk to the creek, about a block. The creek is tidal and probably 200m wide at that point, and is often used by people rowing all sorts of craft as it is wide and relatively calm. Poss has taken to walking the banks each morning, a circuit of about half an hour.
It is not far to the main shopping centre of Newcastle, and also the beach. We often get the sea breeze in the afternoon, welcome at this time of year. It seems my impetus to write this letter is hot weather, it is mentioned in a number of past letters and this year did not disappoint – yesterday was 40C. We are trying to do a family beach sports evening each Wednesday (most recent was yesterday). There are volleyball nets so if there are enough we have a hit out. We also have Frisbee throwing and ball throwing/kicking, and walking. It is an enjoyable hour, often followed by a trawl of the Beaumont Street restaurants for a late meal.
Our year has been dominated by renovating. By mid January we finished giving the original house new foundations. We then demolished the old single storey kitchen/bathroom at the back, and put in foundations for a two storey brick wall between us and the neighbour. This was not straightforward as the neighbour already had a partial wall with footings, and this had to be tied to our work. This required engineering drawings and almost enough steel to repair the Titanic, along with the obligatory few tons of concrete. By April we had completed the footings for the extension and had a brick wall between us and the neighbour, and in May the concrete floor for the whole downstairs was poured. This is a polished concrete floor, the polishing was finished by end of May (and looks brilliant). Since then we have completed the framing and partially clad the whole downstairs, and recently framed the upstairs bedroom (over the new kitchen). Yesterday we started putting on the extension roof, but at 10am it was so hot we quit with half a roof. Poss couldn’t help today and it is a two person job so hopefully early tomorrow we will do the other half.
One outcome of renovating is we talk of “moments”. It started with ropes that caught on everything when you didn’t want them to, but was extended to include electrical cords and water hoses. These are ‘long thin moments’ as all the objects are long and thin. So instead of saying, ‘hang on, the rope is caught on something’, we say ‘I’m having a long thin moment here’. The ‘senior’s moment’ was added, when things are put in backwards, or forgotten, or other snafu (I’m amazed – this passed the spellchecker). My most recent senior’s moment was to delete my whole email system with the latest backup a year old. Well, it needed a clean up… but would appreciate an email from you as I’ve lost the address book too. What do they say about a plumber’s taps always drip.
It has not been all work, we had time to go to the June Jazz Festival in Merimbula to see daughter Emma and husband Todd, and grandson Harry. A year was too long between meetings, but alas a visit to Melbourne is not on the schedule for the foreseeable future. Harry had gone from a wailing baby to the fully functional whirlwind, they grow up so quickly. We also have been north a couple of times, in July to Eliza Harden’s wedding in Maleny. Eliza is daughter of friends from Armidale days, Nigel and Kerry Harden. N&K, after commuting many hours a day from Maleny, have bought a B&B there. We don’t know how the venture is going but are eager to go back and see, Maleny is a pretty part of the country and well worth a visit. But our main reason for going that way was on the way to see Poss’s brother and parents living at Coalstoun Lakes. However, that house is sold, Poss’s parents have moved and David (brother) now lives in a caravan.
Poss’s parents moved last February from Coalstoun Lakes to Armidale. They weren’t in town, but at the end of Long Swamp Road about 20km out. A pretty spot, but entirely (IMHO) inappropriate to their age and health. We visited on the way to the wedding; it was a typical Armidale winter day with low clouds, intermittent horizontal rain and a temperature struggling into double figures by afternoon. I think they realised it was not what they really needed, and they have relocated to Bucca, near Coffs Harbour, and more importantly not far from their granddaughter Michelle and (when she is in the country) Poss’s sister Barbara. We will be checking out this new abode at Christmas, we are all invited to stay with Barb and I believe 17 of us have taken up the offer. I think the overflow will be in tents or air mattresses in the lounge but should be an entertaining couple of days.
We all seem to be in generally good health, some days I creak more than others but renovating when over 60 is going to do that I figure. Poss lives with her skin condition, it doesn’t go away but is much better than before medication. The girls are as well as ever. This year I’ve been to two funerals for friends, one slightly older and one younger than I, a sad reminder we are not invulnerable and a reason to give thanks that we are still here, in whatever condition.
