Term 4 - Spring

Letter No. 222

Dear all,

OCTOBER  Term 4 The first weekend of term the kids and I went to Dreamworld and White Water World. We have an annual pass which we need to get good value out of.  Dreamworld always seems to be very under-utilised and there is never much of a queue for any ride which is great. We did all the rides we wanted, had lunch and then went into White Water World for a swim and a few waterslides. A nice day.

Sunday 12^th October was our 18^th Wedding Anniversary. We all went to a Spanish Tapas restaurant called Peasant in The Barracks at Petrie Terrace. We had a nice family meal and a wander around the markets afterwards.

A few days into the term we were advised by BBC that Matthew had been selected as a School Prefect. This is a huge honour and he was thrilled. There are 240 boys in his year and 110 of them had applied for leadership positions. Only 20 prefects were selected from that group. House captains and vice captains were also selected out of these 110 boys but prefects are perceived as being a higher position. The School Captain and Vice-Captain are also selected out of the Prefect group later in the term but Matthew is hoping he will not be selected as he is quite happy as a prefect. He thinks (and I agree) that being school captain or vice-captain is too much work and will affect his grades at school.

The BBC Music Dinner was on 17^th October. Katie, Matt and I were all supposed to go and have a nice evening of music at the Greek Club. Unfortunately, Jessica had come home early from school that day throwing up, so one of us had to stay home with her. I had been to a fairly long lunch, so came home while Matthew and Katie went for a nice night out.

It was the Bledisloe Cup the next day and Jessie was singing at the opening with the Australian Girls’ Choir. Fortunately she recovered quickly and was able to attend. The choir sang “I still Call Australia Home” and the National Anthem as well as running out holding a ginormous Australian Flag which covered most of the field. A friend of ours who has season tickets had loaned them to us so I was in the crowd watching her. Just as the kick-off started I had to go outside the grounds and collect Jessica and then go back into the stadium with her to watch the game. Jessica was very pleased to get noticed as “one of the choir girls” in her uniform. Australia was winning for the whole game until New Zealand scored a try in the dying seconds to win by one point. We were robbed!

Next day Matthew went on a three-day BBC Leadership Camp at the Sunshine Coast. This was with the rest of the Prefects, the Head Master, Reverend Cole, the Head of Senior School and the School Sargent. They had a few days of leadership courses and lectures and the boys were observed, to make a final selection for the School Captain and Vice-captain. Matthew was pleased to go on the course but glad not to be selected.

On 22 October Jenny and Paul Cooper came for dinner. They were in Australia for a wedding in Adelaide and just had to come up to Brisbane to see us and another family friend. Their kids were at home studying for exams so it was just Jenny and Paul on this trip. It was so great to see them and hear all the news from England. Matthew was best friends with their daughter, Victoria, at primary school and we knew them very well when we lived in Hale.

That Friday Jessica’s dance group, STAGE was performing at the St Aidans Quiz night. It was a trivia night for the students raising money for “Hummingbird House”, a children’s respite centre being constructed in Brisbane. Coincidentally AECOM is providing quid-pro-quo engineering design services for them.  STAGE performed three dances during the course of the quiz evening. Katie and I chatted with all the other parents while we waited to watch her dance. It was the last dance performance for the year. 

We have wall-to-wall concerts at this time of the year. The last week of October was a big music week for Matthew. He played at a Music Festival at Calamvale for Brass Bands on the 26^th (which we didn’t go to) and then the BBC Grand Finale Concert on 29^th (which we did attend and was fantastic).

Katie and I went to the STAGE Celebration Breakfast on 31^st October. It started at 6:45am and Jessie had to be there with full hair & make up done by 6.15am. Katie finds these early starts a bit trying, especially if they involve actually making conversation, so I took Jessie early and Katie made it there by 7am. The Stage Support Group President gave a nice speech and there were lots of lovely photos and videos of the kids. The breakfast was also pretty good. Jessica and the rest of the girls were awarded full colours for their blazers as they had won their category in the Brisbane Eisteddfod back in May.

It was Halloween on Friday 31^st October. Matthew did a sausage sizzle in the street to raise money for his trip to Viet Nam in December and was pleased to raise over $350. We had 650 sweets that evening and tried to ensure that kids only took one each but ran out within 1 ½ hours. We had invited the rest of the street to join us for a sausage sizzle when they had run out of sweets and had a nice turnout for a few drinks afterward.

The next night, 1^st November it was a trivia night at BBC. Katie had organised a table to support them. We were quite pleased to come 5^th out of 16 teams without even cheating!

NOVEMBER  Tuesday 4^th November was a big day with both the Melbourne Cup and the BBC Speech Night falling on the same day.  Katie had been invited to a Melbourne Cup lunch at one of our friend’s houses in the street. There were about twenty ladies who all brought a food contribution and bottle of French champagne. Katie made a four-layer lemon cake in the shape of a hat which seemed to impress everyone. She had also bought herself a large new hat for the occasion. There was a lot of drinking, some eating and they may have even watched the race! They all stayed until the champagne was gone. Katie had to lie down for a few minutes before I arrived home to drive her off to the BBC Speech Night. BBC does these kind of formal occasions very well, and the speech night is always a moving and emotional time. Matthew was playing on stage in one of the Senior Bands and had also won prizes for Geography and for Academic Achievement. It was a good evening. Only one more year and it will be Matthew’s final one!

On the 8^th November it was the Australian Girls’ Choir Annual Concert. Another nice evening of beautiful singing. Jessie managed not to lose a tooth in the middle of the performance like last time!

On the weekend of 14-16 November it was the G20 Summit in Brisbane. There was a public holiday on the Friday as all the world leaders were arriving. Matthew was very excited to see the Indian Prime Minister’s plane fly low over our suburb and then watched him step off the plane on TV a few minutes later. There was live coverage all day of people arriving and we watched it on and off throughout the day. The Indian Prime Minister was actually very impressive in his exit from the plane. Everyone else walked off with a huge entourage of security but he just stepped out by himself in simple white robes. The city was in a huge lockdown for the weekend with roads closed all over the place. There had been so much publicity about it and everyone had pretty much decided to go to the coast for the long weekend. Brisbane Council then panicked at the last minute that the city would be a ghost town and spent quite some effort trying to encourage people to come to the city by offering free parking and free public transport all weekend!

