Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 Letter No. 230

Dear all,

The day after he finished school, Matthew was off to Schoolies week at the Gold Coast, a week in which all the Y12 students let their hair down with a week-long beach party. Matt was staying in a two-bedroom apartment with his best friend Mitchell. Mitchell’s mum took them down and checked them into their unit in the Chevron. Apparently it was chaos with so many school leavers checking in all at the same time. We were really quite shocked at the number of parents we knew who had supplied alcohol for their kids. If Matthew and his friends wanted alcohol, they would just have to be inventive and get fake IDs the same way we had to when we were that age! Matt didn’t seem at all bothered about drinking though. His friends are all prefects and the School Captain and are the more academic and responsible boys in his year. They seemed to have a nice time. They spent most of the time staying up ridiculously late, playing cards, sleeping in, and lying on the beach. Matt said he saw everyone he knew and it was really fun and we had “Proof of Life” texts every day from him.

That first night we went out for a Celebration Dinner at Three Girls Skipping in Graceville with some ex-BBC parents. Jessica was singing somewhere with AGC and got a lift home while we were out. Katie had heels on so she suggested we drive to the restaurant and pick up the car in the morning. The village was so busy I couldn’t get a park however so I dropped Katie off and ended up parking further away from the restaurant than our house!

The next day, Sunday, we went to A Day on the Green with a group of 12. Katie had arranged a minibus to take us all. We picked up our friends all around Graceville but had to go back to one house as one couple had left their tickets at home! The traffic was terrible getting into the event and we had to park quite a way from the main entrance. After we had walked from the car park to the entrance, the same couple had to go back to the bus as they had left their tickets on the bus this time! We found a spot to spread picnic blankets and had a very late lunch. The girls had put together a nice spread as usual so it was very civilised and we just sat on the grass enjoying the music. The bands were the Black Sorrows, Noiseworks, Ross Wilson (from Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock), Daryl Braithwaite and John Farnham. It was a good afternoon. The bus got us home by about 9:00pm. We actually left a little early as most people were not fussed about John Farnham and there was a storm threatening.

It was the AECOM Christmas party on 27^th November. It was at Prohibition in Fortitude Valley this year. We had a nice evening with my team but didn’t stay too late. The venue opens to the general public at 10:30pm and the AECOM people seemed to all slip away so we did as well. The next morning I got up at 5:30am and drove to the Gold Coast as the boys had to be out of their Schoolies apartment fairly early. I was on the beach having a swim by 6:30am and then having a bacon roll and coffee by 7:30am. I wandered over to the Chevron, woke the boys, helped them clean their apartment and we were on our way back to Brisbane before 9:00am. The boys had stayed up until 5am the night before so were a little subdued and we had to stop en route for an emergency breakfast to keep them going. It sounded as if they had had a great time. Matt had a sleep in the afternoon and went to work at Miku that evening. We thought he might fall asleep onto one of the tables he was waiting but he made it home again OK.

I went to the Property Council of Australia lunch on Friday 4^th December. It was a lovely afternoon. The lunch went for seven hours. While I was there Katie had to borrow my car, as hers was in the garage. The fuel indicator light was on so she put $20 of fuel into the car. Unfortunately she put unleaded petrol into it, although it is a diesel engine and then drove it about 5km. She did notice it spluttering a bit but thought nothing of it. The next day I couldn’t start the car at all and the day went rapidly downhill! The car was towed to the garage on Monday and it cost $500 to get it going again! While they had it in the garage they said I needed a part which they cannot get in Australia. I had to prevail on Katie’s brother Chris to order it for me and post it out! An expensive weekend!

On 5^th and 6^th December Jessica was singing with the Australian Girls’ Choir supporting Hugh Jackman at his musical Broadway to Oz, which is on a five-city national tour. She was chosen as one of a backing choir of 75 girls. We had to drop her off at midday for rehearsals and then went back to the Entertainment Centre at 5:30pm for the show. We had dinner before the show and a few drinks. Katie had got fantastic seats right up the front and the show was terrific. The choir sang with Hugh for the last song in each half of the show. They sang One Day More from Les Miserables and I still call Australia Home as the finale. They pulled a huge Australian flag over the audience while they girls were singing so our view of Jessie was obstructed for a bit of the song. It was a fantastic evening though. On Sunday we had to drop Jessie there for two more performances. Hugh called into the girls’ dressing rooms and had a chat to them all and then had a group photoshoot with them all. I went to pick her up on Sunday night. I took the ticket from the previous night with me and managed to slip inside past the security guards by holding my thumb over the date on the ticket. I found an empty seat and watched the finale song again. It was a great weekend for Jessica.

We put up our Christmas tree that morning before Jessica went to her performance. We also went to a Christmas party that evening at our friends the Case’s home in Graceville. I had to pick up Jess later that night so couldn’t have any drinks, but the party was very nice. Katie got paid out a lot from our friends about her stuff up with my car!

It was Matt’s 17^th Birthday on 8^th December. We had a family dinner at the local Greek restaurant. My sister Lisa got him the best present – a map of the world with scratch-off sections over each country that you visit. Matthew was absolutely delighted. He was almost as excited by the new i-phone 6 we had bought him!  Matt has been working at Miku a lot since he finished school. He seems to be there more than he is at home.

