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What have we all been doing since we saw each other last?

This space is reserved for a brief update of our personal stories. Send them in now to Mike and I'll put them here for everyone to read.

Walter's story

What has Walter been up to in the past five years? In June 2006, with the University of Victoria’s requirement of retirement at 65, I closed my research lab and assumed the title of Professor Emeritus.  Although I now have no assigned duties I do have an office on campus and can usually be found there Wednesdays and Fridays processing archived data and writing research papers for publication.  At retirement my colleagues in the Department of Chemistry gave me a set of golf clubs, a suitcase and a box of acrylic paints and these have been the focus of much of my leisure activities.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I try to hit that little white ball where it is supposed to go, with varying degrees of success.  Rosemary and I have enjoyed a number of trips overseas and anticipate many more.  In February 2007 we went for a month to NZ, hired a car, stayed in B & Bs, and saw much of the southern part of the South Island and the northern part of the North Island.  When in Dunedin I gave a lecture at the University of Otago.  This spring we were in Turkey visiting Istanbul and western Anatolia including Cappadocia, Ephesus, Troy and Gallipoli and we have just returned from a week on the big island of Hawaii visiting our younger daughter, Jen, who was there for four months doing some computer programming for the James Clerk Maxwell telescope. This work now completes her Computer Science degree at the University of British Columbia.  In between all this I have managed to complete quite a number of acrylic paintings and find that most relaxing.  Rosemary is also finding much to keep her busy.  While I am on the golf course she is either hiking with a group or doing volunteer gardening at Government House in Victoria.  Our older daughter Annemarie is also a computer scientist.  She is now on the staff of the University of Victoria and helps keep the hardware and software of the upper administration running smoothly.  Rosemary and I are greatly looking forward to seeing as many old TRA classmates as possible when in Tain in August.

Lily's story

We are still living in the old homestead in Rosehall, Sutherland.

Since the last reunion, life has been pretty good apart from about 6 months when Charlie's rheumatoid arthritis got really bad and he could hardly move. Once he saw his consultant and got back on the methatrexate he improved immensely and is leaping about.

I did some supply teaching, including some in Gaelic medium, which stretched me rather, as, although I had done a year's immersion course in Gaelic and some short courses earlier, I didn't consider myself fluent.  However it was good for me and the pupils survived!  I don't do any teaching now and don't even pay my GTC fee.

What have we been doing since 2002? We have visited Scott (MacRae) in Basel and had a wonderful time, stayed with friends in Venice, and last year we spent two fantastic months "down under", one in Australia and one in New Zealand. In Australia we spent a few very interesting and enjoyable days with Mike and Lesley in Fremantle and had dinner with Gay (MacKenzie) and her husband Ian in their home in Melbourne. We both have relatives in NZ and Australia and our daughter-in-law is Australian. We went to Perth, Fremantle, Melbourne,  Tasmania which we loved, and finally to Sydney -all very interesting and enjoyable. Then to Auckland, Hamilton, Bay of Islands, Kerikeri,and  Christchurch in New Zealand. Phew!

Meantime back home, life is great and always busy. I am secretary/treasurer of Rosehall Community Arts, a registered charity having to cope with all the new OSCR regulations!!  We put on theatre, music and art events in the village hall. This involves quite a lot of work but is also very stimulating. Last year was the Highland Year of Culture! so we applied for funding to make decorative banners for the village hall. We involved people of all ages and they look great and also improve the acoustics.

I am also on the Lairg Learning Centre Committee, secretary of Rosehall History Society which is a bit dormant just now, secretary of Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross SNP constituency association and Sutherland branch convener BUT have managed to get off the village hall committee and the lunch club committee. I sound like a right pain in the neck but in these wee places people are thin on the ground!

I still sing in the Lairg Gaelic choir and attend fortnightly meetings of the Sutherland Writers' Group of which I believe I am vice -chairperson but that's easy! Oh and from time to time I do the church flowers and cleaning.

Charlie does see me at some point most days! He is getting very deaf and doesn't enjoy being in large groups of people any more. He seldom plays his sax because of his arthritis and his hearing problem but still enjoys listening to music and having a tune on the piano. I suppose painting and reading are his favourite pastimes and occasionally a bit of writing. We are becoming creatures of habit -set in our ways- with our pills beside our porridge plates every morning! Imagine. How could this happen to such groovy youths?

Our two grandchildren are a great joy to us. Eleanor is 10 and Romy will be 8 in August, They arrive next Thursday for 2 weeks' holiday . They are the children of Dougie and Deidre and live in Edinburgh. Kathleen is still single, keeping in better health than previously but still troubled with petit mal epilepsy, which drugs don't seem to be able to control. She is unable to work but does voluntary work for the epilepsy society and has lots of interests. She  got her Master's degree in Information Management a year ago.

I hope some of the rest of you will add your "stories" to the website because there won't be time on 9th August! See you there! Lily

Mike's story

The Reunion in 2002 resulted in lots of photos, videos and lots of connections with old schoolmates. Although we're in one of the more remote corners of the world we've managed to see some of you. Lesley and I caught up with Gay McKenzie (now Russell) in Melbourne and again here in Perth. She and Ian unfortunately can't be with us at this year's reunion, but I'm sure they'll be with us in spirit. Lily and Charlie stayed with us for a couple of days last year as part of their Grand Tour of the Antipodes and I know they enjoyed themselves. And it's been great being in contact with so many of you via the marvels of emails and websites. I've been a bit slack updating the website recently...I plead pressure of business, your Lordship.

Because we have been busy. Lesley went back studying about three years ago and completed a Master's in Medieval and Early modern Studies at the University of WA last year. They suggested she should do a PhD and apply for a scholarship, which she got (and was very surprised about it) and is now doing a PhD full-time and is paid a modest stipend. So I've taken on most of the TimeTrackers business, which is booming this year...lots of interest in the topic - we're currently ghost-writing a book of an elderly lady's life story, editing life story video footage for another elderly couple, researching family histories of about a dozen clients, giving talks and lectures on genealogy to various groups, as well as performing presentations of some of our songs to various other groups (4 in the past 3 weeks - it's a chance to sell some more CDs).

All this has meant that I've virtually given up the odd bits of consulting that I'd been doing since I 'retired' from Quest in 2001. Since the reunion I've been to the States and South America on a couple of quick assignments, and worked on and off for a couple of Australian clients, but I'm sick of the current corporate 'culture' so I've quietly withdrawn from the consulting field. I'm on the Board of the WA State Library which is interesting. And we're both heavily involved in the local genealogy Society where we run special interest groups on London (Lesley's home town) and the use of computers in genealogy.

As most of you know, Lesley's being treated for an almost symptom-free condition called polycythemia vera, basically a bone marrow regulatory issue where red blood cells are over-produced, resulting in blood thickening and associated risk of cardio-vascular 'events' (which is how the medicos describe strokes and heart attacks). Her specialist has just moved away from the previous 'watch and wait' strategy and now wants to get her red cell count down. So she's recently started taking a 'mild' chemotherapy drug called hydroxyurea which is supposed to work on the bone marrow, with few side effects. So far so good...

We're both still singing - we're in a couple of choirs which we really enjoy - highly recommend it if you haven't tried. Nothing like a good community sing to get a smile on your face.

We haven't been doing as much international travel as we used to, but we have managed a few holidays in the past couple of years, with spells in Broome, Margaret River, the Gold Coast and Rottnest island, where we had a reunion of the Murray brothers and sister last month.

There's probably lots more, but that's a hint of what we've been up to since we last met. See you soon.

Mike and Lesley