The pohutakawa has burst into bloom signalling the start of the kiwi Christmas season. It’s also raining (a rare Napier event) so an e-missive from the Clearys is in order.
The house, drier and more stable after the 2009 re-roofing and re-piling efforts, remains refuge for the whole family. Fiona, working as a local Crown Prosecutor, is in Flat 2, while the boys are upstairs with us; though this hasn’t been the case all year.
Connor left his flat at the beginning of this year when he learnt that the skin cancer that saw him lose 3.5 cm of his lower lip in the middle of 2009 had returned to his lymph system. This necessitated radical surgery (12+ hours) followed by a gruelling six-week course of radiotherapy in Palmerston North. He’s bounced back amazingly, working full time again for Dick Smith and has almost recovered his appetite.
Michael followed his dreams to Copenhagen in August where he had enrolled in a MA course. He’d filled in the first half of the year putting his 2009 teaching diploma to use at Napier Girls’ and Colenso, but neither of these prepared him for the disappointment of having the paper that had attracted him to Denmark cancelled nor the cost of living there. He quickly chose to bail out and spend the next three months travelling around Europe (again). He’s back here now half-heartedly applying for teaching jobs, but having left it so late the chances are he will be doing further study at Vic instead.
Fiona took four weeks off work and joined Michael for part of his travels. They successfully tapped into a combination of their and our friends and spent time in Galway (thanks Keith and Geri), Täuffelen (thanks to their aunt and uncle), Hamburg, Paris, Amsterdam and St Chinian (again thanks Keith and Geri).
In an effort to pay for the warm solid house, Mark, who’d spent 2009 working in local schools (acting Principal for a term a Woodford House and acting DP at Hastings Girls’), had five months from June working in Brunei Darussalam as part of an international consortium introducing educational reforms, and will probably be spending even longer there in 2011 helping the implementation of it all. A good change after spending six weeks in Palmerston North with Connor! Saudi is still a possibility but we’re not holding our breath.
Barbara’s time at school becomes busier and busier. The workload grows as internal assessment and other ‘accountability’ demands increase, though this hasn’t taken the shine off the classroom experience; she loves teaching. A highlight was helping the school’s Amnesty Group put on a very successful
Love to you all and best wishes for a great 2011.
Barbara, Mark, Fiona, Connor and Michael
Thanks! Great photos, especially like the one of Connor linking up to outer space, and the waterfall!
ReplyDeleteIt's sub-zero all the way here but all the Mustard-Gorringes are in one spot preparing for excess in all things, starting tonight with C.E. drinkies. Eva and Scott's house is very warm and we all have longjohns and scarves and two pairs of gloves each when tackling the outdoors. Scott bought two wee sleds and the little girls love riding on them in the snow (you must be able to hear the squeals from NZ) and of course the countryside looks a picture. Karl has negotiated Ezijet to Hamburg to see Larissa, then back to Gatwick, then to Bracknell to see the Kennedys (who brought their 1913 Silver Ghost to Art Deco week a few years ago) then the train up here, all without delays caused by the weather. Holding our breath for Paris, but it'll all have thawed by then???
Madeleine has just had her Social Work contract extended but Josh has only been able to get shit jobs uip here so they'll be going to London in March to live and work, instead of to Ireland, thenk goodness.
Love to all the Clearys and hope you have a wondrous Christmas. XX Ju
See what happened in 2011 goto:
ReplyDelete2011clearychristmas.blogspot.com