Katie had a WAGS (her dog walking group) Christmas dinner at the St Lucia Golf Club on 10^th December and came home a little merry. The next day I went to Straddie with the kids. Katie had elected to stay home with Molly and get Christmas organised… crazy if you ask me. We went for four days. We arrived by lunch time on Friday and went straight to the beach. We were delighted to see dolphins swimming in the surf less than 5m away from us. They were there for ages. A little later Matthew and I were jumping off the cliffs into the deep water when everyone started shouting there was a shark. We scrambled out onto a small island rock with a group of other people. We stayed there nervously for about 20 minutes. Jessica was on the beach waving at us frantically. Apparently she had seen it about 3m away from her when she was waist-deep in the water! Eventually we all made a dash for the shore. We swam quite quickly and decided to sunbathe for a while and stay out of the water. We had a lovely trip though. It was very relaxing (apart from the shark incident) and we came back on Monday afternoon slightly sunburned. Meanwhile Katie had a lovely time being home alone. The house was beautifully decorated, presents were wrapped and under the tree and she had done some preparation for our Christmas Drinks at the weekend. She is encouraging us to go away every year now. J

On Thursday 17^th Jessica was singing with the Australian Girls’ Choir at Southbank. I went over after work and met Matthew and Katie. It was a very nice evening with Christmas Markets, Jessica’s carols and fireworks. We met our dear friends the Brodie’s to watch Jessica perform and went for dinner at a lovely Turkish restaurant.

Our office closed on Friday 18^th December for three weeks. We called it a day at 1pm and went out for lunch at a local pub. I fully intended to leave about 3:30pm to make it home to help Matthew mow the lawn. My best intentions went astray however and I finally made it home from lunch at 8:30pm. Fortunately Matt had mowed it without me and left me the whipper snippering.

Matthew got his final exam results on Saturday morning, in the form of an overall position (OP) score. Matthew received an OP2 putting him in the top 4% in the state. Results are marked on a ranking of OP1-25, so he has really done extremely well and it is a fantastic end to a great school year for him. However, students who study a language or the highest level of Mathematics receive one OP score bonus, which effectively gives him an OP1.  Hopefully this will be enough to get him into Law at the University of Queensland, which is his preference. We have to wait until early January to find out.

That night we had held our annual Christmas Drinks for 40 of our closest friends. Katie pulled out all the stops with fantastic festive canapés including turkey & cranberry, a baked ham, crab & lime quiches and the obligatory devils on horseback and everyone seems to have a brilliant time! We started at 4pm and the last people left at 10:30pm. It is always the start of the Christmas festivities for us. The next day we cleaned up and then went to see the Hunger Games Mockingjay movie.

Christmas is now just a few days away. We send our very best wishes to you all for a truly wonderful Christmas, a happy and healthy new year.

Cheers

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica and Molly.

AECOM Christmas party.

Last Day at BBC.

Valedictory dinner.

A Day on the Green.

The same Day on the Green.

Matthew's Birthday.

Farewell to BBC

 Letter No. 229

Dear all,

25 September I was invited to see the Broncos vs Roosters in the NFL semi-final at Suncorp Stadium. The Broncos (local Brisbane team) won 31-12 to make the Grand Final. John Haughton’s company had invited me to go with a group of eight. It was a good match and we had a great evening. The next night we went to see RiverFire with Helen & Gary Brodie. Matthew was working at Miku that night so it was just the four adults plus Jessie and Candice, who is a Chinese exchange student staying with the Brodies. RiverFire was quite spectacular. It started out with SuperHornet fighter planes flying low over the city then other military planes and helicopters, followed by an amazing fireworks display all along the river and fireworks off all the bridges. We had a drink in a bar near the river to watch the flypasts and then dinner in a nice Turkish restaurant. When the fireworks started, all the diners went outside and watched from the footpath.

The next night we went over to my sister Lisa’s for dinner. Jessica was staying with her cousins for two nights. They have started keeping bees now so we had a look at the hives and the honeycombs and got some delicious honey. The honeycombs are pretty amazing!

On 1^st October, Candice came to stay with us for a week as the Brodies were away on a family trip. Candice is a lovely girl and is super helpful around the house, which made our kids really pull up their socks while she was here. Unfortunately this was a short-lived change. While Candice was with us, we went to Eat Street Markets with three other families. It is a huge collection of street stalls selling food, plus two areas with live bands and bars. The adults all sat at the bar and watched the bands while we sent the kids off to select and bring back food to us. It was a fun place but unfortunately is only temporary as the area is soon going to be redeveloped into residential apartments.

We also went to Miku with Candice one night when Matt was working there. Matthew took our orders and then joined us for dinner when he finished his shift. It was funny being waited on by him and he explained all the different dishes on the menu patiently. Apparently he has to do practically every time as most diners are not familiar with Japanese food. We gave him a good tip at the end of the night.

The kids went back to school on Tuesday 6 October for the start of Term 4 – Matt’s final term at BBC. It was shaping up to be a busy term with a dauntingly large slew of BBC social events. The first weekend was huge with the Sounds of Scotland concert on the Friday night. This is mainly a BBC Pipe Band event, but also included some other visiting bagpipe bands, as well as invited Scottish dancers, Irish dancers and choirs. It was a spectacular concert but was ridiculously long (over 4 hours) and there are only so many times that you can hear Flower of Scotland in one night. The concert started at 7pm and Jessie and I left at the interval while Katie stayed to the end to hear Matt’s Brass Band (playing with the Pipe Band in the penultimate number) and bring him home. In the end, Matt was on stage for five minutes at 10:45pm and he said it was the longest wait ever for the shortest performance ever. They didn’t get home until 11:30pm. Several audience members fell asleep and fell off their chairs and there were lots of complaints afterwards. Half a concert was the right length as far as I was concerned.

The next day Katie and I went to an art exhibition opening at the Brookfield Garden Centre in the afternoon. They had lots of lovely champagne and cheese. We were very unimpressed with the paintings which looked like they could have been painted by a three-year-old. The metal sculptures on the other hand were fantastic but expensive so we went home empty handed. On the Sunday we went for a Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner at some friend’s Shelley & Gary’s home. They put on a huge spread for 24 people. We had a fun afternoon and evening. It was just like an early Christmas. Apparently pumpkin pie is traditional but Katie took pecan pie, which is my favourite.

