Term 4 - The End of School

 Letter No. 248

Dear all,

It was school holidays at the beginning of October. Katie, Jessie, Molly and I went to Currumbin Beach for the Swell festival one day. It was an art exhibition with around 50 huge sculptures erected in the sand along a length of the coastline, using all sorts of different media – metal, glass, plastic traffic cones, shopping trolleys etc. We spent over an hour walking down the beach looking at each sculpture. Some of them were really clever. We walked back along the nice shops on the road fronting the beach and then on to Molly’s favourite dog beach for lunch and an afternoon swim. 

I was invited to a 30-year Engineering Course Reunion at the University of Queensland on Saturday 6 October. When I walked in I initially felt pleased that I had been aging well, as there were some pretty old buggers in the room and I didn’t recognise any of them. Strangely there were quite a few more than my class of 35. I then realised it was a 10^th, 20^th, 30^th, 35^th, 40^th, 45^th and 50^th year reunion since graduation, not just the 30^th. There were about 12 from my year, some of whom I had not seen for 30 years. We had morning tea, a tour of the engineering labs, a sausage sizzle and a few beers.

The next day we had a BBQ with our BBC friends the Biddles, Rasmussens and Simonsons. We usually have a weekend away at this time but couldn’t manage it this year so Katie invited everyone to lunch instead. The weather was warm and fine and we had a lovely long lunch.

Monday 8 October was the start of Term 4 – Jessie’s final term of school – a short and crazy six-week term with lots of events ahead. It was our 22^nd Wedding Anniversary on 12^th October. We went to a fusion Middle Eastern restaurant in Milton. It had only recently opened under new management and the staff were very involved and enthusiastic. It was a fantastic meal and we were given free champagne to celebrate our anniversary. The following Friday 19 October we went to the Mates in Construction Dinner, which was a fundraiser highlighting mental health issues in the construction industry. Katie had a big concert at BBC that night too so spent the day setting up, then changed at work and met me at the dinner venue. We had a fun night with a big group from CTBUH (Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats), an organisation I am involved with.

The following Friday was the St Aidan’s Y12 Mums’ Lunch. About 50 ladies went to Boucher in Graceville, so it was easy to get there. I had caught the train to work that day and as I walked past the restaurant at 6pm on my way home, they were mostly all still there. Katie was still at the bar and a few of the husbands had turned up by then as well, so I decided to join them. We had a few drinks and chips and then one of the couples invited the remaining stayers back to their house. They have a really cool basement cellar lined with wine racks all around the walls, candles, a table and chairs, bar fridge and an awesome sound system. We had more drinks and I took over the music but the lack of dinner started to tell and we all ended up having a singalong and some rather random dancing. It was a really fun night but we were a little slow in the morning.

Weds 31 October was Halloween and as usual we put in a lot of effort setting up our witches lair. We moved it to a different part of the garden this year where we could string up a really large spider on a pulley string and drop it onto unsuspecting kids queuing for sweets. Katie had huge fun scaring kids standing in the queue and even more fun scaring a few Mums as well. Katie also had a new witches costume this year and had a few “witchy” friends to help her and I did a BBQ on the footpath which just covered the cost of the sweets. This year we got the most ever -- 1350 sweets – and it was the first year that we didn’t quite run out. After it all slowed down about ten people came over for cheese and wine. It was a great evening. Halloween is a lot of fun in our street.

I had to go to Townsville for work on 2 November and flew back to Brisbane just in time to get a taxi straight to St Aidan’s for their Glow Festival. This was an exhibition of arts, crafts, drama and dance by the students. Jessie and her dance troupe STAGE did two routines as their final school performance. We have loved watching her dance over the years so it was quite sad. The Home Economics students provided canapés to the audience and we spent an hour or so wandering around looking at the art. Some of the students’ work was really fantastic. The next day Katie and I went to see the Queen story Bohemian Rhapsody at the movies. Freddie Mercury’s life was very interesting but ultimately a little sad despite all his wealth and fame. The actor who plays him was amazing.

Matthew did the Noosa Triathlon on Sunday 4 November. It is a 1.5km ocean swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run. There were five of his friends doing it as well. Last year they did it as two relay teams but this year they had all entered individually. Matt rang us shortly after he had finished and his first words were “Mum, I won!” We were a little surprised as there are some pretty serious athletes competing. However it turned out that he had won out of his group of six. He had done lots of swim and run training but almost no bike riding. We were a little worried, as he was using my racing bike and had hardly ever ridden with his feet clipped in. Surprisingly he managed not to fall off or crash and found the ride the easiest part of the triathlon. The ocean swim was difficult as the sea had been very rough and there were so many people in the water. Matt was very proud of himself having “won” the Noosa Triathlon.

