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Dear Kees, I was wondering what happened to you. Remember me--I'm the American parkie living in Australia you spoke to on the on the phone last year? I'm not writing the Victorian Parkinsons Association newsletter anymore as it has been replaced with a quarterly national newsletter, and I opted out of being on the Management Committee of the Association, so I don't feel as involved in 'the struggle' anymore. Like you, I feel I've slowed down a bit in that area, though I'm still working full-time teaching and working in the school library. It's getting a bit harder to handle all the demands, but I'm afraid that if I retire, the lack of self-discipline I have will end up with my giving in to the disease and becoming 'vegie-like'. On the other hand, I like to humour myself with thinking that if I had more time, I might get more involved in writing, perhaps coming up with a playscript with a Parkinson's theme. You always struck me as being such a lovely man and tireless in your efforts in working towards helping people with "the Disease". I also feel grateful that I'm not as bad as others who have this disease or more dreadful ones, though I have occasional twinges of fear that there will be worse things insidiously creeping up on me and am finding the 'off periods' more frequent and dramatic. However, when people ask me in a rather significantly serious tone of voice how I am, I can't help but quickly answer "fine", which is probably true for about 60-70% of the time. I loved reading about the accounts of the visitors you had from America who participated in the walk last year and hope we can organize something like that here in Australia next year. It's hard to get our Parkies moving because the ones who have enough energy to do something are either too busy coping with jobs and families as well as their Parkinson's or don't want to be too involved with the association because they're still in a state of denial with their Parkinson's. Anyway, I'm running out of time on my connection. Hope to hear from you soon. Best wishes, Celia Jones