On 12 October it was our 19^th Wedding Anniversary. As it was a Monday night and we had been out so much, Katie did a special dinner at home for the two of us, with Moreton Bay Bugs on a black truffle risotto and handmade rose Turkish Delight. She fed the kids early and we had a nice dinner by ourselves. The next night I went to see KISS at the Entertainment Centre with John Haughton. Kiss was the first band I ever saw in 1979 at Lang Park. I hadn’t listened to any of their music since 1980 I guess. The show was very spectacular with all the costumes, makeup, lights, fire, fire breathing and blood drinking that you would expect from a Kiss concert. The music wasn’t as good as I remembered from when I was 13 but it was still a great night out!

Friday 16^th October was the BBC Music Dinner at the Mt Cootha Botanic gardens. It is always the best school dinner as they have short speeches, musical entertainment by the boys and we are good friends with many of the parents. Matt was presented with a pair of drumsticks, along with all the other departing Y12 music boys and I won a raffle prize.

The next night we went to a 50^th birthday party for Tim and Caroline Dunne. They live in the next street and Matthew washes their car and their daughter used to be at Graceville State School with Jessie. We had a really nice night despite not knowing anyone else at the party. On Monday 19 October Matthew participated in the PMSA Music Festival which is a concert by all the selected top musicians from the private school bands across Brisbane. Katie went and said it was fantastic as the standard of music was so high. I missed it as I had a work function at the Gold Coast that same night. It was a Tiki Tiki Luau, basically a boat trip to an island with a huge feast and heaps of drinks, put on by the Property Council of Australia. It was a fun evening but a 1:00am finish is a bit late for a Monday night!

Katie had organised a BBC Y12 Parent Cocktail Party at the Regatta Hotel on Thursday 22 October, with over 80 parents attending. She has been the year rep for the past five years and has organised lots of lunches and coffee mornings and we have met some really nice parents over the years through this role. Katie had booked and decorated the room and ordered canapés and it was a great evening. She was presented with flowers and champagne for being year rep and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Jessica’s dance troupe, STAGE did an afternoon performance at St Aidan’s on 30^th September. They were the break time entertainment during a quiz afternoon at the school. They were performing a few dances including one the girls had choreographed themselves that I had never seen so I came along in time to see that one. The mums were catering and the event theme was Cruise, so the ladies did their best efforts to embarrass their daughters in Hawaiian Tropical costume.

Halloween was on Saturday this year which made it slightly easier but we knew it was going to be huge. Katie and I spent all day decorating the garage and were pretty pleased with our results.  Unfortunately Jessica had her badminton finals the same day. It didn’t finish until 5pm so we had to get a friend to pick her up. As usual it was a crazy night and we handed out over 1000 wrapped sweets. At times the queue was about 20 deep in vampires, mummies and ghosts trying to get to Katie’s witches cauldron of sweets. Katie had invited two friends Helen and Shelley to come and join her and the three of them spent a lot of time cackling and drinking their own special drink (not for children).  Matthew actually dressed up for the first time in a few years and he and Siobhan either threw plastic spiders on the kids getting sweets or hid under the table and grabbed their legs to give them a big fright. It was quite funny. I did a sausage sizzle on the footpath to raise money to pay back the cost of the sweets this year! After the marauding hordes had left, we had invited all the neighbours to come back to our house for drinks.

Sunday was a clean-up day and then Tuesday 3^rd November was Melbourne Cup. Katie had a nice lunch out with girlfriends while I had a lame chicken salad lunch at work. I was so busy that I didn’t even stop work to watch the race. I must try to organise something less lame for myself next year. That evening it was the BBC Speech Night. Matthew received the Geography prize and an academic award and played in both bands performing so he was on stage most of the evening. It was a very moving evening and some of the musical performances were quite spectacular. The Prefects all did the school War Cry on the bridge outside the Performing Arts Centre at the end of the evening which was quite emotional. Jessica had come with us as it was Matt’s final Speech night and we all went up to cocktail party afterwards and had a chat to the teachers and the headmaster. So many BBC events already and it was only week five of the term! By this stage, not only could we see the light at the end of the tunnel, it was hurting our eyes it was so bright. We are actually going to really miss these endless social occasions.

Katie had organised her final Y12 Mums coffee morning for that Friday. A large group of ladies met at the ferry terminal in Toowong and caught the CityCat into the city. They had champagne High Tea at Parliament House followed by a tour of Parliament House. It was the boys’ last official school day as all that remained was their exam block. Unfortunately Matt was not terribly well with a bad sore throat and swollen glands and Katie was making him lots of hot lemon drinks and driving him back and forth to save his energy. It was only at the very end of the exam block that the doctor suggested he had a blood test and we discovered that he has had Glandular Fever during the course of the last couple of months!

Friday 13^th November it was the Stage Dance Celebration Breakfast. Katie was there at 5:30am to set up and Jessie and I came along at 6:45am. It was a nice breakfast and Jessie won the Year 9 Encouragement Award. We were pleased but she viewed this as a negative thing for some reason. Teenage girls!  

The next day was the Australian Girls’ Choir Annual Concert. We had to drop Jessie off early in the morning for rehearsals and the afternoon matinee. We went to the evening show. As she progresses up the choir she gets to sing in more and more songs. Next year she will be in the Performing Choir which is the highest level and they get even more gigs and opportunities.

Monday 16 November was the start of Matt’s final week of school. I don’t think we have ever heard so many speeches in just one week. It started with the St Aidan’s Speech Night on Monday. It was also at Queensland Performing Arts Centre where Matthew’s had been just two weeks before. Jessica came third in her grade academically and was given an academic award. She was very pleased as she had worked really hard for it. She had been determined to get an academic award as she had missed out by a whisker in Year 8. Matt didn’t come as he was still in exam block. His final exam was on Wednesday morning. Katie took him out for lunch afterwards to celebrate.

On Thursday 19 November Katie went to the Year 12 BBC Mothers’ Farewell Lunch Party which was hosted by Parent Connections. Katie has organised this event for the last four years so it was nice for her to just attend this year and drink champagne and chat to the other mums without worrying about anything. There were nice speeches by the School Captain, the Captain’s mother and a blessing for departing boys by Rev Cole.