We went to the St Aidan’s Melbourne Cup Lunch on Tuesday 6 November. Katie was the main organiser for the third consecutive year (and her final time). I dropped Katie off at 8:00am with a pile of raffle prizes and went home to do a sport of gardening before the event. I was back in time for champagne at 11:00am. Katie and her team had done a lovely job decorating the room. About 150 people attended for a champagne reception, lunch, selective raffle, sweepstakes, Fashions on the Field / Best Dressed competition and a brief live auction. I was quite pleased to win the Best Dressed Male but the credit must go to my personal dresser (Katie) who gave me the shirt and jacket for our wedding anniversary. My prize was a bottle of Mumm and Katie was also presented with a magnum of Moet during the event as a thank you for her organising effort, so there is now no shortage of bubbles in the house. We didn’t win any raffle prizes this year but I did break even in the sweepstakes and manage to avoid buying an auction item. Nevertheless the event raised $13,000 for the school so Katie was very happy. Our group was the last to leave about 6pm, when we went back to a bar in Graceville for snacks and a few more drinks. We made it home about 8pm; I then had a brief swim to freshen up and fell “asleep” on the pool lounger. Jessie woke me up later and made me get out of the pool… such a responsible girl.

The next week and a half was a blur of St Aidan’s end-of-year events with something happening every day. We went to a Special Awards Assembly on Thurs 8 November at which Jess was announced as having achieved an Academic Award for being in the top 10% of the grade and also won the Joyce Barrett Memorial Prize for academic achievement and leadership, plus the Spirit of STAGE award for leadership and commitment. We were very proud although none of us actually knew what the Joyce Barrett prize was for at the time. The next morning (Friday 9 Nov) was the STAGE Celebration Breakfast, another event that Katie had helped to organise (it was a huge week). Both she and Jessie had to make speeches and hand out awards/flowers to the girls and committee members. It was a nice morning but a little sad to be at the last ever STAGE event. Katie’s speech was a bit emotional and she made all the girls cry too. Katie has been “Mumma Katie” to some of the girls for five years. She was presented with a beautiful Pandora bracelet as a tribute for all her work with STAGE.

Jessie went to the last St Aidan’s School Dance on the Saturday and then on to a party afterwards. On the Sunday we went to the informal Thank You Drinks for Jessie’s year level school coordinator Jen Crome. The next day (Monday 12 Nov) was the formal School Speech Night at QPAC, when Jessie received her awards. She was a little disappointed that she didn’t win the economics prize. She had been topping the subject all year but one of her close friends beat her at the final exam by 0.01 of a mark. The Speech Night is always a nice evening though with some excellent speakers.

On Tuesday the girls went on a day trip to Wet’n’Wild water park, which gave the parents a day off from socialising! On Wednesday they all jumped into the pool in their school uniforms. Katie had to work but I managed to get there and videoed the pool jump and then went to work afterwards; there were a few parents there too. The following day (Thurs 15 Nov) was the Valedictory Eucharist in St John’s Cathedral at 2pm; Katie attended the Eucharist with Jessie and they went straight on to the Valedictory Dinner at the Convention Centre. I met them there and we sat at a table with Jessie, two of her friends and their parents. As this was a formal school event the girls all wore their white dresses. There were some lovely presentations and speeches by the form teachers, year coordinator, girls and past school captains. There were also a few surprise presentations including a song by the Y12 girls to their parents and then a return song by the parents to the girls. It was a bit soppy but nicely done.

The next day, Friday 16 November was Jessie’s last day of school. The girls were allowed to decorate their white dresses for the final morning and many of them had stayed up all night being creative or dying their costumes in bright colours. The result was an outrageously colourful display of costumes with flowers, pom-poms, tutus, feathers and a range of themes including Toy Story, Wonderwoman, MarioKart, ice princess, ballerina, cats, Barbie, watermelon, pirate, angel, sunflowers etc. One girl who is a talented artist had hand-painted a replica of Monet’s water lilies on hers. Jessie had stuck colourful flowers and butterflies all over her dress, and looked fantastic, despite a minor accident with the hot glue gun that morning. The assembly was a fun celebration with lots of laughter and tears and ended with a version of the One Republic song I Lived presented by the choir girls accompanied by the five Y12 STAGE girls doing a beautiful lyrical dance. It was lovely and just like that her school days were over.

The next morning Jessie was off to Schoolies at the Gold Coast. She seemed to have a wonderful time. Staying up to watch the sunrise most nights and sleeping all day – bliss for a 17 year old. She was staying on the 39^th floor of a hotel in Surfers Paradise right in the thick of it, in a small unit with three other girls. We asked her for Proof-of-Life photos every day. Some days they weren’t very satisfactory – just a foot or elbow but at least we knew she was alive. I went down and picked them up the following Saturday. The girls had gone to bed at 5am and had to check out at 8am so they were pretty useless packing up! I helped them clean up and get checked out then I went for a swim in the ocean and we made it back home for lunch. She had managed to obtain three new ear piercings but other than that was unscathed.