On Saturday morning we saw Barack Obama’s three Osprey aircraft (vertical take-off and landing) as they flew along the river to the city centre. He had landed in Air Force One at Amberley Air Force Base, which is not too far from us, that morning. Obama was the last leader to arrive. He then flew in to the city centre in one of the Ospreys. Whenever he travelled there were always other identical helicopters or cars with a body double, as a security measure, so that nobody knew which one he was actually in.  I decided to go for a bike ride that morning and cycled around the convention centre and looked at all the barriers and security. There were groups of 5-10 police on every street corner throughout the city. Six thousand police had been brought in from all across Australia. It seemed ridiculous. I rode down to see the protesters in Roma Street Parklands. All the usual ratbags. There was a boy of about 20 calling for the violent overthrow of the state and decolonisation of Australia, who claimed to have been repressed by the state his whole life because he was aboriginal. He was actually whiter than me! The protests were very peaceful. Actually it was such a hot day (about 37°C) that people were not really interested in rioting, just keeping out of the sun!

I cycled home in time to see Obama give his address at the University of Queensland on TV. The audience had been told to arrive at 9:30am and didn’t know what time he was actually speaking. It turned out to be 1:00pm. They had a long morning. Obama was a very skilled orator. He mentioned a wide range of topics briefly to make almost everybody in the world think that he supported their cause whatever it was. It appeared he was speaking without notes but one of the guys from work who had managed to score a ticket said he actually used two very sophisticated head-up display screens. They were big panes of glass which appeared to be transparent to the audience but had the speech projected onto it.

Matthew had his Grade 5 French Horn exam that Saturday morning. Afterwards he went into the city to watch events. He caught the train in by himself and walked over to the Convention Centre at about 5pm, just as the world leaders started to leave. There was a big crowd watching and they saw the motorcades of 19 of the 26 world leaders. Matthew knows every country flag in the world and was able to tell people in the crowd around him which world leader was driving past, just by the flags on the bonnets. Quite funny. The only problem was that the road he needed to cross to get home was closed so he ended up catching a CityCat (ferry) to the University and I picked him up. He had a great time though.

The G20 seemed to pass mostly without incident. There had been a lot of talk about “shirt-fronting”, as Tony Abbot had rather unwisely stated that he would be shirt-fronting Putin over the MH17 tragedy. In response, Putin brought a Russian warship as backup, which was sitting just outside Australian waters. This was all reported with great excitement in the media. Sadly and predictably, there was no shirt-fronting whatsoever and they shook hands instead with forced smiles. It was interesting to note that nobody really wanted to talk to Putin though, or even shake hands with him and in fact he left early. The media gleefully reported that this was because he had no friends /no-one wanted sit next to him. As well as shirt-fronting, the G20 also created “Koala Diplomacy”. A team from Dreamworld at the Gold Coast had brought up a number of koalas and stationed them on the forecourt of the Convention Centre, so that the leaders could pop out of the talks and be photographed cuddling koalas at any point in the proceedings, while barely leaving the air-conditioning. Everyone felt that this was a great move and would definitely boost Australian tourism. The leaders’ wives did not miss out either – they had a private tour of Lone Pine so they could cuddle koalas and hand-feed kangaroos as well!

It was a huge heatwave for the whole G20 weekend with temperatures of 40°C and above. Luckily all the world leaders were safely ensconced in the air-conditioned convention centre.  We decided to go down to the Gold Coast on the Sunday, where it was cooler. We drove down very early and had a few hours in the surf before heading over to Q1 for a quick drink before lunch. Q1 is the 5^th tallest residential tower in the world and the 27^th tallest building at 322.5m. There is a great observation deck on level 77 and 78 with spectacular views of the Gold Coast in all directions. Afterwards we had lunch at a restaurant overlooking Surfers Paradise. It was a lovely 28°C when we left the coast. Half way back it was 36°C and when we pulled into our own carport it was 40°C! The house was pretty hot and we have decided that we are going to treat ourselves to air conditioning in our bedroom as a Christmas present to ourselves. It seems a bit decadent as we only need it for a few nights every summer when it is really hot.

Katie was organising the BBC Year 12 Mothers’ Garden Party on 20^th November as President of Parent Connections. The weather forecast was a bit worrying and she was stressing all week whether they would actually be able to have it on the beautifully manicured lawn outside College House. Unfortunately the predicted storms eventuated the afternoon prior to the event and it was too wet for the marquees, so Katie had to change the venue at the last minute to the Boarders’ Dining Room. This was not a classy venue, so Katie went all out stringing up bunting, pompoms etc and even managed to have half a dozen large palm trees brought in to the room to add the “garden” touch. The event went well and the ladies appreciated the air conditioning at such a hot time.

On Friday 21 November we went to the Sherwood Street Festival. The kids came with us but disappeared within seconds of arriving to go hang out with big packs of their friends. Katie and I just wandered around looking at the nice market stalls and tasting all the food nibbles, trying not to bump into one of the gangs of BBC boys or St Aidan’s girls. The next night we went to the Regatta Hotel on 22 November for 4pm birthday drinks for our friend Libby’s birthday. We ended up staying quite a bit later than we expected and then went on to other friends Lisa and David Sugg’s house for affogatos on the way home. The kids had been expecting us about 7:30pm and we didn’t roll in until after 11pm. It was a good evening.  

Thursday 27 November was the day of the huge storm. I left work early that afternoon to go to Jessica’s school where the students were putting on a showcase of their Design Innovation Studies Project. Parents and friends had to vote for the winner so Jessica wanted as much support for her group as possible. Just as the event was drawing to a close, I looked outside the hall. There was a terrific and very sudden thunderstorm in progress. The rain and wind were ferocious. I looked on the weather radar and it showed the rain intensity as black, the highest level. It was quite unexpected. There had been a prediction that it could rain later, but nothing about the incredibly high winds, which were equivalent to a Category 3 tropical cyclone. We all huddled inside the school hall, the power went off in the school and we made some rapid phone calls to Matthew back at home, telling him to bring in all the outside things he could and hang on to the dog!

