Xmas 2019

Have just looked back at last year’s letter and we started with the words ‘Another year gone. Another Prime Minister dumped in Australia.’ Well I guess perhaps we start this year with ‘Another year gone. Another Prime Minister dumped in the UK’!! What a weird world we live in.

Still time rushes on and like the England sporting teams (think World Cups, the Ashes etc) we’ve had another ‘electric’ year😊 It started and has continued with friends and fun as we were joined for both Christmas and NY by one of Nic’s oldest mates from dental school, Deb and her boys; Jason, Frankie and Sony. This is the 2^nd time they’ve been out for Christmas and this time we travelled to Sydney to stay with another of the old ‘lesbos’ from B’ham, Deb Cockrell (aka Cockie). 

Stuart has been mega busy this year in the Opera/Ballet orchestra. While the bulk of his time is taken up with big stuff such as Nutcracker, Turandot, etc he’s really enjoyed the opportunity to do a lot of chamber music including really lovely stuff like the ‘Trout’ and the Beethoven Septet.  As he says, ‘it’s a privilege particularly as a bass player to be able to do chamber music AND to get paid for it!” He’s also acquired several young bass students and is really enjoying the challenge as well as the rewards of teaching these keen youngsters. However his teaching skills have also been tested this year when Nic’s cousin Dougie came to stay… think there’s a few technical issues to address here! One of the highlights was a concert with Bryn Terfel in Sydney Opera House. He walked off stage past Stuart and said, “not bad for a farmer’s boy!”

Nic continues to develop a very varied professional portfolio, which still includes running the cleft lip and palate service at the Children’s Hospital here in Melbourne and providing academic teaching and leadership at Plymouth University.  She’s also been thrilled to see four of her students successfully complete their PhD’s this year which is a fantastic achievement. On top of this, her coaching business has continued to grow with a steady stream of individual clients both in Australia and overseas. She has also found herself increasingly being sought after to advise and facilitate ‘in-house’ mentoring programs in both the healthcare and academic sectors. While challenging as almost every ‘gig’ throws up something new, she’s really loving the opportunity to contribute to the development of more collegial environments. Nic has always been about the patients /the staff/her students/her team and this work aligns well with her mantra  - ‘patients get better care if those providing that care are supported to be their best’.

Like last year,  between us we’ve made three trips back to the UK. Stuart’s dad, Graham has not been well suffering a series of falls resulting in hospitalization. The good news is that he’s recently had a pacemaker fitted and is feeling much better. However he has finally (and sensibly) decided to sell his car - which is of course a big decision with obvious lifestyle ramifications. He (and we) are very fortunate that Stuart’s cousin Darren lives locally and has been fantastically supportive.

Nic also spent quite abit of time during her two UK trips in Manchester with both Stuart’s dad and his mum, Nor. While Nor has made a wonderful recovery from the stroke she had in 2018 she suffers badly from back pain which makes sleeping and mobility both tricky. Nic particularly enjoyed catching up with Mo, Jon, V and Ewan on her last trip to M’ter  – can’t recall the last time the three ‘olive shoots’ were all in the same place at the same time.

But the most important ‘family’ news is that Wodonga is still alive. He will be 19 as you read these words.

It may not surprise you to hear that we’ve not really had much in the way of a holiday together this year. We did manage to grab a few days in early August in Darwin. It was 10 years ago almost to the day that we were last there – on our infamous ‘big lap’ adventure. Sadly this time we only had 4 days and while Kakadu remains a truly amazing place Prof ‘Crocodile’ Kilpatrick spent most of the time bemoaning not being able to sleep under the stars as we had done 10 years ago.  Nevertheless the land, the light and the wildlife were wonderful.

And so finally to the ‘BIG’ news of the year … in October we finally bit the bullet and went out and bought another tent! My how tent technology has moved on – this one has inflatable poles and allegedly takes ‘only 7 minutes to erect’! Mind you there is a bit of learning curve which was evident when, after watching us for nearly an hour and a half, a couple of ‘grey nomads’ approached us and asked ‘how many times have you put that tent up?’  Still 3 nights later it was going up in less than 15 minutes and we remained snug as bugs throughout the night despite the near zero temperatures at night at the top of the Great Alpine Road. Guess who was kicked out to make the tea??

So 2020 is going to see us hit the outback, complete with Stuart’s by now massive collection of camera equipment, and track down yet more new birds to add to our growing list of sightings! In the meantime we hope that 2019 has been kind to you all and that 2020 will be even more so. Please do stay in touch, send us your news or even better send yourselves (or your children as many of you already have done) over to stay with us. We love having visitors as it gives us an excuse to show off Melbourne, Victoria and indeed Australia.

With much love N&S