Seasons Greetings!
We hope this Christmas letter finds you well and happy as we near the end of 2012. For us, like 2011 it’s been a year of highs and lows and celebrations.
January saw us celebrating the beginning of 2012 in Albany on the farm for several days and then we headed with friends again to Thomas River -100 km east of Esperance. It is a beautiful part of the world and so peaceful. In 2011 Mother Nature gave us a warm 48 degree day, this year we were treated to a magnificent thunder storm with a fabulous display of lightning and heavy rain. Overall we had a great time relaxing, kayaking and doing very little!
Steve at Thomas River
We were utterly surprised and delighted when on a phone call home to make sure everyone was still surviving, David and Sophie told us they had became engaged! David took Sophie to Fraser’s at King’s Park and proposed. We can’t be happier for both of them. David is besotted and Sophie is a rare treasure. We love her to bits.
David and Sophie's Engagement
A wonderful engagement party was held at our home in March and it was simply a really happy day. The weather was perfect, way too much food and drink and lots of laughter. They are planning their wedding for July 2014 in England! Exciting times ahead and lots of planning needed. We will take LSL and spend extra time travelling while the opportunity is there for us.
In April David bought a house! It is not far from our home. It is a gorgeous 3 x 2 house on a hill. Steep driveway!!!! We spent time helping David and Sophie move and clean and we now alternate Sunday evenings between their house and our house for tea. Mark, Tyler (when possible) and Ashleigh are often with us and it is a really lovely feeling to have everyone around, safe, happy and enjoying each others’ company. We eat way too much!
In April we headed back to Albany and stayed camping on the farm with friends and spending time with family. It was as usual quiet, peaceful and nice. We sold our “Hobie” tandem kayak earlier in the year, and now have 2 single kayaks which you can peddle and/or paddle. The river is the perfect place for fishing and gently kayaking up and down. Much time was spent just meandering up and down the Kalgan. We take them most places we go as it is so easy to transport and use. Makes us feel like we are doing our bit in the health area as well!
Kalgan Bream
Sophie Sophie celebrated her 21st birthday this year and this was enough cause for another family celbration.
July saw us take our pilgrimage to the north, staying at Cape Keraudren again. Gosh we just love the travelling and magnificence of the land. How lucky are we? We took a week LSL prior to the school holidays and headed off early to just unwind and relax. The weather was quite windy (which is normal up there) for the first few days and then we were treated to some lovely weather and we were able to kayak many days exploring all the creeks and streams. Friends arrived at the commencement of the school holidays to share our time. Good fishing, but more than that – it was just fun. We plan to take the extra week again in 2013. We were amazed at the amount of traffic on the northern highways. In our early days of Port Hedland and Tom Price when we travelled the inland route, we could drive for ages without seeing a car. Now it is like the freeway. So many haulage trucks, mining vehicles, cars and pilot vehicles – listening on the 2 Way to the pilot cars and trucks kept us amused.
October saw us go to Melbourne for a week. It coincided with Ashleigh’s Melbourne trip – we didn’t stay together! We met up with her twice and it was really lovely to share this time with her out of context from home. We did all the touristy things in Melbourne and had a great time.
You’ll be pleased to know that we actually did do some work during 2012 too!
Steve commenced work at Settler’s Primary School in Baldivis. It is an enormous school with about 1100 children. Steve has so many teaching staff and Education Assistants, he sometimes has trouble remembering who they all are. Like most schools, Settler’s has its own associated problems, but he applied for and became an Independent Public School this year, meaning he can employ staff and this make a huge difference for the needs of the students and school. He has found this year very challenging and has never worked harder. So he goes to work each day and fights the increasing traffic flow south and returns exhausted. One reason why we value our holidays away so much! Steve has reacquainted himself with his photography passion of the last few years and has taken some amazing photos – especially when we travel and we now have some lovely enlarged canvas prints. We are always happy to go somewhere to explore photographic possibilities as well as the beauty of the place for relaxing.
Paula remains at Oberthur in Bull Creek as a Pre Primary teacher which she loves and is still the Learning Support Coordinator. She just loves the job and the children and will probably retire and/or die there – which ever comes first. She has even picked out a memorial tree that they can plant when she leaves - whenever that may be. It is a great place to work.
Very sadly for Paula, her Mum’s health started to decline just before her 80th birthday celebrations and after some weeks back and forth to hospital she was flown to Perth and diagnosed with 2 in-operable brain tumours and given 3 – 8 weeks to live. What a journey this is. Paula and her sister Jos were told this news by a neurosurgeon who then told Paula and Jos that they would have to tell their mum the news – not him.
Telling Mum that there was “no hope” was the most difficult thing Paula had to do. Perhaps having gone through the experience with Ashleigh when her 3 friends died in an awful accident when she was in year 12, or perhaps going through the nightmare time when David had his accident, we are not sure, but Paula had so much strength and was so calm when she was talking to her mum. The words came out right and looking back, the experience and time was beautiful – but that is another story. So we spend out time going to Albany and Paula has had time off work to spend at the hospital or take her out. It is physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausting for all of us. Her mum is deteriorating slowly, and “8 weeks” is Tuesday 18th December – but we all think she will be here for Christmas and New Year. It is just so sad seeing a once dominant and powerful woman become a shadow of herself.
Ashleigh's 21st
Ashleigh turned 21 in September and with everything “Ashleigh” she had all the “bells and whistles”. We had a lovely extended family gathering at home and she went to Melbourne with her best friend for a week. She is now a qualified teacher! She graduated last week from Notre Dame University and won an award for Highest Academic average in Literacy and Language. We are so proud of her achievements. She is a born teacher and has worked so hard earning a High Distinction in all her internships and many of her assignments. It looks like she has a job at a close metro school for 2013. Good things going her way! At present she continues to work in her dream job at The Pickled Fairy Shop and The Tea Pot Shop in Fremantle. Ashleigh is in her element as you can imagine. Dressing up in costume, hosting parties and wandering around Fremantle in costume is right up her alley! Not sure how she will cope not being a fairy any more!
Mark still works at All Type Engineering. Tyler is now 16 months old and is Mark’s pride and joy. (As he is with us!) Mark has access to Tyler regularly and it is lovely to watch him with Tyler. Tyler is simply gorgeous and we love him to bits. We are not biased grandparents!!!! Mark copes, but struggles at times. We do what we can to help.
Mark & Tyler
David continues his apprenticeship with Nielsen’s Electrical. He works at the Fiona Stanley Hospital not far from home and rides his bike come rain, hail or shine to work daily. He is enjoying the work. In January a settlement was finally made over his accident which enabled David to purchase his house (well a mortgage at least). Three and a bit years down the track from his accident there are still moments of huge emotion when we think about it, but he has been remarkable in his attitude and is in a really good “space” right now. David and Sophie flew to England for a brief visit in July so David could meet Sophie’s family. They had a wonderful time if you are going on the photos and discussions. It is nice to see them so happy.
Sophie has applied for residency and we can only sit and wait. The application has been in for about 4 months. She was told it can be up to 9 months. It seems a bit long given that she would be pretty easy to do a check on! She is very anxious but hopeful. She continues to study a Business and Commerce degree at Curtin. She is very studious and as with all her assignments and exams, has done really well. She works her hours allowed under her Visa conditions at the local IGA doing supervisor’s role.
We celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in January and are heading to Bali on January 6th for 9 days. We are looking forward to this, but arrangements may alter depending on Paula’s Mum.
So that is us for 2012.
All the best to everyone for a safe and Happy Christmas and holiday season and a wonderful 2013.