The storm passed over us remarkably quickly. Within an hour the winds dropped and we made a dash for our cars through the rain. We drove home very slowly through scenes of devastating deforestation! There were huge trees down over roads all over the place and bits of tree everywhere – on cars, on houses, on fences, on traffic signs. When we got to Mortlake Road we found that there was a large gum tree down on a neighbour’s house about five houses down and the power lines were hanging about head height across the road. Watching the news later, we saw that the damage was incredible across the city – there were literally hundreds of houses which lost their roofs, thousands of cars which were severely damaged by the large hailstones that fell in the city and many city high-rise buildings where the glass curtain walls had been shattered by hail. There was also extensive flooding in the city and the entire train network came to a standstill. For days afterwards there were roads closed, schools closed, power lines down all over the place, power out all over the city. At the private airfield near us almost all of the small airplanes and helicopters had been flipped or damaged. The insurance bill from this one 30-minute storm was over AUD$300 million!

I usually park in an open air car park and every car that was parked there on that afternoon was extensively hail damaged and most of them written off. It was so lucky (for me) that I had driven out just an hour earlier. It was amazing that nobody was hurt. We had almost no damage, just a bit of water in and some damp carpet from an open window. Life is never dull with such extreme storms – the worst in 40 years. The kids and I went for a bike ride that weekend and were astounded at how many enormous trees had fallen.

Anyway that is about all we have time for this time. I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Regards, Derek, Katie, Matthew and Jessica

 

STAGE  Dance Troupe

Matthew and Jessica

Matthew's Trip to China

 Letter No. 221

Dear All

School holidays – Matt’s trip to China On 19^th September 2014 Matthew set off on a two-week BBC trip to China with his Chinese class. There were 15 boys and four teachers going. Here is his write-up.

I went on a twelve-day cultural trip to explore China and visit the cities of Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. The purpose of the trip was to improve my Chinese language skills and learn more about Chinese culture by visiting historical sights, meeting Chinese students and experiencing Chinese cultural activities. We first flew to Singapore, arriving at 5:55am. It was a long overnight flight, however it went pretty quickly as I managed to get a few hours of sleep. Our connecting flight to Beijing left at 8:30am, taking six hours to arrive in the Chinese capital at 2:40pm. Once we arrived, we went through customs and collected our bags to find the bus that would take us to Beijing High School Number 80. The traffic was bad so it took over an hour to get to the school. We were staying in small dormitories at the school. For dinner, we walked to a local restaurant and had a traditional Chinese meal with dishes such as honey chicken, sweet and sour pork, chow mein and tofu. After dinner, we had a briefing about the following day and then went to bed.

I woke up at 7:00am and got ready for our first full day of exploring China. We left the school shortly after breakfast and travelled by bus to the Badaling section of the famous Great Wall of China. We walked along the wall for a few kilometres, passing through several watchtowers along the way. The wall itself was very steep in places and was quite tiring. It was an amazing experience to be there and learn about the history and reasoning behind the building of the wall which is over 23,000 km long. Next we headed to the Ming Tombs, a short drive away, which were built as a burial ground for the Emperors of each of the twelve dynasties of China. We descended seven flights of stairs to the bottom of the Dingling tomb which once contained the remains of Emperor Wanli. The tomb was filled with riches in big red boxes to give him success and prosperity in the afterlife. Afterwards, we visited a Jade Factory where we took a short tour demonstrating how China’s national stone Jade was made and carved. I bought a jade bracelet for Jessica. At 4:30pm, we went on to the Summer Palace and walked around the beautiful imperial inner city gardens created by the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The gardens are over three kilometres long filled with lakes, hills, pagodas, temples and bridges. It was very beautiful! For dinner we ate at a Chinese Peking Duck restaurant, where we sampled interesting delicacies such as duck’s heart and sheep testicles!

After breakfast at the school, we travelled by bus downtown to the Olympic Village, which held the majority of Olympic events in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. First, we visited the visually impressive Bird’s Nest Stadium that hosted the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the track and field events. The building was just as breathtaking inside with seating for over 80,000 people. We walked around the Olympic Village, passing the Water Cube and National Indoor Stadium, before having lunch at a local pizza restaurant. In the afternoon, we went to the Temple of Heaven, which was built in 15^th century for prayer ceremonies to the Heavens and the Earth. Inside, the temple was filled with gold riches, ornaments and offerings for the gods. We also walked around the parklands surrounding the temple, where locals were dancing, singing and playing Chinese Chess. Afterwards, we had some time for shopping in the markets where I bargained for silk scarves for mum and a small statue for myself. At 5:00pm we went to watch an Acrobatic Show called ‘The Legend of Kung Fu’. The show was very spectacular with the Chinese acrobats performing clever moves and exciting choreography. It was about a young boy learning to become a master of Kung Fu. We then had dinner nearby. 

Next day we were spending some time at Number 80 High School to go to normal classes with the local students. This was a great opportunity for us to be truly immersed in the life of a Chinese student in Beijing today. First we had a Chinese lesson, followed by an English Literature class. I had to make a small speech to the students about myself in Chinese and then tell them about my school, Brisbane Boys’ College. They were very keen to ask questions about the differences between going to school in China and Australia. After lunch, we played their premier team in soccer in the rain. It was great fun but the result was not so good, a 5-1 loss. At 2:00pm we left the school and visited the ancient streets of Hu Tong. Everyone got into a rickshaw in pairs and enjoyed a Rickshaw Ride in a traditional red rickshaw around the old streets and lakes in this famous old district of Beijing. In the early evening, we spent some time shopping in the ultra-modern Wangfujing Street, filled with designer Western stores and expensive clothes shops, before dinner at local dumpling restaurant. We then went to watch a Beijing Opera performance. A Beijing Opera is a traditional singing and dancing show by people dressed in very ornate and authentic gold costumes with actors wearing masks and elaborate hair styles. After the performance we went back to the school to bed.