Daughter Beth is now well down the path of becoming a chef. She continued working at Terroir, a restaurant in the Hunter Valley, until recently. But she was becoming disillusioned by the long commute at unsociable hours (around an hour each way), along with the cost in terms of petrol and wear and tear on her car. She was lucky to find a job in Hamilton (10 minute drive for her) at a new restaurant. She started the week they opened (a couple of weeks ago) and is ecstatic with the work, and that she now has time for a life outside work, and has some money left over to enjoy the extra hours. We checked out the restaurant, pleasant surrounds and good food, and best of all within walking distance of our renovation (should we ever get to live in it….). Beth’s partner Andrew seems to have more direction in his life, he is playing in a band, has settled into his uni work, and is holding down a regular job.
Sandra and Adam have settled back into Newcastle life after their year in the UK. Sandra at first tried to find a solicitor job similar to when she left, but was offered a legal secretary position instead. As this paid better than her previous salary, and was paid by the hour, she has happily settled into it. Adam has plans to become a barrister, quite an undertaking as it involves a long period of no income, with no guarantee of more work at the end. He can’t start this year as the entrance exams are infrequent.
Joanne and Scott are back after their world tour, having ‘done’ the US, Mexico, Chile, Easter Island, Barcelona etc. When Scott returned, Joanne and Nicole did a tour of several of my relatives. Nicole was right out of her comfort zone but she enjoyed it nonetheless. Joanne was born to travel it seems and was in her element, in no small part due to the kindness shown by all to blow-ins from Aus. The house they (Jo and Scott) are now living in was supposed to be renovated and sold a year ago. Fortunately for Poss and me, their renovation is as tardy as ours and still not finished. They can’t afford to live in Carrington and pay two mortgages so are happy for us to stay here and pay this mortgage while they live in the unfinished renovation. It will be interesting to see who completes first. They both went back more or less to the jobs they left 12 months previous. Scott went back as a home visit nurse, and Joanne as a casual library assistant. Jo is trying to get a more stable position, it looks like she will land a full time librarian assistant job either in the TAFE or the council libraries as both have been advertised recently.
To go overseas, Nicole took leave from her bakery job. Unfortunately, the business changed hands while she was away, the new owners didn’t want her back so she was jobless for a few weeks on her return. She became part of the welfare system for a while, a nightmare of forms and interviews. After several fruitless weeks of searching, she landed two casual jobs within a few days of each other. One in a music store and the other in a clothing chain. The music store only gave her a couple of days work but the clothing chain is giving her full time work at the moment, probably due to the lead up to Christmas. With a bit of luck she will impress people and they will keep her on next year. She works in the warehouse and is happy with what she is doing for the moment. However she has decided it is not a long term proposition so is looking to do a Business Administration course at TAFE next year.
We are back to being a 3 cat family, Nicole had Joanne’s cats Nero and Mika (as Joanne is living in a house shared by Tasman who is highly allergic to cats), and Klu (our cat) is still with us – slower, sleeps a lot, like its owners really (well, one owner, Poss is not like that). Nicole has expressed an interest in taking Klu with her when she moves. We are happy for that to happen as we would like to be petless by the time we finish renovation. But it depends on the landlord and Nic has not talked to her yet.
I managed a major prang in the Holden 1-tonner early in the year (Oh no, not the Holden 1-tonner into which so much effort was poured! Yes, the same). Got into a skid in the rain and collided with an industrial waste bin while travelling backward. There was major damage to driver’s door and front mudguard. Fortunately, no damage to me except for my pride. A trip to the wrecker yielded a replacement door and guard for less than $150. A bit of filling, sanding and respraying and you wouldn’t know the difference. Well, you would as the replacement door was in much better condition than the old one. Unfortunately one wheel rim and back axle were also damaged. A trip to a different wrecker yielded 4 replacement rims (I needed one for a spare and they are not easy to come by as they are different to the sedan rims so I took the lot). I had planned to get a different ratio differential, the factory one causes the engine to scream at highway speeds. So I had a trip to Sydney to get a replacement differential fitted, and a replacement axle at the same time. These old cars are like meccano sets, just brilliant.
We have no major plans except to finish the renovation, and that is now an undefined point in time. I don’t see myself being employed in the near future, and Poss is cutting back on her workload. It’s a good life really, no clock to watch (although the Bureau of Meteorology website is well used to schedule outside work for the next couple of days).
As always, we hope to catch up with some of you in our travels, and you are always welcome to call if passing through Newcastle. The www.cashin.net website is languishing at the moment but I shall at some stage post pictures of the renovation. If you send me your email address (to family@cashin.net), I’ll let you know when I’ve made a change. The phone here is (2) 4965 4807.
Season’s greetings and hope 2006 is good to you and yours. Best wishes from Alan and Poss.