Forbes Family Blog: July 2014

Letter No. 217

Dear All

APRIL SCHOOL HOLIDAYS On 7^th April Katie went to pick up Jessica from a friend’s house about 5pm and got invited in for a glass of wine. This turned into several bottles of wine and so Matt and I had to fend for ourselves for dinner while Katie had to get a lift home five hours later and Jessie stayed for an impromptu sleepover. Everything goes to pot during school holidays.

Jessica spent the first week of the school holidays at a St Aidans’ Tennis Camp. She had to be dragged kicking and screaming to it at first but by the end of the week was telling us all how much she loved tennis and wants to play all the time. Matthew went over to Lisa’s place for two days during the holidays and cleaned cars for people them and others who work at their nursery to earn some money. He did quite well and was very pleased with his earnings for two days’ work.

CAMPING WEEKEND We went camping from 11-13 April with a big group of friends to the Neurum Creek Bush Retreat. It was about an hour north of Brisbane via Mount Mee. We arrived first and set up our tent and gazebo and had lunch. Just as we were finishing lunch the next family arrived. There were seven families in total, with 14 adults, 17 kids and four dogs (including Molly) who arrived progressively through the afternoon. When everyone had arrived we all went down to the creek. The water was a bit cold but most of us went for a refreshing swim. Molly loved the creek as there were lots of kids to splash her! The kids had a huge time. There were three groups – the teenagers (14-16 yrs), the twelvies (who were 12) and the younger ones who ranged from 6 up to 10. There were enough kids in each group so that everyone had a friend to be with. The group was so large that we had to have two campfires in the evening. We had a rambling BBQ dinner produced from all manner of gas BBQs. Dad had given me a baby Weber BBQ for Christmas and it was really much more convenient than cooking on the fire like we usually do when we go camping. After dinner we all settled around our respective camp fires and had red wine (adults) and hot chocolate and marshmallows (kids) and sang camp fire songs, which was really nice. If we didn’t know the words we would google them on our iphones. How camping has changed!

The next morning there were a few sore heads (not mine though). After breakfast we went for a hike up the mountain behind the camp ground. Not all the group came as some of the kids were eager to get to the creek and some of the adults were too hung over! Later there was swimming in the creek and also badminton and volleyball through the course of the day, until it was time for sundowners and pre dinner snacks, followed by another night around the campfire (but not as late as the previous night). The next morning the weather radar was forecasting rain by 11:00am so we all packed up a little quicker than we had originally intended. Sure enough the rain started just as we put the last things in the cars and we left for lunch at the bakery in Dayboro via a lovely scenic drive over Mount Mee. It rained quite heavily all the way home and for the next few days so was a good thing we left when we did.

STRADDIE WEEKEND We were only home again for four days before we left on Good Friday to go to Straddie for the Easter long weekend. We took a ferry over about 11:00am and went to the apartment kindly lent to us by my brother-in-law Andrew. The weather was absolutely beautiful – blue sky and the perfect temperature -- so we hit the beach for the afternoon. We took Matthew’s huge inflatable boat and we spent the afternoon paddling it through the light surf. That night we went out for dinner at “The Look” restaurant. We spent most mornings and lunch on the beach, afternoons walking around the headland and watching for whales (didn’t see any this year) or back at the flat. Our friends Alf and Kylie Graham and kids were staying at the apartments adjacent to the pub and we saw them each day. They managed to find us on the beach every day as we had our huge pirate flag hoisted whenever we were there. Alf still lives in Hong Kong and comes down to Brisbane every 2 or 3 weekends. Some other friends of his from Hong Kong were also staying at Straddie, and we had a good chat about all things Hong Kong. Surprisingly they are the first people we have ever met from Hong Kong who do not know Paul Hart!

On Saturday night we got a huge pile of crabs and hot chips to eat at the apartment after Sundowners on the pub deck. On Sunday we went to the Easter markets but they were exactly the same as the previous year. We spent the day at the beach again and had an evening meal at the pub. The weather was absolutely perfect the whole weekend, warm and sunny and around 30°C. Not bad for half way through autumn. Our ferry back wasn’t until 8:00pm so we spent the final day on the beach. We got to the ferry a bit early, went into the waitlist queue, and luckily we were bumped up almost immediately onto the 6.15pm ferry and got home much earlier than expected. A lovely relaxing break.

BACK TO SCHOOL – TERM 2 The kids went back to school the next day. This was also Katie’s first day at work at BBC. Katie has been organising events at BBC for three years now for Parent Connections, and for the first time, BBC had decided to employ her for a project -- organising a careers conference for the Year twelve students and actually being paid to do it! She only had six days to organise it though, so it was a fairly intense reintroduction to the workforce after twelve years.

