Dear People,

Season's greetings from Poss and me, and may the year ahead be a good one for you.

Early this year I resurrected my interest in electronics construction after a break of many years, by designing and building a computer controlled GPS disciplined oscillator. I mention this, not so you lapse into a coma of incomprehension, but to say that the device has a light that flashes once a second to indicate that all is well. The flash is visible from our bedroom window (the device is in the garage) and I believe the length of the second has changed. Where once it was a leisurely one-and-two-and... it is now an insistent oneandtwoand... That got me thinking, so I checked the calendar. It says all the weeks so far have 7 days, I'm not so sure. What happened on Monday three weeks ago? Did it really happen? Was there really an August this year? I feel time is contracting and we have arrived at the end of the year rather too hastily. Consequently I am writing this, the 25th Christmas letter, later than the usual late. My daughter says it is an age thing, and I'd better get used to it. We'll see. But it means we have been in Newcastle 25 years, and almost accepted as locals.

Our bit of unwanted excitement for the year was the house was hit by lightning. It was actually late 2013, and happened as we were walking out the door. We knew the strike was close, but it wasn't until we returned that we found all the power was off, and no one else had a problem. The final tally was a completely destroyed solar system, a ceiling fan, the internet connection and some ancillaries, a dodgy PVR and a confused A/C. Fortunately it was all covered by insurance but it took over 4 months to get everything repaired. There was some nervousness when a year and a day later another spectacular storm came rather too close. They say lightning doesn't strike the same place twice, let's hope there's some truth in that.

Sadly, Poss's father Norm died in May a few days shy of his 92nd birthday. He moved into the nursing home last year and was steadily going down hill so it was no surprise. But he leaves a big space in our lives. Despite (or perhaps because of) his irascible nature, we all love him and miss him. He was the archetypal 'rough diamond' - a first class stirrer but full of love for his family. Most of the family will be in the Woolgoolga vicinity over the coming break and we intend to do some reminiscing. Poss's mum Dawn is staying on in the unit in the retirement village, and has involved herself more in their activities. From a distance, it is hard to judge how she is coping, but she seems fine both physically and mentally. We shall find out soon as we are staying with her for a few days over Christmas.

Poss and I have not travelled much this year, a few one day trips, the usual July run up to the time share in Coolangatta, and a couple of visits to Canberra to see Beth and Steve. One visit coincided with Floriad, the Canberra flower show. The day we went to Floriad last year there was cold blustery winds and rain and it wasn't at all pleasant. This year the weather was very hospitable with calm, almost warm, sunny days. We were able to appreciate the wonderful flowers properly, well worth the return visit. We stayed a few days and took in some other Canberra tourist traps. A fortunate thing, because Beth and Steve moved back to Newcastle a few months ago. No more cheap Canberra accommodation with in-house chefs. B&S are now renting a house one block from where we play tennis, 5 minutes away rather than 5 hours. Steve is taking a holiday, well deserved as he was working insane hours in Canberra. Beth is working at a strange restaurant in the Newcastle CBD. I call it strange as it has no view, difficult parking, and no interesting venues in the immediate area. I can't see how it will survive and I think Beth is of a similar opinion as she is looking for somewhere else. Their point of difference is 'hot rock' cooking, where one cooks one's own meal on a (you guessed it) hot rock. This speeds things in the kitchen, and if the saving was passed on to the customer I could see a future. As it is, the prices are the same as a chef cooked meal and the customer has to do some of the cooking.

With three of our girls in Newcastle, Nicole is now the only seed far from the tree. She and Andrew have moved yet again in Melbourne, now sharing a house with another couple in Coburg. Fortunately, they have no qualms about flying visits, and return frequently. Nicole was last here for my 70^th a week ago, she stayed on for Anna's 7^th birthday on the weekend. And we will see them again around Christmas as they make their almost traditional annual pilgrimage to the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland. Andrew has a patchwork of jobs including working at a library and teaching circus skills. Nicole found a job in Port Melbourne working as a casual, but now offered a full time position. It is the returns section of the company that sells all the things you see on late night TV. It's not great but it helps pay the bills.

Sandra and Joanne's lives are pretty much unchanged from last year. Sandra continues to work her way through her Bachelor of Biotechnology, to be completed sometime this century I believe. She is in the same half house as last year, at the end of our street. She is now sharing her rooms with a friend to reduce living expenses. It gets crowded on the days when Michael sleeps over as everyone sleeps in the one room. The room is divided with a wall of wardrobes so there is some privacy, but not my idea of comfortable living. Michael started school at Valentine Public this year, and has adapted well. His kindergarten report is complimentary and he is doing especially well in arithmetic. No surprise there. It is quite a way from where either parent lives, and Sandra acquired a car to do the school runs. It wasn't expensive, and is proving to be reliable and trouble free.