On Weds 21 November one of Katie’s childhood friends, Suzanne Stoner (nee Pownall) came to visit with her husband Andrew. Suzanne is the daughter of Katie’s godmother Annette and Katie had not seen her for at least 15 years and was absolutely thrilled to catch up. They were on a three-week tour of Australia taking in the cricket while visiting Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. They had tickets to see the T20 test cricket (Australia v India) that evening so I didn’t actually see them until the following day. They enjoyed the game and Australia won so that was a good result. The next morning Matthew left for a three week trip to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. He went with his friend Wilson and was meeting up with a friend from the UK he had met on his trip to Sri Lanka earlier in the year. On Friday we had dinner with Suzanne and Andrew at the Regatta. Our friends Leona and Jeremy Tod came as well. It was a fairly rowdy evening with a decent amount of red wine and a slow day the next day. Luckily I didn’t have to work but that was the morning I had to drive to pick up Jessica from Schoolies.

Suzanne and Andrew went to stay in Noosa for a couple of days; we were envious as we haven’t been up to Noosa for ages. That Sunday I was supposed to be going to a concert with my friends John and Shaun. Unfortunately Shaun fell 4m off an escalator on the previous Thursday afternoon. He was in hospital with critical injuries. We only found out about it when his partner emailed us. He was in hospital for about a month and seemed to be making a slow recovery. Unfortunately Shaun had the concert tickets so we didn’t end up going. We had a couple of nice dinners with Suzanne and Andrew before they left for Sydney on Wednesday 28 November. They were supposed to head straight on to the Hunter Valley but there was a huge storm in Sydney resulting in major flooding so their plane was delayed. Australian summer weather at its unpredictable finest!!

The next day Matthew called us from Thailand to tell us not to panic, but he had had a motorbike accident and was in hospital getting stitches. It was quite concerning; however it transpired that they had been going at fairly low speed, hit a large pothole in the road and fell off without hitting anything other than the road. Matt had been driving with Wilson riding behind. They both had badly skinned their elbows and knees and Matt had a huge bruise on his thigh. They went to the local hospital, got themselves cleaned up, Wilson got two stitches and they both got tetanus shots and antibiotics before being released. If you have to have a motorbike accident, this was probably the best kind and it is a good lesson about how easy it is to get injured on one of them.

There were still a few final AGC choir engagements to go, including the Lighting of the Christmas Tree. Katie and I went to King George Square that night and found a nice table overlooking the stage where we had dinner and watched the singing and lighting of the tree. Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk was there and also singer Samantha Jade. The next night it was the AGC Annual Concert at QPAC. Another opportunity to see Jessie on the QPAC stage! We had front row seats with a great view. The finale was a medley from The Greatest Showman. It was a really fabulous musical theatre number with all of the Y12 girls in amazing circus costumes, Jessie doing a couple of impressive dance jumps and leg mounts and some fabulous singing. They finished with a combined choir of 400 girls on stage singing Come Alive, which was just awesome. It was a fantastic finish to Jessie’s seven years with the Australian Girls’ Choir. At the end the Y12s all came out in tears and there was a lot of hugging and crying before we could leave. Katie has been “Queen Katie” to the senior choir girls and had to join in some of the photos too.   

Katie and I went to see Bon Jovi on Thursday 6 December. It was at Suncorp Stadium and Birds of Tokyo were supporting Bon Jovi. I had tried to see them in Hong Kong in 1993 but there was a Typhoon and the concert was cancelled and never rescheduled! They put on a great show, leaping around the stage, posing and disappearing into the crowd, and played all their 80s classics. We had a great evening.

Saturday 8 December was Matt’s 20^th birthday. He managed to call us from his hostel in Laos so that we could wish him a happy birthday. The next day we went to my parent’s farm Hilltop with my sister’s family for a pre-Christmas family lunch. We had a huge feast of seafood, ham, and chicken and spent the afternoon chatting. We went down to the dam in the morning just before lunch and found a sheep stuck in the mud. The poor thing had been there for some time and was quite exhausted. We had to pull it out of the mud and up onto the bank. The dam is getting quite low and the poor sheep have to venture into the sticky mud to drink. They really need rain.

It was the AECOM Christmas party on Friday 14 December at the newly opened Howard Smith Wharves underneath the Story Bridge. Our team met up and had drinks together on the terrace next to the river before going inside properly. It was a great venue with fantastic views of the city and the Storey Bridge which was lit up with red and green lights for Christmas. The band was good and we had a nice time dancing. The event was supposed to run from 6:30pm to 10:30pm and is usually at a venue where everyone stays on once the free drinks have stopped and just buys drinks afterwards at the bar. On this occasion we were all a little disappointed that the venue actually closed at 10:30pm with bright lights on and everyone kicked out. There was a bar right next door and it was heaving, especially when the 800 people from our event piled into the bar. We decided it was too busy and walked into the city. It was a bit too far for Katie’s high heels and also started to drizzle rain; the Pig and Whistle was also very busy so we decided to just have one drink and then head home. In the meantime Jessie managed to check her academic results online at midnight and called us excitedly to tell us that she had an OP2 (Overall Position 2). OP scores are from 1 to 25. An OP2 puts her in the top 6% of the state school leavers. It was the same result that Matt received three years previously so Jessie was delighted.

