Dear People,

Best wishes for the festive season, and we hope 2013 brings you all you wish for.

The main events in our life for 2012: Poss turned 60 and is now officially a senior citizen; Poss's father turned 90 and looks like he's good for a year or two yet; Nicole married Andrew; Joanne presented us with another grandchild, her third daughter Lucy.

As a 'valued member of our community' (quoting from the Seniors Card), Poss and I can now travel all day on public transport for a princely $2.50. We made use of this to investigate a few of Sydney's sights that we had not previously visited, leaving from our local railway station that is just around the corner. 'Quiet cars' have been introduced on the Newcastle/Sydney line, in these the trip can be quite relaxing especially if one has an interesting book. The book is almost mandatory as the round trip is just shy of 6 hours.

It seems our entertainment this year has predominantly been a series of one day events: Steamfest at Maitland, a day at the Hunter Valley Gardens, a lake cruise, a Swans game, and similar. We did use our time share week in Coolangatta, something we haven't done for many years, and just vegged out for most of the week. Also we visited the Woolgoolga/Emerald Beach family several times for a few days. But there were no 'grand tours', and at this stage there are none planned.

Our movements are constrained somewhat by Poss's commitments, both to her cleaning job and looking after grandchildren. It has not been easy to get more than a couple of 'free' days in a row. This is changing now Joanne has a year of parental leave to look after her newest baby. Lucy Simone Jobson was born around 5pm on 21^st September, weighing in at 8lb 2oz and now a healthy normal nearly 3 month old.

Nicole and Andrew were married on the 8^th of September so it was a busy month. The couple did most of the organising and the day was a bit of a surprise to some of us. It was a Scottish themed wedding with piper and a 'village walk' from the car to the ceremony which was in a local park under the trees. The weather was cool and a little windy but didn't detract from the proceedings. Andrew and Nicole were barefoot, the ceremony had sword waving, hand tying, and involved the waters of Loch Ness and a stone. It was educational, emotional, and entertainingly theatrical.

The reception was in a circus tent erected at the edge of the park. It worked well, the wind was not a problem and there were many entertaining acts mixed in with the few speeches. Beth and Steve did an over the top effort in catering, and there was plenty of everything for everyone. The partying went on for quite a while, I went back around 8:00pm and they were going strong so no idea when it wound up (Not bad for a 10:00am start). Some people camped around the main tent and muted festivities continued the next morning. Everyone was really well behaved, the rubbish was cleared up, the tent pulled down and a week later there was no evidence that it had been there. Several people said it was the best wedding they had been to, so Nic and Andrew started married life on a high.

Not that things have gone downhill since. They are still in the same flat as last year but contemplating moving. Although it is unlikely to be far, they are very happy with the area, just wanting something more spacious. Andrew completed his Dip Ed and has a teaching position at Glen Waverly next year. I think this will give Nicole the wriggle room to resign and look for a better job. In the meantime, she has negotiated a four day week as Andrew has some part time work in restaurants until the start of the teaching year.

Beth and Stephen are still living together, and seem very comfortable with life. They moved from Mayfield to Warrabrook which is a little further away from us but still within easy travelling distance. They are renting quite a palatial house but have acquired belongings to fill it so the next move will be interesting. Beth has been through two more chef positions since last year, it seems this is not unusual in the industry. The first move was to a Sebel (now Accor) hotel restaurant, then she was head hunted for one of the classier restaurants in the Hunter vineyards. This involves an hour each way commute, but she really likes what she is doing. The money is better, it is a day job as they are not open evenings except for receptions, and Beth is mainly preparing ingredients, which she prefers to the plating up of meals. Steve has also sorted out his work life. He eventually quit the job at Zinc when it seemed they were content to string him along while promising but not delivering a replacement head chef. After taking a well earned rest, he is working at a chocoholic paradise, Coco Monde Chocolateria and is much happier there.

Apart from adding to the family, not much has changed in Joanne and Scott's life. They live in happy chaos, with Poss providing a helping hand with the childminding, washing, ironing and cleaning. Anna is now five and will start primary school next year. She almost fits the dictionary definition of rambunctious, so it will be interesting to see how school affects her. She is also intelligent and inquisitive so I'm confident she will handle it just fine. Emily is a thoughtful nearly three year old and quite different to Anna although she has her rebellious moments. Makes one wonder what Lucy will be like.

Sandra is continuing her Bachelor of Biotechnology and seems very happy doing it. She attempted a full time load but found it was a little too much and dropped one subject. Her results are outstanding, high distinction in all subjects this year. The owners of her flat in Cardiff asked her to leave, so she is now living less than a block away from us in Islington. Michael is still living a schizophrenic life, staying some days with his father, some days with Sandra, and going to preschool in Cardiff where neither parent now lives. Although he will turn five in February and could go to school, the parents have decided he will stay at preschool one more year.

