Thayne and Melissa Ellis flew away to Sydney for their honeymoon, just before the bushfires and all the pollution problems.
Kristie and I spent the night in Ballarat before catching the bus back to Adelaide the next day. With a Downs-syndrome girl sick on the bus and alternator-belts melting in Dimboola, we strongly recommend driving.

Bec went into labour on the 30th December around 2am. She didn't want to go to the hospital on a false alarm, so she waited. She told her husband, Riff, to go back to sleep while she stayed up and played computer games.
They ended up arriving at the hospital around 7:30am, her water broke in the car on the way. Bec was dilated to 8 centimetres so she quickly became the centre of attention.
She had arrived too late for an epidural. Bec said the shower and the gas they gave her didn't do anything for the pain - the shot of pethadene was disappointing too. But for a first birth, the labour was remarkably short.
Harmony Justice Jayne Knill came into the world at 9:20am. She was 8 pounds 10 ounces, very healthy with a good head of dark hair. The Advertiser wrote a feature on her unusual name.
Mother, child and happy father are all doing well.

Kristie and I shared our five-years' anniversary the week before Thayne's wedding. To celebrate, we went to the Kublai Khan Mongolian Restaurant just south of the city.
The food consisted of assorted frozen noodles, vegetables and shaved meat which we gathered in bowls and was then cooked for us on a gigantic round hot plate meant to resemble a Mongolian war shield.
But what we really went for was the chocolate steamboat - chocolate and sherry melted in a fondue setup on the table, with plenty of apple, banana and marshmallows for dipping.
Sick with food, we had to push-start the motorbike to get home. It rained all the way and we were drenched, but very happy.

It was my mother's 60th birthday on XxXth December, so Kristie and I made a surprise visit.
My sister, Janet, had arranged a surprise lunch at the Stables Tearooms in Campbell's Creek, and the whole family was there - 5 children, 8 grandchildren, 2 in-laws and 2 girlfriends.
Mum was very surprised to see Kristie and I - which added to the day.
We stayed with Kristie's father the night before to celebrate his 65th birthday.
And we also visited Kathryn Harrison out at Axedale to see how pregnancy was treating her. Kathryn looks lovely at the moment. We'll be over again for her 30th birthday in May.

Family
Histories

The Follett/Smith family trees now contain over 600 names. I'm looking forward to adding my mother's side of the tree in 1998, which should see the number of names reach more than 1000.
Kristie's Nan recently gave Kristie a collection of photographs going back to the birth of Kristie's mum, Jan. Some of these will surely be incorporated into the finished product.

On the 30th of October, in awful weather, I found myself between the Glenelg tram lines on my way home from work. Tram lines are dangerously slippery in the wet (so are white lines and manhole covers) and I tried to cross them carefully. It didn't work.
The back wheel slipped and the motorbike turned 90 before grinding sideways up the main street of Adelaide, throwing me ahead. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic behind me.
When I came to a stop my ribs hurt and I couldn't breathe. A van driver helped me right the motorbike. When I caught my breath I said I was okay so he drove away.
The handlebars were bent, the tank dinted, other bits were ground down nicely. Same with me really - grazed knees, holes in my gloves and jacket, and pain in my ribs, hip and shoulder.
I bent the motorbike back into shape, checked it was still roadworthy, but trying to push start it again with bleeding knees and rapidly going into shock didn't seem to work. Luckily, there was a car park ramp nearby.
I had to ride home - there was no-one I knew who could pick me up. The ride home was treacherous with heavy traffic and slippery roads. I was shivering from shock - I've never had to concentrate so hard.
And when I got home I went shopping. Shivering, limping, my pants soaked and abrasive, my boots full of water that squelched as I walked, duty-bound to pay rent and buy the materials I needed for Thayne's wedding album.