The next night we were invited to the Tod’s Christmas party. They live in the next street so it was very convenient. There were lots of our friends at the party but we were a bit jaded from the night before… not to mention the social whirl of the previous few weeks. Unfortunately it rained quite a lot (outer edges of Cyclone Owen) so we had to stay indoors. It didn’t stop all the kids swimming in the rain. The next day (16 December) was my 52^nd birthday. Again it was a bit quiet without Matt, now in Cambodia. We had presents over breakfast and I then spent the morning teaching Jessica to park in a very empty car park. She is progressing with her driving but parking is not one of her strengths. I would be a bit nervous if we were in a car park with any other cars in it.

Matthew arrived back in Brisbane on Tuesday 18^th December. Katie went to pick him up from the airport and we did belated birthday presents that night. He had to work at KWM the next day which must have been a bit of a shock to the system after a three-week holiday. That night we all went out for a combined birthday celebration at Madame Wu, a very smart Chinese restaurant in the city on the river. It was a nice evening and we caught up properly on all of Matthew’s adventures.

It was my last day of work before Christmas on the 21^st December. Our team went out for a long lunch in a nearby pub and didn’t make it back to the office. Everyone kicked on and it probably got very messy but I went into the city to watch Jessica singing Christmas Carols in the Queen Street Mall. Her very last ever AGC event. We had our Christmas Drinks on Saturday 22 December with about 50 people. Katie did heaps of canapés and a ham followed by Christmas cake and mince pies. We started at 4pm and the last people left about 11pm. It was a fun night and a good start to the Christmas break.

We hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and New Year. My New Year’s resolution is not to get so far behind with this letter next year. Best wishes to you all.

Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie & Molly

Halloween sausage sizzle.

Elegant witch!

In the witch's lair.

STAGE

Melbourne Cup

The horse I made for Melbourne Cup

Bon Jovi Concert

Academic Awards

Jess with all her badges

Pool jump!

Last day of school

Ditto.

Ditto x 2.

Valedictory dinner.

Christmas party

Boys birthday dinner.

Boys birthday dinner. 

Term 3 - Maleny and Sri Lanka

Letter No. 247

Dear all,

Jessica danced in another Eisteddfod on Friday 1^st June. The girls were ecstatic to get another 3^rd place (3 out of 22), this time for the Mamma Mia dance routine which Jessie and Gemma had choreographed and taught to the girls. Jessie had also chosen and sourced the costumes so it was a real triumph for her.

The next night was the St Aidan’s Rowing Cocktail Party. Jessica stopped rowing in Grade 8, but Katie’s friend Kylie organises it and we know lots of people so we just go every year for fun and to boost numbers. It is at a different parents’ house each year and is always nice to see their lovely houses. It was a cool night for an outdoor party but they had lots of patio burners and a fire pit and we danced a lot to keep warm.

The next weekend on 10^th June, we went to Montezuma’s for dinner on Sunday night to celebrate my brother-in-law Andrew’s birthday. It was nice to see Lisa and Andrew and the kids and we had a lovely evening. The next weekend it was the Australian Girls’ Choir Winter concert. There are only three concerts every year and this was the first. It was at St Peter’s College in Indooroopilly. It is Jessie’s final year with the choir so the senior girls get all the best parts and are front and centre in all the numbers. We took a couple of friends to see it and they were very impressed with the girls’ ability to sing and dance energetically at the same time.

We had a Garage Sale in the school holidays. I have been clearing out stuff we didn’t want for over a year and storing it in my shed. It was a great relief to get everything out and get my shed back. The sale was on Saturday morning and people started showing up at 6:15am before the sun was even up! We sold a lot of stuff and closed up shop about 1pm having made more than $500. Anything that didn’t sell went either in the bin or to a local charity shop and I put a few bigger things on GumTree. By the time I had got rid of everything we didn’t want I had made over $1000. Not bad for junk!

The next day we went for walk at Mt Coot-tha. The kids were too busy with study so it was just Katie and I with Molly! That night we had a family dinner at our local Thai restaurant Siam Sunset, as a farewell to Matt who was leaving two days later on a three-week trip to Thailand and Sri Lanka.  We all took him to the airport and saw him off. He really loves his overland adventures and went with a group of five people this time, mainly BBC school friends.

The next Saturday, Katie, Jess and I went for a Weekend in Maleny. Katie had booked us into the Maleny Lodge which was a lovely country hotel with big rooms, lounge with huge fireplace and comfy sofas etc so it felt quite a luxurious county getaway. Jess drove up (for driving practice) and then we went for a walk in the rainforest at Mary Cairncross Park. There was a nice little visitor centre and lovely 45-minute walk and we made it back to the car just before it started to rain. In the afternoon we did a tour of the Maleny Dairy, showing its dairy and milk production facility, which was surprisingly interesting. We sampled lots of flavoured milks and custard after the tour and then went back to enjoy the lovely roaring fire at our lodge and the Indian restaurant across the road.

