Christmas Letter 2011

This last year has been a busy one for us, including a fair amount of travelling.

Our first trip was in February, to Norfolk Island, with twenty of our fellow residents of the Retirement Village. It was our first trip to the Island and we really enjoyed it ...

... from the attractive scenery ...


... to the dress ups for the entertainments ...


It is good to travel with friends.

In mid year we spent ten weeks in Europe. We started in England, with our grand daughter, Hayley’s, thirteenth birthday ...


... before travelling extensively in southern England ...

... which included Bath ...


... St Michael's Mount ...


... driving through attractive countryside ...


... and visiting some famous monuments ...




After England we took a tour of Spain,




... Portugal ...


... and Morocco, which was fascinating. We enjoyed the relaxed Spanish life style - siestas, late lunches and late dinners in the balmy evenings. Morocco was an entirely different experience and now we can name drop exotic cities like
... Fes ..



... Marrakesh ...



... and Casablanca.

In October we spent a week in the Borossa Valley, at the annual gathering of Probus called Rendezvous. Again we spent some time with friends, some of whom are from our local Probus clubs, others that we meet every year at Rendezvous. Stephen particularly enjoyed the wine, his highlight being blending his own version of red wine at Penfolds winery ...




... we also visited Maggie Beer's place ...


Our grand kids keep progressing. Next year we will have six of them in Secondary School - Joshua in year 12, Cameron, Hayley and Troy in middle school with Jonathan and Jeremy in year 7. That makes us start to feel old. Next year Spencer will be full time at this new school, Croxton, which will be very good for him and his parents. Amanda is growing up fast and enjoying school and sport.

Stephen’s parents have entered care, at Colton Close. Although his mother, Edna, is partially paralysed by a stroke, she is receiving very good care. His father, Eric, is really enjoying his new life. All of the worries that were weighing him down have gone and he can visit Edna every day as she is on the floor just above his. She relies on his visits.


Margaret’s mother, Joyce, had her ninety-second birthday in August. She is now starting to struggle with health issues, but she is a fighter, and is receiving good care. Hopefully she will be well enough to spend a couple of days over Christmas at our Village.


Speaking of the Village, it has taken great steps this year. Our new owners, Stockland, have spent a lot of money on our bowling green, landscaping and putting greens ...

... before and after ...



... and here is another view ...


... as well as building new Villas for future residents.

Please note that our phone number has changed: 8734 2054

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Love,

Margaret and Stephen

Christmas Letter 2010

Christmas again, how quickly the years seem to fly past!

The Village

We remain very happy in our choice of Retirement Village, but there have continued to be changes during the last year. In the 2009 letter we reported new ownership of the Village but since then two other companies have taken over. We are currently owned by Stockland, our sixth owner. We hope that this is the last change of ownership. We have many events in the Village. Recently, our son-in-law, Mark, and three of our grand children, Josh, Cameron and Troy, joined an ensemble of players to accompany our Christmas Carol Singing service. The video below contains some brief segments of the event.



Birthdays

There were two landmark birthdays this year. Stephen turned 60 in September and Michelle 40 in early December. We celebrated Stephen’s birthday with a cruise on the Tramboat (pictured below).



Margaret had originally organised the cruise for the last Saturday in September. Most Australians will understand that as a sacrosanct date – the AFL grand final. We changed the date to the first Saturday in October. Unfortunately the grand final finished in a draw which is rare – the last one was more than 30 years ago. The replay, unlike the first game, was a dog, so it was not a particular problem that we were partying during the first half of the game.


Stephen cut the cake wearing the Tramboat hat:



He is quite happy to now be a certified old coot as his Seniors Card is quite handy, particularly providing cheap access to public transport.

Given that many kids would be attending Michelle’s celebration, she chose a great venue with lots of activities. Some shot down bombers over wartime London, others fired balls at each other from small cannons and yet others set PBs in the 10 pin bowling centre. A great time was had by all at both celebrations.

Grandkids

The letter this year features some of our younger grandchildren.

Naturally we attended functions that involved our grand childern. The video below shows Mandy performing gymnastically at a school concert ...



