CollinsPlus
E-news
Edition 1. January/February 2008
Editor:
Barbara Collins
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Collins Family News
Go to Collins Family in CollinsPlus Website
Con Collins
Con Collins is the Ground Zero man for this website.
Dad news
I have been granted the (Extremely Disabled) EDA pension which is the second highest pension given to a war veteran. This entitles me to lots of benefits, just a few examples are free public transport, half price taxis, no registration fees, free train travel interstate anytime, free admission for him as well as his carer into the movies, and a lot more stuff.
I want to let you all know I had a skin thing cut off my back early in February and the result was that it was yet again another skin cancer, but doctor says they got it all (so good warning to keep out of the sun as the effects of it's damage do not show up straight away, but later in life).
I took the plunge and had a game of bowls, it totally knocked me out and I was stuffed and could hardly move for 2 days after - the spirit is willing but the body's not able.
You're all probably not that interested but I have not been feeling that crash hot lately and am feeling very lethargic and weak, I have not been getting much sleep and can't be bothered doing much, but watch TV and potter around, I don't feel much like eating and have been pretty miserable with my ongoing prostrate problem. However I must say that the last 2 days i.e. 8th and 9th February I've been quiet good, Judi thinks that the hot and humid weather is exhausting me, because when it cools down I'm is a lot better.
I've had a few outings down to Moonee Valley for dining with Judi and Rene and during their holiday I may have a few outings with them, already we went out to dinner at the Pascoe Vale RSL and we've been to see a movie.
I would really like it if all the family can attend the family meeting that Barbara has emailed you about I think it is gearing toward the 25th February, I have something important to discuss with all of you.
Con Collins Perpetual Trophy
I met the gang who play in the Boxing Day golf tournament at the golf course after they played and awarded the trophy to the winner this year who was Rick (Mary's partner). Congratulations Rick.
Chistmas 2007
Front row from left: John Zoch, Cathy Zoch, Elise Zoch, Alex Gough, Jessica
Zoch. 2nd row from left: Graham Collins, Darcy Collins,
Con Collins, Barb Collins, Carly Collins, Maddison
Watkins. 3rd row from left: Max Gough, Judy Cabrera, wade
Collins, Zac Gough, Ricky Watkins, Mary Gough. Back row from left: Renato Cabrera and
Brenton Collins.
More pictures of the Collins Christmas evening
here. All pics courtesy of Graham.
Visiting Aunty Kath
On 28th
December, Barb and Con went to visit Aunty Kath (Con’s brother Bill’s widow).
We spent a very pleasant few hours catching up with Kath, her son Paul and daughter-in-law
Michaela and their gorgeous youngest child, Antoinette. Michaela’s dad, Joe,
also came along. Aunty Kath often emails Barb with updates on her garden and
new tank so it was great to see this as well. Here is a pic of everyone –
except Michaela who kindly took the picture!
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)
Tyson
I've had a lot on over the last couple of
months, my apartment I sold settled a week or so ago, so that's finally done
and dusted. Also a couple of weeks ago, Kate and I brought a unit in
Prahran. We got a great deal, we know the market very well and when we saw the
price it was advertised for we thought maybe something was wrong with it,
so we checked it out and it was perfect, we loved it. Luckily for us it was a
private sale - no auction, and the agent was terrible which is bad for the
owner, but great for us. So we negotiated and got it at a good price in a great
area. It's a 2 bedroom, 2 storey unit, with a large courtyard/garden which is
what really attracted us, exactly what we were after, a low maintenance place.
It's on Dandenong Road, in between Chapel St and Williams Road. We're very
excited, settlement is the 23rd of April so we're in the process of buying a
lot of furniture so we have somewhere to sit when we move in!
That's been the most exciting thing happen since Christmas, footy training is back on, my 2 hip operations have recovered pretty well, I've been given more responsibility at work, a promotion I suppose, I'm now Sales Manager of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania which is good but my work hours are getting longer and longer.
Wade
I have had a great few months. Since
Christmas I have really enjoyed some time off after finishing Uni. I went to
the Pyramid Rock Festival over New Year's and that was unbelievable. Saw
some great bands and drank a lot of beer! Really enjoyed the camping
aspect of it with a big group of people. (Also not bad that the group camping
next to us was 10 school girls! haha)
Then after that I stayed in Phillip Island with the family and that was also
great.
