2004 - No. 5         www.malecek.com        
losseslast day


The biggest personal loss for the year was our fiesty toy, Chardy, who was put down at age 16 still looking like a puppy.

Chardy
Chardy
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Granny  Ian’s equally feisty mother, aka Granny to us, had old age catch up with her after a very full non-stop life that included visits to Fiji and New Zealand. Gail and I had a chance to visit her in Scotland in '97.
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Deanna  Gail’s aunt, Deanna, was lost to cancer, that hit out of the blue and was quickly over. Luckily, Gail had managed to make contact with her a few years ago, after so many years.
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enlarge My sister Angi had to put down her long time cat-pal, Kitty, after 20 years in Houston.
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enlarge Licorice loving dog, Fritz, also came to the end of his long life with Bob and my mother.

 Birthday gifts  Was splendiforous as it was on a Friday and we had Trivial Pursuit at our place. So we had one of the largest number of spermolgoists playing ever.  And “the more the merrier” is true. Course, maybe it could be the wine that we had instead of the usual cups of tea.  Ann/Russ/Chris came by early with a '02 Mahurangi Reisling and we men played cricket with Ne and Bonnie until takeaways were ready. Titania called from Sydney. Goofy books from Ne and a Goofy squeak toy from France via Steph. cake  Audrey arrived with a McGuigan '03 Black Label Red in a lovely wine bag. Then it was all on as Clarks (Dashwood and a card with a really long list about being a friend), Whites, mini-Whites and deV's arrived en masse each with gifts (deodorant stone) and clever home made cards.  After the game we had rum baba cake that was devoured by those who had never had it before (had to give them the recipe).
enlarge Weeks'   enlarge Christian's   enlarge Kelcie's

Christmas  enlarge   As usual spread out over several days, but this year no swimming as it was cold and raining (coldest December since 1945).  The 24th began when Trish came for lunch with Scruffy who went straight into the fish pond, Brundell stopped in briefly and lastly the Needhams who came by for an evening meal.  We opened family gifts that night. mini-Whites Then a two day thingie with Whites - they came here over on Boxing Day and we went there the next day for Sally's birthday. Weather allowed us to have barebques and we played Ian’s "NZ 20th Anniversary Trivial Pursuit" game, that he got as a gift, both days.

New Year’s Eve   Rain all day had everyone cancelling out on us, but Ian made it for an evening of games (Facts in Five, Upwords and Monopoly cards). The rain let up for the pool jump at midnight (I would have even with rain) and we also had fireworks for the first time.

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header Malley Muses
   Gail has been teaching at Sandspit school since 1998. She had the original interview to get the one year job, then had to interview a second time to make it a permanent position. In 2003 she left to go to Strathallan which turned out to be a disaster. So we found her interviewing at Sandspit to get her old job back (only for one year). And now for the 4th time, interviewed to secure the position for 2005, which means if she wants to stay on after that she will have to do another interview!!!! How many times have you watched a movie that claims it will have you laughing out loud and you don’t? I think DVD’s should include an optional laugh track so, like TV shows, you will know when something is supposed to be funny.

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