The next video shows Jonathan playing an unusual instrument at a school assembly:



Stephen is known as grandpa cricket by many of the grandkids. It is good to see that Spencer has got the bug. Here he is wearing his milo cricket gear:




Next year we plan to visit England for Hayley's 13th birthday, so next year's letter will feature Hayley and Jeremy.

Travel

A major aim in our retirement was to travel, and we decided that 2010 would be an Australia year, with travel only in our homeland. In February we went to Sydney with other people from The Village to see the Tattoo.



Maybe, one of these years, we will see the Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle, but the Sydney one was very entertaining.

Here is a slide show of our Tattoo trip.




In April we stayed at timeshare resorts on the Northern and Central NSW coast, where we saw some magnificent scenery including:

... turbulent waterfalls ...



... tranquil rivers ...



... and wandering wildlife ...




Our major trip was in September, to Probus Rendezvous in Darwin. Neither of us had been to Darwin before, and we really enjoyed it. Of particular interest were the trips to Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks.


At Kakadu we cruised the Alligator river ...




... and saw eight crocodiles, including those in the video below ...



The entertainment included the sing-along below ...



... we also cruised Darwin Harbour ...



... and spent lots time eating and socialising ...




For a full report on Rendezvous see this post.

The Kids

All of our children are doing well, in their lives and careers. In spite of the parlous state of the British economy, Philip has found an excellent job with Airbus. Sometimes he works in Madrid, and we hope to visit some of his Spanish friends next year. Beth continues to work with the Victorian Police Force in the payroll section, Recently she travelled to Perth to inform the WA police force of the work being done in Victoria. Christopher and Catherine have been promoted to a position where they are responsible for running programs for the Salvation Army youth in northern Melbourne.

That the years roll by quickly is attested to by the fact that next February four of our grand children will be in Secondary School, with Troy entering year seven, and thereby joining Joshua, Hayley and Cameron, in the second stage of education.

The Older Generation

There is, though, some very sad news. Recently Stephen’s mother, Edna, had a stroke. She is currently in the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Although we would love to report that her prognosis is good, her doctors can give no clear indication of her chances of recovery. As well, her brother, Bill, is a patient at the Western General Hospital suffering from bowel cancer. Finally Margaret’s mother is also un-well with a very bad tooth infection.

Weddings and New Additions

On a more cheerful note, there were a number of happy events in the family involving Stephen's three nieces - two weddings and two births:

Krystal married David:



Narelle married Emile :



Fiona and Warren welcomed Gemma:

From Gypsies

and very recently Krystal



gave birth to Chloe




Congratulatins Krystal and David and welcome Chloe.

Lots of love,

Margaret and Stephen

Santas

Here are two images of Santa.

Some readers will realise why I was attracted to the first photo.

(For those who don't know, I recently had a urinary procedure that improved my performance in that very important function. Thanks to Les for the pic)

The second is more controversial and political, but in my view it makes an indisputable point in an entertaining way:

Christmas Letter 2009

The Village
As you probably know, we have been living in a Retirement Village for two years. It is generally a cheerful and friendly environment, and we are very happy and contented in our choice to live here. Our main concern in entering the Village was that it was owned by a small company. This concern seemed to be reinforced when we were told that the owner company had gone into receivership. We all became experts on receivership law, and we had a worrying few months when the Village was advertised for sale. Happily we are now owned by a large company - IOR. Irrespective of IOR’s original rationale, drinking is still an important part of Village socializing. It now seems that IOR will be merging with another company which will mean our owner is an even larger company, which gives us a sense of security for the future.

For those who haven't been here the photograph below shows our community center. (As with all of the photos in this post click on it to see a larger version.)



I run a blog of village activities. If you are interested it can be found here.

Travel
A major aim in our retirement was to travel, and we have continued to travel this year to China, Perth and the Blue Mountains.

China
Our major trip was to China. This included: seven cruises, one train trip, five long bus trips, four internal plane flights, all adding up to about 7,500 kms. Naturally we saw major sites including the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Summer Palace, Birds Nest, Terracotta Warriors and the Yangtze River. As we both enjoy Asian food the 84 meals were a delight.

The Google Map below shows our itinerary. (You can treat it as a normal Google Map, by moving it around with the mouse and zooming and expanding with the buttons at top left. The blue place holders contain the name of the location and a picture of the location. It does not show all of the map so to get a better view click on the China09 link at the bottom.)


