First of all sorry about the layout of the page, I have been a bit rushed getting it together so I haven't been able to play with it too much.
This was a year of ever growing independence for Elen. She kicked it off with her learners permit on her birthday. She now has over 90 hours logged and is desperately waiting for the day she can go for her Provisional licence. Unfortunately she can't do it on her birthday as there are no slots left on that Saturday. She is doing a NIDA workshop the following week so her first opportunity will be the following Saturday, then I guess I can say goodbye to my car.
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| A trip to the central food markets. |
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Friends in Brazil that helped us enormously during our visit. |
Elen went on a week’s holiday to the south coast with a group of her school friends and one very brave mother. They enjoyed a sharing a beach house and all that goes with it and it was the first time Elen had holidayed without us along. They all had a lot of fun but came back needing a week to get over it. Megan and I took a few days to go down to Daylesford in Victoria during March, to pick up some bees that had been left there before Christmas, as part of an experiment. Elen was home alone while we were away. This was a good practice run for July when Megan and I headed off to a conference in South America. We were away for almost three weeks and during that time Elen spent weekends at home and weekdays with friends. We didn't come home to massive clean up or to any unexpected house improvement opportunities and the neighbours didn't have any horror stories to tell us so we considered it to be a success.
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| How to keep beer really cold! |
The first week that we were in Brazil, Elen spent at State Drama Camp. This was held in far north Sydney and is a gathering of Public school Drama students from all over the state. Invitations to attend were by audition and Elen was excited to get the chance to go. She had a great but busy and tiring time. The schedule was pretty intense and included presenting work as well as attending live theatre in Sydney.
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Looking at the labs in Sao Paulo University. |
Brazil was terrific. We were helped enormously by Rute and Flavio, friends that we had met when they were doing research in Australia. They met us at the airport in Sao Paulo and showed us around. They then drove us the three hundred kilometers to Riberio Preto where the conference was being held (they were attending as well). Megan was pretty unsure of herself when we arrived but she quickly settled in and had a very productive and thouroughly enjoyable time. She met a lot of people that she had known only through the papers they had written and made good contacts for future research collaborations. I relaxed, mingled, ate and drank for the week we were at the conference. My one new useful skill is the ability to make a Caprihna, the Brazillian cane sugar spirit drink. Megan has since written a chapter for a book that is being compiled by one of the researchers that she met.
We have had a pretty busy year with the live theatre and music. Regina Spektor (the artist that got Elen really rolling with her music) toured earlier this year so we went along to see her at the opera house. The next night I took Elen and a few of her friends back for a second showing. The John Butler Trio was on at the Horden Pavilion later in the year. Megan and I stood at the back of the mosh well out of the way while Elen and Alex went right down the front. It was a great show but the guys never stop playing. After about 6 songs the encore finally finished. A night at the Sydney theatre company to see a production by the Steppenwolf theatre company from the US rounded out the family trips to live entertainment for the year.
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Spectacular scenery flying into Queenstown. |
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| Ready for takeoff. |
I started flying to Queenstown for the winter ski season. Many of you will have heard of it or been there yourselves and know how beautiful it is. Qantas only flies in there on the 737 and only a small group are trained to go in. There are a number of things that make it a special airport to operate into, not least of which are the hills surrounding it. The numbers of pilots going there is restricted so that we can be sure of going there regularly, It is not a place that you can go to once in a while and expect to be on top of it all. That way we can be sure of staying familiar with it and ensure that it is safe for everyone. There is also a couple of extra simulators each year, one to ensure we are all familiar with the latest on Queenstown and another so that I can operate from the right seat in case anyone goes sick on short notice. To say that it is the most challenging place I fly to would be an understatement but it is also the most rewarding place as well.
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| The mighty Tomahawk. |
I have also become a flying instructor again after 20 years away from teaching. I have volunteered to do some flying training for the Airforce cadets in Amberley and had to get a civil instructors rating to be able to help them. After a number of months, organising the rating and trying to remember what to do, I finally did the test in May. So far I have only been doing introductory flights but I get into proper ab-initio instruction in January. We fly in Tomahawks out of the RAAF base. The cadets are just like I was 30 years ago, fresh faced, enthusiastic 16 and 17 year olds who are there because they love flying. It is a refreshing change from airline flying and a lot of fun for me.
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Elen making one of the after show presentations. |
Megan and I are currently going to see a production of Jekyll and Hyde (Well we were when I wrote this bit). Elen can't come with us as she is in it playing Lucy the prostitute, who is the love interest for both Jekyll and Hyde, at least until Hyde kills her. It is a good roll with some great songs in it for her. If you want to get a sense of it you can watch "the Hoff" in the broadway production on DVD. Of course in my opinion Elen is a much better Lucy! The 12 show run finished last Saturday (yes I am taking a long time to get this written) with all going spectacularly well. We held the afterparty on the last night, inviting all the cast and crew back to our house. Somewhere around 70 teenagers turned up at about 11PM and stayed til late. Everybody was exhausted but high from the final show. I was glad that I didn’t have to watch my daughter get murdered again but sad that I wouldn’t get to hear the cast performing the songs. I found it difficult to comprehend that high school students could achieve such high standards but they have a lot of talent in the school and some exceptional teachers to help them realise that talent.
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Megan getting a presentation for helping backstage. |
Well the crunch has come, it is Christmas eve and I still haven't finished this. It is time to bring it to a close. I would love to be able to say that this is a web page this year due to my attempts to save the environment but it is really only because I am so late and this is fast. It has been a busy year again and has had both its good and bad aspects. We have had some terrible news from some friends and joyful news from others. We see you all far to rarely and it saddens me that I haven't been able to stay in contact more regularly but the reality is that we all have our lives spread out over large parts of the planet and we are all increasingly busy. Know that we are thinking of you and that if you ever find yourself in our small part of the world you are welcome.
Enjoy the holiday season and I hope the coming year is happy and healthy for you all.
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| Across the antarctic ice
coming home from South America. |
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| Two of the performers in Jekyll
removing the hair grown for the part in front of the adoring crowd. |