Christmas Newsletter 2008

13th December 2008

Dear friends and family,

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with lots of rest, relaxation and fun!

We survived the super-cell (most severe type of thunderstorm) on 16 November though every day since then has involved clean-up, tradesmen to repair or quote, phone calls to assessor and others. Not what I needed the month before Christmas however we were much better off than others in our area so I am not complaining :-)

It has been a good year for us. I finished the breast cancer treatment in February, had the portocath (device to administer the chemo and Herceptin) removed by day surgery in March and I have been improving, slowly but surely, every since. I now just see each of the oncologist and surgeon every 6 months for a quick visit and do not require any ongoing medication.

In July I received confirmation of my appointment as a senior lawyer in the legal branch of Education Queensland. After undertaking the stressful application process of selection criteria and panel interview it is nice to have job security after 3 years on renewal of short term contracts.

It has been a busy year for me (what’s new :-)) with the three boys home for the first half of the year and a full-time job but I have managed to have lots of fun too with outings to shows, movies, theatre, lunches, dinners, a week at Straddie in April, a rejuvenating week at Camp Eden in June, a fabulous long week-end in Melbourne (to see Wicked and attend the writer’s festival) and a long week-end at Coolum in September. I love going to the West End markets very early each Saturday with my lovely neighbour and I attend my book-club each month for a coffee and a chat even though I usually haven’t had time to read the book!

On 19 December I am off on a trip to Egypt followed by 3 days in Bangkok. I am travelling with my brothers (Jon who is 6 years younger than me and Kim who is 6 years older than me) It is a 16 day tour with Imaginative Traveller visiting all the highlights of the Nile Valley, (including a 5 night Nile cruise), and also visiting Alexandria and climbing Mt Sinai to watch the sunrise. On Christmas day we will be sailing on the Nile cruise to visit the riverside temple of Kom Ombo – a bit different from my usual Christmas Day!

I am not opting out of Christmas entirely as I am having my family’s Dowling Christmas lunch here on 14 Dec for 37 people (including 9 little darlings under 7 years) which will be lovely.

Nanna (my mum) and the boys and I at a Christmas dinner for Alasdair on 6 December 2008

Now for the gorgeous boys:

Alasdair is in Paris where he has reported that it is snowing! He left on 7 December on a school trip where they have 5 days in Paris and then to the WW1 battlefields in the north of France where Al hopes to visit the grave, at Peronne, of his great, great uncle Lieutenant John Gardiner who died, aged 22, in 1918 during the last few weeks of the war. The group then travels to Tours where Al will meet the French family he will stay with for nearly 3 weeks. During this time Alasdair will attend a school in Tours and have Christmas and New Year with the family. They then have a couple of days skiing at Chamonix before flying home.

Al and his mum!

Alasdair paid one-third the cost of this trip by working in hospitality all year. In February he started at the Pig n Whistle in the Queen Street Mall, (where Duncan was working) as a ‘glassie’ (clears table of glasses and stacks/unstacks the glasses dishwasher). In typical Y generation fashion Alasdair decided he wasn’t staying a glassie for long. He did a bar course and by June was earning a better wage working behind the bar and as a waiter (assisted also by a few words of wisdom/ tips from Duncan). Al and Duncan have both now moved on from the Pig. Duncan to be an assistant manager at Milano’s and Al an assistant waiter at Jo Jo’s restaurant (both still in the Queen St Mall).

Alasdair, with his date for the semi-formal, May.

Alasdair, being a 16 year old who likes to socialise, has kept my parenting and chauffeuring skills fully honed! After a few hiccups in the first half of the year he settled down to his studies and finished year 11 with academic awards for French, Drama and Modern History. Al also played soccer in the 16A team for Marist and had great fun with Theatresports. We enjoyed lots of laughter on three very entertaining evenings watching his team go through to the semi-finals before they were out of the competition.



David collects Alasdair to take him to school each morning so I am away early to work and return early to make dinner for the boy who is always ‘starving’!

Duncan with his Nanna

This time last year Duncan moved home to save some money. In June, with the bankcard paid off, he started looking to move out only to discover that the demand for inner-city rent exceeded supply. A friend of mine came to the rescue with the offer of her rental property, a gorgeous renovated Queenslander at Auchenflower.

There he is happily ensconced, the only male with 3 female friends and it is very central for him for work and uni. Duncan took a year off his Economics/Arts degree to have some time to do other things (like read the books he wanted to read and didn’t have time for). He returned to uni this semester and completed three subjects for which he got three 6’s despite working 50 hour weeks in hospitality so he was very pleased with that. I love catching up with Duncan for lunch/coffee from time to time as we both work in the city.



Lachlan (or great helper in a storm as I can now call him!) is a lovely young man. He has had a busy year being on the fund-raising committee for the Edmund Rice camp. He successfully raised a net amount of $4,000 for the camps from a dinner/fashion parade that he organised. He has also attended a few camps this year.



Lachlan works at before and after school centres. This involves 2 hours work early in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon and he loves having the time off in the middle of the day. During school holidays he works all day and can’t believe he gets paid to take the kids to activities like bowling and theme parks. He loves his job.

Lachlan has also been studying all year to try and complete the Bachelor of Information Systems he has been studying off and on for some time. His heart was not in it and he felt that the end (to finish the degree to get into a post grad diploma of education) did not justify the means (studying subjects which held no interest for him). It was the last year the course was on offer at ACU so it means he will not get the degree despite being only 2 or 3 subjects away. He is not worried about it and says that he still wants to be a teacher one day but maybe later rather than sooner.

Lachlan and Duncan will go with David to Gardiner Christmas lunch at David’s brother’s home although Duncan may have to work (the joys of working in hospitality!)

Au revoir and wishing you all the very best for the holiday season and the New Year.
With love from Carolyn (aka Cags)

David and I have been amicably separated for almost three years now and are able to civilly enjoy family functions such as this one, celebrating Duncan's birthday at Belle Epoque

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