On Thursday 25^th April, one of Katie’s work days, it was the Anzac Day service. Katie received a VIP invitation (as President of Parent Connections) for her and a guest. Luckily she invited me! The whole school participated, 1500 boys and about 150 guests. They planted white crosses in the lawn, 99 in total for every BBC old boy who had been killed in a war. The first was from World War I and the most recent one was in Afghanistan. His parents were sitting next to me and laid a wreath at the war memorial. It was very sad. There was an afternoon tea afterwards and then Katie went back to work.

Katie’s Careers Conference was on Tuesday 29^th April. It all went well and she was pleased with her earnings for the six days, even though she had already earmarked the money for spending before it hit her bank account! She is hoping that there will be a few more paid projects like that in the future.

On 1^st May Matthew attended the “Music Day of Excellence”. It was at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and involved every GPS (Greater Private School) in Brisbane, all sending their best musicians to form massed bands. It was very good and the music standard was incredibly high. Matthew had a very long day practicing, starting at 7:00am and going right through the day to the concert which started at 7pm. We didn’t get home until close to 10:00pm.

That Saturday Jessica went to her first Rowing Training session at the St Aidan’s Rowing Shed. It was her first day rowing on Oxley Creek. She is actually going to be a cox, but all the girls have the opportunity to try single skulls every Saturday. All the others had gone to a “Try Rowing” day before, which Jessie couldn’t attend, so they were a bit more experienced. The creek is very narrow and almost immediately Jessie accidently crashed into a house boat and got stuck for ten minutes and got left behind. Eventually she got going again and a little while later a Stuartholme Crew ran into her boat and she capsized! She was too light to turn the boat over by herself, and struggled in the cold water for 15 minutes, as the sharks circled, before she managed to get the skull upright and back into it. She was very wet and cold and rowed straight back to the shed. She was not a happy bunny when Katie picked her up. After these dramas, we thought that would be the end of her rowing career but amazingly she still loves it and is keen to carry on.

We went to a BBC Trivia Night on the 3^rd May. It was raising money for the Pipe Band tour of Scotland. Friends of ours have boys in the BBC Pipe Band and had organised a table. Each table had a country theme and ours was France so we had to dress in French costume. Katie had a very fetching red skirt and red blouse with Eiffel Towers all over it and a black beret, all of which she borrowed from a French friend. I had a black beret, stupid moustache, red braces and an artists’ paint palette and brush. It was a BYO event so everyone on our table brought Moet! The quiz was a lot of fun. I somehow managed to be team captain and we were very pleased to come 5^th out of 17 teams.

Matthew ran a cake stall at the BBC Parent-Teacher Evening a few days later with a few other boys to help raise some more money for their community aid project in Vietnam in December. They sold cakes from 3:00pm until about 6:30pm and raised over $300. Katie and I went to see all his teachers and then I went for a run while I was waiting for him to finish. Matthew is doing well in most of his subjects, so he got good reports and we like hearing what a well behaved and polite boy he is.

Jessica’s rowing coach offered Parent Rowing sessions on Saturday afternoons and I went along. Most sessions there were about seven parents and we took out an eight. I really enjoyed doing it. We did it for six weeks in total. It was usually the same parents going each time and we noticeably approved over this time – although we were still pretty rubbish. I blame the mums personally. Luckily we didn’t fall in once, in contrast to Jessica, who has set new records at St Aidan’s by falling in the river three weeks in a row!

There was also a Mother’s Day Breakfast at St Aidan’s on Friday 9 May. My Mum came down and stayed the night before and went to the breakfast with Katie. Jessica’s dance troupe, “Stage” was performing at the breakfast so Jessica joined them after they had danced. There was also a St Aidan’s Year 8 Parents Cocktail Party on 16^th May. It was a Friday evening and there was quite a good turnout. We had a really nice evening on the forecourt of the school with finger food for dinner. The next morning I was competing in the Corporate Games 5km run. I had made a big effort not to have too much wine the night before but judging by my poor time for the run, even one wine is too many!

The rest of that weekend was busy, with Jessie at choir music school and Katie and Matt helping at the BBC Open Day on Sunday. On Monday 19^th May my Mum came down to stay. She was kindly looking after the kids for us while Katie and I went to America for ten days. Katie’s brother Chris and his partner Julie were finally getting married at the Gracelands Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas on Saturday 24 May, after what must run close to a world record long engagement! We decided to make a trip of it; we were going for ten days from 20-29 May, visiting San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and all without the kids, who couldn’t possibly miss out on their busy lives at school. Katie had spent a long time preparing for the trip, writing long lists of the kids’ activities, the kit they need to take to each one, directions, drop off and pick up times and also stocking the freezer with meals and muffins. It was very exciting as it was the first time in years that we had been on a trip without children.

