Dear People,

It's time to dust off 'best wishes' and 'yuletide' and 'merry' and those other Christmassy words that seem to lie in the little used recesses of everyday English for the rest of the year. So, here's wishing you have a merry Christmas and Yuletide season, and may the New Year bring you all you desire.

We've had an unremarkable year; no births, deaths or big trips away. I continued in my volunteer role with the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation Project and Poss has her hands very busy with grandchild duties three days a week and still doing some part time cleaning the other two weekdays. The weekends are frittered away in a pleasant manner, most Saturdays we will do some shopping and visit the library. Most Sundays start with 'tennis' at 8am and whatever unfolds for the rest of the day.

Our travels have mainly been to Woolgoolga to check up on Poss's parents. Norm has had some medical ups and downs, some requiring brief stays in hospital. At one time his mobility was very limited and it was thought he would have to go into the nursing home (referred to by the people in the retirement village as 'Up top'). Norm was having none of that and is now getting about quite well, and with some help from visiting aides will avoid 'Up top' for some time yet. Dawn keeps busy; looking after Norm, gardening, church, village organised activities and letter writing are fitted around running the house. I don't think she has time to get old.

We had the pleasure of taking up invitations to travel to significant birthday celebrations for friends we originally met in Armidale. One still lives in Armidale and many people we knew were there, some we haven't seen since leaving over 20 years ago. We did a lot of catching up, although cramming 20 years into 5 minutes is tantalising in that it leaves a lot more unsaid. The other friend took up a holiday house in Huskisson and invited people to stay for a day or two each. It was a marvellous idea, a relaxed chance to get reacquainted and a great setting in which to do it. Whoever said 'age is in the mind' is wrong; the bodies were 20 years older but the minds were just as we remembered (They say life begins at 40 so I reckon I'm 25).

Our proximity to the Hunter Valley vineyards has also been used to advantage. A day bus trip of vineyards for our wedding anniversary, the Lovedale Long Lunch and the Hunter Valley Garden's chocolate festival come to mind. We already have tickets to see one of Poss's favourite performers, Diana Krall, performing in 'A Day On The Green' at Bimbadgen Estate next year.

The girls also led relatively mundane lives this year. The big (and getting bigger) news is that Joanne is pregnant again, due in March. Inevitably, Scott, Jo and Anna needed more room than was provided by their Carrington house, so they sold up and recently moved. This gladdens my heart as the Carrington house was about a metre above high tide and with rising seas I predict a fall in property values. We were living in the house when the 'Pasha Bulker' rains came and the water inundated the yard and was within centimetres of flooding the kitchen.

The 'new' house is large with a big undercover outdoor deck and 5 rooms that were used as bedrooms, along with a goodly sized kitchen and lounge area. There is also a little workshop and enclosed storage under the house. Scott has designated the storage as a music room where he can at last unpack all his guitars, amplifiers, pedals and other paraphernalia out of the reach of small but inquisitive children. The bedrooms are now parents, Anna, baby, spare and playroom. There is also a decent sized back yard with a children's playhouse – all the more desirable as there are virtually no good local community playgrounds. In contrast, Carrington had three playgrounds within an easy walk.

The house is in Wallsend, which is a 20 minute drive from Islington versus 5 minutes previously. It is ideal for Jo and Scott; Jo works in the Wallsend library, and Scott usually works in the area as a Community Nurse. It is a liitle more challenging for Poss and me. On Thursdays, Sandra drops Michael off at Joanne's house, so that the two grandchildren have a day together. When it was in Carrington, Poss drove over early and I walked there later to share in the grandchild minding duties for a few hours. I miss the walk, it was a pleasant meander mostly along Throsby Creek, and was good exercise. The first day in Wallsend I tried going with Poss and staying the whole day, and decided little children are best in small doses. Poss now manages without me as my main purpose was to push one of the two strollers to the playgrounds, but the backyard is now the playground.

Not much has changed in Sandra and Adam's lives. They both work long hours and what time they have left seems mainly to be absorbed by domestic duties. Sandra works Monday to Thursday, on Tuesday Michael comes to our house for the day. I look after him for a few hours in the morning while Poss does one of her jobs. Usually I take him to a nearby park for an hour, then go to Beth's house so she can have 'aunty time', and Poss meets us there on her way back. But we'll need a new plan for 2010.

Beth very recently found a new place to live, but hasn't moved yet. She is going to rent in Carrington, not far from Jo's old house, so maybe there'll be a reason to do that walk after all. It may become my new Tuesday morning routine although it is much further. She is still a chef at the TravelLodge, but she is making noises about moving on. She wants to start a cafe/art gallery/music place in the run-down part of Newcastle, as part of the Renew Newcastle project. However they don't have a suitable space, and she hasn't got the money, so if it happens it won't be soon. She is still playing bass in various bands, although I believe this is also an area of flux. I went to listen to one of the performances, she is a good bass player but it wasn't music, not as we know it. Do I sound like a crabby old man? [no answer required].