For the first time we had been in China, the sun was shining and there were no clouds in sight. We had breakfast at school and then took the bus to Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. It was the sight of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre during China’s political revolution and where we observed the memorial. After some group photos in front of Chairman Mao’s huge head we headed through the gates into the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the Chinese Imperial Palace during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, serving as the home of many Emperors for more than 500 years. We wandered through the expansive palace complex for a few hours, passing through large courtyards, living quarters, gateways, temples and gardens. It was an incredible sight to see with beautiful Chinese architecture everywhere you looked. At 1:00pm we went to have lunch at a Hot Pot restaurant, where you have to cook your own meat in a giant pot of boiling oil in the centre of each table. In the afternoon, we visited an ancient Chinese Pharmacy to learn about the tradition of Chinese herbal medicine. The doctor assessed my health and told me I was very healthy. We also received a relaxing full-body massage. In the evening we went to Lao Shi Tea House for a traditional variety show with singing, dancing, comedy and puppet acts to entertain us, whilst we watched and drank tea. It was a fun night. 

The next day we ate our final meal at the school before packing our bags, ready for a long day of travelling. We took the bus to Beijing Train Station and took the train to Hangzhou in the south of China. The train moved very fast, at over 300km/h, but it took about six hours. Once we arrived at Hangzhou Train Station (the biggest train station in Asia), we met our tour guide and went by bus to Da Hua Hotel, on the shores of the West Lake. In the evening, we ate dinner in our hotel and then went for a night walk along the lake. The lake was very beautiful as there were many bridges, pagodas and gardens, and lots of people singing and dancing. There were massive fountains and a great atmosphere around because everywhere you looked something exciting was going on. We then walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

After breakfast at the hotel we went to visit the Leifang Pagoda. The Pagoda was originally constructed in AD 975, however it was rebuilt shortly after collapsing in 1924. It is also the setting of China’s famous mythical love story, the White Snake Lady. From the top floor, there was an excellent view of the entire lake, so we stopped to take some photos. We then walked around the lake a little further to where we hopped on a boat for a short boat cruise to the other side of the lake. It was even more beautiful from the water than on land! The boat took us to a restaurant for lunch where we ate Beggar’s Chicken, a traditional Hangzhou dish. After lunch we went on the bus to the Running Tiger Springs, where we climbed up the hill alongside the running streams through a forest to a small waterfall. It was quite a tiring climb, so we stopped to sit down and enjoy a traditional tea ceremony performed by a master. The master also taught us the art of Calligraphy and gave us a personalised calligraphy painting to keep at school. Next we had some shopping time at the markets along Hefang Street where I bought my sister a waving cat and myself some handmade Chinese candy. We then went back to the hotel to shower and change. We were going to watch the famous Impression West Lake Show, directed by Zhang Yimou, the same person who directed the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. The show was absolutely incredible as it used the lake as the stage of the show. Hundreds of performers literally walked on the water, with a stage lying just below the water level, and danced in unison telling a beautiful story. It was really amazing!

This morning, we had breakfast and then packed our bags to take the bus to Shanghai. On the way we stopped in Suzhou, another important Chinese city. There we first walked around an important Buddhist Temple, then we visited the Humble Administrator’s Garden, a pretty, traditional rock garden with rock pools and pagodas. We stopped for lunch at a nearby café before heading onto the Silk Factory. Suzhou is famous for its mass production of silk, so we received a brief talk on how silk was made and turned into clothing, blankets, pillows etc. I bought a pure silk tie for Dad as a present. At 3:00pm we took a boat ride along the Grand Canal on a long thin barge, passing under numerous low bridges. It was interesting to see how people lived with their houses backing right onto the canal, doing their washing in the canal. We then got back on the bus and drove into the centre of Shanghai to our hotel, arriving in the early evening. For dinner we walked down the road to a small restaurant and then went to bed.

I woke up at 7:30am and went straight down to the lobby for breakfast. I was excited because we had a full day to explore the expansive metropolitan city of Shanghai. In the morning we visited a gorgeous Chinese garden, the Yuyuan Gardens, with many bridges, temples, waterfalls, sculptures and fish ponds home to hundreds of huge goldfish. It was definitely the most beautiful garden we had seen on the trip. Afterwards, we visited the local markets to do some shopping and bargaining. I bought a remote-controlled helicopter and some cheap headphones. Next we travelled to the Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC) and had a nice Italian lunch on the bottom floor. Afterwards everyone took the very fast elevator up to the 100^th floor at 474 metres above sea level. The view was absolutely incredible as everywhere we looked we could see the sprawling city and constant buildings. In the afternoon, we took a boat cruise on the Huangpu River. It was great to see Shanghai’s iconic skyline from a different angle and sail past all the tall dominating skyscrapers. After the cruise, we walked to The Bund where we watched the sunset and the skyline light up with thousands of neon lights. We took some photos before heading back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

On the final day we were due to fly back to Australia, after our awesome Chinese cultural adventure. We took the Maglev train to the airport, which is a magnetic levitation train which literally floats above the ground. The 30km journey only took 8 minutes and reached a top speed of 430km/h. When the train went around a corner, it would tilt and slant on one side. It was a cool experience. When we got to the airport we checked in for our flight to Singapore where we would catch a connecting overnight flight to Brisbane. We arrived home early the next morning. 

While Matt was away we went to my Mum and Dad’s farm one weekend to see them and all their animals. They have about 25 baby goats at the moment (it seems) and they are very cute. It is funny watching them bounce around and all trying to stand on the highest point in their yard and knocking each other off.

We also had a trip to Straddie while Matthew was away with my sister Lisa and the cousins. We went over early on the Friday and had four days there. North Straddie is supposed to be a great place to see whales migrating and the apartments we stay in are in fact the Whalewatch Apartments. I had thought this was a false rumour as we had been there plenty of times and not seen any. This time however the whales were unbelievable. I was astounded how many there were. We saw them every day we were there and each time they seemed to do something different. One day they were leaping out of the water, the next doing tail slaps and the following day they were all doing flipper slaps.  There were often different pods of whales, widely separated, but doing the same thing. They must have been talking! We also saw a mother and baby. The mother was teaching the baby how to do tail slaps which was very cute. We had lots of beach time, went to the markets and had a few nice meals out. I also took Matthew’s large inflatable boat and everyone took it out in the surf which was really fun.  It was a great mini-break. We caught the 2pm ferry back home on the Monday and had time to unpack and clean up before work the next day.

