We had no big holidays planned for this year, which was fortunate since it became a very hectic time
Rosie continues to get stronger with her golf and has got down to a 14 handicap. She was very pleased to win the Nett in the Foursomes Championship with Doris.
We took a small trip up to Geraldton during the first term holidays so that we could catch up with Rosie’s mum Betty and with her sister Nola and Johnny.
While in Geraldton we played a couple of games at Spalding Park and another at Geraldton GC and then on the way home we dropped into Joondallup and played there. Joondallup is easily the best golf course in WA in terms of design and it is a real thinking person’s course.
We both achieved very similar scores at each course, Bruce usually starts out well, but Rosie comes storming home in the second nine, so it is always a close game.
Everyone in Geraldton was doing well, though John was having a few blood test done. We had really good weather and visited the usual attractions, including Chapman Valley winery and the old farm.
Betty was looking very vibrant and attic, enjoying herself in the nursing home. Nola was if good health, but far too busy.
Liam is still in cadets, which is good, he is now one of the longest serving members and enjoys the activities, especially Anzac Day, where the cadets march, representing in school, and provide help during the ceremony.
Liam and Bruce went off to Mother’s Day as usual in Dwellingup. Rosie decided that she wanted to stay home and visit Daen and Sophie. She also wanted to have Mother’s Day with Maddy.
In July, Ben and Becca held their engagement party at the Balmoral Hotel in Vic Park. We all went to this, Liam getting the opportunity to mix with his cousins from Albany and also catch up with his older cousins
On the way home from the engagement party, Rosie and Bruce played golf at “The Cut”. It is a very pretty course but not very enjoyable. The fairways are too narrow and the bush scrub made it impossible to find your ball if it went off. Being right on the beach, the wind was pretty horrible as well. Golf is meant to be enjoyable, this wasn’t really.
In August, we had a few birthday parties for Maddy, and as you can see in the photo above, Maddy was finding it all a bit overwhelming. This was a joint party for Maddy and Willa, who is Stacey and Nicks daughter.
Unfortunately Betty had a fall in September and wasn’t looking too good, we raced up to Geraldton to see her and although she recovered, she never really got her strength back.
Betty passed away on the 2nd November, 2015 aged 93.
We all went up to Geraldton, for the third time this year, to go to Betty’s funeral. It was nice to see so many of Betty’s friends and family come along and we all went back to the Geraldton Yacht club for the wake and to catch up with people we hadn’t seen in a very long time.
Later in November, Alex and Bec were married. The ceremony was held in Margaret River so Mum came down and stayed with us for a few days before we took her to the wedding. This is the first wedding of Liam’s generation, but Liam is a lot younger than Alex and Ben, so we are not anticipating him getting married too soon. Daen and Sophie will be our first wedding.
Liam had good Year 11, having Bruce teach him in both the high level maths. He was in a wonderful year group, with one of the strongest groups the school has seen in a long time. In early December, we swapped over to the Year 12 course and Bruce took his two classes on the bus trip to Prevelly. Sea Gardens wasn’t open so we went to the White Elephant. Again, it was so nice to see the students busily working on their graphs while waiting for their breakfast. The usual stares came from the other customers, this is such a good PR exercise for the school. You will notice several of this group were also with us on the Japan Ski Trip last year.
Later in December, one of my God Children got married. Rebecca (who Liam took to the MRSHS School Ball) married Mark. The ceremony was held at Sally and Shaun’s property. They were both very proud parents and Shaun looked very nice in his suit (which we think he got from the op shop, which is where Shaun gets all his clothes).
We had Xmas at our house this year, with Nola and John coming to stay for a few days. We had the usual breakfast at our house and then John didn’t feel too well so went off to bed.
He still wasn’t well enough to go to Sophie’s for the afternoon so we all went off without him.
We got a phone call later to say that John woke up feeling pretty bad so took himself off to hospital where he was admitted with a suspected heart attack. He didn’t want to upset our luncheon so kept it quiet. He stayed in hospital for a few days before being allowed back to Geraldton.
We finished the year with a New Years Eve bridge night. Sally, Shaun, Merv, Robyn, Dave and Barbara all came over and we had a spectacular meal. We all getting a bit old now, so we watched the Sydney NY celebrations and then went to home to bed.
A very busy year with many good memories and one very sad memory.