That evening was the BBC Valedictory Dinner at Suncorp Stadium. It was a massive event with over 600 people attending. Every boy was presented with a yearbook, a group photograph of the entire grade and a pair of BBC cufflinks. There were speeches by the School Captain (again), the Headmaster, Head of Senior School and the Valedictorian (one of the Y12 boys chosen by the other boys), who made a really impressive speech.

The next morning there was a Barbeque Breakfast for all boys and parents at school and we had to be there by 7.15am. It was a bit of a struggle to get there as it had been well after 11pm when we got home from the previous night’s dinner. The breakfast was pretty good and then we noticed the microphone. We couldn’t imagine there would be anyone left who hadn’t already given a speech but in fact the school produced the Head of Studies, Head of Junior School and finally an Old Boy, who did the best speech of the lot.  He gave the boys some great advice about university life – you will fail sometimes; say yes to things; get involved; keep your links to the school; try out for the mixed netball team. Afterwards, the boys walked down to the Chapel for the Leaver’s Service. The pipe band led the way and all the senior boys lined the path to give them a guard of honour down the front driveway to the school. It was very moving seeing the boys cheering and high fiving with the pipe band piping them into the chapel and lots of parents were in tears. While the boys were in the chapel, parents moved down to the swimming pool and fifteen minutes later the boys came running down one after another and all jumped into the pool in their uniforms. It was very funny. They made a huge whirlpool in the pool and generally had a whale of a time, trying to get their teachers to jump in with them. It was a swelteringly hot day and lots of parents wished they could jump in too. After it was over I went off to work and Katie and Matt went home and just like that his school days were over. It was a long goodbye but finally he was at the end and ready for the next stage of his life.  

Cheers

Derek, Katie, Matthew and Jessica.

The dogs waiting for Katie and her friends to finish coffee.

The queue at Halloween.

Three witches.

Our pumpkins.

The BBC seniors in the pool.

Jessica's Academic Award.

Matthew's Speech night.

Term 3 - O'Reilly's

 Letter No. 228

Dear all,

12 July 2015. We had an informal dinner at home for Katie’s birthday. There were 14 adults and about 16 kids for an Indian Banquet by the pool. It was the middle of winter and unfortunately there was a cold front coming up from Antarctica so it was cold (for Queensland). We had a fire and a patio heater to keep everyone warm, along with plenty of red wine. The girls had arranged a surprise birthday cake for Katie for dessert with little figurines of the Queen & Prince Charles on top. It was a fun evening. Katie has been telling everyone here that it was her 49^th birthday but I think a few of them guessed the truth.

BACK TO SCHOOL for Term 3. On the 18^th July Matthew went to the St Aidan’s Semi-Formal with his friend Candice. Candice is a Chinese exchange student who is on a homestay program with one of Matt’s other friends Siobhan. We all went to their house for drinks first. We are good friends with her parents as well and frequently play tennis together on Sunday afternoons, and Matt practices his Chinese on Candice. We stayed for a few drinks and the kids went off to the semi-formal and we went for dinner at a local Indonesian restaurant with some of the other parents. Matt had a great time but he had a cold so he rang about midnight asking me to pick him up.

Meanwhile Jessica was at Suncorp Stadium singing the national anthem with Australian Girls’ Choir at the Rugby – it was South Africa vs Australia. We watched it on TV afterwards but once again the coverage showed the players being interviewed and not the girls singing. Talk about wrong priorities. 

On 20^th July Mum and Dad came down to Brisbane and took Katie and I out for lunch at Gambaro’s to celebrate Katie’s birthday. Gambaro’s is a very posh seafood restaurant in Caxton Street and we all had a lovely lunch. Afterwards Katie and Mum and Dad went back to our house but unfortunately I had to go back to work.

The next day Katie and I went to St Aidan’s for the Academic Awards Assembly. Jessica was one of eight girls in her grade who received an Academic award. The year coordinator told us later she had actually been the third in the grade of over 100 girls.  A few days later we went to the St Aidan’s Twilight Fair and MADD Night (Music, Arts, Dance & Drama). Jessie was dancing with the school dance troupe (Stage) which was performing two dances and was also selling home-made candles in the Twilight Fair. Unfortunately the whole event is organised by the school seniors who did not advertise it to the school community very well. Last year there were around 60 stalls at the fair and lots of customers. This year there were only eight stalls and almost no customers. Jessica still managed to sell over $200 worth of her candles and did the best out of all the stalls there. One of Jessica’s friends only made $4 in sales (she sold something to Jessica) and the stall fee was $10!

Matthew was on the BBC Music Camp that weekend. He is in three bands this year – Symphonic Band, Brass Band and the BBC Orchestra – so he has four hours of band rehearsals a week not even including his own lessons and practice. It is a big commitment. On the Sunday morning we went to Matt’s band camp closing performance and then I took Matt straight to QUT (Queensland University of Technology) Open Day. We went to see all the law facilities and the details of scholarships on offer.  

The next day, Monday 27^th July Jessica started her week long School Camp. It was mainly hiking and activities but as she is doing the Duke of Edinburgh award her group had a slightly tougher camp planned. It actually turned out to be very hard. Their instructors were quite unhelpful (as the girls were supposed to work it out themselves) and they got lost quite a few times. They ended up doing more hiking than any other group and missed most of the fun activities as they got into the camps too late. Jess didn’t really have a fun time but we encouraged her to look at it as an opportunity for personal growth. She didn’t really see the humour in this!

On Wednesday 29^th Cathy Muir and kids came to visit. Ian had used all his annual leave so could not come to Australia this year. They arrived quite a bit later than expected as someone ploughed in to the back of their car (actually Carmen’s car) on the way to our house and caved the boot almost totally in! We all went down to a new Greek restaurant that has opened in Graceville and had a nice evening. It was good to catch up and find out all the Hong Kong gossip.