The next day we went for a hike to Mapleton Falls and then drove on to Montville for a spot of shopping and a nice relaxing lunch with a fantastic view. In the evening we headed to a nearby pub where they had live music. The next morning we had a lovely breakfast in a nearby café before driving down to the Wildlife HQ Zoo. It is a twee little zoo attached to the abandoned Big Pineapple on the Sunshine coast. There was a surprisingly good collection of animals for such a small zoo. We had a really nice morning before braving the motorway (and Jessie’s driving) back to Brisbane.    

It was Katie’s birthday on 12^th July. It was a bit quiet as Matt was still away in Sri Lanka. He had been quite organised though and had left her a lovely present, much to our surprise. The next two weekends were the final two dance Eisteddfods of the year for Jessie’s dance troupe. Both competitions were not without a bit of drama. Two girls had left the school unexpectedly the day before one of the Eisteddfods so they had to frantically re-plan the dance at the last minute. The school had asked them to leave for a lengthy non-payment of school fees. It was a bit sad and a little heartless that they didn’t let the girls dance one day later! For the other competition there was also a no-show from one girl due to a death in the family and so the routines had to be re-spaced at short notice once again. The girls performed really well considering these dramas but did not get a place. We always enjoy going along and supporting the group however and Katie is possibly one of the loudest members of the STAGE cheer squad. J

Katie talked me into giving a presentation to the Brisbane Boys’ College Careers Conference on 19^th July. She has organised this conference every year for the last five years and the usual Engineering presenter had bailed out. I had to do a 45-minute talk about my life as an engineer and the types of projects I have worked on and all the different countries that my engineering career has taken me to. I did it a bit reluctantly, mainly because I was too busy at work to prepare the presentation. There was one teacher supervising and he said afterwards that my talk was really interesting. I also got lots of questions from the students. Katie said there are usually no questions so I must have hit the mark. I think I may have got myself a task for life! It was actually quite fun and the Careers Counsellor is quite keen for me to come back next year.

On 24^th July Jessica received an Academic Award for being in the top 10% of her cohort. Usually I go to all these assemblies but I was super busy at work and didn’t make it. Luckily Katie was able to attend and videoed it. Matthew arrived back from Sri Lanka later that day. He had had a fantastic trip and made a heap of backpacker friends who have all been invited to come and stay with us at some point in the future J. It was really interesting hearing about where he had been and seeing his photos. He had been to almost all the same places we had gone to on our trip there in 1995 and it didn’t sound as though anything had changed.

Jessica helped organise the St Aidan’s MADD Night (Music, Art, Dance & Drama) on Friday 27 July. It is a kind of student talent competition. She had spent the previous two weeks holding auditions to whittle the competition down to twelve acts, which comprised singing, dancing, drama and music performance. She also had to arrange the run sheet, prizes, judges and MC the evening. She is clearly taking after her mother on the event organisation side of things. STAGE also did two dances on the evening although they were just entertainment, not part of the actual competition and the teachers’ band played at the end. Everything went really well and the school was pleased with how well organised it was.

A few nights later there was a Stage Parent Dinner which Katie had organised at a local restaurant. About twenty parents came along -- the ones who have showed up at every Eisteddfod all the way through the year -- so we have all become quite friendly. The next night we went to Phil Latham’s 40^th birthday. Phil is an e-AECOM colleague who I still see regularly. We all met at a bar on the river and had a few drinks before going to Sub-Urbane for dinner. It was in the private basement below the restaurant Urbane, hence the name. It was a pretty fancy meal and there was a lot to drink. There were about 30 people there; Phil paid for the meals and we all paid for drinks.  There were a few ex- and current AECOM people so we had a good evening.

It was a fairly slow morning the next day and I had to take Jessie to the University of Queensland Open Day. I snoozed through the lectures and then we wandered around the campus in the warm winter’s day. It was a nice relaxed morning but the downside is that Jess still has no idea what she wants to study at Uni next year!

The next weekend we went for dinner at Little Beirut with our friends Wings and Tony. There was another couple who were meant to be coming as well but they had stuffed up and thought it was a different night! Consequently we had over-ordered but the food was lovely. It was a Middle Eastern restaurant and they had a Belly Dancer after dinner. She managed to get Wings up to belly dance which was quite funny. We went to Lisa & Andrew’s for dinner on Sunday 12^th August. Three of the kids have birthdays in a short period of time and we hadn’t seen them since Katie’s birthday so it was a quadruple celebration. Lisa rustled up a fab dinner for ten as usual. We also got to admire Andrew’s latest mint green classic ute. He loves doing up classic cars in his spare time.

