Karen
Well, here we are, it's now the end of the year and time to try and get everyone to contribute to a family newsletter. It's getting harder all the time, the boys are reluctant to share their lives with anyone these days, other than their own inner circle - such is the way of University students. Jenny keeps extraordinarily busy, juggling a demanding, full time job with looking after three useless males. Also, I write a weekly Hash web page, that tends to absorb all of my normal news talents.
My own business has picked up quite a bit now, after last year's disaster - most Australian businesses seemed to find the new taxation scheme (the GST, or VAT to Poms) made many customers disappear for quite a considerable time. Only in the last 3 months have they started coming out of the woodwork again, now that state and federal elections are over.
Projects? Well, after putting a new engine in the Land Rover over Easter, it's transformed the beast. Although now 34 years old, it goes like a rocket (by Land Rover standards) and is much more driveable. I've even had the rusty top door frames re-built by a local panel beater, as I couldn't get replacements easily. There was a minor problem with the new engine, nothing that spending 3 days spent ripping it out again pulling the back end of the crank to pieces to replace a faulty crankshaft oil seal, couldn't fix. For those of you Poms, it's hard to believe this was the first serious mechanical job I've done in 15 years or so, other than my niece's Mini ( you never did send me the Marmite for that, Debbie) - you can't count a vehicle that small! I've also got the PTO (power take off) working again, powering a spraying trailer, which is used for spraying weeds, and in an emergency, as a fire tender of first resort.
Otherwise,
most other projects have taken a back stage, the master bedroom got a lick of
paint, I was going to repair the bedroom wardrobe, but when I started, it fell
apart due to rotten chipboard, so I had to build a new one out of melamine,
a first for me. It's not an easy material to work with, but since timber is
so expensive, and of such poor quality these days, there's no choice. All that
remains to be done there is to put doors on, which will happen as soon as the
money is there. The ensuite bathroom renovation is on hold, we have most of
the materials, but I'm not game to do the floor tiling, it's too difficult making
good the existing bad job, it's something you need a craftsman to do - and none
of the locals want to even come and quote.
We had the Bayside Hash House Harriers Christmas party here on December 1st, which proved to be a major undertaking, we had to be sure to be able to move indoors in the event that weather turned inclement, but in the event the weather was fine, hot and humid, which meant the swimming pool was the place to be for most of the night. The committee budgetted for 18 cans of beer per head, and there wasn't a great deal left over, other than soft drinks. About 20 or so people stayed the night, in beds, tents or sleeping bags on the floor as space filled up, which meant that there were plenty of folks there in the morning to help clear up. The two dogs had a field day with the scraps during the night, stealing and scrounging anything that took their fancy - this led to Laura having to be taken to the vet midday Sunday with a strong reaction to something that she ate, at vast expense of course!.
In other news, well, there isn't much else of interest. Richard has just finished his third year at Uni, he now has 5 subjects left and he's then finished. He's working casually in a shop in Brisbane, whenever they need him, which isn't too often. Chris has just finished his first year, with very good grades in his IT course - he's now working 3 days a week for a security company, in the office, which is earning him enough to start thinking about buying his own computer, with his own money. He's fed up with my cast-offs.
Jenny
I can't believe it is time to write the Christmas newsletter. This year has gone faster than ever.
Message for overseas readers - sorry but we have missed the posting date for overseas mail so this newsletter will also have to double up as your Christmas card.
I was planning to get so organized this year. I am not sure what has happened but here it is December 12 and I have done no Christmas shopping at all, sent no cards and generally not planned anything at all. I am not sure where it all went wrong.
I blame work. We have been busy as usual in the pre-Christmas rush. Suddenly everyone wants everything before Christmas. Business is going well for Alphapharm. We have two first to file generics in the US market - Fluoxetine Tablets 10 and 20 mg and Flecainide Tablets. (This means we have 180 days market exclusivity in the US market for these particular products as the only generic product on the market, ie we make lots of money). It is a real bonus for a little Australian company half a world away. Anyway what it means is they can still pay me and still pay the bonuses. I received my gold watch for 10 years faithful service last Saturday at the Alphapharm Christmas party. I was really pleased. It is a very nice watch
Back to home my head gardener (my mum) spent a week here in early December. We planted out a lot more plants. The weather has been quite kind in that we have had quite a lot of rain so everything is growing like mad. It is very satisfying and the garden is looking good.