Nicole now has a steady relationship with (another) Andrew that she met at circus training. He is a charming, outgoing person and has slotted into our lives almost seamlessly. Nicole is very happy, something which was intermittent in her previous relationships, so we hope she has found her match this time. She is still working for the financial advisors but finds the tense environment (courtesy of the financial crisis) hard to take so is investigating alternates. She has moved again, but is using us as her postal address (and Internet cafe) so we see her frequently. Her old Toyota Corolla was in decline and our (almost all the family use the same) mechanic suggested it really was time for a replacement. She had saved enough to buy a '95 Barina in pretty good condition, discovered by Poss.

We too have a new(er) car. It is an '07 Honda Civic, still under warranty, far newer than any previous car we've bought. It was paid for with 'log money' – the money we got from selling some of the trees on our 80Ha block near Woolgoolga. I put the Peugeot up for sale for $600 and within a week it blew out a coolant hose in an inaccessible place rendering it undrivable. Cars know when they are unloved. I sourced a replacement hose from England cheaper than I could buy one here, and after 3 weeks it was fixed. Fortunately I had a keen buyer and he paid the $600 plus the hose. For most of the year we were a 3 vehicle family with the Holden 1-tonner languishing apart from (surprisingly frequent) moving duties. Now I rely on the 1-tonner for my daily drive, so am investing some time to getting it to run more economically and smoother.

Apart from removing logs, not much has happened with the block. The next door neighbour kindly allowed us to erect a shed on his land near his house. We did this over Christmas last year and moved solar panels, batteries and inverter there, along with a miscellany of other possible useful items. In October we made a serious attempt to explore the north end, which we can only walk into and requires a climb up half a kilometre of steep country covered in dense undergrowth. We rediscovered what I thought is the place to build, and I believe we reached the northern boundary. Unfortunately the GPS lost most of the readings when I changed the batteries so only a few useful locations were retained in non-volatile memory. I might get back there more frequently now I am a voluntary volunteer, retired rather than dole bludger working 3 days a week to get Jobsearch payments.

My volunteer work is likely to continue for some time yet. It took a while to ease back into the world of IT, back where I started as a programmer 40 years ago. Although the languages and tools are completely different, I am finding the same techniques still work. I guess logic is immutable. I am also captivated by the potential of geographic tools like Google Earth which is amazingly programmable 'under the hood'.

Talking of solar panels, we took up the government rebate offer and put in a 1kW mains connected system. The eventual cost after rebate to us was about $2000. On the current cost of electricity it will pay for itself in about 8 years. However if the NSW government carries through with its 60¢/kWh buyback scheme it will be 2 years (yippee). I have been monitoring the system closely (why are you not surprised) and find it supplies roughly 2/3 of our use except for those days when we use the air conditioner (which we use for heating as well as cooling). I'm thinking we should switch to gas heating on both economic and environmental grounds. We already use gas for water heating and cooking and it is very economical compared with electricity so it makes sense.

On the domestic front, the big push was to clean up the back yard (if you can call 20 sq m a yard). At the beginning of the year, more than half of it was covered in piles of timber which I want to keep. Fortunately a friend allowed us to move the piles to his block – he has 2½ acres so is not so inconvenienced by it, although he has set a limit of 2 years (sensible man). Before we could do anything, the storm water drain system had to be overhauled – a job that has been hanging around since we moved in but hampered by all the timber. After that was sorted, we used some of the old house foundation stones (40cm cubes of sandstone) to create a raised garden, the remaining area is paved with 400mm x 600mm concrete pavers. A short pergola has been added on the back of the garage and Poss has established creepers to climb up and take over. The garden produces herbs for our meals and has one tomato plant that is making a bid for world domination.

There's still a bit to do; we agreed that a wide timber step outside the back door was desirable, so that the inside and outside levels were the same. We've retrieved our barbecue and outside table and chairs from Joanne's old house, and the table could do with refinishing. Poss also has some giant balls that have lights inside that are for outside decoration, these need to be properly installed. Of the items on last year's 'to do' list, we've only worked on the backyard and cleared the garage so we are nowhere near completing the renovation.

Our weekly routine hasn't changed much. Our small group is still walking out each Tuesday night to eat. We've stayed mainly in Beaumont Street but have encompassed a few other eateries, as long as we can walk there and back. Unfortunately Thursday trivia night, which Poss really looked forward to, folded early this year. It was a family affair with Jo, Scott and Nicole, but Nicole has circus practice and Jo and Scott are no longer in the area so it is unlikely we'll find a satisfactory replacement.

We are not travelling for Christmas this year. We're invited for breakfast at Joanne's and that's about as far as the planning has gone. The only other significant planned event is a trip to Melbourne at the end of February, for Poss's nurses 40th reunion. Hope to see some of you then. For all our other friends, we hope (by now) you know where we live. And if you haven't written (02) 4009 1774 somewhere, we are the only 'Cashin, A' in NSW in the online white pages phone book.

We wish you and yours a happy, healthy, prosperous and productive year.

Alan and Poss xx