Musings about life in retirement from academe
Stuff about me
I was able to go a little deeper down the ancestral rabbit hole this time. John Simon Mann and Eleanor Goodridge, my great-great-great-grandparents, met and married at Port Macquarie where they had been transported as convicts.
My great-great-grandmother, Rachel, left her native Ireland for New South Wales. She lived a hard life at times and was sometimes in trouble with the law. Hers is an interesting story.
My great-great-grandfather, Alexander, left his native Ireland for Sydney, moved on to Toowoomba, and then went west. There were some bumps along the way but he built a life for himself and his sons.
I’ve had a couple of false starts at family history over the years. This time I made more progress along one line than previously and thought it worth telling the story. Now that I have a taste for it I might dig some more.
My good intentions failed again. I’ve been silent for months. Perhaps I’ll manage to do better next year.
Good intentions go out the window when life gets busy. I have been meaning to write here for ages and now attempt to explain why that has not happened.
We used to send Christmas cards but in recent years we have shared videos with a photographic record of the year. Here is our effort for 2023 with some additional reflections on the year.
Our governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars on computer systems to support online access to services. Sometimes they work. Other times they simply send us round in circles. That’s what happened when I tried linking myGov to Centrelink.
I’ll still be having my bladder inspected every three months for the next couple of years but my PET scan was clear so for the moment I’m free of cancer.
My recovery from surgery continues well. This week I moved into the next phase of the process and looked deep within myself.