View China09 in a larger map

Here is a link to a summary of the trip.

While walking up the Great Wall I met a Chinese couple who were very friendly. Here I am celebrating our arrival at the top of the Wall.



Margaret in the Forbidden City



Here is a link to our published China photos.

A slide show of the China photos:



We travelled China on a Wendy Wu tour, with a fantastic National Guide and a fun group of people.

Here is a link to photos of our China people.

Perth
In September we attended Probus Rendezvous in Perth. Here is a link that briefly describes Probus and Rendezvous. Rendezvous is a yearly event held somewhere in Australia or New Zealand where Probians gather to socialise and tour the highlights of the local area. It was our third Rendezvous. We met friends from our last two Rendezvous, and it was great to catch up on their news. We were all surprised to find that two who had first met at Rendezvous last year had subsequently married.

The photo below shows us with friends from the last three Rendezvous.



Below are links to my Perth Rendezvous photos and blog post:

• photos of our Rendezvous friends


• our Rendezvous 2009 pictures.
  


• my blog post on Perth Rendezvous

At our first Rendezvous we met, Bob Russell, who is a retired farmer from Western Australia, and after this year's Rendezvous we spent two very enjoyable weeks with Bob. He took us on a tour, which included Margaret River and Albany.

Here we are sharing a convivial meal at Woody Nook winery:



This link will take you to our photos of that trip.

Blue Mountains
We have recently returned from a trip to the Blue Mountains. On the way we spent three days in Echuca. The Blue Mountains is spectacular. We went on many walks in the bush, took the train to Sydney for one day and rode the Zig Zag railway.

Leura Cascades was one of the many attractive walks as shown by the photo below.


Naturally we did the tourist bit, including a ride on the skyway (shown below)



This is a link to our Blue Mountains photos.

Family
All of our children and grand children are doing well, in their lives and careers. Michelle and David made the right decision to transfer Jonathan and Mandy to Bacchus Marsh Grammar. The Creasey boys are doing very well in their sport and musical activities. Hayley and Cameron have both successfully started Secondary School. Spencer is very excited that Santa has contacted his dad to help Santa this year.

Margaret's mother, Joyce, reached the milestone of her 90th birthday in August.

The photo below shows Joyce with four of her children at the celebration of her birthday.



Here is a link to all of Joyce's party photos.

We hope that this finds you and your family well, we wish you a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year,

love,

Margaret and Stephen

Christmas Letter 2008

Hi all,
This has been the first year of our full retirement, and we have been very busy.

As reported in last year's Christmas Letter we have moved into a Retirement Village. You can find the reasons for this move here. In February we moved into our house (see post here.)



There are plenty of activities in the Village - Margaret with the Craft Group and choir;



Stephen in the Gym and assisting in the setting up of the Computer Centre; and both of us participating in the Tai Chi classes, and the regular "Happy Hours". Soon the pool will be operational as well as the bowling rink. The photo below shows the front entrance of the village Community Centre.



We have also made lots of new friends. And then there are the day trips. You might have noticed buses filled with older people driving around the city. It is great to go to interesting venues and not have to worry about how to get there and negotiating city traffic. It is even better to have lunch and not worry about drinks as we will be driven home. We have gone on about four such trips this year from the Village, the latest involving a tour of Flemington Race Course.



Our most exciting activities this year have been the travelling. All up we have been away, travelling, for 10 weeks. We hope to continue this in the forseable future.

Our first holiday this year was in February to one of our timeshare resorts at Philip Island. We took Margaret's mum, Joyce to give her a holiday. We stayed there for a week. I have reported on it at this post . The highlight was a boat cruise to Seal Rocks. Neither of us had seen the coast around Inverloch before and were blown away by its beauty. A return visit to Inverloch for a longer stay is one of the many items on our travel list.

Our main trip this year was in June when we travelled from Paris to Istanbul. The map below shows the route we took. Click on the map for a larger view.



The slide show below shows some of the photos we took.


Click on the photo below to the pics on our internet photos site.

Hayley and Margaret on the Tower

We both love Paris, and there were many highlights of our trip, but the best was meeting Philip (Margaret's son) Beverley, and the kids. For us getting to Paris involved a trip to the other side of the world, for them it was just a short hop over the Channel. We spent a great day with them, visiting the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Champs Elysee and Arc de Triumph.

