2009 - A yearly Roundup

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and that you saw in the New Year in good health and with a blast!  We had a wonderful Christmas made special, especially to me, as we had my Mum stay with us from just before Christmas for about a week.  I think it’s the longest time we’ve spent together in recent memory and it was just fabulous.  We cooked, ate, shopped, lunched and played board games with the kids.  I even got mum addicted to playing the Wii!... Spike ended up having to shoo us to bed at about 11.30 most nights! And that’s saying something for my Mum who usually ends up asleep on the lounge early evening watching tv, and who has refused to even touch a controller in the past.

We brought in the New Year with Spike’s Mum in Wollongong, again playing board games and then enjoyed watching fireworks from a railway bridge with the kids and Jules at midnight, as the beaches where we had intended to go were packed and parking was a nightmare.  Nevertheless, it was just as nice from a distance and easier on Jules as she was already spooked from the many firework blasts happening nearby throughout the night.  She was so spooked that to keep her calm Spike put her in the garage and lay on a foam mattress beside her, reading.  I ended up joining them after a while as everyone else had gone to bed and I didn’t want Spike to be down there on his own.  We both read for a while and thankfully within about 30 mins the blasts all but stopped and Spike and I were able to sneak upstairs to our own bed.  Whew!  Yes, we’re sad cases aren’t we!

2009 flew by for us with all of us being busy and it feels like it’s going to continue this way for quite some time.  We started the New Year in Wollongong and caught up with Spike’s family and then had a lovely Australia Day at Uriarra Crossing trying to get Jules more comfortable in the water.  We worked on this throughout the year taking her to the local creek for ‘swims’ several times a week.  Over the past couple of weeks with the creek level being so high, she’s become much more confident and has actually started fetching sticks in the water and seems to really love it now.  It’s one of Spike’s greatest joys, to see her running and splashing through the water....he’s a man of simple pleasures really! ;-)

In February, Spike and I spent just over two weeks in India.  It had never been a destination we had considered seriously before, but an opportunity arose for Spike to attend an Air Show in Bangalore and so we thought we’d take advantage of this.  We decided after much deliberation not to take the kids this time, with the Mumbai bombings very fresh in all our minds and thought this would be a good ‘taster’ for a possible family trip in the future.  Rather than go into details here, as usual Spike was very organised and kept a Blog of our trip, so if you've run out of reading material, you can find it online at http://www.barlows2india09.blogspot.com  Special thanks has to go to Helen who gave up so much of her time and put her life on hold for three weeks to come to Canberra and look after the kids for us.  Thanks, just doesn't cut it!

A highlight of our trip to India was that we were able to squeeze in a day stopover in Singapore which gave us the opportunity to have lunch with one of our dearest friends, Simon who has lived in Singapore for about 14 years (?) with his family.  Was so great to see him, but made parting difficult again!

After our return to OZ, Spike started the year with one of the heaviest teaching loads I think he’s ever had.  He also had to recreate the whole first year computer science degree from scratch, so was a huge first semester for him.  He also had a busy year taking on the job of coaching Grant’s soccer team and once again played soccer himself this year, which has been one of the best things to happen in his life.  His fitness and ability improved so much this year, that he found himself being moved from 3rd Div the previous year up to 1st by the end of last year! Go Spikey!  Unfortunately, he had to cut back on his Jujutsu training because it clashed with his soccer, but hopes to get to training more often this year.  After doing Tai Chi for about a year and a half, I decided to give Kung Fu a try last year.  It’s a little more my style, a bit more martial and disciplined than Tai Chi, but still gentle enough on this old body to keep going for a few more years!

Evil 'Red' and 'Wolfie' having an evil giggle together!

Zoe (Now 14!!) has had a busy year with Soccer, Futsal, and band.  She continues to enjoy school and it's showing in her progress and grades!  She's still enjoying her trumpet and is an amazing little player! Her school band played at the National Eisteddfod in Canberra this year and received two gold medals!  She had a ball going on Band Camp which landed them in Sydney on the morning of the red dust storm, saw ‘Wicked’ and had a harbour cruise.  Band camps are a highlight of the school year for her as you can imagine!  Zoe continues to improve in her soccer skills and especially her understanding of the game.  Futsal is one of her greatest loves, and she just hates it when there’s a bye!  He other great love of course is Julia! The two have a special bond and Zoe loves spending as much time with her as she can.  Zoe is also becoming quite the hostess and loves entertaining!  She's arranged many parties, but the most important on her calendar is Halloween!  Her costumes are always creative and her friends love all the fun games she arranges.

Grant a little excited about his birthday presents!

Grant (now 11!) was chosen to play trumpet in the school band, following in his sister’s footsteps and has made significant progress through the year. He joined Coerver, a soccer training academy near the end of the year and has loved learning new skills and becoming a fitter and faster soccer player.  He seems to be improving all the time.  In outdoor soccer he was chosen to play in the first division team and again played in the Kanga Cup youth tournament in Canberra.  In futsal he’s being tested playing in the next age group up and loving it.  He also joined an OZtag team (variant of touch footy) and showed once again, that he is a natural at pretty much any sport he chooses.  He made significant progress after one season, and had the coach offering to ‘come over with his chequebook’ to convince Grant to give up soccer and play on his outdoor rugby league team this year!  Grant of course says a big NO to giving up soccer, but is going to try to play both during the winter season.

Zoe the ice skating instructor...always looking after the boys!

In October, Aunty Maria in her wisdom gave Harry and Daniel (my gorgeous little nephews) tickets to see ‘Thomas the Tank Engine, Live on Stage’ with us.  Wow!,  it’s been a while since I’ve experienced the joy and chaos of a live children’s concert!  We also had the pleasure of having them stay with us unaccompanied by Mum or Dad, and spoiling them for about 4 days.  We fit so much in over those few days, Thomas, Questacon, Ice Skating, Grant’s birthday, movies and shopping! Whew, we all slept well each night!

Evil Red, Wolf in Grandma's clothing, Joker and Beetlejuice.

October also saw the annual Barlow Halloween Party being held – a major event on our social calendar.  This year, our theme was heavily dark fairytale (Evil Little Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf in Grandma’s Nightdress), but we saw a huge range of costumes from bubble wrap aliens and Ghostbusters to John and Yoko and Edward Scissorhands!

It's Madness!! One step Beyond!!

In March, Spike and I got to relive our youth (take a trip down memory lane?) by going to Sydney to watch Madness! at the VFestival!  We both got into the spirit and dressed up in our best twotone outfits and had a ball along with many other gen X’s there on the same mission.


For me the year was a good one work wise, as I got to do 1 hour a day relief at the preschool and relished in the trip down memory lane working with preschoolers and really getting my hands dirty again!  Playdough, slime, glitter, paint and sandpits once again became a big part of my life and I loved it!  I hope that I draw the short straw again this year!  I also got my hands dirty during another evening course at the ANU School of Art.  I ended up, after leaving it too late to enrol in life drawing or watercolours, enrolling in my first oil painting course.  Won’t be doing that again!  Didn’t enjoy it at all, so will get in early this year and try watercolours which I’ve wanted to do for a while now.  I did a couple of trial paintings last year and think it’s more my thing, so here goes.    Spike also bought me a drawing tablet for the computer for my birthday, so I’ve enjoyed playing with that and doing a few drawings and paintings on it.

Well, guess that’s been our year.  For much of it there were only a few nights when we were all able to sit down to an evening meal together  The crockpot got a good workout in winter and being busy kept us all out of trouble, so guess that’s a bonus! ;-)

Here’s hoping that this year will be a year of happiness and good health for you all!
Love Maria and the Barlow Clan! Oxox