Poss's parents are still living in the self care part of the retirement village. Norm is getting less mobile and has balance problems so he may have to move to the nursing home section. He is unable to sit for long periods so for Nicole's wedding he went into respite care and Dawn travelled down and stayed with us for a week. We drove Dawn back and visited Norm on his last day 'up top', he said it was much better than he thought it would be. We hope he is as positive when the time comes to make the move permanently. It is an excellent retirement facility, so we know he will be looked after.

Poss's sister Barbara and husband Gordon went ahead with their house demolition and rebuild. The end result justifies the effort. The main living area is a combined kitchen, dining, living area and the architect has oriented the windows to take in all the views, which are just stunning. The east faces the ocean with views of Split Solitary Island, and is ideal for watching the passing whales. The southern view is over 15km of beaches with Coffs Harbour on the horizon. The western view is of the coastal hills and backdrop of higher ground of the Dividing Range. The guest suite is luxurious, with bathroom and two bedrooms, one with a small breakfast bar. The kitchen has room for every gadget a cook would desire, which Barb uses to excellent effect. There are several decks for outdoor entertainment, a giant garage, a study, and a master bedroom suite. As a retirement house, it is hard to think how it could be better.

In contrast, our humble dwelling is inching glacially toward completion. The stairs now have handrails, with most of the balusters in place. There is a space on the quarter landing, for which we have commissioned a metal sculpture as a decorative infill but it is not yet complete. The remainder of the stairwell is finished, with cracks filled, plaster inconsistencies replastered, and the paintwork touched up. The front veranda is a step closer as I finally have engineering plans that I can use. Next step is to find out how the council react as it is nearly ten years since the original plans were approved. Is this just a variation, or do I need a new DA? Watch this space.

Our 80 hectares of bush has been given little attention this year. I tried to drive to it in February, but part of the top access track was washed away. The only other way in, the bottom track, was also washed out some time ago, so the only way to get there was walking in. I thought I was prepared, as I purchased an old chainsaw to remove the occasional fallen tree that had been the only problem in previous visits. The next opportunity to visit was early November, and fortunately the rural fire brigade had repaired the washaway so I was able to drive to the boundary. I spent several hours investigating and clearing an area close to the boundary that I want to use as a camp site. Hopefully a track can be made good for a normal car all the way to it. At present, the first place a car can be turned around is quite a way into the block and the track is not really two wheel drive friendly for most of it.

People ask 'what do you do' and at first I am stumped for an answer. But I have had various 'projects' during the year. First I worked on the aforementioned chain saw. I bought it for $70, with the comment 'I used it a couple of times then it sat in the shed so I thought I'd get rid of it'. Well, the sitting was at leat 30 years so I thought it was a good idea to check it out. Apart from one missing screw it was in good condition so I believe the 'used it a couple of times'. Of course I had to make a carry box for it, get the appropriate files for the chain, buy the right two stroke mix, find some funnels, get a bar protector and so on. As yet it has only been used in anger twice.

I set out to digitise the Hawkey slides. Norm had hundreds of slides taken from the 1960s onward, and they had been digitised using a scanner. Unfortunately they were in no order, and the digitising only worked well where the colour balance and exposure were good. After much trial and error the slides were more or less in order and the image photographed through a magnifying lens using a very bright LED for backlighting. The results were good but the process was laborious and frustrated Poss no end as she saw little point to the whole exercise.

The magnifying lens was 'borrowed' from a telescope I bought at a market for $20. I used the telescope to project an image of the sun during the Venus transit, and obtained some crude but recognisable pictures of a little black dot on a big circle of light. They don't look much but when one thinks about a planet passing between us and the sun, an event not to occur again in my lifetime, it feels a little more momentous.

Also I have been reading more. Apart from computer magazines which have been my staple diet, I am reading books on recent history and politics. Apart from being very interesting, they are somewhat disturbing. Here's a few: Flat Earth News [Nick Davies], Deer Hunting with Jesus [Joe Bageant], Hamas : a history from within [Tamimi, Azzam], What's the Economy For, Anyway? [Batker/de Graaf], Legacy of Ashes [Tim Weiner]. Read them if you need some cynicism in your life.

Tuesday is still dine out in Beaumont Street night, Wednesday is still trivia at the pub. Poss instituted a street meeting on Friday afternoon which I call the Elders, she calls the Wrinklies, where selected neighbours are invited to drop in for a nibble and a chat. We still visit the library and shop Saturday morning, and Sunday is tennis morning (my knee is 'good enough' so I've rejoined). We still do volunteer work at Kooragang Wetlands and I set the questions and MC'd a KWRP fundraiser trivia night. It was so successful I think I have a job for next year.

And that was the year. As always we welcome your call, email, visit, letter, SMS or any other way we stay in contact. Best of health.

Alan and Poss xx