CollinsPlus
E-news
Edition 8. November/December 2006
Editor:
Barbara Collins
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family that you would like to tell everyone about!
Next Family Get Together
Diary Dates for 2007
Make sure you put these dates in your 2007 diary yet for next years family get togethers?
- March 25 (Sophie and Andrew have offered to host this family get together at a park close to their house in Prahran)
- October 14
Collins Family News
Go to Collins Family in CollinsPlus
Website
Celebrating Bridget’s Life
On 9th December, Bridget Collins passed away at Gregory Lodge Nursing Home. She had been in the home since November 2002. Over the last month, her health had dramatically declined and we knew she would not survive. The family arranged a bedside vigil so she would not be alone when she passed away. She was on morphine for the last hours so was peaceful and not in pain. Cathy was with her when she went just before 9.00am on the Saturday morning.
Her life was celebrated by a Requiem Mass at St Joseph's Church in West Brunswick on 13th December, followed by a short service at Fawkner Crematorium. People were invited to the Collins family home in the afternoon to reminisce about Bridget. Bridget's good friends Joan and Maria prepared the family home for the afternoon visitors and then looked after everybody to make sure they had plenty to eat and drink.
The Mass was a lovely and loving tribute to Bridget. Carly read the First Reading; Wade, Darcy and Alex read the Prayers of the Faithful; Elise and Zac made the Offertory Procession and Jessica gave the Eulogy. They were all a credit to their families and to Bridget. Jessica had worked hard on the Eulogy, ably assisted by Cathy, Mary and Alex and you will find a copy by clicking here.
A vocalist, Andrea O'Loughlan, sang specially selected hymns during the service which was performed by Father Pat Harvey. The Funeral Director, Mal Dubock, assisted the family in preparing for Bridget's funeral. About 150 - 200 relatives and friends attended to farewell Bridget.
The night before the funeral, the family had a last chance to view their beloved mother prior to a Rosary in her honour. Sister Ester led the Rosary and The Legion of Mary said a special prayer over the coffin. Barbara spoke about how Bridget was always there for the family, and Cathy and Judi both read poems - Judi read one that she had made for mum previously, and Cathy read inspirational one that Mum had given to her that she has kept on her fridge ever since.
Rest in well deserved peace Mum - you will be in our hearts and thoughts forever.
Con Collins
Con Collins is the Ground Zero man for this website.
Poor Con!
After a clean bill of health from all his doctors, Con found himself back in
hospital a few days after Bridget's funeral with gastro.
Graham Collins
(Graham Collins is the first and only son of Con Collins who is the
Ground Zero man for this website. Graham
Collins Family)
Carly
As soon as I got back from o/seas I started my new position at the gym as Administration
Manager. I love it! It's Monday to Friday so no weekends anymore! But the hours are a little tough. I have to start at 5am every day, as we open at 5.30am, and
I finish at around 1.30 - 2.00 everyday. So its good in a way, having half my day still free to do things that
I normally didn't have time for, but waking up at 4.00-4.30ish every morning is really hard! Love the actual job
though. I just take care of all the reception staff and the administration of the
whole club. There is a lot of work, but its all stuff I enjoy doing. Not like in sales, where there was less work, and it was a lot
cruisier, but there was pressure to make sales, and you had to be on the phones all day
hassling people. Really wasn't for me.
Just had my 23rd birthday on Friday, so on the Saturday, I had a BBQ and drinks with all my friends, then we headed out into the city! Was a really good
nite!
I think that's probably all for now! So I look forward to seeing the family at
Xmas!!
Wade
I recently got my results for this semester of uni... I passed everything so that was a relief and now i am just working, watching the Ashes, and enjoying the break! I have saved up some spending money and I cant wait for my holiday to Bali over New Year's. We are just going for a week staying at a 4 star Contiki resort so it should be a ripper trip!
Tyson
Kate and I have arrived
back in England safely after spending 2 weeks in Egypt!! I could ramble on for
ever about our trip (and you all know that's true), it was the best trip we've
been on so far by a mile. We spent a couple of days in Cairo, a few in Aswan,
3 in Luxor, and 3 in Dahab. We also spent 2 days and 2 nights on a felucca
sailing the Nile, pulling over on the bank at nights to sleep.
Such an amazing country, I never knew there was so much to do and see there,
and some of my favourite parts were bus trips during the day where we would
drive through remote villages and were able to see there way of life and the
living conditions they have to cope with on a daily basis. The security was
full on, armed policeman everywhere you go and each long journey through the
desert had to be done in a police convoy for security reasons.
Highlights of the trip for us were:
- Obviously the Pyramids. Got to go inside one of them through a 1m by 90cm
shaft extending about 50 metres in, and the camel ride through the desert to
the 3rd pyramid was pretty special.
