Yet another year rolls by and at the time of writing this England
have just been thrashed in the first Ashes test at the Gabba. We have been here
long enough to have witnessed that a few times. However we remain confident of clawing
our way to series win!
2017 been a great year for us, if a little busy – so what’s
new hey?! The biggest news is that we’ve finally moved back into Parkville. We
were very happy in Gatehouse St for 11 years, sold it in 2010 to move to the UK
and it’s taken eight years to return but we’re back! Australia is preoccupied
with housing – the recent property boom has been crazy, resulting a very high
prices, to the point that the youth of today fear they will never be able to
buy where they would like to live.
Our new place is very similar to Gatehouse St and it has
been amusing to see the reaction of our UK visitors and those Auzzie friends
who visited us Bristol who comment on the fact that all our properties end up looking
the same; with our furniture and general messiness.
Wodonga is delighted to return to Parkville. He actually dealt
with the smell of doggy urine that greeted us on arrival much better than did
his ‘human staff’!. Our first 48 hours were spent ripping up ‘wet’ carpets. Nice.
As to Woody, well he is now 17 and going well for his age though losing some of
the sharpness he once had. Bit like us really.
Our first renovation job was to turn the ‘shed’ in the back
yard into a small hotel style bedroom plus bathroom. It’s on AirBNB (see www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/20217427)
and proving to be very popular with university academics, visiting medics as
well as student looking to leave home for a night of passion close to Melbourne
Uni. 2018 will see further, much less exciting but no less necessary, building
projects such as installation of new plumbing and maybe a couple of new
toilets!! Another sign of aging perhaps.
Nicky has even more jobs than this time last year. She made
two trips to the UK to work at Plymouth Uni and to see family and friends. She
is still Director of Cleft Services at the Children’s, as well as holding a
research fellow position at the MCRI. And if that wasn’t enough she is now an
accredited executive coach! A skill which she seems to feel the need to
practice regularly on Stuart – much to his irritation!
The more shocking news is that Stuart is officially employed
– shock and indeed horror! After only 2 years and 9 months he finally became
principal double bass with Orchestra Victoria. Watch up for his memoirs – it
will all be in there! The job started in July and has been busy and interesting
since then. In November he took part in the inaugural Melbourne Conservatorium
of Music bass day involving 200 participants – can you imagine? Unfortunately
for Nic, she didn’t have to imagine, she had to suffer it!!!
Our chamber group, the one Stuart likes to call
‘Kammermusik’ but the rest of us still call ‘Parkville Ensemble’ has done a
couple of concerts this year including participating in the first Melbourne
Warehouse Music Festival (https://www.facebook.com/MelbWarehouseFest/).
We have slipped into a quiet holiday pattern in recent years
which had us popping back to far North Queensland (Port Douglas) in June. It’s
cold and wintery in Melbourne at that time of year, but beautiful at the top
end, so is very popular. We went on another great birding day with local guru
Del Richards which allowed Stuart to indulge in his obsessive nerdy birdy
photography (www.yooying.com/bassbirddude
). We are now approaching our next holiday back to Fitzgerald, our lovely beach
house in Gippsland in December. It’s a crazy time of year where everyone wants
you to finish bits of work, or catch up socially. So we bugger off to the beach
just before Xmas.
And 2017 was a great year for visitors. We have a new large
house with spare rooms so do come ‘down under’ and visit. First were Mo and
Steve who left the UK and Ireland for some sun over Xmas. Xmas Day itself was
stinking hot, well over 30, we were camped indoors, except for a few crazy
Brits sunbaking outside. Poor Steve had to suffer lots of jokes about large
spiders, then came face to face with one in his bedroom! Next came Niamh and
Arthur, who created their own new visitor while in Australia with baby Felix arriving
in September.
Caitie Gardner turned up for a few weeks in the middle of
the year. We had never met Caitie before but not only was she charming but she
was also very good a making beds thanks to her experience as a ‘chalet chick’!
We caught up again with her in Port Douglas just before she left to return to the
UK.
Long time friends, Mike and Catherine Aldren finally made it
down under for a huge trip that included Darwin, Port Douglas then the cold of
Melbourne before taking the interesting inland road to Sydney. This is a photo
of Nicky with M and C on the beach at Port Douglas taking on an iPhone on a
moving bike!
Deanie and Pete returned to Oz to attend Katharine Plows and
David’s wedding in October. It was a wonderful day and great to spend quality
time with the Plows family once more. D & P had another amazing trip which
included the Singapore Grand Prix. Pete was quite restrained and only took
around 10,000 photos!
Our ‘frenants’ (aka friends who have been tenants), Lisa and
Scott, continue to work their way around the world by returning to Oz a second
time. We first met them in Bristol in 2012 when they rented Canynge Road from
us. They then turned up in Australia in 2015 only to return again this year via
some time in Spain. They are now relocated to London – which made us wonder if
they are really trying to avoid the US President – which is not only
understandable but also turns out to be true!
And as we approach December we are looking forward to more
Canynge Road reunions with the Melville-Thomas clan (from No 4) staying for a
few days followed by Bob and Liz (from No 2) over Xmas which course will be
accompanied by the obligatory trip to the Boxing Day Ashes test at the MCG.
In the meantime, we both wish you all a very Happy Christmas
and New Year period. Please stay safe, well and in touch. N&S (and of course Woody!!).
