The year has finally come to an end and we are going into a new decade. We had the nones? now we will have the ten'ses! All these strange words to describe a period. Christmas was quiet. Brother Brian sent me a card so I guess we are talking. Have not heard from Barry - so guess they were away although I got a card. The weather has been up and down and we have already had some 40's so the rest of summer could be difficult. Still have an interest in the stock market and although have taken a couple of losses the portfolio is about 10% higher than the cost at present. Hoping for some improvements in dividend payments during the next 12 months. Will be setting up my 2010 diary page for my 70th birthday year in a little while so at this time a Happy New Year to all and I hope your Christmas was good.

Again it is months since my last entry. Basically I have not felt like bothering with the diary but I will try and bring it up to speed now. Work - continuing along but my mind has not been fully with it and I have made stupid errors which my boss has picked up and he is less than impressed! I must try and keep with it or I will have to give up work. My eyesight is less than good and I believe it is deteriorating. Tony has upgraded my computer and I have a larger screen set at an appropriate resolution so that is OK. One other problem is not perceiving what I am seeing. The other day I saw 2001 as the year but it was 2004 - that made me look really silly when I said we were missing data. Being aware of the problem I hope will make me more vigilant.
Went to the opera in September and saw Girl of the Golden West. Pretty good production and a good night out. Darelle and I attended free concerts at the ABC studios in November and they were enjoyable and highlighted the great music talent in Adelaide. There was a mini heat wave and temperatures got up to 40c! Most unusual and meant that I missed one concert because while the venue has aircon. I was just not in the mood to make the effort. I heard on ABCFM anyhow.
Steven, the guy in hampstead is now out and we are busy getting him back to normality. Quite a few follow up visits to various agencies regarding his various conditions and of course delays in getting his unit in order. A lot to do to get it clean and sorted out. Dust everywher and lot of cleaning to see to. Still waiting on the final refit of the bathroom due to lack of communication by Housing Trust with contractor. Now have my Carer Allowance re-instated. Centrelink mucked up the pension payments and I missed getting 2. One has been sorted out but I fear there will not be another one although I think it is payable. After chasing it up 3 times have now diven up!
Kathleen came over to see who know who and I managed to avoid getting involved with the other you know who! (Cannot speak the name of my nemisis from a financial point of view!)
My unit looks very shabby and recently I just could not be bothered with keeping it looking good and doing the things I should from a housekeeping point of view.
Missed watching the Annual Christmas Pageant which was affected by the extremely high temperatures which we experienced at that time. Also missed the local Norwood one too. This had the opposite difficulty with cold winds and spotting with rain. What I saw out of the kitchen window looked a bit bedraggled!ElNino weather pattern is well and truly in action! Saw a good programme explaining how it works and the suggestion that this weather pattern brought about the downfall of the city of UR about 4,000BC Fascinating.

It is months since I have made an entry and I will try and precise what has happened on that time. Basically it has consisted of work and deakibg with visits and having visits by the friend who is in hampstead after a serious head injury. He has had a couple of setbacks which are related to his emotional state but hopefully we will get through these and move forward.
As I reported last tim, I purchased a Hyundai to replace my older bomd. The car is going OK but like all used cars when I gad the first service a number of items arose caused by poor maintenance by the previous owner and probably known by the 2nd hand dealer but not rectified. Cost of getting the car up to speed was $1500. The main areas were suspension, replacement of old brake fluids and consequence maintenance to brakes, Coolant etc. All car dealers are sharks and legislation only provides limited protection. Car yard was owned by person who once trained the Adelaide Crows. Apart from this I am happy with car.
The rain we have over the last few months has helped the gardens a lot and been good for farms but we will need more in September to keep things going. There has been the odd shower but our average is still down. Be interesting when the snows melt to see what that does for the river.
My niece has apparently found a new rental property and I am still waiting to see what the final cost will be for that little episode.
Have been going OK at work but if I managed to get the money I would give it away tomorrow! Have been doing more investing and while not covered all my purchase costs rises in the stock market are getting closer to that point. It is fun dealing with stocks and if I had more resources would enjoy doing more.
Went to the Beethoven Festival and attended the final 3 concerts. Missed them last year but really enjoyed it. Darelle and I have been going to a number of piano recitals hosted by Graham Abbott which have been very pleasant (last one today) We also visited the Art Gallery for a couple of exhibitions and the Museum.
On a sad note - my old school friend Roger Wells died and I attended the funeral recently. We both started school in 1945/6 and also went to Norwood Boys Tech. The grim reaper is coming for us all and the time is getting shorter now that I am coming into my 70's. On that note I will leave it for now!

