2007 - Significant events

Annual “State of the Nation” letter
2007 has been both a good and bad one for us in Australia, but I will explain in more detail. The year started off with lots of promise, with us looking to buy a unit (flat) in Brisbane so we could get back into the property market. This we did do successfully by purchasing a one bedroom unit at Kelvin Grove Urban Village. This happens to be at Emma’s university as well, about 2km from the centre of the City and about 6km from where we live in The Gap. We have some very good tenants who seem to pay very well, who signed to rent from us for 12 months. Best of all is that it has gone up $ 75k in the last few months and they are now selling them at $ 390k – I have to pinch myself when I convert this back to Rand because it is nearly double what our house in Pinelands cost…….
We were in the middle of trying to get our permanent residence visas sorted out, which after more medicals and paperwork came through in April and we duly got our passports stamped. The sad part of that was that Ryan’s 457 visa fell away, and he had to get a tourist visa to visit us later in the year. He will have to wait now until we become citizens in April 2009, before he can come over and work in Australia.
I assisted Emma’s friend Justine, to come a visit us over her 21st, and then also arranged for Jan’s Dad and Ryan to come over at the same time as well, for a month’s holiday. This was a very special time for us all and we had a lovely party at the Ashgrove Golf club around the corner from us. This has been the year of the 21sts will umpteen of Emmie’s mates celebrating as well. Not a week seemed to go past and Emmie was at another party.
Emmie has consistently performed at Uni and enjoyed her prac teaching at Ferny Grove High, apart from a year 9 boy trying to make a pass at her…. She and James continue to be “very taken by each other”, and he is a great guy who comes from a lovely family, is an Engineer and has his head screwed on in a big way. He has just completed his Masters and Emmie and he hope to come back to South Africa at the end of 2008 for a holiday. All this has not detracted from her Uni results, and she has maintained her 6+ Grade point average for her degree, and will complete hers in 2008.
Ian has made some good friends and has enjoyed his cricket at Valley’s club, where I was roped into coaching his team (the under 13 Reds) the club has 54 junior sides and 650 children. This is who Matthew Hayden, Allan Border and Kepler Wessels played for, and is about 2km from our house with great facilities. He also plays in his school’s first team and made some good scores. His highlight was a 48 from Valleys against Ferny Grove Green team where he proceeded to smack their top bowler out the park for a great 6. He was upset not to have made his 50 through, but the confidence levels only went up from then on. He has now finished Primary school and missed his graduation because he left for South Africa a few days early. The Gap State High School awaits him in 2008, and I think he will be very happy there.
I ended up leaving Komatsu, which if the truth be told was not a planned exercise, but ended up being a mutual agreement, and then spent a few weeks looking around for a new job. The parting of the ways ended up being a blessing in disguise and I now have a national role at Hagglunds Drives in Brisbane, as the National Aftermarket manager. We have 6 branches, three in Western Australia (Perth, Bunbury and Port Hedland) and three on the East coast, (Tuggerah, Brisbane and Mackay). I have been nominated to the international development group (Swedish company) so will be travelling to Sweden, Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Columbus, Ohio (USA) in March, April and this year, so the air miles will be moving very nicely again as I also have a number of trips to WA planned (5 and a half hours by plane) on a monthly basis to complete as well.(see www.hagglunds.com )
Of course our biggest joy was Ryan graduating from UCT, and Jan and Ian flew back for his graduation. We are all so proud of Ryan and I think he would be justified in calling his grade one teacher, Mrs Hooley and telling her he appreciated her confidence she showed him from the start – NOT. Ryano, you have become the man we always knew you were going to be, and I am sure you will enjoy your new role at Capestorm in 2008. Just remember – even bigger and better things await you down the line and we are always here for you.
On the cycling front, I have consistently been riding the whole year and capped this off with my first Brisbane to Gold Coast race (100km) which I did with Jim Cohen my cycling mate, and James, Dave and Grant. Jim and I ride most weekends and end up either doing the river loop, or Mt Cootha or around the great cycle paths around Brisbane.
Jan and I celebrated our 25th Wedding anniversary on the 11th September, and had a huge bash. I guess we are both proud of this and also surprised that it came so quickly. It’s strange, but we can still remember everything that happened on our wedding day (and before that too). It’s not the norm now days in our super fast paced world, but we have so much fun just being a family. Love you more now than ever Doll..
Whilst all was happening around her, Jan has continued to be our pillar. I think it is fair to say (especially after her trip back to South Africa) that she now calls Australia home, and although we all have Africa very much in our blood and will never lose that, she has a whole bunch of very good mates here and has settled into the more relaxed lifestyle in Brisbane and has some plans for 2008 that she wants to work on. Jannie, we have seen our kids through Uni (Ryan) and primary school (Ian), so we are doing well.