August 2015   Matthew and I went to the University of Queensland Open Day on 2^nd August. However in the morning I helped Mum and Dad set up their exhibition at the Animal Nursery for the Royal Brisbane Exhibition (aka the Ekka). They show their Damara sheep and Mum stays at the show for the whole 10 days. I helped with most of the heavy lifting before I had to go but Mum found it fairly hard work this year so they have decided it is the last year they will do it. I then met Matthew at the University. We went to the Law, Arts sessions and the scholarship sessions as that’s what Matthew is interested in doing. UQ has been reducing its Law intake over the last few years. It was 450 per year a few years ago and now they only take about 220 students per year. Consequently it is much harder to get in. Matthew will need to get an OP1 or OP2 (top 4% of the state) to get in so we have some fall back options just in case.

I had a busy day on Friday 7 August.  I was invited to the BBC Old Collegians Long lunch. The Business Development Director invited me as I have been giving BBC free advice on some structural issues at the school. The lunch started at midday and was just a short walk from my office. It was a very boozy lunch. Unfortunately I had to get a fee proposal out that afternoon before 5pm. Others were helping pull it together but I had to get back to the office to issue it. I screamed in at 4:58pm and managed to compose a brief covering email and press “send” in two minutes. It was a very good lunch with great speakers and later I heard that it finished at 3am!

We went to the Ekka on the Sun 9 August. Matthew announced half an hour before we were to leave that he had too much homework and would come later and, as soon as we arrived, Jessica baled on us to find some of her friends so Katie and I were left to wander around by ourselves. Not quite how we had intended it but it was a nice change. We all met up later to have dinner and watch the evening show and spectacular fireworks in the main ring.

We went to a tennis party at our friends the Suggs on 12^th August. It was the first time they had got their grass court in order to play on. They still hadn’t got the big roller out though so there were quite a few lumps and bumps on the court which made for interesting games with erratic ball bounces. We all had fun though and then had pulled pork and salad for dinner afterwards, which was yummy.

On 14^th August I went to Melbourne for the weekend for a conference. I flew down on Friday afternoon. It was a bit weird having a whole weekend in Melbourne by myself. The conference went all day both Saturday and Sunday but I had a nice time wandering along the Yarra and all the nice restaurants each evening. I didn’t arrive home until late Sunday evening.

There were lots of school functions in August. Jessica went to the St Aidan’s School Dance on the 22^nd followed by an Australian Girls’ Choir concert on the 23^rd. Matthew had the BBC Music Showcase on the 21^st with one of his bands and the Grand Concert on the 28^th with the other two. All of the kids’ concerts were fantastic; it is really astounding how professional the performance standards are.

Matt was quite poorly with bronchitis for about a fortnight and nearly didn’t make it to the music concerts at all. It was a worry, as he was on the brink of his major exam block and was determined not to miss anything. Fortunately he made it to everything, with Katie driving him in and out for exams and rehearsals. He said afterwards that the Grand Concert was one of the highlights of his time at BBC.

On 30^th August we all did the Bridge to Brisbane 5km run. I had a hamstring injury and was quite worried that Matthew might beat me this year despite his lingering cough and total lack of training. We arrived about 8:30am and the race started at 9:00am. I managed to hold Matthew off until the 3km mark. I saw him in the crowd and was not sure he had seen me so I tried to hide from him and put on a burst of speed. Unfortunately I couldn’t maintain the pace and I ran close behind him for another kilometre of so before he started to slowly pull away.  He beat me by about a minute. Katie came in only a shortly after me and Jessica about 3 minutes later. So we can still beat Jessie, for now at least, but I guess it won’t be long before Katie and I are fighting it out for last place. Darn kids!

The following week was Matt’s Queensland Core Skills Test which is a very intense set of exams over two long days. This was followed by his major exam block plus the 40-hour famine which he has done every year for the last four years. Matt still wasn’t 100% so Katie went into overdrive with vitamins, immunity boost tablets, favourite dinners and driving him around everywhere and he got through it.

September 2015   It was the BBC Fashion Parade on 11^th September. It was the first year that Katie wasn’t running the event and could have a relaxed time with her friends. There were 380 ladies at the event which sold out in about 20 minutes when the tickets went on sale. Katie spent the previous day having her nails and hair done and enjoyed herself at the event enormously. In past years I have gone at 6pm for dinner with Katie and the die-hards, but this year I had to pick Matt up from something so Katie stayed by herself and caught a taxi home. I quite enjoy going and seeing all the Mums falling out of the bar so it was a shame to miss that.

We went for Sundowners drinks at our friends Tony and Wings Malins on 13^th September. They live on the river in Graceville and he had drinks and nibbles around a bonfire on the riverbank. Quite a few people took their dogs and many of them went into the river and came out very muddy. They were a bit of a hazard. It was a very pleasant evening.

It was Jessie’s birthday party on Friday 18^th September, which was the last day of term. Her 14^th birthday was actually on 7 September but we had waited until the holidays for her party. She had 14 girls for a swimming party with henna. They all had a nice evening and we just supplied food and kept out of the way. We had booked a nice Indian lady to do henna on their hands while they watched a movie. The girls were thrilled with their henna. It lasts for about 2 weeks and isn’t allowed at school, which is why we couldn’t do it in term time. The girls were all picked up around 10pm which made it a lot easier. There seemed to be an explosion of M&Ms during the evening in the studio, around the pool and the downstairs table though as we were finding them for weeks afterwards.

The next day we were heading off to O’Reilly’s in Lamington National Park. We were there with five other families for three nights. We went with five other families for three nights. We had booked three villas so we put all the boys in one villa and the parents and girls in the other two. It was fantastic as we barely saw the kids all weekend! The villas were lovely. They were all on stilts with one side of the house on the ground and the other on stilts up to 15m tall, the mountain was so steep! Every villa had a lovely veranda with a Jacuzzi overlooking the valley. It was a fabulous view over the rainforest. We spent the afternoon unpacking, having drinks on the verandah watching the sun go down and feeding the parrots.