Sandra was advised by her doctor that she should exercise more, and suggested walking. Sandra wasn't keen on walking by herself, so asked Poss if she would be her companion for a morning walk. Poss declined as four days a week she leaves for her other commitments. I volunteered, and for most of this year we walk at least 3km five mornings a week. In winter we were starting at 7 a.m. but have moved it to 6:15 a.m. in summer to avoid the heat of the day. I think it has benefited us, both mentally and physically. In a quirk of fate, a few weeks ago Poss was advised by her doctor she should do more exercise and suggested walking. She walks much faster than Sandra and I, so she decided to walk independently. She is leaving at 5:30 a.m. and we often pass like ships in the morning as she is finishing and we are starting out.

Poss is still doing some cleaning work on Monday and Friday, and looks after Joanne's children on Wednesday and Thursday. Anna is in Year 1 this year and thriving. Emily spends the two days in preschool until 2:30pm. when Poss collects her. She will start kindergarten next year so Poss will only have Lucy during the day. Joanne had hoped to start Lucy in preschool but changes to the government subsidies means the fees are likely to be too high. Lucy is an amiable soul, she has been chatty all year. Early on, the chat sounded like talk, but didn't have words that we could understand. Now the words are clear and the odd sensible sentence can be heard. We took her to a fun trivia morning recently, she played happily for hours to the delight of the other people there.

Life is pretty much 'same old same old'. We do our volunteer planting each month, although this may come to an end. The land we are rehabilitating is now managed by the National Parks and Wildlife service, they don't support the volunteer work to the same extent as before. We think they are not used to the idea of rehabilitation, as most of their work is keeping things as they were. We still play our brand of tennis each Sunday morning; with several dodgy knees and shoulders it isn't quite up to Wimbledon standard. The Beaumont Street on Tuesday club is still a regular outing, there are usually six of us now. Brian and Val Holt are old friends that lived in various places, most recently in Moss Vale but moved to Newcastle late last year. They joined us on Tuesdays starting early this year and are now regulars. This is open to anyone who wishes to join us, so if you are in Newcastle on a Tuesday.... Wednesday we still do trivia as a foursome, and struggle with all the lifestyle TV and recent film questions as none of us watch them. Apart from that we are usually competitive, and on occasions win enough for a free drink or meal. Anything to keep the mind ticking over. Fridays are still takeaway days, plenty to choose from with Indian, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Greek all within walking distance. Our favourite hamburger place has just changed hands and we have yet to find if the excellent standard is maintained. And sometimes we walk to Mayfield and get Subway, about a 5km round trip. One hopes the effort of getting the food offsets some of the calories acquired eating it.

There was time for hobbies early in the year while waiting on a contractor to relocate our power. We are adding a front veranda and balcony (still) and this required completion of a dividing wall between us and the neighbouring semi-detached house. Our power line was attached to the house right where wall needed to go, so had to be relocated. This turned into a problem when we found there was no legal place on our land to erect a temporary pole while the balcony roof was erected. One contractor suggested we run a power cord from a neighbour's power point for the few weeks it would take to get the roof up. After some weeks of dithering it was decided to put the power underground, which could be done in a single, albeit more expensive, operation. This required a rare breed of electrician holding multiple certificates. It took nearly five months for the one I chose to start. He had legitimate reason, he had unscheduled repair work to storm damaged electricals after a particularly severe storm just before he was due to start our job. Fortunately, when he and his crew arrived, the work was completed quickly to an excellent standard and perhaps worth the wait.

With the power relocated, we could continue the veranda construction. Except my fear of heights imposed itself, so after more dithering a bricklayer was called in to complete the dividing wall to its full 6 meters height. Another couple of months delay waiting for the brickie to come, then I started on the roof. My fears (which are quite irrational) didn't rear their ugly head and the last sheet of iron went on two days ago. Just in time, as it has rained ever since and is blowing mightily as I write. There is a bit to do before the scaffolding comes down: but wait, there's more after that. The balcony needs railings, there are decks to add, and the front window has to be replaced by a door. Although the end is tantalisingly near, we will not be having drinks on the balcony this Christmas.

We are all reasonably healthy. Poss has various pills and potients that keep her body on the straight and narrow, and so far I have not needed them. Recently I had chest pains and the doctor concluded it was muscle strain from excessive renovation. However, he said I should go get my heart checked out and a stress test 'so he could sleep easy at night'. An echo-cardiogram in a few days time and, if that shows nothing unusual, a stress test in January.

We don't have significant future plans. We will return to the timeshare in July, this time with Joanne and children. Perhaps not as relaxing as the last few years but it should be enjoyable showing the grandchildren around. Perhaps 'the block' will get some attention, I don't think we went there at all this year. Hopefully all the little trees are fattening into big trees and in a year or so we can invite the loggers in to top up our bank balance. Perhaps we will do a few trips to Sydney on the train. We really haven't taken advantage of the pensioner $2.50 a day travel, and who knows how long that concession will last. This year we used it once to see the Phryne Fisher exhibition in Old Government House in Parramatta.

And that wraps up another year. We hope to see as many of you as we can, and although Facebook is a poor substitute, it keeps some of us in touch. And there's always email, letter, SMS or phone calls, love to hear from you any way, any time. With love to you all.

Alan and Poss xx