Forbes Family Blog: May 2015

Letter No. 224

Dear all,

January 2015 - SYDNEY On January 2^nd we left Canberra and drove to Sydney, returned the car to Sydney Airport and took a cab to our apartment in The Rocks. We had a fabulous view of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House although it was partially obscured by a huge ocean liner for the first couple of days. In the afternoon we wandered around the Rocks area. We had lunch in a nice café in the Rocks Centre but were too museumed-out after Canberra to look at the Rocks Museum, so we strolled around the little shops and market stalls instead and then walked up the Pylon Lookout. This is one of the Pylons at the end of the bridge arches that you can walk up. There are 270 steps from the bottom of the pylon and it was quite a hot day so we were pleased to get to the top and out into the cool breeze. There were fantastic views of the Bridge and the Opera House and surrounding harbour views. It was actually almost as high as you could walk on the harbour climb and a lot less faffing around.

Next we walked back to Dawes Park, directly under the pylon and had gelati sitting on the cannons under the bridge which were the first ones installed to protect Sydney Harbour in the 1840s. We went on to Walsh Bay wharf and then walked up through the historic areas to The Hero of Waterloo which is the oldest pub in Sydney, where we stopped for a cold drink and a cup of tea (for Katie). We pushed on to the Sydney Observatory constructed in the 1840s but it was closing so we just wandered around the gardens and looked at the view before pushing on back to our apartment for a bit of down time.

We had dinner at a pub just next to our apartment and spent the evening playing cards as the sun went down. It was great. I love daylight saving!

The next day was Saturday 3 January and I went for a run over the harbour bridge in the morning before everyone was awake. We had booked a Harbour Boat Tour, which started from the Marina in Rose Bay. The boat toured around the harbour looking at all the expensive houses. The boat operators were actually police officers and told very interesting stories about when they had visited many of the houses responding to break-ins! We had great views of Fort Denison, Botanical Gardens, Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour before pulling into the Sydney Fish Markets. We had a quick wander around the markets which were very frenetic before heading back to the boat for a fabulous seafood lunch on board. We then went over to Manly Beach for a wander around and then on to Store Beach for an afternoon swimming. Afterwards we called in at Watson’s Gap which are cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Our guide Andrew said there are more than 50 suicides at the cliffs every year and that in almost every police shift he has to respond to a potential suicide there. While we were looking at the view we noticed someone over the barriers and looking over the cliff on the other side of the Gap. Shortly afterwards Andrew’s colleagues from the Police Emergency Response team showed up. L We had dinner at a small café in Circular Quay.

The next day was very hot, over 35⁰C by midday. We caught the ferry around to Darling Harbour and were melting by the time we made it there. The girls spent the morning wandering around the shops while Matthew and I went to The Chinese Gardens nearby. We met up for lunch and then went to the Sydney Aquarium. We had been about 14 years ago, before Jessie was born and when Matt was 2, but decided to go again. Our favourites were the platypi, the dugongs, the penguins and leafy sea dragons. We made it back to the apartment about 3pm and all had to have a lie down due to the heat and all the walking. We then headed out again on the train as we had tickets to see Wicked the Musical at 6:30pm. We had a quick bite to eat and went in to see the show. We all had to buy some cocktails / mocktails in martini glasses which lit up fluorescent green to match the colour of the witch. Wicked is the story of the Wizard of Oz prior to Dorothy arriving and tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and how she became wicked. It was very clever and wove in with the original story very well. We had a fantastic evening before catching the train home. We all decided we are going to watch The Wizard of Oz again when we get home. Katie’s Dad Ken had given Matthew a copy of the DVD a few years ago.

On Monday 5 January we wandered through the city down to Martin Place. The kids wanted to see the Channel 7 studio where they film Sunrise as you can watch through the studio window from the street. We also looked at the Lindt Café which was boarded off and closed and looked at the floral tributes still in place for victims of the Sydney Siege. There were photos of the floral tributes on posters on a glass balustrade all around Martin Place. It was quite sobering.

We wandered slowly around the Botanical Gardens and out to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair for the best views of the harbour bridge and the opera house, then had a long leisurely lunch in one of the Opera House restaurants before doing an Opera House Tour. The tour was fantastic. We saw a rehearsal of one of the shows in one of the smaller concert halls. It was really good to see inside the sails of the building. Well worth doing. We all had ice creams while walking back to the apartment.

The roof of our apartment block had a fantastic deck overlooking the Opera house. We had a sunset BBQ on the roof for dinner and then wandered down to the pub to play cards and have a quick drink.