- Abu Simbel. Had to leave at 4:30am to join the police convoy and drive 3
hours through the desert to reach this phenomenal temple by Lake Nasser
- Dinner spent on a Nubian village (Native Egyptians) in the middle of the
Nile, a local took us into his house and had his people cook us dinner.
- The 2 days and 2 nights spent on the feluccas, it was paradise!!
- Luxor markets - can't even describe the hassle you get being a tourist!
- We visited an orphanage in Luxor. Adoption is illegal in Egypt, and unwanted
kids are abandoned and this place takes them in, feeds and educates them. We
stayed for an hour and played with a lot of the young kids.
- Donkey Day! We rode for an hour to The Valley of the Kings (Amazing place),
we then climbed up the mountain and rode the donkeys across the ridge looking
over the valley which was quite surreal. Then rode them back for another 45
mins. I fell off twice, I'll explain later!
- Dahab. Right on the coast of the Red Sea. Spent 3 days here. Went Scuba
Diving in the Red Sea, in the top 10 diving spots in the world. Went down to 8
metres, and also went snorkelling in the Blue Hole which was brilliant.
Amazing aquatic life, I was swimming with schools of all types of tropical
fish.
- Mt Sinai. Famous for being the mountain Moses came down after God gave him
the 10 commandments. Arrived at 1am and hiked during the night and was able to
watch a rather impressive sunrise at the peak (which was about -10 degrees,
freezing)!!
- The traffic in Cairo. My God, I thought I was going to die so many times,
that's right across Egypt really, but especially in Cairo, those that have
been know what I'm talking about, they're insane!
We did so many more things and have a heap of great stories but like I said I
would be here all day if I were to tell you about them. We had a brilliant
time, and were disappointed to have to return, but now we can look forward to
New York in a few days time! Hopefully a white Christmas.
The Teres Family
Paul Teres is husband of Barbara Collins, daughter of Con Collins. Go to Teres Family
page.
Joshua has started swimming lessons. Paul is very happy about this as he was once a swimming instructor himself and knows the value of children learning to swim at an early age. Click here for more pictures of Josh enjoying (?) his first lesson.
Josh Teres turns 1 on 21st December but he had his first birthday party on 17th December in the park across from his home. He was surrounded by family and friends - big and small - and had a terrific time! Click here for more pics.
The Gough Family
Mary Gough is the 3rd girl in the Con and Bridget Collins Family. She is married to Chris Gough. Go to Gough Family page.
What's been
happening with the Goughs since the last time I wrote something for the newsletter might you
ask? Well surprisingly, a lot has happened!
The last time I wrote, I was preparing for my drama solo at school. I was the character of the player, like a court jester, in the times of
Queen Elizabeth. I had to research Queen Elizabeth and the strategies she used against
her enemies. I also had to write my own script which was tiresome at times. There would be parts were I would spend an hour writing and it would only
take a minute to perform. Our solos were to go for a minimum of five minutes and a
maximum of seven to eight minutes. I had to cut my script down so many times
it's just not funny and I had to re-write so many scenes, but it's finished now. I was so
nervous before I performed. Normally my mouth gets really dry at the end of my performance
but this time it was dry at the start. I stumbled a bit on a couple of lines and I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction but I pulled it
off and was able to get an A for my work. Yay!! I also got an A for my written response and an A+ for my research so I was really happy with that
- even more because it's a year 11 subject and I'm only in year 10. Yay!!!
Zac went on camp and had a fabulous time. He went to Lord Summers and the only information we got of the trip were a bunch of.........umm..........interesting photos.
The highlight of November for me was going to the Coke Live Concert with my rocken
cuzins, Jess and Elise, and our friends, Aaron and Mikey. We also met two of
Mikey's friends there, Glenn and Nathan; I was the organised one that obtained the tickets. I got them off the coke labels. 50 points per ticket
and each coke label had 10 points on them. I was drinking a lot of coke for a while. But it was worth it. We saw
The Veronicas, Evermore and a whole bunch of bands we didn't know but they were good. We sang, we danced, we had an
excellent time. The concert was on Jess's birthday so it was sort of like a
birthday prezzie. Jess had told us all the actual time of her birth so when that time came around we were going to yell out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS".
Unfortunately, it was in the middle of a song, so no-one would hear us if we did
it then. We decided to wait till after the song when it was a bit quieter. When everyone
had quietened down a bit we jumped up and said it. Jess was so surprised and I think we nearly gave her a heart attack.
lol!!! When I got home my feet were killing me and my ears were ringing like mad and in the morning I had a
sore throat and a splitting headache but despite all that it was the best concert
I've ever been to.
