January 1994
The Story Continues...
For those who have been clamouring for the Crichton Chronicle Standish Standard, and for those who have asked ``Has the CCSS gone out of print?'', here is the next installment.

Kim Scales the Heights of Justice

Having completed the College of Law course at the end of June, Kim was eligible for admission as a Solicitor in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. This involved a ceremony in the Supreme Court, with three judges in ceremonial robes (which appealed to Kim's sense of theatrics) presiding over the proceedings. A practising lawyer (in this case Kim's friend Cathy) was required to move the admission of the candidate to the Court. Following this, each candidate was required to stand up and (in groups of about 20) promise not to be too naughty.

To make up for this difficult promise, Cathy and Alistair, and Kim, Russell and Gwen stole away for a naughty celebratory lunch at the salubrious Observatory Hotel in the Rocks.

In September, Kim was contacted by the University of Technology, Sydney (who actually administer the College of Law) wanting to ascertain whether she would be attending a graduation ceremony for all College graduates. Having been unable to attend any of her previous graduation ceremonies, she decided to attend this one so as ``to have at least one photo with a mortarboard on her head''. Upon discovering that the official dress for the College of Law was the basic black academic gown, she also managed to persuade the authorities to lend her the sash for the undergraduate law degree (bright purple) for the purpose of the photos (although the colour is probably lost in the black and white photo above).

Official Employment Rate in the Crichton-Standish Household Rises.

While Kim ``was slaving away'' at the College of Law Mondays to Fridays 9-5 (well at least they were the official hours) Russell pored over the employment section of the Sydney Morning Herald with great vigour. Within a couple of weeks of returning to Australia, a job was advertised that he interested in. After a wait of two months for an interview, he had an interview in front of a panel of five, and two hours later, he had the job!

He started work in April at the University of New South Wales, advising other scientists in the use of the 32 processor CM5 Connection Machine, a massively parallel supercomputer (for all the technocrats among you). The computer is owned by a consortium of the four metropolitan universities in Sydney. Supercomputing is new to the Sydney region, and it has, in Russell's opinion quite a way to catch up to ANU and Melbourne. Much of Rus's job has been to try and encourage use of the computer, by assisting in some of the research projects. He delivered a one week course on the use of the machine in mid-December. This year looks like being more of the same, with the next course due to take place in the last week of February.

As already mentioned, Kim was admitted as a solicitor in the Supreme Court of NSW on the 2nd of July. Immediately afterwards, she took up a position in the Department of Immigration, working on the Determination of Refugee Status. This involves assessing the cases of those applying for protection in Australia on the grounds of persecution in their home country.

The position has since been extended but is still a temporary one. Rumour has it that the position (and all other positions) will be advertised sometime in February, but ``seeing is believing''. In the meantime, however, she has put in an application for a newly created legal officer position with her old department in Canberra (Department of Employment, Education and Training). This was mainly to assess her ``marketability''. To her surprise, they replied immediately by saying ``when can you start?'' Now it boils down to whether the salary levels are a sufficient incentive to trek down to Canberra for a 3 month stint. Her current department has also fielded for legal officer positions and Kim has an application in with them. In the meantime, the Refugee Law Branch of the Department of Immigration in Canberra have also expressed interest in having her come down to Canberra for a proposed 3 month (or 6 month if she'll do it) stint. It seems all legal avenues lead to Canberra! At least professionally. It would appear that legal positions in Sydney will continue to be tight for some time. On a personal level, Kim is clearly of the opinion that Sydney is where she'd prefer to be --- with Rus, her Mum and the lifestyle in general (after all, the Opera House, the Sydney Dance Company and the Sydney Theatre Company are big attractions, not to mention living by the water).

The Arts

In returning to the bastions of legal education (i.e. the College of Law), it goes without saying that Kim was naturally also compelled to spend some time on stage. After many (sometimes tedious) hours of workshopping, writing, rehearsals, and choreographing, the cast and crew of ``PleaSchool'' took their rightful place on stage at the Bondi Pavilion. Her starring role was as a lead singer for ``Unemployment Queue'', in partnership with another ex-ANU law student, with whom she had sung ``One Summer Clerkship'' in the previous ANU law review. ``Mabo, Mabo'', sung to the tune of ``Dem Bones'' was also a contender for her CV. She also cavorted and pirouetted across the stage in dance sequences, which, thanks to good choreography, looked surprisingly good.

This Sporting Life - Without the Commentators!

The long drought of doing very little in the way of sporting activity was broken in June by a cross-country skiing trip to Thredbo. The way the season developed, we got probably the best snow of the whole season.

Another initiative of the year was to start practising yoga, at least the non-religious variety. Initially commenced by Kim as an alternative to the physical jerks offered on ``Sports Day'' at the College of Law, Kim decided to continue and recruited Russell to join. Kim's friend Christina became another willing recruit on her visit to Sydney. They seemed to do a bit more giggling than one is supposed to do.

The provision of a Gym at Kim's workplace encouraged her to venture down. Several months on and she has become nothing short of a Gym junkie. Rus attends his Gym on an ad hoc basis, but does cycle to work every day (those of you who know Coogee's hills will be impressed).