DEREK & KATIE’S TRIP TO AMERICA

Day 1 – Brisbane to San Francisco

We received a text during the night that our flight to Las Angeles was delayed by an hour and the stupid text woke us up at 4am! We ended up getting to the airport very early and did some present shopping for Chris & family before our plane left at 11:45am. Matthew tracked our plane on his iphone flight app as it took off and flew almost over his school. It was a 13-hour flight to LA but we crossed the Date Line so we still arrived on Tuesday morning before we left! Neither of us slept but we watched lots of movies; it felt really weird going without the kids! We took a short flight on to San Francisco and arrived at our hotel in Union Square around 12 noon.

We quickly showered and went out for an afternoon of sightseeing. There was a Cable Car stop right outside the hotel. The old-style cable cars are very beautiful, timber cars all hand painted. There is 16km of cable in total and 40 cars. The cables are actually underground and the trams can stop and start by releasing the cable through a continuous slot in the road. Really very clever. You can ride inside on seats, outside on seats or standing outside and clinging on for dear life! There were no vacant seats on our car, so we had to hang off the side. It was quite fun; you had to squish in very tight as you passed another cable car, but it was quite windy and a little scary. I think Katie would have preferred to sit inside. We went to Russian Hill, the location of the world’s crookedest street, with eight zig-zag turns down a steep hill, as well as spectacular views over the city and harbour. It is very pretty and is often featured in movies such as James Bond.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon and a pleasant temperature, so we walked on to Coit Tower perched on the top of Telegraph Hill. This is an art deco tower like a column which is 64m high and overlooks the city. It was quite a steep climb up the hill and the views over San Francisco were great, but the wind was ferocious and it was cold at the top. We wandered back down the hill and stopped at an Italian cafe for a nice cup of tea and a rest and then sat there a bit longer and moved onto wine and beer. We walked on to a lovely Italian restaurant called Firenze and had a sumptuous dinner before catching the bus back to the hotel. We collapsed into bed and were asleep in minutes. We slept for more than ten hours. I can’t remember the last time I slept for so long. It completely eradicated the jet lag though.

Day 2 – San Francisco

I went for a run in the morning at 6:30am and was surprised how cold and windy it was. It is known as the Windy City I guess. I ran along one street for a few kilometres before shifting over one block and running back. I was a little surprised to run into the Japanese sector which was full of Japanese architecture, supermarkets and gardens. Just like being in Japan!

We took a bus to Fisherman’s Wharf, and then a ferry to Alcatraz Island, one of the USA’s most famous prisons. It was a ten-minute boat ride to the island in the middle of the harbour, which had been a prison from 1934-1963 and a military base for 80 years before that. In fact it was the largest fortified base on the whole west coast of America for some time. It was a short steep hike up to the prison at the top of the hill. The prison was very grim. There was a brilliant audio tour which was really interesting though and showed us photos of all the famous inmates, like Al Capone and the famous “Birdman”.

Afterwards we walked over to Pier 39 and had lunch at the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant. Katie was less than impressed when the waiter insisted on asking us questions about the Forest Gump movie before he would take our order. We had to high five him each time we got an answer right. We had a seafood lunch. I had shrimps of course and Katie had clam chowder – yum. We wandered around the shops for a while and then discovered a seal viewing platform off the pier. There were probably two hundred seals all resting on floating pontoons in the middle of the harbour, sunning themselves and swimming around the huge number of boats going in and out. Bizarre! That night we went to a lovely French Restaurant near the hotel for another great dinner.

Day 3 – San Francisco

Today we hired bikes and went for a long cycle ride along the harbour front to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was about 8km to the bridge. It was quite foggy, as it often is in San Francisco we are told, and we couldn’t see the top of the bridge or the other side. It was quite crowded on the bridge with pedestrians and bikes going both directions in quite a narrow walkway. By the time we had got to the middle the fog was starting to lift and we had very spectacular views of Alcatraz and San Francisco city centre. When we got to the far side we stopped at the viewing platform and the fog had mostly gone. The bridge was big and orange and quite spectacular.

We cycled on another 5km to Sausalito which was a cute little village on the seafront, full of pretty little shoppe-shops and nice restaurants. After a nice lunch on the harbour front, we got back on the bikes and cycled about another 9km to Old Mill Park – a forest park with giant redwood trees. We stopped in the park and had a rest under the trees when we arrived. The redwoods were big and red. The largest we saw had a diameter of about three metres. Amazing really. I went and hugged the tree, as you are supposed to do, but discovered on the ride home it had given me a splinter as a souvenir. Personally I blame the greenies and you won’t catch me tree-hugging again.

We cycled back to Sausalito and got a ferry back to San Francisco with our bikes. It was a short cycle back to drop off the bikes and then we caught the bus back to the hotel. After all that cycling our legs were tired so we ordered pizza and watched a movie in our room. The next morning we were heading off early – next stop Las Vegas!

But there is no more time for that now so that’s all for this month. Cheers,

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica & Molly