2016 - a year of adjustments

2016 - a year of adjustments

Sometimes the pillars of our life are shaken, this year by the death of a loved one and by moving home. Each is a big event, but to have them overlap with other stresses makes for a great deal of angst and adjustments.

The year did not start well - with the death of Lou’s dear sister, Lyn Chant. She had been overwhelmed by aggressive brain cancer. Her family and especially her husband Warwick gave all they had, to hope for a positive outcome, but it was not to be. Lyn and Warwick were our relatives, but were also friends and confidants. The inseparable were now separated. She was loved and remains so loved.

Warwick, Lyn and Louella at Mougamarra a few years ago

By comparison, other adjustments seem trivial, although they too have been demanding in their own ways. The second shaken pillar was our move from our home in the Hunter Valley to Toowoomba. We bought a lovely home in Toowoomba in 2015 but it took nearly a year to sell our home in the Hunter Valley where we had lived since 2007. Our Windella home was huge, so we had plenty of room to spread out. And we had a large block - about 4000 square metres. We had moved out and shipped our things to Toowoomba but had to maintain a few things while the place was for sale. I ended up taking multiple trips back and forth over the year. It was difficult to go back to a now empty home full of fond memories and essentially camp in a huge, empty house. The delay in the sale also put us under additional financial pressure, which we previously didn’t have. And this was also in the shadow of Lyn’s slow, but inevitable, death.

So I couldn't really socialise or make many plans. When the sale of Windella was finalised it was a HUGE relief.

Sold at last

After the money finally arrived it was only a couple of weeks before we took off to New Zealand for a month long break. What a great trip it was - South Island - no plans staying for as long as we wanted, as we travelled about. - it was a superb unwind from the tension earlier in the year. It was all great but my favourites were Dunedin and our trip from Te Anau to Doubtful Sound.

On the Navigator heading back into Doubtful Sound, South Island New Zealand

We came back refreshed and it felt like starting fresh in our new home.

Being close to family was a large part of our move although moving meant inevitably being further from other members of the family, specifically my mother and surviving brother Greg,  and for Lou being further from her unwell sister. One way around this was to make better use of technology and use Skype at family gatherings: this has worked well.

Simone and Jerry’s children, our grandchildren, in Toowoomba, are ceaselessly entertaining and are ready to absorb as much as they can as they have grown. Seeing little Frederick through to his first birthday was wonderful as we had missed much of the early childhoods of Seraphina and Theodore. Our new home has a safe, enclosed yard and the kids can extend themselves in all kinds of ways - play, sport, puzzles, learning, music, dance - this list goes on.

Later in the year, Diana returned from a year away in Darwin, with her beau - Lee. Both quickly found good jobs but are themselves having to adjust to life in a new town far more conservative than the cosmopolitan Darwin. They both remain busy with their new jobs and in setting up and maintaining their new home. In October I travelled with my brother-in-law, Warwick, to Cobar to attend the Australasian Mining History conference. We had a great time traversing the extensive plains of western NSW and truly ventured to the Back of Bourke. Our travels can be seen at http://robsgoldvine.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/toowoomba-to-cobar-travellers-tale.html

Lou and I have now settled into more of a routine. We have undertaken some courses through the U3A - University of the Third Age. I have been doing a maths course, which is revising much mid high school maths. We have together been attending a course on investing. Seniors and retirees are constantly working on ways to extend their incomes, even by just a little.

I have continued a part-time activity - running the twitter accounts of two small mineral exploration companies. This keeps me in touch and doesn’t require much time. Even better, it can be done pretty much anywhere, even on the lounge in front of the TV.

I have virtually stopped watching TV news, or listening to radio news as has it has been full of angst and annoying politics - firstly the seemingly endless and unnecessary Australian election, and then the US election. I find I can keep well informed by on-line newspapers or directly through Twitter. I would not trust much that comes in via Facebook. Twitter on the other hand can report events in real time - and by on-the-spot participants. A great example was the huge NZ earthquake. I’m sure if there is something important, I’ll get to hear about it. My twitter handle is @RobBarnes112.

I read some great books in 2016 - I want to keep up reading - it is very easy to be distracted to time wasting on-line. Two standouts were 1788 by David Hill -  the story of the First Fleet coming to Australia and Darwin's Armada by Iain McCalman which set the scene behind the development of the ideas of Darwin and others leading to “The Origin of Species”.

Musically, we continue to follow Live from Daryls house  http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/ which has new live shows each month .  I discovered Joe Bomamassa this year and his performance with Jimmy Barnes was outstanding - find it on line at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D99LZg18OWg or the fantastic Lazy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69EcnxJmnd4

I also discovered Chromecast in 2016- cheap ($50) and which can be used to show things from a tablet to the big TV. The NBN arrived but the only difference is that it is slightly faster.

So I hope we move from a year of adjustment into a year of consolidation and new challenges and friendships.

Signing off from 2016

Rob Barnes

At Steele Rudd’s hut, south of Toowoomba