2024 Christmas letter
Howdy,
There is almost a feeling of de-ja-vu as I am sitting here and type! We have gone away again in our Bearmobile #2 – and yup – we left Christchurch in teeming rain – just like last time I drafted the letter! The alpine passes and certain parts of the McKenzie district all got snow – Twizel had some 15 cm of new snow! Not unheard off – certainly rare events for OUR spring. To put this in European terms – imagine if snow falls in Salzburg in the middle of July!!!
And where has the year gone???? Last March, Pam and I quietly celebrated the 40 years since I first grabbed her hand during a stroll we took at a Church Picnic – and she never has let go of said hand since!!! Amazingly you can still find us strolling along various places holding our hands! How romantic!?!?
Longevity is something that also happens at her place of employment – although in April we said goodbye to her former boss who passed away after a long battle with various health issues! Thirty-six years is a long time to be working with someone! He was missed when the company celebrated 100 years of operating – and Reinhold had to dress up in order to attend the “birthday” party!
In July I started to receive some txt’s on my cell phone that just did not feel right. In the end, it turned out to be from one of my many cousins – daughters – so that makes me an hmmmmm – grand/once removed/ something!! We hosted Leah and her partner Immanuel and had a great time catching up with family news!
Michael had saved enough $$$ living on the cheap with us – and managed a 4 week trip to Austria in September!! He had a great time catching up with some of the many relatives, including his Oma as well as re-visiting Legoland!! A wonderful experience for him given the health issues he had to put up with in the last few years!! He was kind enough to bring back a treasure trove of Mozart kugels – ex Groedig/Salzburg! Given that the factory is shifting to someplace near Prague post this Christmas, me thinks that will be the last ever treat we will have here– so are rationing them out to make them last as long as possible!! I trust Pam enough, that there will be no secret midnight raid on my stash . . . . .
Jonathan is settled with his two jobs. In the winter season he works on the ski fields – repairing the ski gear that the tourists hire and break! In the summer he is a tourist van driver – taking a mini van with folks to either Milford Sound (a place he knows too well – so lots of anecdotes and jokes to tell) and to Mount Cook! He came and stayed with us for a couple of nights picking up an additional van and drove that back to Queenstown – saving the company Motel costs and gracing us with his presence!!
We keep using our Mobile home from home – and had 11 trips away this year including a 2-week journey south! We booked ourselves into a Camping site at Frankton – a mere stroll away from were Jonathan lives and caught up with him for a luncheon meal! The planes go overhead (wind depending) at certain times – and so low – you can almost touch them!! From there other places were conquered – including a place called NIGHTCAPS! Yes that is an actual village – and it is a very appropriately called place! It was also very warm – some 33c at 9pm, perfect for doing some house-keeping/washing!! Most of our trips away are weekends mostly – although sometimes we can squeeze in an extra night away IF Pam takes a day of leave from work.
We are both keeping well – mostly, apart from the usual old people aging folk’s things! We now have a competition, who has more pills to take, in order to keep well!! Touch wood we will both stay healthy long enough in order to enjoy our old age life! Pam did find it hard once she celebrated her 61st! Suddenly there were unusual memory lapses; – so much so, that I keep joking who is she and what happened to my wife!!
A good buddy of mine is a fisherman – and he never caught anything (yet) so the two of us went for a weekend fishing trip to Twizel in the bearmobile#2. His in-laws own a holiday rental that we used as a base and visited all Canals – where it is rumoured that there live some gigantic Salmon! Yeah right!! We came home empty handed!! We made up for it with some red wines and good home cooked meals – so not all was lost!
We are looking forward to 2025 for a number of good reasons (40 of them to be precise)! We trust this letter will find you in a good place and life is peaceful and prosperous for you!
Wishing you all a festive Christmas season and a happy new year (the same procedure as every year)!
Pam and Reinhold
Have fun!
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