Christmas 2005 Newsletter
Hi all,
I recently sent this newsletter out to friends and family but in the unlikely event of me missing anyone I have posted it on my blog for all to read.
The older one gets, the faster time flies. Now aint that the truth. Our last newsletter was in July and now it is already almost Christmas. Our trip to Aussie last year seems like it was just yesterday.
This year we have decided to splash out and spend Christmas and New Year with our son Brad and grandson Ethan in London. We fly out on December 15th and return to Auckland on January 14th. It’s all very exciting - we haven’t been to London since December 1999 and have only seen our grandson once when he was only three months old. He is now almost three years old. It is going to be quite a big family reunion. Darren and Amanda and obviously Evan will be going too and Irene’s sister Gillian and her husband Colin will be coming from the states. We will all be staying with Brad and Tony (Irene’s brother) and his new wife Ingrid and baby Sammy.
I am now well ensconced in the new Silverdale factory which I mentioned in our last newsletter. The drive to work in the mornings is wonderful, no traffic and beautiful country scenery. The factory is huge and the offices are state of the art, very comfortable indeed.
My boss is one of those people who have to have some kind of project on the go at all times. After the new factory had been completed he had nothing to stimulate his active mind. When we were in the old factory we were limited with storage space and had a six metre shipping container in the yard which was used to store surplus tools, etc.
Anyway, one Monday morning he came in and announced that he had an idea how to utilize the now empty container. We would put an ad in the local newspaper saying that we‘d like to send the container filled with warm clothing and blankets to the earthquake victims in Pakistan. Well we were inundated with calls from people volunteering help. We set up drop off points for collection of clothes and blankets and within ten days the container was filled! The container is being shipped to Pakistan on the 24th November. What a wonderful gesture from the people of NZ. We even got parcels from as far away as Invercargill, in the south of the South Island.
Check out the website: See here http://www.flickr.com/photos/aqw/62084493/
And here http://www.flickr.com/photos/aqw/
My painting has been put on the back burner lately; I’ve been channelling my inspiration into a different art form. I’ve been trying my hand at writing short stories, essays, blogging and I‘ve just finished a play which I hope one day to produce both in SA and here in NZ. The writing is not great but I have certainly enjoyed the experience. If anyone would like to risk it, you can read some of my stuff at: http://alfwood.blogspot.com/
The family is well; Irene is still working hard at the same job and enjoying every minute of it, Darren continues to excel in his field and also enjoys his work a lot. He has his own Web developer forum on the net and has a worldwide following. http://dontcom.com/
Evan has had a good year at school coming first in his class. He has decided that he is a bit young to go to university next year (only just turned seventeen) so will be staying on at school to do his “A” levels. He is still besotted with all things Chinese and can now speak, read and write Mandarin moderately well. His music is still very important in his life and he will be playing in two orchestras next year, Westlake Concert Band and the Westlake Symphony Orchestra.
We recently had general elections in NZ and the Labour Party under Helen Clark won a third term. She has formed a coalition with two right-of-centre parties which is very strange for a left wing Labour party. Anyway we have them for another three years. The nice thing about the Labour government is that they have promised interest free student loans for tertiary education; this will suit us just fine for when Evan starts university in 2007.
Sorry about the South African loss of the 2011 Rugby World cup but at least NZ got it which is good for us. It promises to bring millions into our slowing economy.
Well, that’s all for now folks, we wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy and prosperous New year. Please drop us a line, we are starving for news from you guys.
Lots of love from
Alf, Irene and Evan (Wood, in case you had forgotten.)
I recently sent this newsletter out to friends and family but in the unlikely event of me missing anyone I have posted it on my blog for all to read.
The older one gets, the faster time flies. Now aint that the truth. Our last newsletter was in July and now it is already almost Christmas. Our trip to Aussie last year seems like it was just yesterday.
This year we have decided to splash out and spend Christmas and New Year with our son Brad and grandson Ethan in London. We fly out on December 15th and return to Auckland on January 14th. It’s all very exciting - we haven’t been to London since December 1999 and have only seen our grandson once when he was only three months old. He is now almost three years old. It is going to be quite a big family reunion. Darren and Amanda and obviously Evan will be going too and Irene’s sister Gillian and her husband Colin will be coming from the states. We will all be staying with Brad and Tony (Irene’s brother) and his new wife Ingrid and baby Sammy.
I am now well ensconced in the new Silverdale factory which I mentioned in our last newsletter. The drive to work in the mornings is wonderful, no traffic and beautiful country scenery. The factory is huge and the offices are state of the art, very comfortable indeed.
My boss is one of those people who have to have some kind of project on the go at all times. After the new factory had been completed he had nothing to stimulate his active mind. When we were in the old factory we were limited with storage space and had a six metre shipping container in the yard which was used to store surplus tools, etc.
Anyway, one Monday morning he came in and announced that he had an idea how to utilize the now empty container. We would put an ad in the local newspaper saying that we‘d like to send the container filled with warm clothing and blankets to the earthquake victims in Pakistan. Well we were inundated with calls from people volunteering help. We set up drop off points for collection of clothes and blankets and within ten days the container was filled! The container is being shipped to Pakistan on the 24th November. What a wonderful gesture from the people of NZ. We even got parcels from as far away as Invercargill, in the south of the South Island.
Check out the website: See here http://www.flickr.com/photos/aqw/62084493/
And here http://www.flickr.com/photos/aqw/
My painting has been put on the back burner lately; I’ve been channelling my inspiration into a different art form. I’ve been trying my hand at writing short stories, essays, blogging and I‘ve just finished a play which I hope one day to produce both in SA and here in NZ. The writing is not great but I have certainly enjoyed the experience. If anyone would like to risk it, you can read some of my stuff at: http://alfwood.blogspot.com/
The family is well; Irene is still working hard at the same job and enjoying every minute of it, Darren continues to excel in his field and also enjoys his work a lot. He has his own Web developer forum on the net and has a worldwide following. http://dontcom.com/
Evan has had a good year at school coming first in his class. He has decided that he is a bit young to go to university next year (only just turned seventeen) so will be staying on at school to do his “A” levels. He is still besotted with all things Chinese and can now speak, read and write Mandarin moderately well. His music is still very important in his life and he will be playing in two orchestras next year, Westlake Concert Band and the Westlake Symphony Orchestra.
We recently had general elections in NZ and the Labour Party under Helen Clark won a third term. She has formed a coalition with two right-of-centre parties which is very strange for a left wing Labour party. Anyway we have them for another three years. The nice thing about the Labour government is that they have promised interest free student loans for tertiary education; this will suit us just fine for when Evan starts university in 2007.
Sorry about the South African loss of the 2011 Rugby World cup but at least NZ got it which is good for us. It promises to bring millions into our slowing economy.
Well, that’s all for now folks, we wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy and prosperous New year. Please drop us a line, we are starving for news from you guys.
Lots of love from
Alf, Irene and Evan (Wood, in case you had forgotten.)
posted by Alf | 1:49 pm
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