Just recently I started looking for full time work and whilst there is a lot
out there it wasn't that easy to get one. On Friday though (after 4 interviews
in the last few weeks!) I was offered a position at a very large business that
helps people meet their financial needs. It is a finance position in the motor
loans department where I will predominantly assess loan applications
and decide whether or not to approve them. I start next
Monday which is very exciting so if anyone needs a car loan in the future
you know where to come!
Paul Koury is getting married!
Paul is the brother of Joelle Collins (nee Koury) who was married to
Graham Collins. Joelle passed away in
2003.Josie is also Paul’s sister. More information on this family: http://www.collinsplus.com/collins/grahamcollins/graham_collins.htm
At the
Koury/Collins Christmas lunch, Paul Koury and Sophie announced their wedding
plans for mid 2008. See more pictures of the
Koury/Collins family lunch here (and who’s who!).
The Bill Collins
Family
Bill Collins was the only brother of Con Collins. Kath is Bill’s wife. Go to Bill Collins page for more information on this family.
News from Aunty Kath
Michael and Luke camped on the Australia Day
weekend, however, Marg and Daniel are not into that and stayed home. Our folk
all had holidays here and there and I went with Paul’s Family to
Children back at school and Rebecca flew to
Matthew taking advantage of Rebecca’s car, as it is
a manual, so Paul has been taking him for lessons.
Matthew and Joshua playing cricket for their
schools and Matthew changed from soccer to footie for his winter sport.
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
Well the big news is that I got my license.
YAY!! Finally now I'm the one driving
mum and dad round. I have 18 years of lifts to repay. My novel is coming along
really well. I’m up to chapter 17 - not sure how many chapters - maybe 40 to
60. A lot depends how much I want to write. I enrolled in my Bachelor of
Creative arts at La Trobe the other day and will be starting at the end of
February. Also I had a job interview last week at an advertising place called
"REDZ" which does promotions sales and marketing for different
companies around Victoria, so I have a second interview on Monday to see how I
handle myself in the workplace.
The Cabrera Family
Judith
Collins is the second girl in the Con and Bridget Collins Family. She is
married to Renato Cabrera. Go to the Cabrera
Family page.
Judi and Rene's news
Hi everyone it's been some time since we contributed to the newsletter, we somehow missed the deadline on the previous two. So I have lots of news and pictures here and this is of Rene and me at the Australian Open!
The Deacon Family
Peter
Deacon
is the son of Mary (Molly) Deacon (nee Lennon) who is the youngest sister of Bridget
Collins (nee Lennon) who is married to Con
Collins
Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I last contributed to the newsletter so I thought what better opportunity than to write about my recent trip to China.
Judy and I recently spent two weeks in China visiting her family and touring the country.
We commenced our journey with a two night stopover in Hong Kong. I’ve been to HK before and knew it would not disappoint with its bustling night markets and linked shopping malls. One of the interesting facets of HK culture is that many people employ a Filipino nanny to look after their children and clean their apartment. There are thousands of low paid Filipino’s working in HK. Every Sunday they gather in small groups along the city streets, walkways and parklands. Together they prepare food, share experiences, dance and sing, and practice their Catholic faith. It’s quite a colorful spectacle.
From HK we flew to Beijing and stayed with Judy’s brother. His family has just moved into their new apartment. It’s a very nice and modern apartment on the 11th floor of a 20 storey complex. Practically everyone lives in high-rise apartments - there are no lawns to mow in China. Beijing is one of the largest cities in the world with a population of 15 million people. Despite the one-child per family policy, the population in China is still increasing and will soon reach 1.4 billion people. Hard for us Australian’s to comprehend those numbers.
Anyway we had a wonderful time in Beijing. Some of the highlights included: celebrating Chinese New Year, a karaoke night, visiting the national museum, seeing the venues for the 2008 Olympics, attending the ballet (Russian performance of Swan Lake), shopping, eating, sampling Chinese beer, and buying DVDs. We even went skiing on the last day. It cost only 70 Yuan (about $12 AUS) to hire the gear and ski all day. I haven’t skied for 25 years so I was a bit wobbly at the start with a couple of spectacular spills. But by the end of the day I was getting into the groove.