On the first day we had a slowish start and did a 6km hike to Moran Falls and had a late lunch. We then had a two-hour session on a flying fox. It was really great. You needed to wear a full harness and the flying fox was about 500m long and about 50m in the air over a creek. It was a long walk up the hill and a very fast ride down. We got about five goes each. It was really great. We did our cooking in the main apartment; one night was a barbeque with salads and the other was a curry night.

The next day we all did varying lengths of walks. The shortest about 3km, then 8km and the longest 16km. We all started together and peeled off depending on how energetic we felt. Most of the kids did 8km but five of us did the 16km walk. It took about 5½ hours and went up and down about 450m in elevation. We were quite knackered when we made it back. I kicked the kids out of the Jacuzzi and slumped in it until I recovered. That night we went for dinner at the restaurant rather than eating in. The next morning we packed the cars and went on a rainforest canopy walk. It was only about 1km of boardwalk through the rainforest and then up into suspended rope bridges about 40m high in the tree tops. There was one tree where you could climb a ladder up to a platform right at the top. Only three people could go up at one time and the platform was very small, very high and very scary! When we got back to the reception to check out there were lots of police walking around and I joked that they must have found a body. When we got home, Matthew checked the internet and discovered that a body had been found in fact, on the Moran Falls hike we had done on the first day only about an hour after we had gone through! It was an apparent suicide. Very sad. A great holiday for us though.

That’s all for this letter.

Cheers,

Derek, Katie, Jessica, Molly and Matthew.

Jessica's Academic award ceremony.

Katie's Birthday.

Matthew and Candice go to the Semi-formal.

On the wheel of Brisbane.

Jessica's Birthday.

Hollow tree at O'Reilly's

Flying fox.

Hiking in the Rainforest.

What Katie Did.

                                                                                                                            Letter No. 227

Dear all,

Katie went to the UK on Weds 17 June for a three week trip to catch up with family and friends. Here is her account.

What Katie Did in Yorkshire. I arrived on Thursday morning and Chris was there to meet me; it was so lovely to see him and Julie. They seemed really happy and settled in their new home (well, new to me) and I was very impressed with their new kitchen, furniture and garden. He still lives in Yorkshire in a tiny village called Stutton which is only about 10 minutes’ drive from Bramham where we grew up. I spent the first few days there and we had a great time. Chris and I had a few days out, visiting old family friends and my godmother Annette, having long lunches, a shopping day in York, drinks at the local village pub, and I also took a plant to Mum and Dad’s gravestones.

On my second evening, we went out with two of Chris’ friends into Leeds and then on to see Paulo Nutini in concert in Leeds City Square. He was really great although I was surprised to discover that he is Scottish as I had been expecting him to be a suave Italian. I knew quite a few of his songs and it was an excellent concert, but it was ridiculously cold for June and I had to borrow a warm wool coat and gloves from Julie and even then needed to be fortified by a few glasses of wine (for warmth).

On Sunday 21 June Chris and I went to the Polo. It was the Toulston Polo Club Silver Jubilee Plate and was actually a great day out. We were collected in a minibus with other people on Chris’ table, then straight into the champagne reception. The event was formally kicked off when the Red Devils skydiving team parachuted into the grounds. It was very impressive. There were eight of them altogether and they all landed pretty much on the large red cross. Two of them had enormous flags attached to their ankles and two others came in tandem, one on top of the other. They looked pretty amazing in their tight red jumpsuits so I rushed over for a photograph (for the kids).

After that was a three-course lunch in the marquee, then we all sat down outside and watched the polo match. It was very exciting to watch the beautiful polo ponies charging around at top speed but was a bit chilly in a sleeveless dress, as it was only 14°C. At the break between the Chukkas we had to go out and stamp down the divots and pat the ponies. One of the ladies at our table won a rather fabulous watch in the raffle so we celebrated with a bit more champagne before our minibus came to drop us off at home.

On Tuesday 23 June I made an impromptu visit to my old family home, High Toynton. My Dad had owned the house for almost 40 years and both Chris and I grew up there, but when it was sold a couple of years ago I had not had the opportunity to visit it to “say goodbye” to the house, which contained so many happy memories. I had been thinking about going for a long time and decided to just call on spec. I was worried about whether the new owners would welcome a visit from me or not, but in fact it turned out to be a great decision. The new owner couldn’t have been nicer and showed me all around the house and garden, with her two young girls. They have made lots of quite big changes (extensions, stairs, new master bedroom etc) but all in a really good way and very sympathetic to the existing house. I know that Dad would have really liked what they have done, and would have been so pleased to know that it is a happy family home again and that it is loved and respected. The owner was very interested to hear about the history of the house and invited Chris and I to call again the following week.

Chris had a wine tasting the night before I left, to top up his wine supplies and to try out his new garden furniture. It was still a little cool, so he had also bought a patio burner to go with it. It was a nice evening and we tried out lots of lovely wines and Chris spent a small fortune.

What Katie did in Hale. I borrowed Julie’s car and drove to Hale on Wednesday morning and then had two madly social days, staying at Kate West’s house. It was 3½ years since I’d been to Hale and it seemed to have a whole new range of restaurants and wine bars for me to try out! In the space of just two days I managed to visit Café Gourmand, Costa Coffee, the newly renovated Altrincham markets, the new Moose Bar, went for a dog walk along the Bollin… so, all the main social highlights.

I saw Sandra, Kate W, Sharon and Jill on my first day and had lots of glasses of champagne to celebrate. Sandra’s house is looking just beautiful, with an amazing kitchen extension and wonderful green and lush garden. It was great to see my old partners in crime Kate and Sharon again, not that there was any secret plotting going on or anything.J Really enjoyed the Altrincham markets… a foodie’s delight with vintage-style gourmet food booths and open central courtyard, very cool.