Matthew arrived home on the 30^th September early in the morning. We all went to meet him at the airport. There were lots of BBC parents we knew there. It was good to have him back. I had to go straight to a meeting at the airport, while Katie and the kids drove home.

The next morning I went to Goondiwindi for work. It is about a 4½ hour drive inland. I left after lunch and arrived in time to go for a run before the sun went down. Goondiwindi is a nice little country town with a large river running through it. I went for a run along the riverbank. I was surprised there were such big rivers so far inland. I worked that night and drove back to Brisbane in the morning.

That Friday night we went for a Mexican dinner with a group of BBC parents and their boys. Jessie declined to come and decided to stay at home and cook for herself. There were no girls in the group at all and she is not keen to hang out with a group of boys. I hope she feels the same for a long time.

On Sunday 5^th October we went to our favourite dog beach at Currumbin with Molly and had the morning on the beach, lunch at our favourite café and a bit more beach time followed by ice creams. It was a lovely day and not too hot yet. Monday was the last day of the school holidays so we had an informal “pop-up” BBQ at the last minute. We invited a group of our close friends and had 14 adults and 14 kids for an early evening barbie & chatting.  Next morning everyone was back to school for the all-important and always-busy Term 4. Sorry I seem to have got quite behind this year.  I blame the editor.  

That's all for this month.

Cheers

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica and Molly

Matthew's trip to China

 

 

 

At the farm.

 

 

 

 

Our trip to Straddie.

Rowing Season

 Letter No. 220

Dear All

It was Parent Teacher interviews on 5^th August and Matthew had arranged another fundraising cake sale for the charity they are donating to when they go to Vietnam in December. They raised about $300 so were quite pleased. We only saw a couple of Matthew’s teachers this time as he is doing quite well at the moment.

We all went to the Royal Brisbane Show (aka the Ekka) on 10^th August. We decided to go a bit later in the day rather than arriving at opening time. We got there about 11:30am and had a few rides in Sideshow alley, bought some Bertie Beetle Show bags before heading over to the food pavilions for lunch. We also made a stop at the dog shows and watched our favourite breed of dogs (Jack Russell’s). I had to drag Katie away from the Adopt-a-Greyhound stand. They are ex-racing Greyhounds and were looking for people to adopt them. Katie has always loved greyhounds but we have decided that we are a small dog family now. We went over to the animal nursery to see Mum and her sheep and she helped us jump the enormous queue to get in to see the baby animals. We grabbed some dinner then headed over to the main ring to see the evening show. It was a great show with sheep dog trials, wood chopping, stunt cars and bikes, singers and monster trucks. The fireworks show was one of the best I have seen. There were a number of things I had never seen before – there were quad bikes driving around the ring pulling huge kites with fireworks on them – quite spectacular. The quad bikes also had fireworks mounted on the back and later we saw horses galloping around the ring with neon light strung all over the riders and horses.

Matthew went to the BBC Semi-Formal on Tuesday 11^th August. His date was a girl from Brigidine College, Olivia, who he had known since grade eight. They are just friends. We invited her parents to come over for a drink before I drove them to the semi-formal. They were very nice and, weirdly, her father works for Hastings Deering and had a meeting in our offices the following Thursday. I was also attending this same meeting as AECOM is currently designing Hastings Deering’s new head office in Brisbane!

The Semi-Formal was on a boat cruising up and down the Brisbane River. I dropped Matt and Liv off at the boat pier at 7pm. When I went back to pick them up at 10pm I got a prime viewing position to watch them all coming off the boat. It was quite interesting. About 60% of the girls were inappropriately dressed with skirts too short, slits too high, high heels that they could barely walk in and no bras. About 35% of the couples, boys and girls, looked as if they were going to a primary school dance with clothes that were either too young or really daggy. About 5% of the girls looked stylish and sophisticated. We were very pleased that Matthew’s date was one of these. I told her father that after the following week’s meeting and he was also quite pleased.

I had to drive Olivia home to Jindalee, as she was not allowed to go to the semi-formal “Post” (after-party) and then I drove Matthew back in to the City to hang out with his mates at the Post. This was back in the City so the whole evening involved about three hours of driving! Luckily Matthew was picked up by the mother of one of his friends and he had a sleepover that night with a few other boys so we didn’t have to do the final pick up. They all went to the Ekka as a big group the next day. It seems a good night was had by all.

The next day the Muirs came over for their annual visit from Hong Kong. We invited them over for a lunch time BBQ and the Haughtons came as well. Every year they look the same and the kids look more grown up!  

The next weekend Matthew did the annual 40-hour Famine. He started on Friday evening after dinner and didn’t eat until Sunday lunch. He was pleased to raise $100. We went out for Japanese sushi for lunch to break his fast. Jessica went to another St Aidan’s dance that weekend. She was very outraged that one of her friends was kissing a boy at the dance. I hope that sense of outrage lasts for quite a few more years! Jessie also did a Dance Eisteddfod down at the Gold Coast on the Friday evening before going up to the Sunshine Coast early on Saturday morning for the fourth Rowing Regatta.

Next up we had a very musical weekend. Matthew was performing in the BBC Music Showcase on the Friday night. It is mainly for Middle School bands with younger students but as there are so few French Horn players the music department still needs him in the band. Saturday was the usual rowing and basketball school sports day. Then on Sunday Jessie was in the Australian Girls’ Choir Spring Gala Concert. She had a speaking solo part this time and was a little nervous. The audience was about 800 people and the girls give little talks about the choir in between sets. Jessie spoke nicely and didn’t forget any lines, but during the next song she had a bit of drama on stage… one of her teeth actually came out right in the middle of the song. It had been wobbly for quite a while and just suddenly popped out! Jessie was standing in the front row so she had to tuck the tooth in her cheek and keep singing without opening her mouth too widely. She came off stage with a mouthful of blood. The teacher said it was the first time she had seen that happen. Trust Jessie!