The next day, Tuesday 6^th January we caught the bus to Coogee and did the 6km Coogee-Bondi Coastal Walk along the clifftops and through nice little quiet coves, rock pools and pretty beaches all with spectacular ocean views. It was quite a hot day and we were quite pleased to make it to Bondi Beach. Just at the southern end of the beach is the Icebergs Club. This a swimming pool built into the side of the rocks with a restaurant overlooking the whole beach. It is a sea water pool and the water was cold even on a hot summer day. You can jump right off the edge of the pool into the sea. You can only be a member of the club if you swim all winter long, at least once per week. Luckily they allow people in for the day and we spent a few hours having lunch and swimming in the pool and sea before walking on to Bondi Beach. Matthew and I went for another swim in the surf while the girls did a spot of shopping and then we caught a bus back to the apartment.

Next day we flew back home to Brisbane and there were just a couple of weeks of holidays left.

JANUARY I won some movie tickets at work so we all went to see The Water Diviner on 10th January – a very nice movie. Matthew got his learners driver’s licence on 13^th January. I don’t think I am ready for him to start driving me around yet! Matt had his first lesson on 16^th January. We have decided to let him have five or six lessons with his instructor before we let him drive with us, to take some of the stress out of it. He has just started driving us to tennis on Sundays for a while before we do any big trips.

On 18^th January we drove to College’s Crossing, higher up the Brisbane River to go swimming. There is quite a nice park on the river bank but there are signs every 50m warning about the presence of Bull sharks in the river. It certainly made the swim slightly more exciting for the kids. Molly can’t read, so she was in the water like a bullet. Actually they only get small bull sharks, about 1.5m long, in that stretch of the river so nothing much to worry about. I was chatting to someone else in the river who had actually caught a shark earlier that morning but decided not to tell the kids about that! It was a hot day again, about 36⁰C so it was nice to cool off despite the risk! I had been swimming in the same place many times when I was younger before anyone had discovered the sharks, so I knew it was safe!

We went to Southbank Markets for on 26^th January for a swim at City beach and a mooch at the markets on the last day of the school holidays. It was a beautiful day and even Katie went swimming which doesn’t happen very often.

BACK TO SCHOOL Matthew has been selected as a Prefect at BBC for his final school year. There are 20 Prefects selected out of 240 boys in Year 12. There was a Student Leaders’ Induction Service on 30^th January and parents were invited to attend. It was a whole school assembly and at one point all the leaders were announced and stood at the front of the hall and we had to go down and pin his new Prefect badge onto his blazer. There were a lot of really great speeches about leadership and it was a lovely morning. Quite a proud parenting moment. Matthew was pleased to get his detention book so he can give out Friday detentions to boys for for uniform / behaviour misdemeanours.

We had a busy evening on 31^st January. We were invited for housewarming drinks with our friends the Suggs. They had just received possession of their new house in Laurel Avenue. They had set up for a lovely drinks reception on the lawn but shortly after we all arrived there was a sudden downpour and everyone had to grab something and dash inside. Naturally Katie grabbed the champagne! They have a beautiful old Queenslander with lovely gardens and a tennis court and the house itself has fantastic “bones” but needs absolutely everything doing to it with lots of timber needing replacing. We couldn’t stay long as we were going on to BBQ at Pip McGlinn’s house in The Gap. It was lovely to catch up with her again as we had not seen her for a while. I could not believe her son Josh was 20! It seems only yesterday we went to see him as a newborn in hospital in Hong Kong.

FEBRUARY Jessica went to see One Direction in concert with her friend Elise on 11^th February. It was the first time she had gone out at night without one of us accompanying her. They were dropped off at our local train station and travelled to the concert by themselves, as the stadium is so close to Milton train station. They had a great time and made it safely back home again afterwards on the train, with me there to meet them at the train station in Graceville.

We went to the St Lucia Golf Club for drinks on 13^th February. It was organised by the BBC Hamilton House Captain’s parents (Matthew’s House) with all the house leaders (only three couples). They wanted to arrange a house team building event. We had some nice drinks and nibbles and after much discussion it was decided to have a BBQ and drinks function at the golf driving range. Luckily we managed to escape without any organising duties in the lead-up to the day, just helping at the event!

