Forbes Family Blog: 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