Paris, with its low rise, clean, white buildings, fascinating back streets, majestic boulevards, monuments and great historic buildings, is a magic place. I am something of a history buff, so it was fantastic to stand in the centre of the huge public square, Place de la Concorde, and remember that in 1793 it was called Place de la Revolution, and was the location where many people met their deaths at the Guillotine. My favourite part of Paris, though, was Monmatre with the magnificent Sacre Coeur basillica. I was surprised how clearly Sacre Coeur stood out on its hill from the Eiffel Tower, as you can see in the photo below,


but up close it is breathtaking.



For posts on our stay in Paris see, here, here and here .

Three weeks of our tour were spent on a boat cruising five rivers. For those interested in geography, we sailed east along the Moselle, south on the Rhine, east on the Main, south on the Main-Danube canal and generally south east on the Danube. The ship left from Trier in western Germany (which we reached after a five hour bus trip from Paris, here.

The ship (pictured below) was very luxurious, with a magnificent, five star restaurant. Cruising the rivers is easily the most relaxing way to travel Europe.



Often we would go to bed and wake up at our next destination. Guides were organised to walk us around most of the towns and sometimes we travelled away from the river, generally by bus but on one occasion by fast train.

We visited 10 counties: France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Our choice of favourite city was a surprise: Istanbul. In the end I decided that it was Eastern enough to be interesting but Western enough to feel familiar and safe. The photo below shows Margaret browsing in the Grand Bazaar.



We came home for a rest in July and August then we were off to New Zealand. Our main motivation for visiting New Zealand this year was to visit Probus Rendezvous - the annual gathering of Probians - which was held this year in Christchurch. To make it more interesting we took a tour before Rendezvous. We travelled both Islands for 18 days. I was particularly taken by Rotorua, which I had expected to be a tourist trap, instead I found it fascinating - particularly the Maori Culture and geothermal activity. The photo shows members of our tour party sitting on hot steps in steam from a geyser.



The south island is renowned for its spectacular scenery. I had never been to Milford Sound, so I particularly enjoyed the ride into Milford through rugged, snow capped mountains



as well as the cruise on the Sound, with the summit of Mitre Peak shrouded in cloud.





Bus travel is tiring, so by the time we arrived at Queenstown - the extreme sports capital of the world - we were so tired that we spent the free day rambling around town in the morning and snoozing through the afternoon.

Probus Rendezvous, in Christchurch, was a great success, with a few interesting meetings, then touring, dining and the theatre. We met an number of friends there, including:
* Bob Russel who we first met at Rendezvous 2007 - Bob was also on the tour with us,
* Elaine and Ken who accompanied us down the rivers in Europe,
* Val and Mick who are members at our Probus Club.

Christchurch is a special town, large enough to have all the amenities you would require, but small enough so that it does not feel crowded. In the centre is the Cathedral in a large square, pictured below:



To view our New Zealand photos click on the photo below:

New Zealand 08

After another six week rest at home, in November, we set off for my Niece Fiona's wedding in Port Stephens. Unlike most other people who attended we could make it an extended holiday. We booked a weeks accommodation at Pacific Palms, 20 kms south of Forster on the NSW central coast. We took our time getting there, spending two nights in each of Canberra, Bathurst and Newcastle. Photos of the trip can be found by clicking on the table below.

NSW 08

Fiona's wedding was held on a surf beach and was very pleasant.



My brother Phillip walking Fiona, "down the aisle".



Fiona and Warren after the wedding.



Warren, Fiona and her grand parents (my mum and dad)

To see photos of the wedding click on the photo below:

FionasWedding

We returned to the never ending round of Christmas Parties.

The photo below shows part of one of the parties - the one at our village.



It is a tough life being retired!

Happy Christmas,

from Stephen and Margaret


PS This post has been very selves absorbed, and there has been a lot happening in the world beyond Margaret and me. For my take on some of the larger issues see my blog (where this post is from). It can be found here . At the moment this post is the first there, but scroll beyond it to see other stuff. If you read any of my posts leave a comment so I will know that you have been there. Earlier posts can be found by clicking the Older Posts link once you have scrolled to the end of the screen.

cheers,
Steve