The day after the Coke Live Concert, I went with Rick and his kids to Mathoura. Mum had to wait for Zac to come home from camp before they could
come and Max stayed with dad so he could study. lol!!!! Like he would study! We went with
Rick's friend and his kids. I love kids so that was a bonus for me. Rick's
friend's brother came as well - and his kids. And one of his kids happens to be Aaron, my friend, so that was fun that I had someone there my
own age. We were only there for cup weekend but that was 5 days. I missed out on school on Friday and we had Monday and Tuesday off so that's how we
got the 5 days. We fished, we swam and we had a fabulous time. The weather was lovely and hot most of the time. Me and Alannah had a whole tent to
ourselves because Maddison couldn't come as she was in the wheel chair and it would have been too difficult for her and for us so she stayed with
her mum. Aaron brought his boat so we went in that a lot. I didn't catch any fish for some reason but Aaron hooked a carp but while trying to get it into
the boat the line snapped and it got away so when we got back to camp no-one believed us. We went canoeing and in the back of
Mark's trailer for trailer rides. We were never short of things to do. Rick's friend,
Dale, brought his trail bike and we all had rides on that. It was so much fun that it has
encouraged me to get my bike licence when I'm older much to the dismay of mum and dad.
(Click here for more pics of this
holiday)
Max, being the adventurous boy he is, went on Schoolies Week on November 28th with his mates and came home on the 5th of December. They drove to Torquay
and stayed in a rented house. They entertained themselves by going to the beach, pub and by staying home and having many BBQs and getting very drunk
by having drinking games to the TV series Scrubs (eg. every time J.D had an inner thought or when him and Turk did the same dance move).
They had to allow a 30 second time limit between each drink because they were running
out of vodka - they only had one bottle between the 10 of them. Much to mum's relief,
Max did not come home with anything worse (eg tattoos or piercings) than a sore head and a bag of dirty clothes. And we were thankful that we
did not see him on the front cover of the paper or on the news.
On the 30th of December mum and Rick decided to use up Rick's voucher for a balloon ride that he got from mum last Christmas. They departed from the
Hyatt Hotel at 4.30 in the morning. They took a mini bus with 8 other people out to Barling Park, Bundoora. There they helped set up the balloon.
Eventually the balloon was up and they were airborne at approximately 6.00am. They
were in the air for about an hour. The highest they got was about 2,000 feet and the lowest was just above tree level. They had a beautiful view of the
city and all its splendour. It was a very smooth and peaceful journey. They landed at Fawkner Park, South Yarra, where they helped pack up the balloon
before heading back to the Hyatt Hotel for a very yummy champagne breakfast at about 8.30am.
(Click here for more pics)
Me, Max and Zac have all broken up from school and we couldn't be happier. I got my report the day we broke up, mum and I were very happy with it, Zac
hasn't gotten his report yet but we think it will be good as well. Max got his exam results on Monday, they weren't as good as he hoped but he passes
so that's the main thing.
Zac has been having trouble with an ingrown toenail and had to get it operated on recently. He is in recovery now and will be fine. lol!! He's not
allowed to get his toe wet so he has to have baths till the bandages come off. Poor Zac. But he is a very brave boy.
(Written by Alex Gough)
The Zoch Family
Catherine Zoch is the 4th girl in the Con and Bridget
Collins Family. She is married to John Zoch. Go to Zoch Family
page.
Jessica’s novel
Jessica has completed the first chapter for
her novel about Con Collins and has started on the
second.
Elise's work experience
Elise had two weeks work experience at the kindergarten in her street.
The McManus Family
Helen McManus, nee Lennon, was Bridget Collins’ (nee Lennon) eldest sister. She married Patrick McManus and they had four children – Margaret, Kevin, Brian, Patricia and Gerard. Click here for more information on the McManus Family.
Margaret
Terry is busy painting our front rooms in Benalla. He will be exhausted when he goes away on holidays. Before that he has a reunion for his year 10 class of 1953 from St Bede's College, Mentone. If you think women can talk you haven't met these "boys".
Birthdays
Happy birthday to Jessica
(and Joelle and Bridget) in November and Andrew, Carly and Joshua in
December: Click
here for your birthday card.
If your birthday falls in November or December and you are not on this list, email admin@collinsplus.com and send in your birth date.
Congratulations this month to ….
ü Wade for passing all his subjects for the
last uni semester
üCarly on her new job
ü Paul and Lisa on selling Pauline’s Brisbane home
ü Andrew on his work promotion
üJessica on completing the first chapter in her novel
ü Jessica on giving a beautiful eulogy for Bridget
ü Joshua on starting swimming lessons
ü Max on surviving (?) schoolies week
ü Alex on some excellent scholastic results - and a terrific family report!
Funny Stuff
Merry Christmas everybody!
