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 1st 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 19th 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 16th 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 50th 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 30th 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 3rd
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 13th 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.
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