Having visited Thredbo in winter, we decided to enjoy the attractions the mountains had to offer in summer. We were surprised to be greeted by bleak conditions and light snow when we arrived, on the 27th of December! We had not expected it to be cold! However, the weather improved and during the week that we spent there we were able to go bushwalking every day. Our longest and most impressive walk covered approximately 20 km from the top of the Crackenback chairlift to Mt Kosciusko (Australia's highest peak) and then through 50cm deep snow along the mountain's ridges past numerous glacial lakes to Charlotte's Pass.

To see the year out on a sporting note, we attended a party organised by the Loose Goose restaurant in Thredbo. The party's theme was the Olympic Games. Kim & Rus encouraged two other couples from the lodge to surrender to modified fancy dress (see photo above). Improvising with some local flora, we donned ceremonial wreaths on our heads and draped three large gold medals each around our necks. With each clutching either a golf stick, a tennis racket, a basket ball or other piece of equipment, we set forth to have a good time. And a good time we had! The restaurant was bedecked with international flags, Olympic banners and hundreds of hats of various shapes, sizes and, not least, curiosity value. By the time we made our dramatic entrance, most of the guests were wearing one (and sometimes more than one) hat or another. There were several organised games and impersonations. Rus outdid himself with his impersonation of Juan Antonio announcing the win by Sydney. But the most fun was had on the dance floor and what with assorted stuffed and plastic animals as surrounds, we couldn't help but find ourselves with a plastic white goose or a puppet moosehead as a partner!

The War Memorial Column

In July, Gwen decided (yet again and once and for all) to prove to all true believers and non-believers alike what a trooper she is. In April, it was discovered that she had a leaking heart valve and would require daily medication. Despite numerous well meaning medical practitioners advising her not to proceed, Gwen latched on to the one source of medical advice which was prepared to replace both her knees with plastic replacements, and had it done. This required a 2 month stint in hospital with extensive physiotherapy to enable her to learn to walk again. She was the darling of the ward at the War Memorial Hospital. Nearing her birthday, Gwen decided to discharge herself, much to the dismay of the physiotherapist there who valued Gwen's inspiration to the other patients. Doctors call her the ``miracle woman''. Not only is she back home, back at work, socialising with friends but she has already played four games of golf. Need you wonder where Kim gets her drive and determination!

Travel

Having explored most of the first world in 1992, we thought for 1993, we should explore Sydney. So we donned our pith helmets, hefted our machetes and boarded the ferry that travels up the Paramatta river. Our first destination was Meadowbank, in the Western Suburbs. As we walked from the jetty, we could see the site of the Olympic games to be, a desolate place with dust being whipped high in the air by strong winds. One hopes they have plans to improve this before the year 2000! In fact, since this inaugural discovery, we've done quite a bit of exploring, with other walks taking in Drummoyne peninsula, Cremorne Point to the Zoo, Hunter's Hill, South Head, and the spectacular Clontarf to Manly walk. We've decided Sydney is a pretty spectacular place!

At Easter we travelled north-west to the Warrumbungles National Park where we were honoured to be ``Goodparents'' at Christopher Clement-McNee's welcoming at Easter. His parents Jenny and Andrew invited us along with a group of other friends to a campsite in the park. We spread our rugs out in a ring on the grass, and with verse and song, we celebrated Christopher's arrival into the world 14 months earlier. An Easter egg hunt amongst the bushes completed the ceremony.

Social Column

Having been inspired by the Crichton-Standish merger, Rus's younger brother Mark decided it was time for he and Wendy to wed. Actually, Wendy had come to this conclusion a long time before! Unfortunately for us, the rules of the College of Law stated that ``thou shalt not wag off from College at any time, except if you are sick, and have a doctor's certificate or are on death's bed and even then we'll probably give you supplementary work to make you suffer further''. (It had a lot of similarities to Stalag 13, minus the comedy.) Kim managed to fake one day as being sick, but even so, we were only able to go to Western Australia for 3 days (2 of which were the weekend)! The wedding proceeded smoothly, despite the odd drop of rain. Much Rivendell Gardens wine was quaffed, along with a locally brewed beer and a great time was had by all. And, as penance, upon return to College, Kim received some supplementary work to do!

Another milestone event was the celebration of the 8th birthday of our nephew, Blair, his first in Australia. With the departure of his father, Gregoire, much of the organisation of the games for the 16 child attendees and their parents, fell to Kim and Russell. The sack races, and enormous pass-the-parcel that took up most of the back seat of the car, doughnut-on-a-string eating competition and treasure hunt (to mention a few) were all well received. Oh, and the kids enjoyed it too!

Real Estate

Not being able to find a 9 bedroom château to rival the one we had rented in the Loire valley, France, we settled in September, on purchasing a 4 bedroom house with pleasant harbour views in Clontarf, Northern Sydney. The delights of Gordon's Bay however, proved too difficult to leave, so the Clontarf house is currently rented out (which is quite a boon in paying off a hefty mortgage!). The tenants have a lease until September 1994 at which time we'll assess our situation and decide whether or not we should move or rerent. Still, its nice knowing that we have a quality piece of the Sydney real estate market to tap into.

The Healthy Report

As you might have gathered, we now consider Kim's chronic fatigue syndrome but a footnote in history. (Hooray!) It takes a lot to keep a good woman down.