Matt had a little drinks party on 19^th August, with a group of about 25 of his friends over on a Sunday afternoon. He wanted to have it on our upstairs veranda so I went and spent the afternoon in the shed and snuck up every once and a while and commandeered some snacks and a drink. He has a really nice group of friends. The party was a great success and they all piled into Ubers about 6pm to go to a club in the city. Katie and I cleaned up and finished off all the leftover food.

It was the second AGC choir concert of the year on 26^th August. Jessie has been in the choir for seven years, almost as long as we have been in Australia, so it is a bit sad that this is her final year. Matt came with us this time, but I had managed to stuff up the tickets somehow and had two tickets in the front row and one in the row behind. Luckily they were right behind each other so we could chat in the interval. Jessica is the Dance Captain in the choir so gets lots of centre positions in the front row and we can always see her very clearly. There is only one choir concert left now at the end of the year.

I took the afternoon off work to go to IKEA on 28^th August. A bit sad I guess but we were getting a new dressing table for Jessica’s bedroom as a birthday present. She currently sits on the floor to do makeup and uses her wardrobe mirror. Hopefully a dressing table will be a bit more civilised and will stop her from getting makeup all over the carpet.

Matt had a friend Graham coming to stay on 1^st August. Graham is a chef from the UK and Matthew really got on with him well when they were on their Sri Lanka tour a few weeks earlier. He was only going to stay one night but rather liked our studio and ended up staying for about a week before going up to Cairns to work picking Bananas. He is a nice young lad, about 25, and ate with us most nights and cooked us a meal one evening. He and Matt went out a few times too. Graham is planning to move to Melbourne and work as a chef so we might see him again some time.

It was Jessica’s Sweet 17 Birthday on Friday 7 September. She decided to have an outdoor cinema party. I hung some white sheets on the external wall of the house to make a screen about 6m x 4m and got a projector to play the movie. We arranged a heap of bean bags and picnic rugs and sofas on the back lawn and strung fairy lights all over the garden so it looked very pretty. Jessie had 17 of her friends around and they ate pizza and popcorn and then curled up on the sofas and watched the movie. There had been great debate in the lead up over which movie to watch, with options ranging from The Bee Movie to Sharknado. In the end Jessie chose an obscure teen movie but the girls all seemed to love it. I set up a fire pit as well so they could toast marshmallows at the end.

The next day was our friend Pip McGlinn’s 50^th birthday. She had arranged a bike ride and breakfast picnic in the Gap Creek Reservoir country park. Her guests had a choice of a hike in the bush, a mountain bike ride and a road bike ride before breakfast. I was planning to do the road ride and Katie would get there for the breakfast if Jessie’s school volleyball game finished in time. I met all the road cyclists at 7am. It had been raining on and off all night but wasn’t raining when we started off with a nice ride through Upper Brookfield. Unfortunately it started lightly raining after about 20 minutes. We rode for about 1½ hours and after about an hour it was tipping it down. We all got very wet. It stopped raining just as we finished the ride. About 300 metres before the end of the ride, Pip’s brother-in-law went round a corner a little too fast, hit a guard rail and went over the edge of the embankment. It appeared that he had broken his leg so got taken off to hospital in an ambulance. This put a bit of a damper on the festivities. I found out a few days later that he only had bad bruising so was OK. We had a nice bacon and egg breakfast though with heaps of other yummy food. Pip’s mother was there organising the food. I hadn’t seen her since 1996 when she was in Hong Kong and went on Katie’s hen’s night. Katie didn’t make it as the volleyball match overran (as usual), but I had a nice if wet morning.

That evening I went to watch the Wallabies vs Springboks at Suncorp Stadium. Jessica was singing the National Anthem with the Australian Girls’ Choir before the game. As usual, the TV coverage showed the players singing but not the girls! Amazingly the coverage must have been using different camera angles in the UK. It was live and before the anthem had even finished, my brother-in-law Chris had texted us a picture of Jessica from the UK TV coverage. It is amazing what technology can do! Australia won to top the night off.

The following week was the BBC Fashion Parade on Friday 14 September. Katie doesn’t organise this event any more but somehow she always seems to get an invitation/involvement of some kind and this year she was modelling again. It is quite a big event with nearly 400 ladies attending and a full catwalk fashion show, so it’s quite a tough gig to get up on the catwalk. She didn’t love her outfits as much this year but made the best of it anyway and had a fun day having hair and makeup done. The lunch finishes at 3pm but all the ladies hit the Hundred Acre Bar afterwards and most years I have to go after work and peel Katie off her barstool. This year she left early though, because she needed a rest before going out for dinner in the city with her WAGS friends that evening. A very long day for her!

The next night I went to Helios Brewing with a group of mates. It is a small local brewery in Yeerongpilly where they have food trucks and a band on Friday and Saturday nights. We had a really nice evening working our way through the beer tasting plates. We didn’t manage to get through them all. We got an Uber home and decided to go for Ice Cream at Lick. Perhaps a bit childish for a group of 50-year-old men but we were past caring!    

That’s all for now. Cheers, Derek, Katie, Matthew and Jessica.