Perhaps the highlight of the trip was a 3
day visit to the ancient city of Xi’an. This is an amazing city of 8 million
people with 3,100 years of
history. Xi’an was one of the major trading capitals during the ancient world.
It is the eastern terminal for the famous Silk Road, which linked the Roman
Empire in the West with the imperial court of China in the East. Xi’an is also
the location of the Terracotta Army made during the Qin Dynasty in 3rd
century BC .
Fortunately many of
the ancient ruins remain and the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum houses thousands of
national treasures from the past.
In Xi’an we were
hosted by Judy’s uncle. He has lived in Xi’an all his life with his wife and 3
sons – who are all married with one child. Although no one could speak a word
of English, we managed to communicate through hand gestures and a great deal of
head nodding. Judy’s uncle and cousins were very friendly and welcomed me as
part of their family (see picture below taken in Uncle’s apartment on our
arrival). Being a Westerner in this part of China is still a bit of a novelty.
I went for several days without seeing another Westerner, let alone an Aussie.
This is my third
trip to China and has rekindled my determination to learn Mandarin.
The Teres Family
Paul Teres is husband of Barbara Collins,
daughter of Con Collins. Go to Teres Family
page.
Josh’s 2nd birthday
Picture of Josh at
his birthday party.
Barb’s retirement
After
being in the full time workforce almost continuously for 40 years, I decided to
retire at the end of 2007. And thanks to Paul, I have been able to achieve that
goal. As I write this, it is the first day I would be going back to work after
the Christmas break and it does feel a bit funny. Especially as today is 40
degrees and I would have been very COOL at work. But I did enjoy the sleep in
this morning!
On my
second last day, 20th December, I knew the staff were going to have
a farewell morning tea for me. I was hoping to keep the occasion low key so I
was a bit worried when I found out some of them had disappeared into the
conference room – and I wasn’t allowed in – yet! I was like a cat on a hot tin
roof. I felt sure I would cry as I had been feeling very weepy for the last
week so I took my box of tissues as a security blanket.
When I
was allowed in, I saw they had a beautiful, catered morning tea prepared and
what I thought was a PowerPoint Presentation ready to go on the big screen.
After a bit of chitter chatter, Suzie who was my Manager for most of my time at
Quit, got up to tell people that a special DVD had been prepared for me by one
of the staff – the amazing Margarita. In her own time, she had gone around to
everyone in the Tobacco Control Unit with a small whiteboard for them to write
on and a video camera. They all showed their wonderful diversity, senses of
humour and warm thoughts about me using the whiteboard and other props – like
young Jo sitting in my seat with her legs propped up on the desk reading a
travel guide and Jean who just drew a banana. She knew I would know what that
would mean. I was truly flabbergasted and ALMOST rendered speechless by the
amount of work I know goes into the production of something like this. This is
such a special and unique gift that I will treasure it for the rest of my life.
Well, then
came the speeches with Suzie and my current manager, Jayne, saying such lovely
things about me. We have all been through a lot together over the last 12 years
and I consider them friends as well as work colleagues – at least I did! Now
they are just friends. Jayne has been very unwell over the last few months and
I was touched that she was able to come in to farewell me.
I feel
like crying as I write this, it was such a wonderful farewell. However, my
adrenalin had me so pumped that, at that stage, I was still more excited than
weepy. But then it was my turn to make a farewell speech. I took my tissues up
with me. But I made it through without going into the high pitched squeak that
my voice turns into when I become emotional.
So that
was it. I spent the rest of my time saying my last farewells, cleaning my
workspace and making sure all the last minute things we completed. Then I was
off – for my next adventure – retirement.
Picture of
me with my (ex) Manager’s Manager, and friend, Suzie on the left, and friend,
Linda, who started on the same day in the same role as me. Picture on right is
the photo display Paul set up to remind me of the special day. In both photos I
am holding the very special DVD that Margarita made which incorporates video
footage of everyone in the Tobacco Control Unit giving me a special farewell
message. Ask to have a look at it if
you around at our place – haven’t figured out how to put it on the web.
