Dear People,

The sun is shining, cricket on the radio, and we are going to a street party this evening. Christmas is around the corner and it's time to contact friends near and far. Best wishes to you all, your family, your friends, and may the coming year be good to you.

Poss and I have had an uneventful year (as compared with previous years). Our girls and their relationships are unchanged, and there are no extra grandchildren to report. We finally met Beth's partner, Stephen (who was a mystery man when I wrote last year). He is acting head chef at Zinc, a well regarded restaurant in Darby Street, Cooks Hill. We rarely see him, he is working ridiculous hours as the restaurant seems to be permanently understaffed. He assures us the management hear his pleas for less work hours and we understand a third head chef is on the way (the first one walked out after a day, the second after two days). There is a slim chance we will see more of Stephen and Beth, as they are now renting an older brick house in Mayfield, only a few kilometres away. They seem happy with it so, just maybe, Beth has found somewhere she is content to stay.

Beth is still the dedicated chef herself, but is resisting the move to head chef (perhaps Stephen's experience has something to do with this). However, she is also keen to try new things so may have to make another move to satisfy her desire to experiment. She seems to have put her musical aspirations on hold, if she's still playing in a band she is being quiet about it.

Nicole and Andrew are still in Melbourne, but have moved from the outer suburbs closer to the city. For a while they were living in North Fitzroy but now have moved next to Croxton railway station in Northcote, one suburb further out and about 8km from the CBD. Up to now they have been sharing with other people but this time they are by themselves which seems much more satisfactory. In North Fitzroy they were jammed into a single room and there was really not enough room for them and their chattels. We stayed in Melbourne for a night when they were there, and spent the next morning with Nicole looking for other accommodation. We didn't see anything satisfactory and gained some appreciation of the tough rental market these days.

The good news is they are intending to marry next year. Planning is in progress for the wedding, to be in Newcastle in a circus tent, I believe. Andrew is working as a waiter in several restaurants, but is planning to do a Dip Ed and go teaching. Nicole is still unhappy in the same job she was unhappy about this time last year, so maybe it pays too well. She is currently feeling flush as she has finished paying for her car, and reports they are paying less rent than before.

Sandra was deeply depressed earlier in the year and sought professional help. She was advised that the sort of work she was doing was a contributing factor and that a career change would be beneficial. So she resigned from her legal firm and has now started a Bachelor of Biotechnology, with an interest in pathology. She is finding life as a student somewhat less stressful and is much more cheerful. She and Adam still share parenting duties, and son Michael seems to be handling multiple sleeping places without too much trouble. Adam has simplified the situation by moving back to his parents' house so Michael has less 'homes'.

Both Michael and Anna (Joanne's eldest) started preschool this year, at the same school in Cardiff. At first, Anna was going Wednesday and Thursday and Michael was going Thursday also. Now Michael is going two days but his extra day is Monday. Poss is heavily involved in this, as Joanne is working part time. Poss is at Joanne's on Wednesday and Thursday looking after Emily (Joanne's younger), and collecting Anna from preschool. Sandra had classes on Thursday so Poss was also collecting Michael. Because we have (only?) two children’s seats in the car, I was needed at Joanne's for an hour on Thursday to look after Emily while Poss did the collection run. Ah, the complexity of grandparenthood.

Scott and Joanne seem to have settled into the married groove, parents and two children in the suburbs. Who would have guessed our troublemaker of twenty years ago would turn out to be quite normal after all? But maybe she is still bucking the trend as it is said that married with children is no longer the norm. Poss is satisfying her gardening yen while at Joanne's with an extensive vegetable patch and a rejuvenated flower garden, which she maintains during her two days of grandchild duties. We've benefited from a variety of fresh vegetables since the garden started producing.

As Poss has committed to quite a demanding schedule, we haven't been getting away much. She usually has some work or grandparent duties every weekday, and what time we get away is fitted in as best we can. Our only long away was when my cousin Lionel and wife Yvonne arrived last February. We spent a few days taking in the Newcastle sights then stayed a week at Boambee Bay resort near Coffs Harbour. I don't think they will forget Australia in a hurry. They arrived by train in the middle of a huge thunderstorm and, despite me meeting them at the carriage door with umbrellas, we were saturated after the short walk home. The main road turned into a river and we had to wade through ankle deep water pounded by heavy rain. A week later at the resort we drove through an incredible wind change with huge branches cascading down on the car as we drove to a nearby restaurant. This was followed by more torrential rain but by that time we were watching from our dinner table.

