Christmas 2014

Phillips Family 3 Piping Lane Sunbury VIC 3429

Merry Christmas again to family and friends (Ian at the keyboard here, and my comments in italics). We hope this letter finds you happy and healthy. After a couple of very busy years 2014 was a chance for the Phillips household to ease up and recharge the batteries. Apart from a leisurely family trip to our favourite Club Med Bali:

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Ian trekked to Everest Base Camp and cheered on another Hawthorn flag

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Jacqui travelled 10,000km in search of the perfect school and still found time to make life better for  us and many others

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Han became Shakespeare’s great lover, found career clarity and introduced the Pinball Wizard

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Kim kept on kicking and discovered his singing voice and a mean inner self.

Ian – Mum stresses out thinking that I work too hard (and Jacqui a little bit too from time to time), but I love my work and find it challenging and rewarding. The highlight for 2014 was winning a national tender to work with the Northern Territory Library to develop their strategic plan for the next four years. It proved to be a great job and I managed to survive several fly in fly out day trips to Darwin (leave Melbourne at 1:45 am, return at 11:45 pm). Closer to home: the garden is flourishing; I drove kids to school plays, musical rehearsal, footy practice and games, parties and gatherings; Kim and I made it to 9 or 10 Hawks games; blood donations reached 225; and I started teaching Han to drive. The highlight, however, was the trek to Everest Base Camp which I reached on my 50th birthday. I’ve been farther (Larapinta) and higher (Kilimanjaro), but the whole experience was mystical, taxing and inspiring. Perhaps my lasting impression of the trek was the stunning transition over a couple of days from lush green forest (at 2800m) to sparse low shrubs (at 4000m) to the long desolate vista of barren grey rock, dirt and ice up the Khumbu Valley into Base Camp. Not to mention crossing Indian Jones-style suspension bridges 80-100m above a raging river. I loved the experience and made it home safely to my precious family, so now I get to sit back and plan the next walk.

Jacqui (written by Jacqui) – Another year gone – another year older! I used to laugh when I heard people say that the years are going faster but now I shake my head and sigh – because the years are just flying by. 2014 has been another wonderful year. I love my job and although I have been much busier this year (particularly the second half of 2014) I am so happy doing the work I am doing. I have had the pleasure of travelling all over Victoria – visiting lots of schools from small rural schools to larger metropolitan schools. I have worked on several library jobs in 2014, including assisting Ian with the Northern Territory Library work. Next year – there will be more schools, more libraries and more ICT industry – a great mix and variety. Apart from our family holiday in Bali (which was bliss) and several nights in classy (and not so classy) hotels across Victoria – I haven’t had an

adventure like the one Ian had. Instead I had to be the boss whilst he was away – which was pretty scary! I was quite happy to hand over the reins when he returned! My big news for 2014 was that I said goodbye to my beautiful Rav that had served me well over the last 5 years, and welcomed into my life my new Rav (Deliliah). She is gorgeous and I hope I have many more happy adventures travelling in her. My boys continue to grow but we are lucky to have time together – driving to and from the bus stop, school, play rehearsals, parties and football training (okay – Ian does most of the rehearsals, parties and footy – but I do the bus run!). Despite being very busy with work I have managed to share lazy breakfasts with several of my very close friends and have maintained the Friday afternoon tradition with my lovely Lisa and the adorable Jack. I continued donating plasma this year and by the end of this year will have completed 50 donations – a long way from Ian’s outstanding record – but 50 had been my goal back in January and I am proud to be able to make the contribution every two weeks which I know helps make life better for someone else.

Han (written by Han) – 2014 was a fine year I suppose. Fine marks on my report, good tricks, fun friends and a somewhat comforting understanding of where I would like to go in terms of a career (concept art). Year 10 was not very fun and I’m glad the buffer for real school is over. Theatre is still fun but more on the acting side after I realised that my singing is not good. (Han was the male lead in Aitken College’s production of Romeo and Juliet, and had a major role in the musical production of The Who’s Tommy).Design is fun and something I can share with my friends because they are mutually interested in design related pathways as well. Bali was really fun. People change a lot in teenage years – friends, yourself, everyone around you – so that was an interesting aspect of this year with ups and downs.

I’m very passionate about tricking so I’ll tell you about it because I have nothing else to say (his words). Tricking is fun, expansive, with no limits and is a good form of exercise. You don’t need anything but yourself and you are in charge of what you do and how you do it. That’s another thing – everyone does a trick differently due to background, conscious choices, natural body alignment and composition and so on. I do a jackknife completely different to my friends and that’s what gives tricking life. The fact that you can stack variations like a cork, then cork shuriken, then cork feilong, then cork feilong rodeo, then cork feilong rodeo double round, then cork feilong rodeo double round hyper, then cork feilong double round rodeo snapu, then cork feilong double round rodeo hyper snapu is crazy and opens up 100s of 1000s of tricks. Tricking is art and sport which opens up a huge range of different ways people treat it and motivations for doing it. Tricking is seen anywhere from TV, movies and games – a lot of people pass it off as dancing, parkour, tumbling or MA (martial arts) and never learn about how completely wrong they are. Kicks in tricking are very important and the guys in LA all usually come from martial arts background. The sport came from the naksa (sport karate forms) circuit where competitors would try one-upping  each other to see who could put the best tricks into their now contemporary forms. I’ve gotten a little recognition for them because I come fromTKD (taekwondo) background and try to focus on cleanliness, making hard tricks easy and style. I’ve been lucky enough to trick with one of my idols a few times who fortunately lives in Melbourne. (Han was also invited on stage at Bali to do a few tricks as one of the evening performances, and is one of the administrators of the local Melbourne group who meet regularly in the city to do trick, tumble, dance, etc. Often up to 100 people at a gathering.)

Kim (written by Kim) – 2014 … yet another fast year, it just feels like a sequel to 2013. Nothing has changed dramatically, just the little things. School has been the same: boring and confusing mostly,but if I didn't have school I would be even more bored so thank you school? My friends are definitely the most fun thing about school. Sadly,one of my closest friends is to moving schools to Melbourne High next year – ha ha, first world problem. Being older now I have a lot more freedom to do what I want so meeting up with friends won't be a problem. Next year will be the first year since 2008 (I think) that I won't be doing piano/keyboard. Since I have moved schools, I have not really improved much which is why I am changing instruments (Kim has just bought a second hand bass guitar). I am still doing Taekwondo, and I had a better year with football (Aussie rules). Instead of finishing last on the ladder we finished ... second last. Yeah! One thing that changes every year is the family holiday. We went to Bali this year. It was better this time because I could appreciate the good things about it vs being too young to know how much freedom I had. That is … what I wanted to say is that now I'm older I can understand the luxuries there are in holidays. This year at Aitken College I did the musical ‘Tommy’ (Kim played mean Cousin Kevin). It was a good experience and got me out of a lot of school work but it is not something I am planning to do in the future (I think). Over all it has been a more positive year and I look forward to Christmas and the holidays.

Handsome and Shadow – They eat, sleep, get cuddles and eat, sleep and … you get the picture. Still a very much loved part of our family, except for when they’re fighting (usually with neighbouring animals, not each other) or miaowing early in the morning or two hours before tea time.

And so … Have a lovely Christmas and a wonderful and safe New Year. May 2015 be happy, peaceful and rewarding. Take care.

H2IJKS (Han, Handsome, Ian, Jacqui, Kim and Shadow)