I had to go to Bundaberg on the following Monday and do a night-time inspection of a Coles supermarket. We can’t carry out these inspections during opening hours so they are usually done very late at night. I have a team of six of us doing the inspections and we have done about 60 stores all over Queensland so far.  The next morning I had a lie in and then drove to Gladstone where I had another inspection that night. It was a two-hour drive and quite leisurely. A nice change from being in the office.

The 29^th August was the BBC Grand Concert. This one is for all the Senior bands and they give a three-hour long performance. Katie decided to invite Lisa’s mother-in-law, Gillian to the show. We see Gillian quite a bit and we know she really likes classical music events. The musical standard was extremely high and Matt was quite thrilled to be playing in his first Senior concert. For the very final piece they had invited any parent, old boy or teacher who could play an instrument to join in the band. It was an eclectic mix of over 80 musicians and was very good considering they had only had one rehearsal.

On the 30^th of August it was the Head of the River which is the final -- and by far the most important -- rowing regatta of the year. Jessica had to go up very early (around 4.30am) on the school bus and I had to drop her off at school, only to hang around at home for an hour or so before it was a sensible time for Molly and I to leave. It was a glorious winter day - about 27°C and clear and sunny with no wind. Molly and I settled in the parent supporters’ tent and watched the races. Jessica’s crew were very pleased to make it into the A-final (rather than the B-final) and came fifth in their race. The best result they had done across the five previous regattas was second and I think they had hoped for a place in the top three. After their race, Jessica, as the cox, was thrown into the river by the other girls and screamed the house down. I wandered down to the farmers market with a group of grade 8 parents after the grade 8 races were over and had a yummy lunch. We stayed right to the end and watched the first VIII race.

That was the end of Jessie’s rowing career, as she is not planning to row next year. She is actually a really good cox as she is small, loud and has a good sense of rhythm due to her dancing. The coach would really like her to row again next year but she feels is it a bit too much of a commitment… and we agree with her!

Immediately after the 1½ hour drive home, Jessie announced she wanted to pop into the Fête at Graceville State School (her old school) before going on to boat unloading. We had a quick whizz around the fête and I dropped her off at the boat shed. Katie picked her up after the boats were unloaded and cleaned and they went back to the fête for dinner and to watch the fireworks at 7pm. A very big day for Jessica.

Matthew has been playing basketball again throughout Term 3 and it was also had his last game that day. The boys won every GPS game except one, where they lost 22-20. They were so unlucky! I have missed going to the basketball games this term but had to take Jess to most of her rowing regattas, as all those early starts would have been the death of Katie! 

The next day, Sunday 31^st August was the Rowing Celebration Lunch. They had it at the school in the large school hall, which had been decked out with rowing sculls forming the bar, photos of the different crews and oars being auctioned off to raise money. Katie and I went with Jess and sat with all the other parents of her crew. The lunch format was much better than the dinners like they have at BBC. We had a pleasant afternoon drinking wine, watching the girls collect their trophies and listening to the speeches. One coach (who had previously coached at BBC) gave an amusing account as to the differences between coaching boys and girls. With a crew of boys, if you want the crew to do something you simply shout at them and they do what you say. But with a girls’ crew, if you shout at them two things can happen… either they cry or they just say no – in the worst case they do both!

On 5^th September I was back in the school hall again for a father-daughter Father’s Day breakfast. Jessica’s dance troupe STAGE was performing. I had to drop her off half an hour before the breakfast started to get dressed and they performed at 7:00am. They were very good as usual. Jessica then had a quick change and joined me for breakfast. There was a keynote speech by an old St Aidans’ girl, which was very motivational (for teenage girls).

It was Jessica’s birthday on 7^th September and also Fathers’ Day. We woke up and had a present fest in our bed. It is getting a bit crowded for the four of us now! I gave Jessica a voucher for a new watch for her birthday and she wanted to cash it in straight away. Jess and I made a quick dash to Shopping Town and looked at every watch in every store before settling on a very nice pearl faced silver watch. She is delighted with it. We rushed back to Graceville village to meet Matthew and Katie for a leisurely lunch at one of the local restaurants.

Friday 12^th September was Katie’s BBC Fashion Parade. The organisation has consumed her for the last six months, with team meetings and lengthy planning discussions about table decorations, colour schemes, auction rules, models’ hairdressing, MC, speeches etc etc. It is the last time she is leading the organising team so it just had to be the best ever. There were 340 ladies at the St Lucia golf course for a champagne reception, lunch, fashion show, raffle and silent auction. Katie of course had to have a new designer frock for the occasion. She also managed to surprise her team on the day by scoring a top flight AV package including giant TV screens all around the room and coloured uplighters, all at no charge.

Katie arrived before 8am on the day and finally finished packing up around 4.30pm. Most of the ladies slide out of the event when it officially finishes at 3pm and head straight into the Hundred Acre Bar next door. I arrived about 5:30pm to pick her up and there were a lot of ladies still there at the bar, mostly very much worse for wear after they had started drinking at 11am. It was quite funny watching them totter out on their high heels! Katie hadn’t had anything to drink as she didn’t finish until about 4.30pm, and had just sat down to have a celebratory drink with her team. We ended up staying for bar snacks and nibbles and a few more drinks until we left around 9pm. A long day for Katie but everything went well so she was really pleased. Also they raised nearly $20,000, which will be used to fund a future school project and also a charity donation. Katie has already found a new coordinator for next year’s event so it really is her last ever.

The next day Jessica was singing in the Qantas choir (as part of the Australian Girls’ Choir) at the Castrol Edge Rugby Championship. Australia was playing Argentina at a stadium at the Gold Coast. We had to drop her off at midday and the girls caught a bus down. The girls sing “I still call Australia Home”, unfurl an enormous Australian flag which covers half of the field and sing the National Anthem. Jessie was particularly excited because she got to be on one of the points of the flag and was filmed on the TV coverage.