On Thursday morning I went for a walk at the Bollin with Phil Hayton and Rachel McDowell. It was the nicest weather so far, quite a bit warmer and we had a lovely walk along the river and across the fields. They both had their dogs and I also bumped into Jennie Beasley and Nikki Booth out walking their dogs too. The kids’ old primary school near there is being rebuilt and the new building is enormous, at least double the size of the old one, quite impressive. After that I had a coffee, then another coffee that turned into lunch with Heidi, Kate and Sandra and then afternoon tea… then in the evening I went to the Moose Bar for drinks which Jennie had kindly organised, with Kate H, Ruth, Karen, Kath, Vikki, Kate W and Caroline. Really thrilled to see everyone. James Beasley dropped in for a few minutes and I even saw Angus too. Adults had not changed at all, while the kids I saw were almost unrecognizable… They do seem to grow a lot in four years and most of them are now taller than me.

On Friday morning I had a lovely coffee catch up with Jo Turner and was sad to say goodbye, but I did hear that Howard might be out in Brisbane again later this year. I called into the Hale gift shop and then the Trafford Centre for a bit more retail therapy (Marks and Spencer, the White Company, Jigsaw and Hobbs have really missed me) and then drove back to Yorkshire.
What Katie Did in Yorkshire, Part 2. I called to see Jane Hedley, who had been a great friend of Mum and Dad’s and was pleased to see me. We also went to see a drama production that my nephew Ed was acting in. It was a Living History production at Fulford cemetery, with a tour around the cemetery and little tableaux to show how people lived and died long ago. It was a bit quirky and the cemetery itself was actually very interesting. Ed had quite a few lines in his play, which was about Mr Craven who made the famous Craven’s Maryland Toffees in York in the 1800s. There was a bit of toffee eating in the middle of the play, which made the speaking parts a bit tricky. J By this time the weather was mild and sunny and a heatwave was being predicted!

Saturday evening was Nigel and Andrea's wedding blessing to celebrate their 20 years of marriage. Nigel is Chris' business partner at Think Colour and Andrea is the financial controller and together they own the business. They had a full renewal of vows in their very pretty village church, with hymns, prayers and readings. It was a little awkward at the beginning when they walked down the aisle together but was actually a lovely service.

Afterwards there was a party in the village hall across the road from the church. They had gone all out with a delicious hog roast, a dance floor, singer, a bouncy castle, football nets, and lots of Prosecco… a great evening.

What Katie Did In London. The next morning I got the train to London and went straight to Julia’s house for the afternoon. It was so good to see Julia and Chris and their family seems very well. Anna has just done her first year at Durham University and seems awfully grown up. This is quite worrying for me as I clearly remember staying at Julia’s house the night that Anna was born and hearing Julia puffing the stairs at 4am doing her breathing exercises en route for hospital. Eleni and Hector are both at secondary school and Hector is also playing football with Leyton Orient in their Junior Squad and clearly destined for a wonderful Premier League football career. They also have the most gorgeous 9-month old puppy, Millie, who is adorable but has a shoe fetish. She managed to snuffle around in my handbag once or twice but fortunately we located my wallet in the garden before I left.

Julia made a fab roast chicken lunch and then we took Millie for a walk in the park and sat and chatted all evening. We watched the live broadcast from Glastonbury on TV with Lionel Ritchie doing a really fantastic show and we knew all of his songs (and yes we did actually sing along). This is really the best time of year to visit the UK, there is so much happening and I really appreciated the long light summer evenings, which I miss so much in Brisbane.

Monday was a reunion of my OxPoly gang. Julia drove to the Westfield centre and we picked up Eleanor on the way. We had lunch at Jamie's Italian. Mei-Mei joined us for coffee first and then Niki, Clare and Andi for lunch. It was so lovely to see everyone and we had a great time catching up on our lives, kids, jobs etc. The food was scrummy and we had bubbles and photos to celebrate the seven of us meeting up again almost 30 years since our Oxford days, as well as for our 50ths. We drove back via a quick browse in the Boden shop and then I spent the evening at Julia's again watching Wimbledon highlights and playing with the adorable puppy Millie. Summer had properly arrived and it was a perfect warm summer day… a completely different season to the previous week.

On Tuesday I set out around 6am heading for the Wimbledon Queue. I didn’t have tickets but thought it was worth trying my luck anyway with The Queue. I got to Wimbledon just before 8am but astonishingly The Queue had closed, with all tickets allocated before 7.30am! I had breakfast at a nearby cafe instead and bought a few Wimbledon souvenirs then headed back to the Sloane Club which Chris had booked for the night as he is a member there. My room was lovely and felt very luxurious. Chris arrived at lunchtime and we went straight to the roof terrace for lunch. Fortunately they had a big TV screen set up showing the live tennis, with lots of Wimbledon theming, so we felt like we had front row seats. Chris texted all his work friends and told them that I had bumped into someone I knew at Wimbledon and we were now sitting on centre court just next to the Royal Box. Remarkably everyone believed him, which has enhanced my reputation greatly with the Yorkshire crowd.

In the afternoon Chris and I had a quick wander around Chelsea to take in the Peter Jones summer sale, so I could do a little bit more damage to our UK bank account. There was a heatwave by this time, with temperature at 28°C …. Winter to Summer in less than two weeks. We went back to the roof terrace to watch a couple of exciting tennis matches, accompanied by Pimms, strawberries and cream and a nice American couple. It was very cool and pleasant on the terrace and probably more comfortable than being on Henman Hill. It was apparently so hot around the courts that several spectators fainted! In the evening we strolled across the road to Carafini's for a fantastic Italian dinner, followed by a drink in the bar after dinner. A very nice end to a lovely day, thanks Chris.

