Season’s Greetings!
Well 2019 went by quickly! Here we are nearly at the end of the year and as always, we hope this Christmas letter finds you well and happy.
2019 has proved to be a challenging year for us. While travel plans were put on hold this year, 2020 is lining up to be an exciting travel year for us. There have been highs and lows throughout 2019, but December finds us well and in good health and hopeful for a less stressful 2020.
We are now five years into retirement and there are no regrets! Life does (and has) thrown in some curved balls along the way, but when things are going well, life truly is good!
January saw us heading to Albany camping on our block and then we were joined by David, Sophie and Poppy over the Australia Day period. The weather was kind and we spent our time relaxing and heading out to some wineries and a distillery. Lots of fun was had by all and it really was lovely to share this time with David and Sophie. Poppy was an excellent camper and we would happily take her with us just about anywhere.
We also had our beautiful Tyler to stay over the January school holidays and spent special time with him and enjoying his company,
February saw our son Mark who suffers from anxiety and depression, lapse into a very low state. He needed much support and came back home to live with us until he can manage his mental health issues. This is proving to be a very long chapter in his and our lives. We have discovered that mental health is such a huge label to encompass an enormous range of problems. Access to good quality mental health personnel is difficult, but finding out how to access them is even harder. We found ourselves at a loss as to where to go and what to do for most of the year and probably are still in that zone. During this period he was not working. In August he secured a new job and, slowly, very slowly, things are settling although there is an enormous way to go. He is still staying with us working towards going back to his own house, but it is a long journey. We are not sure there is light at the end of the tunnel yet.
Therefore, plans we had to head off to South Australia, Northern Territory and back down the West Coast with our friends Pam and Roy from March to June were cancelled. That hurt! We were so much looking forward to doing this trip and spending time with some very special friends. We are sure we will get to do this at a later date and look forward to this when life sorts itself out.
On a brighter note, not going away travelling during this period saw us spending much time with our lovely grandson Tyler and granddaughter Poppy.
Tyler is now 8 and is a gentle, kind and compassionate little boy. We have him each fortnight on the weekends while Mark is here and have had some wonderful fun times. His baby brother Leo has respiratory issues which saw him in and out of hospital regularly during the early part of the year. We had Tyler coming to stay with us for about a fortnight while his mother and Leo were in hospital, doing the school run, homework and all the other things that come with caring for a child his age. While we will help at any time we are around, we don’t miss the routine of school life!
Poppy is now eighteen months old and is a precious treasure. Like Tyler, Poppy is just a gorgeous child – empathetic, gentle and nurturing. We are so lucky. Sophie went back to work and Poppy attends day care three days a week. While the Day Care she goes to is lovely, Poppy has picked up every illness going around and so we regularly babysat Poppy when she was unwell. By the time she goes to school, her immune system should be perfect! So, if anything positive can come out of this difficult year for us, it would be that we have spent so much quality time with the grand children and have bonded with Poppy. If we had gone away, Poppy probably wouldn’t have known who we were! We look forward to our times with them both.
May saw Poppy’s first birthday and Sophie’s mum and sister came out from England to help celebrate her first year. While Poppy will never remember her day, all the adults had a great time! Its always lovely seeing Sophie’s family when they are able to come out.
Steve has taken up metal detecting. He just loves it. It has proven to be a fabulous stress release for him during this year. He is not interested in gold prospecting, although if he found some elusive nugget, he wouldn’t complain. He’s more interested in old relics and has been out regularly by himself or with several detectorists bringing home a wide assortment of artefacts. He is really excited by the pre decimal coins he is finding and has quite a display. Paula doesn’t go out with him often, but is happy to potter around looking for old bottles, crockery or other little bits and pieces – or she is just happy to go and sit and relax and read!
Being members of the Dockers and actually being in Perth during the footy season, saw us go to the football more than we have done for years. After much consideration though, we have let our membership lapse as when we travel we found we just weren’t using the membership. We plan to be away during the football season and we are happy just purchasing tickets when we want to go to a match. Paula is particularly happy to fly to Melbourne, Adelaide Sydney or wherever the Dockers are playing to go and watch them in those cities too!
Our lovely friends Pam and Roy invited us to go with them to Bali late in September for two weeks. We were a little nervous going as our last experience in Bali was not very positive. We were dismayed with the behaviour of some Australians over there. We always went during school holidays, but this trip was out of the school holiday period and we had a fabulous time and would certainly consider heading back again at some stage. Way too much eating and drinking and sitting on the beach. It was just what we needed and they were great company!
September saw us heading to Augusta for a week in our caravan, meeting up with Glenn and Heather for part of that time. We had a great week driving around to different wineries, doing very touristy activities and again, eating, drinking and laughing heaps. Such a gorgeous place to visit.
David is still at Austal Shipping working as a supervisor in Naval Base doing marine electrical work. He enjoys this and in this current employment climate, is just happy to have a job. He has been doing heaps of overtime and is often working 6 days a week. He is exhausted and is looking forward to a bit of a break over Christmas. We have been lucky enough to baby sit Poppy when he has overtime! Yay! We are the winners. Sophie returned to work in May and is currently managing the Mimco store at Booragoon. She also is working ridiculously long hours and is also exhausted, but has a heavy work load over Christmas. We are sure she is hanging out for a break to just breathe!
Ashleigh is still at Hammond Park and had a Kindy class for this year. She works very long hours and is a perfectionist so there is always something to do. She loves her job, but at this stage of the year, she is worn out. She now lives in South Perth in a lovely little unit and tells us she now feels like an adult because she recently purchased her first washing machine! We had to laugh.
We continue to be members of the WACA and are heading to the Test next week with Pam and Roy. Glenn who is also a WACA member may also come up for a day or two at the Test. Being a day/night match will be interesting. Rather than travelling into the stadium daily, we are staying in a hotel in Perth. We are looking forward to it, although the forecast for the first two days is 40!
We both turn 60 next year and we are heading off mid May to Japan, Canada, USA and Hawaii with Pam and Roy. Much celebration will be done! We are very much looking forward to it but just wont look at the cost!
We are also hoping to go away a bit more next year in our van doing some short two or three week trips to some locations in WA – especially places Steve can go detecting. Should be fun.
All the best to everyone for a safe and Happy Christmas and holiday season and a wonderful 2020.