Christmas
Paul and
I had Christmas lunch at Andrew and Sophie’s place again this year. We didn’t
manage a group shot this year but click here for
other photos of the day. Lisa was with us this year and it was little Sam’s
first Christmas and Josh’s third! Sophie’s Mum, Kate, Paul’s Mum, Pauline, and
Andrew and Lisa’s Mum, Barbara Teres were all there too. Seated around Sophie
and Andrew’s new dining table, we had a delicious, traditional Christmas lunch
- thanks to Sophie and Kate.
Bottom
left – going clockwise: Sophie, Kate, Andrew, Barbara Teres (brown crown), Barb
Collins, Pauline.
Campervan holiday
Paul and
I set out on New Year’s Eve in a 2 berth campervan on a 3 day adventure to Adelaide.
We wanted to see what it felt like in case we want to take longer trips in the
future. We used the www.standbycars.com.au
site – they send us regular emails when they have vans they need relocated. In
this case, it cost $1 plus (booking fee of $15) a day and we paid for diesel
and campsite fees. We set off on a 40 degree day and I was dreading our first
stop at Portland as I wasn’t sure how the little air-conditioner would cope
with the heat. Luckily, the cool change came through about an hour after we
arrived – 24 hours before it hit Melbourne! So we spent the evening at the New
Year celebrations put on by the city of Portland. Next day we traveled to Cape
Jaffa. Not good. Don’t go there! The caravan park was about the only thing at
Cape Jaffa – apart from a lot of boats. It was windy and dusty and we spent the
rest of the day in the campervan watching DVDs. On the 3rd day we
arrived in Adelaide. After dropping off the van, we caught a bus to the bus terminal
and put our luggage in a locker and used our 2 hour bus ticket to catch a tram
down to the beachside suburb of Glenelg. Then after a great Chinese meal we
returned to the bus station in time to catch the overnight bus back to
Melbourne. It was a double decker and we were on the top. I forgot how hard it
is to try and sleep in a bus/train/plane overnight. It dropped us off at
Highpoint Shopping Centre at 6.30am and we walked home from there and went
straight to bed. It took us a few days to recover from this ‘adventure’.
Here is Paul
leaving the caravan park at Portland on our way to Cape Jaffa. Click here for more pics.
New Zealand Cruise
We had a
most wonderful 14 cruise in January around New Zealand on the Sun Princess. We
embarked in Sydney and traveled through some pretty rough seas to Milford Sound
at the bottom of the South Island then traveled up the East Coast stopping at
Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Napier, Taurangi, Auckland and the Bay of
Islands before continuing home to Sydney. We were so impressed with the
Princess Line – very high quality everything! Here is a link
to a comprehensive diary of our trip. You might like to read it if you are
interested in cruising to see the sort of life you have on board a cruise ship
– or if you are interested in New Zealand. Here is a picture of Paul and me
with the Captain.
A week at Bellbrae
Paul booked a week at the Bellbrae time share resort and had a very busy week indeed. First, Lisa and Dave joined him on Saturday. Next day, Barb arrived and Lisa and Dave organized a BBQ. Lisa and Dave left on Sunday night to try their hand at fishing for squid on their way home. Barb and Paul had a couple of relaxing days and Barb left on Tuesday. Paul came back to Melbourne and picked up his mum and took her to Bellbrae for the remainder of the week. Paul didn’t have a camera with him during this time which was unfortunate as I would have liked to have seen Pauline, who is 91, in a pair of orange and hot pink board shorts in the vigorous spa!!!! Paul arrived home on Friday – exhausted.
Happy birthday to
Barb and Paul in February: Click here for your
birthday card.
If your birthday falls in January or February and you are not on this list, email the editor and send in your birth date.
IQ test for Professionals
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Congratulations this month to ….
ü Rick on winning the Con Collins Perpetual
Trophy this year
ü Barb on her retirement
ü Max on his first car
ü Paul Koury and Sophie on their wedding
announcement
ü Jessica on getting her license
ü Tys and Kate on the purchase of their first home
ü Wade on getting his first full time job
Passing on
this newsletter
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