It was the St Aidan’s Trivia Night the next night. The theme was TV shows and dressing up was obligatory. Our table decided to go as “My Kitchen Rules”. It was a fairly easy dress up. Everyone bought a cheap black cooking apron and I arranged iron-on transfers with the MKR logo. I was elected to go as the French Judge Manu and had to grow a beard. I had two weeks and had a fairly respectable growth on the night, although somewhat greyer than I had hoped! The event was great fun. There were three tables of “Mash” with Klingers in full drag, ER, Masterchef, Brady Bunch, Dr Who and many others. There were four rounds of questions and we were pretty pleased to come fifth overall. It was a fun evening but not exactly what we had anticipated doing on Valentine’s Day!

There was a BBC Parents & Friends’ Welcome Party on 26^th February. Katie was organising it as usual, but was planning to take more of a low-key role this year as it was her last time. I was organising the bar for her again but also took more of a back seat as we were transitioning out to the next years’ organisers. There had been a bit of a crisis in the BBC P&F over the preceding couple of months which is a long complicated story and space prohibits me telling all the details. However the outcome was that the P&F President fell on his sword and resigned two days before the party, therefore Katie ended up taking on his duties at the last minute and had to give the Welcome Speech. The event went very well. It was nice to actually chat to people rather than work behind the bar. We still got stuck with most of the cleaning up at the end though.

MARCH We went to the Hamilton House Church Service on 1^st March. Matthew was doing a reading and it was probably the last church service we would go to at BBC. It was the start of the year of “lasts” for Matthew. I really cannot believe he is in his last year of school. The next weekend it was the St Aidan’s Open Day on Saturday. It is a compulsory school day for Jessica. Naturally Katie was helping on the STAGE Dance Troupe Stall as she is the Support Group Secretary. I whizzed in for a short time to watch Jessica perform for all the potential parents and student.

The 14^th of March Matthew had a Volleyball match in Toowoomba so he drove us most of the way there. It was his longest drive so far and quite a lot of it was on the fast highway. The next week I was working late on a Tuesday night and was coming home just before midnight. I was almost home when I crested a small hill to find a large truck stopped in the middle of the road blocking two of three lanes. I slowed down and drove around it. In front of the truck was a car crashed into a large sign in the middle of the roundabout. It appeared to be a single vehicle accident and the truck driver was out of his truck with two fire extinguishers trying to put out a small fire under the car. I did a quick illegal U-turn and parked off the side of the road and got out to see if I could help. As soon as I opened the car door, I could hear someone screaming inside the crashed car. As I ran across the road, the truck driver pulled out the driver from the burning car and dragged him up the footpath. Within seconds, the whole car was enveloped in flames. The police, fire brigade and ambulance showed up within minutes to take control of the situation but that driver was very very lucky not to die in the burning car. It was a burnt-out shell in less than five minutes. I was really shocked that it could be in flames so quickly.

It was Matthew’s last school Volleyball match on 21^st March at BBC. There was a terrific thunderstorm right in the middle of the match. It was so intense that the roof started to leak suddenly and the court had a puddle in a few places. Health and Safety decided it was too dangerous to keep playing and the game was abandoned half way through. Rather an unsatisfying finish for the boys in their last ever volleyball match for BBC. That evening was the end-of-season Volleyball BBQ. It was only $5 for a burger and a drink and it is the only thing that has actually gone down in price in the five years we’ve been attending BBC functions… it was $10 last year! There were some brief speeches and presentations. We really like this event as it is so informal, and is mercifully short on boring speeches analysing every game of every team for the whole season like other sports sometimes do! Matthew was quite surprised and very pleased to receive the award for “Most Valuable Player” for his team. He got a competition volleyball as his prize.

On 27^th March we went to a Year 9 Cocktail Party at St Aidan’s. Katie was actually NOT organising this event so we went along and enjoyed ourselves without having to run the bar or clear up at the end. We know quite a few of Jessica’s friends parents so it was a lovely evening. It was on the roof of the school which had fantastic views of the city and it was a fine, warm and clear evening. The next day we spent an evening at my work colleagues’ house, Tom, who lives in our street. They invited us for drinks because they wanted our advice on travel to Japan. We had a nice chat and they are going to copy our Japan trip itinerary from the previous year.

On Sunday Katie and Jessica went to a High Tea fundraiser in the morning which drifted on into lunch. It was at the house of one of Matthew’s friends from St Aidan’s who is also in Jessica’s Stage dance troupe. Matthew and I went to pick them up at lunch time as Katie was still drinking champagne and we hoovered up leftovers.

Thankfully it was the end of another busy term and the Easter Holidays were next. These terms seem to fly by so quickly that we all need a break after each term, not just the kids.

That’s about all for now.

Cheers

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica and Molly.