We had some quite scary weather also last week. Early one morning it started to rain, then there was thunder, then there was a lightning strike next door. Lying in bed at 5.30 and listening to the crackle as the lightening zips around outside is quite scary. It was very loud and very close and it also destroyed the phone system via the gate intercom. This is not the weather I like!!!
The boys will tell you their news separately but they are moving ahead. Richard is 21 in February. We are having a party for him to celebrate so anyone who is in Brisbane on 16th Feb (provisional date) come along. Both boys have had some paid work these holidays (yippee) and Richard is doing a Bar and Restaurant course next week to give him more work options. Unfortunately now they are earning money they have immediate plans for spending. Chris is planning to buy a super-computer and Richard has his heart set on a car.
I am having 2 weeks off over Christmas and as the ensuite project is on hold I will probably spend some time catching up on reading. I have Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, some Maeve Binchy, and White Teeth by Zadie Smith (Mum has read that and thought there was too much sex so it should be good). I have just finished reading Mauve, which is the story of the development of coal tar dyes in the 19th century (developed by an Englishman, William Perkins in case you are ignorant of the fact). The first half of the book is a quick read but the second half is about the politics of the era and is much harder work.
Anyway I now have 7 working days until my Christmas break. I had better start writing lists so I can get some Christmas shopping done and get some Christmas cards off. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.
Richard
Hi everyone, I've forgotten when I last wrote one of these so I will have to check to see where i was up to. Ok June. Well since then I've had a semester of uni, which wasn't too bad I ended up with four 4's which means for the first time I managed to pass everything properly. Which is obviously a good thing. So now I only have 5 subjects to do, 3 in the first semester and 2 in the second, so it shouldn't be too hard. I should beable to get some part time Environmental Health work on my days off if all goes well.
As my Mum and Karen said I had a job, working at a Dollars & Sense shop, just doing normal shop stuff like serving customers and moving stock around and all that kind of stuff, it only lasted a short time however, it would seem I was only filling in for an employee who went awol for a while, and upon his return i was more or less unemployed again. Next week I will be doing a bar and restaurant course, which hopefully will lead to a more permenant job. So anyway we will see.
As you can see by the photo I'm still going out with Katie, we have been together for over 19 months now, which is a good thing. After Christmas I will be going up the coast with her family, and then a few weeks after that we will be going down to Melbourne to see the tennis so that should be good too.
So apart from that I've just been doing the usual uni student stuff, going out to a few pubs and stuff, although its not really a usual occurance for me. Last weekend I went with Katie to a party up in the Glasshouse mountains, which was really good, We had a good time.
Anyway thats about it from me.
Chris
After a long year at university I came out with some good results, all up I got four 7's, one 5, two 4's and a pass on a non-graded subject. As well as detailed knowledge of how boring databases are (or at least the textbook which could be used as a substitute for sleeping pills with the only side effect of making the brain slightly numb for a few hours).
I now have a job doing filing, nothing else just filing for 7.5 hours a day (but only Monday to Wednesday so it isn't too bad and its not too bad money wise). I have also decided to dispense with this extra wealth by investing in a computer (which isn't really the best investment as computers seem to loose value very quickly).
In my spare time I have been working on a chess game made in java (not java script the web page language but actual java). It still has some minor flaws that need to be ironed out. Eventually I hope to get some AI working in it but it could take some time for it to actually be able to play a game well.
I have also been working on a 3D game engine based on the
Quake engine source code released by ID under GPL. By doing this I have learned
C (a very common programming language), OpenGL (a 3D graphics programming
interface) and basic games programming all in one go. It has its home on
my student web account (http://student.uq.edu.au/~s4010236).
Laura & Lucifer
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L & L are both well, both had mishaps during the year requiring hospitalisation (= $$'s), Luci had a paralysis tick, and Laura over ate seriously (we think) at the Hash Xmas party and had pancreatitis. But both are now disgustingly fit, and not interested at all in posing nicely for the camera, couldn't get either of them to smile, they just wanted to play, destroy things and kill wildlife to their heart's content. |  |
That all folks!!!