Will I ever get back to doing my diary weekly? What has happened since the last time? We have had some great rain and the gardens are looking good. Even the farmers are feeling better. I guess there has been run off into the dams and even into our poor old lower Murray lakes! Am even trying to read at the moment and bought a book about jobs in the period of ancient Rome and Greece. Fascinating reading. The title certainly gets you in. "Orgy Planner wanted". Fascinating to see that while the jobs are different in some areas the day to day business of working to live is the same. Of course many workers were slaves and the way they were treated by their masters is a factor. There were stories of real people and their work related problems with bosses, authority etc - just like today.
Steven is getting on OK and hopefully it will not be long before he is home again. Having the piece of bone in his skull refitted this coming week so have to sign documents for that. Work is going OK although I have not been feeling 100%. I think it is due to tight money situation and wondering what is going to happen when Emma has no where to live although my responsibility is finished.
The Marryatville High Old Scholars are going pretty well but it is a strain keeping up with minutes, financial statements etc. It is good to see the membership improving and funds increasing.
Have not heard from Brian lately although Barry had called in to get some old photos to have copied. Strange family...Salem is his usual difficult self. This cat is so self centred! Wants his own way all the time!
My portfolio of investments is holding its own even though some are not at levels I would like. It is good fun to follow the market and keep the records for the investments. If only the people who have their tax returns prepared by us could do the same! capital gains, dividend re-investment etc.Would be great to win Xlotto and become a serious investor with some of the money.
Have lots to do about the family histories but really do not seem to be able to get down to it properly. In some ways my interest is waning although it would be good to do something about the Smith ancestors.
This entry is a bit of a review of where I am going and the future seems somewhat cloudy. Hard to kniw where I will be health and wealth wise ten years from now.

It is almost a month since my last entries and I have to think what has happened. The most exciting is that I have pensioned off the Sigma and purchased another car. This time it is a good bit younger than the old girl and is a nice little sporty Hyundi (not sure of spelling)! Has only dome 119,000 odd kms. Hope this will take me through until the balance of my time. Cost just under $6,000 which I thought was a good price. I went out last Saturday with my mate who is in Hampstead re-cuperating after a serious fall and head injury. It made his day! Just said - "like to look for another car?" and within 2 hours we drove away in this one. It was going to cost megabucks to keep the Sigma going so it was time to change over.
Tomorrow is the Marryatville High School Old Scholars re-union at the school and the weather looks to be holding up although god knows we need some rain. Should be an interesting day and I hope there will be a good role up. Work is going pretty well although not so busy at the moment as the work is not coming in as it should. have been involved in re-organising some of our systems and trying to keep the owner from hetting too stressed out. He is a worry wart.
Am getting a little worried about my memory although I think some of my lapses are due to being too uptight. Good reason to as I have quite a bit of debt to deal with. Provided I keep working and make some economies I should be OK.
Emma is a worry but my commitment in that area finishes in mid June. She has been lucky that I accepted responsibility for her rent even though she was supposed to pay something. God only knows what will happen but she will be getting nothing more from me, that is for sure.Weather still not bringing us rain and predictions are that there will be little before the end of April.
The financial crisis continues although the last week has seen some recovery in the USA. Our market has also risen but no one is saying the end is in sight. Listening to the US commentators is interesting. They are so paranoid about government intervention and the great god of capitalism being displaced. It does not matter what system you have the biggest problem is greed and incompetence and that is the human factor which disturbs the best laid plans and intentions. It is the same problem with the destruction of the world's eco systems - that and too many people jostling for space with the creatures that share the planet. Unfortunately they will lose although the planet itself is beginning to come back and bite us in the bum as we cause the climate to change. We are the problem on this planet and I am just as guilty as anyone.