On Wednesday morning Chris and I took the train back to York. It was now the hottest day in ten years, over 36°C. So hot that the air inside the tropical greenhouse in Kew Gardens was reportedly 6 degrees cooler than the outside air temperature!! Train lines across the country were buckling in the heat with several trains cancelled; luckily ours was not affected. What Katie Did in Yorkshire, Part 3. On Wednesday evening we went to John and Julie Vause's house in Harrogate. They were having a little drinks party to celebrate their son's 18th birthday celebration. We got there a little late, just in time for the speeches and were handed glasses of champagne the second we walked through the door. Afterwards we whizzed back to Chris’ house and straight on to more drinks at Chris and Julie’s neighbour’s house. Chris says that his life is not usually this hectic but I am not so sure… It turned out the neighbours were serious hashers and had been to Interhash events in Malaysia and a few other places and have run on the Hong Kong and Gold Coast hashes. His hash name is probably not appropriate for this blog.

Over the next couple of days I did a couple more visits to family friends and my other godmother Margaret. Chris and I went to High Toynton again and had a glass of wine with the new owners, such lovely people who truly love the house. We had dinner to celebrate Julie’s daughter Gabriella's 18th. In fact all of Chris and Julie’s kids have had birthdays while I’ve been in the UK, another good reason to visit at this time of year. I drove around and took photos of all the local villages with their bunting across the streets and paid a final farewell visit to Mum and Dad’s stones. A last visit to the village pub and then I packed my case for the final leg of my trip.

What Katie Did in Hale, Part 2. Chris, Ed and I drove to Hale on Saturday morning for my final two days in the UK. We had a great lunch at Carluccio’s with Kate and Jerry and then I went on to stay with Caroline and John Harris. That night we headed out to Sharon and Chris Kupusarevic’s home for an intimate dinner with just a few close friends. Sharon and Chris are the caretakers of the Hale Barns Methodist Church which has a hall attached. Sharon mentioned that there was an event on in the hall which was the Cocaine Sniffer’s Society of Hale, which was some sort of anti-addiction group. I was a little surprised, as I’d lived in Hale for seven years and never come across any cocaine sniffers but obviously things had gone to the dogs since my departure.

We had a glass of champagne in the living room and then I persuaded Sharon to give me a quick tour of the house. She suggested we have a quick look into the hall, and assured me that the cocaine sniffers wouldn’t mind. It was quite a surprise for me to discover that almost everyone I had known in Hale was clearly an addict!! It really took about 20 speechless seconds for my brain to process why over 30 people I knew were all in the hall looking at me and how come I hadn’t known that they had all been sniffing cocaine for years.

Once I had got over the shock, I had a wonderful time at my Surprise Party. It was so lovely to see everyone and I especially appreciated the effort at such a busy time of the UK school year. There were lots of people that I hadn’t managed to catch up with up to now and I was really thrilled and very touched by the effort that everyone had gone to. In particular, Chris and Sharon and Kate and Jerry deserve enormous thanks for all the time they had taken in deceiving me, organising balloons, sorting drinks and ice and catering (a fab chilli con carne with just a little touch of coriander). Several people had also produced desserts and I am not sure who was involved but thank you to everyone. It is not often that I am truly lost for words, as I was that night, but fortunately I recovered well enough to make a brief speech later, in which I remarked on my total shock at discovering how many cocaine addicts there are in Hale. I did also warn Chris and Jerry that they might want to question everything that Kate and Sharon tell them now, as that is the second time that they have completely and utterly pulled the wool over my eyes!!

The evening passed by in a bit of a blur and I am not sure how it ended up at 2am with a group of us sitting on the hall stage barefoot spilling our drinks over each other, but that is my recollection and I didn’t get to bed until 3am. But the best thing after a big night out is a full English breakfast the next morning, and John was a total hero and managed to assemble the works complete with tea and a green smoothie. Brilliant.

I spent a lovely relaxing day having a late morning coffee with Alison Jamie and admiring her lovely garden, the afternoon in Caroline and John’s garden and then an early evening pub dinner with Sandra and Caroline. Very sad to say all my goodbyes to the gang and goodbye to the UK after a wonderful social three week-trip, renewing friendships and revisiting old haunts. A really lovely experience and hopefully I will be back before too long.

John kindly dropped me at Manchester Airport the next morning for my flight home. The check-in process did not go as smoothly as I was expecting, as there was an issue with my visa. I explained that there must be a mistake as I am a Permanent Resident and pointed to the visa wording “Permitted to remain in Australia indefinitely”. They explained that yes I certainly was a Permanent Resident, which would have been fine if I had just remained in Australia, but my 5-year Re-Entry Visa had expired and now that I had left the country I was now trying to re-enter Australia illegally. I was utterly shocked as I had absolutely no idea that this needed renewing and it seemed rather ridiculous. The check-in lady called an official, who called another official and they phoned someone in Canberra and eventually, after quite some time, they managed to get me a re-entry code and said that someone would be waiting to talk to me in Brisbane. It all took so long that they had to rush me to the plane. I did manage to text a few of my UK friends and mentioned that I might be back a bit sooner than they thought…

Twenty-four hours later I presented my passport to the Immigration Officer in Brisbane in some trepidation. Ah Mrs Forbes, he said, we have been waiting for you, please come this way. Fortunately this had a pleasant outcome, as the Immigration official had completed the visa application form for me and I just had to sign a few declarations. He did mention that this is a very common mistake and happens several times every week. Fortunately I resisted the urge to tell him what I thought of the visa wording. Anyway I ended up with a one-month extension to my Re-entry Visa and left the airport with the intention of applying for Australian Citizenship to avoid future issues. Australia here I come. Advance Australia Fair.

Love Katie.

 

A visit to my old family home

With a Red Devil

Enjoying Wimbledon at the Sloane Club

With Sandra and Kate

With Karen James

Kate and Caroline showing the love

 

Millie the adorable puppy

30 years on but who's counting? 

Julie at home

Looking good at 2am after my Surprise Party

Australian flag is raised at Chris' house

 

 

Selfie at Paolo Nutini concert in Leeds

With Chris and Ed

Chris and I at the Polo

A lovely English summer afternoon