The next week was Jessica’s orthodontist visit. We thought she would be getting braces but were a little surprised to find out that she needed to have three teeth extracted. They were baby teeth that hadn’t fallen out and were disrupting her adult teeth coming through. Katie whizzed her straight to the dentist and had them all whipped out within the hour so she didn’t have the opportunity to worry about it. Jessie was quite brave and I have been having fun calling her a toothless young hag!

Love Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica & Molly

Rowing.

Matthew and Liv off to the Semi-formal

Jessica's friend at the Ekka

 

Rowing. Jess getting a lift so she didn't get wet feet!

Rowing.

Ekka.

 

Jessica trip to Tasmania, Sydney and Canberra.

 Letter No. 219

Dear All

On 31^st May we went to the engagement party of one of my work colleagues Darren. Jessica had a St Aidan’s school dance on the same night. We had a nice time at the party but were still a bit jet-lagged from our American trip so were really flagging when we had to leave at 9:30pm to pick her up. It seemed a bit indecently early to leave a party but it was a 30-minute drive from home so not worth going back.

The local shopping centre has been undergoing major renovations for several years, or so it feels. It has been very inconvenient as stores keep closing and relocating to different floors. It was a big shopping centre but now it is enormous and in the final stage a whole load of new restaurants opened up. Matthew was ridiculously excited to discover a Japanese Gyoza restaurant so we had to go there for lunch almost as soon as it opened.

Matthew and I went to Suncorp Stadium on 7^th June to see Australia play France in the rugby. I had only decided two nights before and was quite pleased to get reasonable tickets that weren’t in the nose bleed section! Australia thrashed France so we had a good night. Matthew ran into a friend of his on the train on the way there and despite there being thousands of people there catching the train he bumped into the same friend again on the way home! Quite astonishing. The next day the kids and I went and did the Queensland Adventure Trail to celebrate Queensland week. It is a treasure hunt around the city with lots of activities to complete along the way, and you have to do it within four hours.  Not all activities are compulsory but we always make it our goal to do every activity and find the answer to every question. We finished just before the cut-off time and had a relax in bean bags in the sun while we waited for the prize draw at the finish. Sadly we didn’t win an i-pad again this year but we had a really fun day. That evening we went to my brother-in-law Andrew’s birthday party. Lisa did a fantastic Thai soup dinner, where everyone could fill their bowls with their own choice of vegetables, noodles, chicken, pork, prawns, herbs and spices, before filling with the soup base which was spooned over the top. It was a really fantastic idea and we all went back for seconds. 

We all went to Jessica’s Australian Girls’ Choir Winter Showcase on 14 June. The choir does three big concerts every year and this is the first one. Jessica had a major role in one of the dance routines. We had front row seats and she was performing to an audience of about 1000 only a metre or so in front of us. Matthew was embarrassed being in the front row as he said it was too showy-offy. Anyway we had a brilliant view of Jessica but as we were so close there was no opportunity to look at anyone else without being caught out by Jessica for not looking at her 100% of the time!!

Matthew had a training weekend for his Antipodeans Abroad trip to Vietnam. It was at Lake Moogera on the way to Warwick. Molly and I took him up on Saturday morning to drop him off and dropped in at Mum and Dad’s for morning tea before driving back to Brisbane.  Molly was a bit shocked to see their puppy Kimba. Just three months ago they were the same size and played comfortably in the garden. Now Kimba is about six times bigger than Molly and kept bowling her over and stepping on her. We had to separate them quite quickly. Poor Kimba just wanted to play but didn’t realise her size or strength.

Katie had another two days’ work at BBC on 23^rd and 24^th of June just before the end of Term 2. She was assisting in another student conference at the University of Queensland. She was pleased to be asked again. She had the same desk as last time and her water glass was still on the desk!

On 26^th June, Jessica set off on a two-week National Choir Tour with the Australian Girls’ Choir. She had to miss the last day of school which she was quite pleased about. I took her to the airport for 6:30am and she flew with 15 other girls to Hobart, Tasmania. The National Tour started with a 3-day residential music school, where the girls rehearsed their tour repertoire, and then they went on tour to Hobart and Launceston, then flew to Sydney and finally on to Canberra.

Jessica here – I had an amazing time on choir tour! It was such a great experience. We stayed with host families for a few days in each location and did lots of music workshops and performances at host schools. I met so many lovely, generous people and got to know them and their children. We previously had learnt a repertoire of songs in 6-part harmonies, some classic and beautiful and others cute and childish. We even learnt 3 songs in other languages, another AGC challenge!  We had a 3-day music school in freezing Tasmania, making us performance ready, and we staged and choreographed our 50 minute show. I was selected for a special dance group and we were featured in two songs.  The best part of the tour was performing with people of all ages. I made some awesome friends and we became a sweet little family. At the beginning of the tour we were equipped with a performance costume complete with pink hair ribbon, tour dairy and a group with leaders. During the tour I had an amazing time and there were some fantastic highlights –singing in Parliament House in Canberra, performing at the Last Post Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial, the steps of the Sydney Opera House and at various shopping malls, old people’s homes and schools. In Tasmania we went to Cradle Mountain and we sang at Port Arthur Historic site. We also went to the Cadbury’s chocolate factory and I’m proud to say I only spent $25 dollars on chocolate! Trust me, I had to use a lot of restraint!  It was a constant life of fun, excitement and PERFORMING! By the end we had all exchanged emails and were bawling our eyes out when we had to say goodbye. It was a fab tour!

