It is hard to imagine another 12 months has passed already.
Life has settled a bit into a routine with work and school, though we did manage one excursion to Tasmania in September. The scenery was luscious and the weather mixed.
For the girls first trip we hit most of the landmarks, walking in Cradle Lake National Park, cruise up the Gordon River, tour of the Cadbury’s factor and a walk on the beaches of Freycinet National Park. We had rain, snow and sunshine and a relatively calm trip there and back on the Spirit of Tasmania so all was good and the girls really loved it, except the rain.
Cath and I also had the pleasure of going to Hanging Rock for the Leonard Cohen concert along with about 12,000 others. While this pretty well overwhelmed the transport system, leading to an interesting trip to and from the concert, the event itself was impressive. We missed Dan Sultan but saw Clare Bowditch, Paul Kelly and the inimical Leonard Cohen himself. It is amazing how many of his songs we knew and he is still an amazing performer at 76. There is still some hope for me. 
Siobhan has now finished Grade 5, quoted as one of the highlights of her year, and high school beckons in the near future. Still very much a home body, she has formed some strong friendships amongst her school mates, though a couple will be tested as friends move to different schools. She really enjoyed her 11th birthday with a movie outing and sleep over with some of her close friends. Siobhan has also developed all the trappings of a teenager with iPod grafted to hand, morning sleep-ins and clothes creatively scattered around her room and the house.
Siobhan has once again enjoyed a successful year at school with excellent reports and she continues to develop her tennis skills. Tennis also gave Siobhan her first experience with competitive sport when her coach managed to talk her into playing in a local team. Getting up early on Sunday morning turned into a bit of a drag particularly in the depths of winter but we both survived with some success though the strange grading system meant some funny mismatches. Alas she could not be talked into a second season.
Kiara has also enjoyed her school year and was most pleased to have a number of her friends in the same class. Her creative side has come out with much cooking and building going on. Most importantly with much help from her teacher this year her reading and spelling have come on a treat. This is most pleasing as we were worried we would have another engineer in the family. Though if the train she built to play in over last summer is anything to go by, this may still be the case.
Kiara has been most active outside of school as well. She has now played two seasons with great enjoyment, success and much squealing. This also gave dad a bit of a chance to get involved with coaching and do some polite and constructive encouragement from the side line, usually. (I only got told off a couple of times, honest.) She is still getting tennis lessons and has been learning hip hop dancing. She really enjoyed the dancing particularly her end of year concert.
Cath has now survived my first year of full time teaching since the girls were born and while it has been busy and stressful at times it was not too bad. The main issue is fewer jobs seem to get done around the house and the small increase in exercise that was happening is once again on the back burner. So the bike gathers cob-webs, I still haven’t made the boat I got for last Christmas, built the book shelf or put in the extra water tank. We do have some pets now as I got some stick insects for my birthday .
Cath has allegedly cut back on her hours of work to finish renovating the house but the evidence is not strong as she still seems to spend many hours working on all sorts of other projects. Some of this is a bit of private contract work; some is supporting her mum, Judy, as she copes with growing old and being alone following Joe’s death 2 years ago. A major part of her “free time” early in the year was looking after her aunt Margot after a knee replacement and eventually helping her settle into a nursing home.
Meanwhile my mum, Jean, is not travelling so well. Her dementia still means her memory is almost nonexistent but at least it remains fairly stable. Physically she is not as good this year. Her knees have gradually got worse so that she had started to use a walking frame and had quite a nasty fall in November. She is currently in hospital being assessed as she is now unable to walk at all. Once this is finished she will need to move into care at some level or another as alas she is no longer to be cared for at home.
On a more positive note the year ended with another successful, if slightly damp street party, and while we didn’t win the lights competition we are getting closer. The street kids are also getting better at their carolling which is a great relief.
And next year we need to plan Cath’s 50th.
Paul,Cath,Siobhan & Kiara.
family holiday.
Wake up to a sunny day in Richmond but can still see the snow on Mt Wellington.
On to the Cascade Brewery with lunch in the car. Far more of a traditional factory tour including the safety instruction, yellow vests and safety goggles. Got to peek here and there, some interesting stories and free samples after. Who knew there could be so many varieties of beer. Also the bottle line was amazing with dancing lines of bottles snaking around the place. Nice little cafe where you can get your tastings and a bowl of chips as the rain sleeted down.