Jessica and Prince Edward.

Term 2 - Commonwealth Games

 Letter No. 246

Dear all,

The end of March was the start of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. There had been a huge build-up and plenty of excitement about the Games plus massive amounts of advertising telling everyone to use public transport and predicting traffic chaos. The first activity was the Queen’s Baton Relay which took a four-day journey all around Brisbane and then on to the Gold Coast in order to rev up even more excitement. The Relay came through Graceville on Saturday 30 March so I rode my bike down to meet it as it came across the Indooroopilly Bridge and followed it about 5km to Sherwood Arboretum. The baton runners changed every 200m. They were all inspirational people who had been pre-selected and there was a little convoy of people running / riding along with the baton and a police escort at the front and back. Naturally I joined in and it was quite fun. Katie and the kids were watching it live on TV and saw me quite a few times cycling alongside the baton carrier. There was a little ceremony and a band and food vans in the park afterwards. There were several thousand people there. I had a fun afternoon.

The next week the Commonwealth Games started. For this school break we had decided not to go away but to attend a few events as a CommGames Staycation. We had tickets to the cycling, swimming, beach volleyball and the Rugby Sevens final. First up was Cycling in the afternoon at the Anna Mears Velodrome. It was a three-hour session. We drove there despite all the advertising telling us to catch public transport. It was quick and easy and there were no traffic jams whatsoever. We had a quick lunch outside the Velodrome. It was nice food but absolutely nowhere to sit which was the only complaint. The cycling was excellent and the view was superb. It was the first time we had been into a velodrome event and it was interesting to discover that it has to be kept at a temperature of 28C with high humidity as that improves the cyclists’ times. We had a really great afternoon and made it home by 6:30pm.

Next morning we drove to the Gold Coast for the Swimming at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre. We had a little difficulty finding the Park-and-Ride and did a few laps around the northern Gold Coast. There was a very efficient bus transfer to the pool however. Our seats were amazing, quite high up in the stands but right on the finish line. It was really brilliant and we had an amazing view of the Gold Coast as well. We had a lovely morning in the sunshine and then went on to our apartment in Surfer’s Paradise for one night. After lunch we wandered around the beachfront to see all the free fun public activities on the beach. There was a large stage set up for live music, dozens of light-up seesaws and a karaoke screen with around 50 microphones. There was a large group all singing along. There were art exhibitions, movie screenings and markets. We wandered back to our apartment and had the rest of the afternoon around the pool. That evening we caught the tram to Helensvale where they had a very cool outdoor market with dozens of food stalls and three different stages with live music. We had a lovely meal and watched a fun band for an unexpectedly long time.

The following morning I went for an early swim in the surf while Katie watched the Para-Marathon and then the Marathon on TV. In the spirit of inclusivity, the Para events have been fully integrated into the CommGames programme, rather than in a separate event afterwards, which was really great. After we checked out we went to Pacific Fair (upmarket shopping centre) for a few hours. There was a large screen showing the Games and we settled into deck chairs in the sun to watch more events between spots of shopping. Matthew had a bit of a fright when the deckchair he was sitting in suddenly collapsed. The security guard rushed over quickly and told us that at least 10 chairs had similarly collapsed. You would think they would have done something about it! Matthew was quite shocked.

After lunch we drove down to Palm Beach where we had tickets for the sunset Beach Volleyball session. The stadium was right at the beachfront and again we had excellent seats, but it was a little hot until the sun went down. We saw three games including the Australian women, English men and New Zealand men. The games were very close and exciting and all three teams ended up in the final a couple of days later. Between each point there was a DJ playing party music and there was lots of dancing in our seats, singing and Mexican waves. It was such a fun vibe, the sunset over the beach was beautiful and we had a fantastic afternoon/evening.

Matt had put his name down as a Commonwealth Games volunteer earlier in the year. He had been for a couple of training sessions and received a very bright yellow and blue uniform. He was assigned to the Shooting event at the Belmont shooting range in Brisbane. Over the next week he had five shifts, between 6-8 hours each, doing crowd control. He really enjoyed watching the shotgun, pistol and skeet but the long rifle was less exciting as the competitors were lying down and barely moving and the targets so far away that they could only be seen on TV.   

That week was also a busy one for Jessica. I dropped her at the airport on Monday morning and she flew to Melbourne for a week-long Australian Girls’ Choir music camp. Jessie is a Dance Leader at choir as well so she had to lead an hour of dance and exercise each morning and then led all of the activities. She spent the days before making costumes for various activities that were on all week (she had to dress as Pooh Bear, Toad from Super Mario plus one other that I can’t remember). She had a brilliant week. Katie and I went to pick her up on Friday evening and she chattered excitedly all the way home.  Katie and I went for a night out by ourselves on 11^th April. We weren’t really by ourselves as we went to Tocco in Graceville and were waited on by Matthew who stopped and chatted to us from time to time. Funny that our kids are never at home so we have to go out to see them.  