Just in case Australia had not left any impression so far, I planned a few days in Coonabarabran. It was my idea of a fairly typical inland town within driving range, with some nearby sightseeing opportunities. Unfortunately Poss became quite sick so her sister Barbara drove her back to Newcastle while we went on. It was a memorable few days, with the weather behaving itself for once and lots to see. Should you be in the area, keep an eye out for the world's biggest scale model of the solar system. It is centred on the observation dome of the Anglo-Australian Telescope which is 37 metres in diameter and represents the sun. Scale model planets are mounted on boards beside roads at the appropriate scale distances, with Pluto (still a planet at the time of construction) a billiard ball sized globe nearly 200km away. There are models of the outer planets positioned along each of the major roads to Coonabarabran so it doesn't matter what way you go, you'll see them if you look. It is a sobering reminder of just how insignificant we are, and how little chance we have of going somewhere else if we trash this planet.

Apart from that, there's been a few trips to check out Poss's parents at Woolgoolga, and a drive down to Victoria for my cousin Bert's 80^th birthday. It was a nostalgic trip, we fitted in a drive to Coopers Creek near Walhalla where my parents owned a bush shack for a few years. I spent many teenage weekends there, and was interested to see it again. The area was nearly unrecognisable, and it would appear the shack had burned down in a bushfire as there was only a chimney standing where I thought it might have been. But on a positive side we saw the Walhalla railway has been rebuilt as far as the Thompson River. I thought this would be beyond any volunteer group as there are numerous bridges that needed repair. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to take the train but next time maybe. We were able to spend a short time at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, on the way back. If you are in the least interested in green stuff, it's worth a visit.

Poss's father Norm is becoming a bit of a worry, he is nearly 90 with lots of medical issues, but is trying hard to ignore them. He has balance problems but insists on doing more than he should unaided. None of the issues are life threatening so we are looking forward to his 90^th in May next year. Dawn still races around the house but is a bit scatty, she managed recently to set the microwave on fire trying to cook potatoes using a special container she had bought. It had no instructions and her guesstimate of cooking time was a bit optimistic. The fire truck came (courtesy of the smoke alarm) but there was no damage apart from an unusable microwave.

Fortunately Poss's sister Barbara and husband Gordon are now more or less permanently resident at nearby Emerald Beach and keep an eye on things. We have fond memories of the Emerald Beach house having visited often, but it is about to be demolished and replaced with a grand mansion. We've seen the plans and look forward to seeing what it looks like as a finished article.

Out of interest, I became a census officer for the August census. It was very interesting visiting over 400 houses and talking to people. What variety! At one house I was berated for going to the back door, as this was invading their privacy. Then two doors later the lady thanked me for going to the back door as she couldn't hear the bell at the front. It struck me how few people have any method of being alerted to someone at the door. There were locked screens so one could not reach the bell, or no bell or knocker, or the bell didn't work. Then there were the ones where the bell looked like it worked but was inaudible so you weren't sure if it worked or not and didn't want to press again in case it did. Fortunately the weather was favourable and my area was a dream compared with the stories related by some of the other collectors. I'm sure the walking was good for me, and an unexpected bonus was a big improvement in my handwriting (until then a little used and deteriorating skill), as the collectors' records are all pen and paper.

The renovation front has stalled, the only progress being construction of a storage unit in the front room. It replaces a large kitchen dresser, a filing cabinet, a computer desk, a small storage unit, and also provides some bookshelves and a cloak cupboard. The artist we talked to about fancy bannisters failed to appear, and the engineer who strung us on for several months finally submitted totally unsuitable plans for the front verandah. So I plan a fresh start on these in the new year.

'The block' is also languishing. The weeds inspector required that something be done about the lantana, so my friend Aris and I camped on the block in July for a few days to assess the situation. That trip was worthy of a comedy travel documentary in its own right, but I'll just say the conclusion was that it was too big a job for us to tackle. So we've had a contractor in to spray some of it. I went back a few weeks ago and the results are quite good, the spray has had minimal effect on the native vegetation and lots of lantana is dead. However there is still plenty left so this might be a recurring event each year.

Day to day life is pretty much the same. Tuesday is dine out in Beaumont Street night, Wednesday is trivia at the pub, Friday is take away, we visit the library and shop Saturday morning, and Sunday is Poss's tennis day. We still do volunteer work at Kooragang Wetlands although I have been remiss in not working on their IT since I did the census work. We like our neighbourhood, with good neighbours, a pleasant street, and almost everything within easy walking distance. The state government has paid for our solar panels now, and we probably won't need to pay gas or electricity until they stop the feed in tariff (apologies to all the NSW people who are subsidising us, we didn't ask for it).

As always, we welcome visitors any time. People are finally taking advantage of the fold down couch, with a number of visitors through the year (Brian and Rob have probably recovered from 'whalewatching' – quotes required as the whales were elusive and the sea was unpleasantly choppy). Our contact details are unchanged – Phone 02 4009 1774 mobile 0432 423 927. We'd love to hear from you. And our front door bell is easily accessible and works.

Alan and Poss xx