|
|
| PJTS's 1999 |
| What we did in 1999. |
A big Christmas hello to all, we hope this Yuletide missive finds you all well and preparing to enjoy Christmas and celebrate the arrival of 2000.
Its amazing that another year has flashed by sooooo quickly. We are all well, fit (the boys are anyway!!) and ready for a summer holiday break to recover from a big year.
Peter worked very hard this year with the Internet business he started with his business partner Ian in 1998. It is doing well and we have quite high hopes for a successful 2000. Being in the computer industry means that Peter can often work from home. With a computer and mobile phone he can kid most people he is actually at the office. Peter spent most of his spare time either coaching Sebastian's football team during winter and as official scorer for Seb's cricket team in summer. He also had to find time to watch Tom play his many sports. So far Peter has only played one game of cricket for a local team and as they were short a player Tom played and batted very well. They both enjoyed their father and son match.
Sebastian's studies are coming along. He completed year 5 this year and his results were petty good. His Maths is excellent but his spelling and reading need a tad more attention. He played cricket and football for his school and also represented his school in athletics. He again played football for his local competition (the team Peter coaches) and he continually improves and won the team's best and fairest, and went on to come third in the league which was a thrill for us all. His cricket is improving and he now favors batting. Last season he won the bowling award but they have moved him this summer into the top team which has many excellent players and is more of a challenge for him. 2000 will be a big year for Sebastian as he begins grade 6, his last year at primary school (500 children) where he will be one of the school leaders before moving to Tom's school (1400 boys) in 2001.
Tom moved to second spot in the height stakes at 83 Winfield this year and has started to grow which in his opinion is not soon enough. He is now 15 and quite the young man and looking forward to dancing classes next semester where he and his mates will actually get to meet 'girls'. Sport wise Tom did well at Footy, has made it into the 10A-cricket team (the trick is to stay there) and went well in long jump, triple jump and hurdles in his school athletics. One reason he can't wait to grow a bit is that he is up against kids 6-7 inches taller than him who weigh many kilos more. We bought some garden fertilizer recently and we have caught him standing in it a couple of times (must have worked because he has definitely started to grow) Academically in 1999 he has done very well. Again he was in the top 15 of the 250 boys in Year 9 and was even Dux of Geography for the whole year level, which was great. He also did cadets and enjoyed it a lot scoring the three cadet camps a big 9 out of 10. The last camp was a promotions course and it was a very strenuous camp both mentally and physically. He made it to the end and will find out next year what position he will get. He thinks he will be a corporal, which is what he wanted. Tom is keeping up his languages German and Chinese next year and to improve his German is going on an exchange to Germany at the end of 2000. It is a direct swap exchange. At the end of February 2000 we will have Ludwig (from Dietersburg a small village East of Munich near the Czech border) for 10 weeks, then Tom will stay with his family for 10 weeks from November through to February. Ludwig will enjoy our warm autumn and Tom had ordered the thickest coat we can buy so he can survive a Bravarian winter. The exchange rules state that he can't make any side trips say to England or Bonn which is sad as he would have loved to visit family, friends and old haunts but 'rules is rules' Still he is thrilled to be going and can't wait for the exchange. We will of course miss him (Seb especially) and Christmas next year won't be the same
Janet started work at Melbourne University for the Centre of Genetic Epidemiology in February 1999 and works on a Family Colorectal Cancer Study. She interviews the families of people with colorectal cancer. She also gathers family histories and spends hours interviewing some fascinating families. The work can be a little sad at times but generally these families are so eager to help with medical research that it turns out to be a positive experience for all concerned. She does most of this work at home, apart from the fieldwork and manages to work 4 days a week and finish by 3.30 to pick up Seb from school. This does involve quite a bit of evening work. The downside to working at home is learning not to answer the home phone and chatting with friends for ages (something she is doing a doctorate in) or being sidetracked into doing house work (something she's not doing a doctorate in). She is also still studying and finished the third year of her Masters this year. One more to go! She also completed her third year as Parents club president at Seb's school and through this has developed a number of very good, talkative, friends but it was all a bit too much so she resigned at the end of 1999. Janet now looks forward to a quieter 2000 with some time to maybe read a book and write some letters to all those wonderful family and friends out there.
This Christmas will be spent with Peter's family. 5 fun filled days on the farm with 13 adults and 16 children. The boys can't wait to spend time with their cousins and the adults can all relax and have a drink or three, as we all stay on the farm no drink driving issues to worry about.
Our families on both sides are all well and to be truthful by the time we have done the rounds and socialized with all its time to start again!! We will spend New Year Eve at the beach resort of Lorne with two close friends (Jenniy and Bernard and daughter Chloe and baby Ryan) who are visiting from England. We are all looking forward to it. Not sure if we'll get to the Sydney Olympics as Tom leaves for Germany shortly after they finish plus they are during school term. Tickets are expensive and hard to secure and accommodation is impossible to get, but it would still be wonderful to be in Sydney for the event. Our compensation if we don't go is that we do have the Commonwealth games to look forward to in Melbourne not long after.
Our New Year's resolution is as usual to spend more time with family and friends. A process that will be made a lot easier when we win Lotto.
Have a wonderful New Year and our best wishes for the year 2000.
|
|
|