While Jessica was away, Katie, Matthew and I went to Sherana the first weekend to see Mum and Dad and drop Molly off. Then on the second weekend we went to the Bunya Mountains with five other BBC families. There were mainly boys in Matthew’s year at BBC so Jessica was not at all bothered about missing out. We drove up on Friday. It was a three-hour drive into the hills. On the way we stopped at Savages Crossing on the upper reaches of the Brisbane River. It was the middle of winter but was a warm sunny day so Matt went for a quick swim in the river. He has never been deterred by cold water. We stopped in the little country town of Toogoolawah. It was not exactly hip hopping but we had a nice pub lunch. We drove on to the Bunya Mountains and arrived about 2pm. As we were driving into the village we saw a few cute little wallabies and stopped to watch them. When we drove into the village we realised wallabies were a pretty common theme and there were hundreds of them hopping around everywhere, with lots of babies as well. They were so cute. We had three little holiday houses between the five families, all next to each other. We put all the five boys in one unit and the adults and the two girls shared the other two houses. We unpacked, lit a fire and drank mulled wine while the sun went down. The mountains were quite high and it was pretty cold up there but we were toasty inside with our warm fires and sweaters and Katie had even taken our faux fur throw for our bed. Everyone came to our unit for all the meals so it was a bit chaotic always cooking for 16! The adults watched movies after dinner and the kids all retired to their units and watched movies as well. We had three nights and went for beautiful long 10km walks in the rainforest each day. The second night we decided to walk to the top of a mountain to watch the sun go down. It was spectacular but very cold.

On the last morning we were just about to leave when Matthew complained about his eye hurting. I discovered that he had a tick on his lower eyelash, right in the hairline. I tried to get it out but it was too small and in a very awkward place. We decided to drive to the nearest doctor in Oakey about an hour’s drive on our way home. We were in the doctor’s surgery for quite a long time. The doctor was a nice young man who said he had never seen a tick in such a difficult position. They used the most expensive machine in the surgery and eventually he got it out without the loss of too many eyelashes!

We went on to Mum and Dad’s to pick up Molly. As soon as we arrived Molly darted out of the house and jumped straight into the car and wouldn’t get out again. She was so excited about going home again after her holiday. It was quite funny.

Jessica came home on 9^th July. We all went to the airport to meet her. Katie took her a big bouquet of flowers and we went right to the gate to meet her. She was so pleased to see us and thrilled with her flowers. It was the longest she has ever been away from home and it was really good to have her back.

There were still a few days of holiday left before we got back into the school routine. It was Katie’s birthday on 12^th July and she managed to make it last all weekend. We had been invited to a Bastille Day dinner party that day with some AECOM colleagues. It was only a short walk to the dinner party as they lived in Graceville. We had quite a nice evening and it was good just to wander home down the road. Katie wanted to go to the Boatshed at the Regatta Hotel with the family on Saturday for her birthday. The Regatta Hotel was flooded in 2011 and took nearly 18 months to fully reopen. The restaurant is so stylish and modern now, and the food was fab. On Sunday afternoon we went to see Maleficent as I had won some free movie tickets at work that were close to expiring and then went for a Chinese meal with Lisa and Andrew and the cousins.

Jessica was singing with AGC at the Lord Mayor’s Australian Citizenship Ceremony in City Hall the next night. Katie had to drop her off at 5:00pm and she had to sit through the whole ceremony before they sang their usual two songs (I Still Call Australia Home and Advance Australia Fair). The choir performs regularly at these events and Jessie will get more gigs in the future.

We had another Garage Sale on 20^th July. I set up on the Saturday and the sale went from 7am until 1:00pm when we were too bored to carry on with it. The kids made about $100 each selling their unwanted toys and we sold about $600 worth of junk we didn’t want any more. Afterwards I took all the left over stuff to the drop off point for the local church fête.

BACK TO SCHOOL – Term 3 kicked off with a bang and it was going to be a busy one – it was Jessie’s rowing season, Matt’s basketball season and Katie was in full planning mode for the BBC Fashion Parade coming up at the end of term.  It was the St Aidan’s Twilight Fair on Friday 25^th July. Students had stalls and could sell things for a flat $10 fee which went to charity. Jessica’s dance troupe STAGE was performing to entertain the crowds at the markets so Katie and I went along to watch. I am constantly amazed how good they are. They do such complex dances with all 28 girls perfectly in unison.

Matthew was at the BBC Senior Music Camp that weekend so he didn’t play basketball on Saturday 26^th July, which meant that Katie and I could both go to watch Jessie’s first regatta of the season. Jessica is the cox of the Year 8 third crew. The coxes are rated during the training season and Jessica was the top cox but she was put into the lowest crew as there was a rule that if anyone didn’t attend the Rowing Camp they were automatically in the bottom crew. Jessica missed the rowing camp as she was on the Choir Tour which had been booked months before, so ended up coxing the thirds, but she said that the girls were nicer so she was happy. The regattas are all held up at Lake Kawana which is about 1½ hours’ drive north up on the Sunshine Coast. They had to be there at 7:30am so we were up ridiculously early and off before the sun. Regattas are much more organised than they were in the early 1980s when I rowed at BBC. There was a Rowers’ Tent complete with ergos and a Supporters Tent with food for parents. We knew quite a few of the parents so we had a social morning.  Jessica’s crew raced at 9:30am and were delighted to come second. We stayed until about 1:30pm to watch the First Eight and then drove home. Jessica still had to go back to the rowing shed afterwards to de-rig the boats and put them back in the shed and finally got home around 6pm. Regattas are huge long and tiring days.

The next morning Katie and I went to Matthew’s senior music camp to pick him up and see the little concert they put on after morning tea. In the afternoon Katie and I played tennis. We told the kids we were going and they both decided to come as well. We played two double sets rotating partners each time and then Katie and I played singles while the kids played each other. It was really fun and we stopped for ice cream on the way home. An exhausting weekend and it was only the end of Week 1!

The following weekend Jessie’s STAGE dance troupe were performing again at a school MADD Night (Music Arts Dance and Drama). They do so many girly things at girls’ schools! On Saturday I drove up to Kawana for Jessie’s Second regatta, while Katie drove Matt to his first Basketball game. I had signed up to be the team manager again this term, so Katie had to take on the duty. On the way Matt gave Katie strict instructions to keep a low profile. As soon as they arrived, the coach asked Katie if she could help as they were short-handed and asked her to either score or run the bench. Katie ended up scoring the match, even though it was almost the first basketball game she has watched! She really enjoyed the game though and now there is a bit of competition over which parent is the best supporter and team manager. Matt is wisely refusing to enter into the debate!  

That’s all for this quarter!

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica & Molly

Australian Girls Choir at the Opera House

Bunya mountains.

A family of kookaburras.

Bunya mountains.