Christmas Missive 2022
The Victorian government is busy with an infrastructure overhaul called the Big Build; a massive upgrade of the state’s transport network. We have spent our year in the throws of the Curran Family Big Build in many respects — only causing less traffic jams than Gov. Dan Andrews’ efforts.
In the months leading up to our departure for Australia, my uncle, Hugh, signed off an email with the words ‘Decide what you want and go hard’. That phrase has become our family motto of late as we have gone hard after the re-establishment of our lives Down Under.
Efforts range from the undramatic; choosing schools we expect our kids to spend at least a decade in… through to buying an acre of land and founding a church.
Post-immigration you inevitably find yourself sitting on the couch wondering, “What now…?”. There is a lot of life to live, kids to raise, work to do, fun to be had and doing so in the context of a purposeful existence and meaningful, local community is a big part of that. Thus began our Big Build.
But first, a quick family update.
Life with three kids could be described as similar to life with two kids. Only in this version, you have to do everything for the first two kids with one arm out of action and the sound of a car alarm going off next to your ear.
Our house is in a perpetual state of uproar. Walking into the lounge every morning is like accidentally straying through a curtained doorway and finding yourself in a circus ring. Amateur couch acrobatics, clowns flinging breakfast oats and animalistic shrieking complete the sensory assault.
Out and about the kids, hewn from the restrained genes of Cath and I, show no lack of confidence in accosting dog walkers, shoppers or posties on their morning rounds. They often relay the most personal family updates to cashiers while I’m clutching Ruth and furiously trying to empty the trolley one-handed.
Jack has just finished his first year of prep, or Grade R, for South African readers. He heads into Grade 1 in the new year. He has continued to show immense interest in how the world works and more recently anything to do with numbers. When stuck in queues or during the final stages of bedtime he will often ask for a couple of sums to do, like a little intellectual night-cap before bed. His school results echo the observed behaviour and we’ll keep looking for more opportunities for him to feed that.
Will, now 4, has finished his first year of Kindergarten and has one more to go before he enters Prep. Lured into various interests by his big brother he can hold his own in those areas remarkably well, but is showing an increasingly distinct preference for more creative pursuits. He’s got a killer recall and stuns us with precise memories of what people were wearing or eating at events from months prior… or more to the point, who broke his duplo creation two weeks ago. Will’s great passion in life is food and he eagerly awaits the arrival of his grandad to go on ice-cream dates together.
Ruth is 18 months old. It’s a very cute age and I am not looking forward to it ending. She is already a force to be reckoned with, regularly fighting for her place in the action. The boys have invented a game called troll. Ruth is the troll. Nuff said. As the weather has warmed up she and I have started doing some serious mileage in the running pram, sometimes pursued by two boys on their bikes. The quiet, wide roads of our little town are ideal for neighbourhood rides and we’re taking full advantage. Ruth’s favourite activity is to raid our surplus COVID testing packs in the bathroom cupboard and spread their contents throughout the house.
Cath has been juggling work commitments, visa applications, family life and church responsibilities… and needs a holiday. While we live in a country town, we’re only 2 hours from the beating heart of Melbourne. Amidst Cath’s packed schedule she happily squeezed in a day at the Australian Open in January. I took my turn at the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park in April. She has no time for hobbies but continues to read world war two fiction at every opportunity.
Roger, I… have spent the year with a lot on my mind, but little productive, child-free time to do anything about it. Toward the end of the year I launched my own business, collaborating with a long time friend in South Africa on online marketing projects. I was grateful to sign up my first meaningful client in November and am looking forward to putting more time into the venture when the dust settles in the new year. As mentioned Ruth and I have been running as often as possible and I managed to have a go at the local marathon in July (not pushing a pram on that occasion).
On reflection, we’ve visited 4 of the 7 states in Australia this year. We made two stops in Adelaide, spent fantastic week in Sydney catching up with mom’s side of the family and a further week on the sunshine coast in Queensland to see old Saffa friends. As such we continue to learn about our new home and slowly adapt to its idiosyncrasies. Hesitantly we’ve stopped inviting people to braais, but hosted many successful BBQs. The boys now wear jumpers, not jerseys… and we all keep an eye out for the postie.
Two big undertakings have dominated our year. We signed a contract of sale on an acre of land on the edge of town in February, with a view to building a family home. Then, in August we hosted a 5-week course to explore the opportunity to start a new church (with a lot of help from my old friends and colleagues in the group of churches we grew up in). In many respects these two ventures best represent the season of life we are in. Hoping to put down roots for our family for the long term and do so in a faith community of like-minded friends.
Both ventures are immensely exciting, both a stretch on our capacity. I’ve added ‘Doing hard things is hard’ to my list of go to quotes this year. Had we settled for the status quo we would probably have slept better, but had a much less interesting Christmas letter to write!
In a matter of days Cath’s folks fly into Tullamarine Airport for a hoped minimum two year stay. They’ll be renting in Traralgon for the first year while we make progress on our home building plans. After which we’ll all move onto our acreage together. Our family enclave is thus expanding and we’re looking forward to some great Jackson family meet-ups with Cath’s sister and brother-in-law, based in Melbourne, and their girls during the year.
The move to Australia has undoubtedly put a lot of things into focus for us. I would even say at times its reminded me of the brevity of life— the sense that the one life you have to live is ticking by and unless you act things may not play out as you thought. Or more positively, that if you act things may play out in far more satisfying ways. So we head into 2023 with a number of plates spinning and inevitably more complications ahead (don’t ever try and take out a home loan on a temporary visa), but with our eyes on the prize.
Much love from the Currans
