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| Peter Grahams 2003. |
| A brief rundown on the year that was. |
A big hello from the Melbourne Graham/Townsends. Hope this missive finds you all well, ready for a restful festive season and looking forward to a great 2004.
We are all well and about to make a huge move. Our house (20 years we have lived here) needed lots of work and we kindly thought someone else could do it so we sold it in November and have purchased a brick (no painting!!) house the grand distance of about 2 kilometers away and also in North Balwyn. The house is bigger which we know is not so logical now the boys are near to leaving home but Janet is still working at home and a study will come in handy plus some much needed storage space and a workshop for Peter. We move on January 8 so we will pretend our new house is a holiday cottage (It has a pool so we are hoping the plan works!).
Will start with news about Sebastian, as although he?s the youngest he?s now the tallest at 6? 3.5? and still growing. (The height we can cope with but if his feet grow any more we?re in trouble - size US 16 so far and we had to have cricket boots made for him by the same shoemaker who makes boots for Brett Lee and Steve Waugh ? what a claim to fame) Seb gets good school results when he puts the effort in and he had been rewarded with solid marks. His German improves slowly and he is hoping to go on a German exchange at the end of 2004 to Bremen in Northern Germany. He is also studying Chinese, which he really enjoys. He continues to do well with sport. He is a handy fast bowler and has won the bowling for his school team for the last few years. He also plays Australian football and his height is a great advantage there. Seb does Athletics in between football and cricket seasons and last year unexpectedly won two APS (Melbourne public schools) championships for long jump and triple jump. He also sprints and competed in the 100 and 400 m relays. Last week he completed a Cadet promotion course and this week is at a school camp sailing, fishing, golfing etc. Also this year he has had a baby-sitting job (3 of his cousins) each Tuesday after school for a few hours and we know whom to turn to when we need to borrow money!
Tom has just moved back home after a year of living in Ormond College at Melbourne University and is now acting like any normal university student, sleeping in late, clothes everywhere and ?can I borrow a car?. Tom did very well in VCE (Year 12 /A levels) and achieved a very high University enter score (99.6). This meant he could choose any course he wanted and he decided to do a double Law/Arts degree plus a Diploma in modern languages (German). This will all take about 6 years. He has just received his results and passed quite well. He also has plans to spend 2005 in China learning Chinese so we are hoping he gets a great part time job to help him on his way. Tom is now just on 6?2? and has learned to accept that his little brother will be a lot taller than him! He played Australian football for Old Scotch (an old boys school team) and for Ormond college and enjoyed that but this year he has really majoring in socializing and meeting new friends and not so much emphasis on sport. He is off to Tasmania (yes in our 4-wheel drive ? on the ferry) for a holiday with friends straight after Christmas.
Janet is still working for Melbourne University on a colorectal cancer research project. Next year she will start recontacting participants she studied 5 years ago to see how they are travelling. She still works at home; working many evenings but still can take any day off and is always available for lunches, shopping trips and films (great job!). She is also still involved with the Cadet Auxiliary at the boys school (raises money for the cadet unit at Scotch College) and has been secretary for the past year and is again secretary for 2004 (no one else wants to take minutes!) and president elect for 2005.
Peter is still working hard with his businesses selling and developing Internet services for Accountants, if you want more information about what he does go to www.acctweb.com.au. Peter still works from his office in Hawthorn and Seb is very lucky to get a ride to and from school each day. Peter is still president of the local football club that Sebastian plays with and they say the club is running very smoothly under Peter?s presidency. He?s also been Chairman of the local Federal Parliamentary Seat of Chisholm for the past two years.
We?re all (30 people) off to Peter?s brother farm (Deniliquin) for Christmas with the Graham family and as always it will be great fun - lots of eating, drinking and making merry (for the boys shooting, swimming, motor bike riding). Tom has invited a German friend who is studying in Melbourne to come as well ? we hope he will survive a Graham Christmas.
Forgot to mention the new addition to the family. A little Kelpie/German Coolie cross dog called Schatzi (means treasure in German) Our dear old dog Sushi had to be put to sleep (to visit that great sheep yard in the sky) early this year at 17 years of age. We miss her but little Schatzi keeps us busy.
Best wishes for a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Year. Peter, Janet, Thomas and Sebastian Dec 2003. New address from 8-1-04: 29 Larbert Avenue, Nth Balwyn, Victoria, 3104, Australia Tel. 03 9857 8725
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