This is a collage of photos of Shell that her sister Belinda made up for the family in her spare time; something she hasn't had very much of for the past 6 years, as an articled clerk in a city law firm and a Law student (part-time) at QUT. In spite of having to cope with the death of both her grandmother and her sister in 2000, she came top of the state in one subject in her 2001 exams. Her achievements didn't stop there; she was invited to be a Faculty of Law Dean's Research scholar for 2002 as one of the top 20 students overall, graduated with First class Honours, and was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court in December 2003 (see family bulletin board on the following page).

Needless to say, we are very proud of her, as we are of Rob, who won a scholarship to Brisbane Grammar in grade 7, then an AFS scholarship to study for twelve months in China. He was in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square massacre and after five very tense days - for him and for us - was evacuated, first to the Australian Embassy, then to Hong Kong and back to Australia. He and his fellow-students went back to Shanghai a month later to finish out the twelve months of their scholarship, though - very courageous of them after walking the gauntlet of Chinese troops that lined the road back to their university on that infamous morning of June 5 '89.

He completed a degree in Modern Asian Studies on his return, and both he and his wife Nicole worked in banking for a few years. (Her friends, of whom I count myself one, by the way, call her Nic.) They now work for Telstra, but hey, you can't have everything! It's a dirty job, as the saying goes, but somebody's got to do it! In my opinion, Telstra would do better with more people like them :-)

NOTE: For the benefit of anyone from overseas, Telstra is our major telecommunications company.

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