I have not added to the diary for around 6 weeks and much has happened. Huge fires in Victoria with 1000 houses destroyed and 200 people killed. In Queensland there has been masses of rain with floods. Water has even reached Lake Eyre. Unfortunately not a lot of rain has fallen in the headwaters of the Murray Darling system so that river is still in crisis. Fortunately we had no significant fires during the hot weather so that is a plus.
Steven is recovering well from his head injury and after 7 weeks in hospital has been moved to a rehab centre at Hampstead. My guess he will probably be able to leave in a couple of months. A good lesson for him and I think he is going to give up the grog which was the cause of his accident. A good outcome! He may even stop smoking.
Some problems with my published family trees as some people think it can allow visiitors to find out too much about their ancestry. The information is generally public information which anyone could find if they dug into the public record (particularly electoral roles) so I do not think it discloses too much. Of course it shows your lineage which some may feel is more private but that is also possible to trace using public information. All that has happened is that the information is the final result of research anyhow. I am trying to find how to to reduce some data where people want to do this without destroying the integrity of the trees.
Have not heard from Germany about the Niemz family but live in hope of getting a handle on that branch and its history.
Received an e-mail form Len Russells who was at NBTS with me. He took up a career as a minister of religion and has run his own church over that time. He also has a son who is a minister in the USA. Has a number grandchildren and at 68 is looking to continue his ministry work evem though he had retired from his present position. Such a varied lot of careers amongst my class mates when you review them.

I am just so irregular in doing my diary! Let us see what has happened since the last entry.
At the moment we are in the throes of a real heat wave. During the past week we had 45.6c high and are still hovering around the 40's as well as the high 30's which are forecast for the next week or so. The longest and hottest one since 1908! Really knocks you around.
Working of course and have been in charge while the boss is away. What with trying to collect the water seeping through the ceiling, keeping the indoor plant alive and watering the outside ones it has been a real chore. The heat has made concentration quite difficult.
Steven of whom I have spoken & who has a drinking problem amongst other issues, fell and hit his head. Fortunately I was at his place at the time so called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital and within two hours operated on as there was swelling and bleeding in the brain. He has been in intensive care for 2 weeks. Seems to be coming around now but still not aware of his surrounds or comunicating. Hope he recovers or we will have another issue to deal with - what to do with him for ongoing care. Keeping our fingers crossed.
The financial meltdown goes from one crisis to another. It came out of left field for most people and with a few short months consumer confidence crashed and now jobs are going. It seems to be a combination of bad loans made in the US to people who could not repay and greed from institutions. I think we have heard all this before! Now the Governments of the world are pouring money into rescue packages including propping up the financial institutions. It all has to be paid for so belts will be tightening and in the final analysis we will all pay. At my age I wonder if I will be still around when it all gets back to even keel.
have been watching and recording a lot of American musicals and enjoying them immensely. Also going to the current series of Opera films from the MET. They have been good and fortunately are being replayed on the Ovation Channel so have been recording them too.
Just read an article on getting old and one of the replies from readers seemed to put it into perspective and gives a good reason for the old saying of 'living for the day' (because you may not be here tomorrow) and also reminds us that the past is just that and there is only the future however short (and it gets shorter every day!) That great philosopher Julius Henry (Groucho) Marx summed it up well when he asserted that everyone gets old, if they're lucky. The extension to this is that there is something worse than getting old - and that is NOT getting old...

This is the first entry for the new year and I wish everyone the best for the coming year. As I did not win any part of the $30million lotto prize it is back to work on Tuesday! Wednesday to the hospital to see about the colonoscopy next month. Watching a couple of James Bond films - not much else to do. These films are over 40 years old.