Goodbye 2019

This will probably be my last blog for 2019! I have noticed I haven't barely blog a lot this year. I will try my best to do more blogging in 2020. Here's hoping 2020 will be a better year for a lot of people. We had mother nature causing disasters for a lot of people to lose everything or lives were lost this past few months. Also lost a lot of celebrities throughout the year. I have seen on Facebook that some people will be glad to see 2019 gone. Could say this year was more a good year for me but I hope next year will be even better.

Sadly I have two friends who are terminally ill with their medical condition and I might be expecting the bad news I don't want sometime in 2020. One friend has stage 4 melanoma caner and she's been talking about leaving her family to travel to a different state.  The other friend has a heart condition which can't be operated. I saw him before Christmas and he looked ready to leave Earth. Its not the memory I want!!

I have this week off from my volunteer work which I hope to get some abit of spring cleaning done and watch a cinema movie or two. Probably dine out on Saturday night at the local footy club. Next Monday afternoon I will have a job interview at a childcare centre. Wish me luck! I was surprised this morning when the Director phoned me and discovered the centre was opened. They used to have centres closed for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year. It was good for staff to have time off back then. But I heard a lot of business don't allow employees have time off before Christmas anymore.

This festive season sure went out the door very fast. How was your Christmas? On Christmas Eve I had my volunteer work. The warehouse closed at 1:30pm. Rest of the afternoon was spent on the final Christmas shopping. In the evening we went to the city to attend the 6pm Christmas Mass at St Stephen's Cathedral in Elizabeth Street. The church was quite a full house!  A lot of people had to stand either both sides of the church wall or at the back entrance. We were sitting at the back row on the seats.

We had a quiet family dinner at Monique's house. We had present opening before dinner and played games with my 3 year grand daughter. Jade (who's almost three months) had her first Christmas which she won't remember. She was given baby clothing, bed linen and baby toys. Krystal mostly received gifts with either The Wiggles or Frozen image on the items.  I received a Lion King Monopoly game, a small move around craft organiser, a star wars t-shirt, some money and scratch its which they are still inside the Christmas card not scratched. I could be rich but my chances of that happening is very slim! After dinner we went around locally to look at a couple of houses with good light displays. 

On Boxing Day we had afternoon tea with my parents. In the evening we went to the cinema to see the latest Star wars movie "The Return of Skywalker". Don't want to be a movie spoiler but sadly "Princess Leia" had died in this movie. It's kind of expected to happen as Carrie Fisher had passed away on this day three years ago. Her mum "Debbie Reynolds" passed away on the next day. That was a very sad time of the year for that family.

What's your plans for New Years? I have volunteer work and probably nap afterwards. I am not sure what will do in the evening. I don't even know if there will be any fireworks happening as I heard some areas banned them because of the bushfires still happening in some areas of the country.

Better go as I have snail mail to post off this afternoon. All the best for a happy and safe New Year. Good luck with any new endeavours you may challenge yourself to do in 2020. Safe travels on the road too.

My annual newsletter

Hi everyone!  How's your year being going? I had a pretty busy productive year. During semester one I managed to have some relief contract work as a teacher aide at one primary school. I mostly worked with additional needs students and junior grades. During term one I done a lot of walking to and from the public pool as all grades had their swimming lessons. In March I completed my first marshalling of the Cross Country which I actually enjoyed. I see can why PE teachers love their job!! Within two hours all grades had run/walked around the school grounds. In August I was involved in Senior Sports Day by being the starter for 800m track events for all age groups.

 

In term 4 I was introduced to volunteer work at Lifeline where I worked with two other machinists in creating recycled goody (ie cloth) bags to sell at all Lifeline stores in South East Queensland. I would spend up to 15 hrs per week on sewing bags. I used to sew my own clothing long before I had a family of my own and now I should consider get back into sewing again.

 

What a year I had! Besides catching with my some friends and relatives throughout the year, the biggest highlight of the year is my eldest daughter: Monique got married to the father of her child on 2^nd March 2019. They had their wedding ceremony in a park's gazebo at bayside area while the reception was held at a community hall nearby with over 60 guests of mainly family members and closest friends.

 

Another big highlight of the year: Monique and Steve had their second child. A baby girl name Jade was welcomed into the world on 29^th September 2019. At the present time she looks so much like her grandfather (ie Steve's father). She weighed in at 9lb 7oz. Most of the wedding guests knew about Monique's pregnancy as Steve had made the annoucement during the speeches at their wedding. Monique was only ten weeks pregnant at time of announcement.

 

Krystal is now three years old who looks more like her Grandma (ie Steve's mum). She attends Kindy three days a week, one morning at playgroup and has swimming lessons on Sundays. Also she was introduced to ten pin bowling. Some weeks she might socially play a game with somebody else she knows well. Watch this space to find out if she will become like her mother and be introduced to league play in the near future. Krystal had her family birthday celebrations at their home address in July. Her party was The Wiggles theme as she loves them! Emma is her favourite character.

 

We had made a couple of weekend trips to Hervey Bay to see Rachel this year. The last weekend visit was last month!  We went shopping and visit the Story Bank (ie Mary Poppins Museum) in Maryborough. She plans on coming down to Brisbane in 2020 to celebrate her birthday with me.

 

Still ten pin bowling at the same centre but I was introduced to a new singles league as the old league of three seasons decided to transferred to a different centre. I have stayed in contact with afew people. I had my 50^th party by social bowling with some past league players.  Next year I will be playing at a different centre. Also might consider a touring league where you play at different centre once a month.

Still been creative with my papercrafting by attending to regular workshops. I found new two consultants who live more local now and host regular meets per month on some weekends. And lucky me managed to attend two weekend retreats at Brookfield. Consider all the workshops I attended to I managed to create some wedding scrapbooking pages and work through other projects during the year. 

In October I attended to a live concert performance at Kedron Wavell Services Club (ie RSL club) with my friend. We had dinner at a restaurant then went upstairs to seen ABBA Live who performed to ABBA songs for 2½ hrs. Were you an ABBA fan in the 70's? What was your favourite song?

On 5^th December Monique and I had a day trip to Lismore to attend to McLeod's Daughters Reunion in the city hall. The afternoon event was for fans to be involved in a Q and A session to learn more about the actors and their life on the show. Monique was the lucky one to take advantage to ask a good question and two of the actors answered her. I had planned to ask a question but another fan beaten me.

Have you noticed how much spending we all intend to do leading up to Christmas and the public holiday goes out the door so fast? This Christmas will be a just quiet one with local family members. All the best for a happy and safe festive season with your families. If you have any travel plans, make sure your destination will be a safe journey. Good luck with any new endeavours in 2020!