On 15^th April I went to the finals of the Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens which was on the last day. I went with four other friends. We had been planning to catch the train down but at the last minute one of the wives kindly decided to drive us there. It did mean we got there a bit early but only had a short wait before the gates opened. We had a coffee and bacon roll and a chat before the first game. We had brilliant seats right in the front row but they were in the full sun. After the first game we decided to find somewhere else to sit in the shade. The stadium wasn’t full so early so we just found some other seats higher up out of the direct sun. The stadium gradually filled up all morning and it wasn’t until about 12:30pm when the people whose seats we were sitting in showed up. We moved back to our assigned seats just as they went into shade again so that worked out well. The games were great and it was nice to get two different perspectives on the field. The Australian Women were expected to romp home and beat New Zealand but were just beaten in an exciting finish. The players were right in front of us when the game finished. All the Australian women were distraught and sobbing on each other’s’ shoulders. The New Zealand women were also all sobbing but for the opposite reason. Afterwards we watched the men’s final and sadly New Zealand won that one as well. We had a great day out though and a quick journey home on the train.

Start of Term Two On Monday 16 April Jessie achieved one of Katie’s lifetime goals and got to meet a member of the Royal Family. She had Morning Tea with Prince Edward! He is the patron of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme now and she was one of six girls from St Aidan’s selected to attend a formal event with 12 local schools each bringing a few Duke of Edinburgh students. Jessie is the only girl at her school working towards her Gold Award so she was the unofficial spokesperson for her group and had a nice long chat to him. She was quite excited to meet him but Katie was possibly more excited.

On 19^th April Katie and Jessica went the musical Aladdin at QPAC with 22 girls from Jessica’s dance troupe. They had a fantastic night and came back raving how good it was. A couple of days later Jessie went to the BBC Formal at the Hilton with her friend Tom. This time it was quite easy for us, as we just had to drop her off at 4pm and were not involved in the Pre/Post or any of the transportation arrangements. The next morning there was a frantic email from Tom’s dad (also a Derek) apologising for failing to pick the kids up at 2:00am. He had fallen asleep and forgotten to set an alarm and had left his phone on silent. Tom had called him repeatedly and then gave up and they caught an Uber home. He  felt terribly guilty but there was no harm done, as they got home safely after another great night at the formal and post formal party.

Katie organised the STAGE Movie & Makeup night on Tues 24 April. The girls did their make-up, put on pyjamas, ate pizza and watched Mamma Mia. It is going to be an Abba-themed year for STAGE, with the Mamma Mia routine which Jessie and the other Dance Captain Gemma have choreographed. The movie night was also an inspiration for the routine as some of the girls had never seen the movie. A very girly night.

Katie and I went to see the BBC drama production of Hamlet on 28^th April. Jessica also went with a group of her friends as there were a few St Aidan’s girls in the production as well. The girls went to a pizza restaurant for dinner together first while Katie and I went to a different Italian restaurant nearby. The production was excellent and the lead actor Bryce, who had been Jessica’s date for her Formal, was very good. I always find Shakespeare’s plays quite difficult to follow. Luckily I had read the synopsis.

It was Jessie’s first Dance competition with STAGE in Ipswich on Thursday 3 May. I took the afternoon off work to go to watch the girls. They did four dances and were pleased to get a third place and two highly commended awards. There are often more than 20 dance routines entered into each category so that was a good result for their first comp. On Sunday we went for drinks at the Hundred Acre Bar with some friends. It was a lovely warm autumn afternoon and we had drinks and snacks watching the sun go down over the golf course. We stayed a bit longer than intended and the kids had to fend for themselves for dinner. Fortunately the next day was a public holiday.

The next weekend we went for dinner at a lovely tapas bar in the city and on to see a movie at the Spanish Film Festival. We went with two other couples who are the parents of Jessica’s closest friends. I didn’t have high expectations for the movie but it turned out to be a mad European comedy and quite hilarious. We went for dessert and coffee after the movie. The evening was only marred by the fact that I ran over a bit of metal on the way home and when I got up on Sunday morning my rear tyre was completely flat and I had to put on the spare.

The next day Matthew had a Eurovision party in our Studio to watch the Eurovision song contest with 16 of his friends. It is the second year he has done it and they really went to town this year. Matt had bought European flag bunting to string up around the room which looked awesome. Each of his friends had picked a country and really dressed up and they also all brought themed food from their country to share. The result was an eclectic menu with dishes like Russian blinis, Portuguese fish croquettes, French cheeses, Spanish tapas, Greek moussaka, Swedish meatballs (from IKEA), Italian gelato and Belgian waffles. The kids all delivered their food items to Katie when they arrived, so we heated up the dishes and took it down to the studio course by course. Our dinner was a bit of everything as well (our 10% service charge) and we even stayed and had a few drinks with them which was a lot of fun. They all had a great time and we enjoyed it too. Matthew had to work at KWM the next day so he was a bit tired catching the train to work the next morning.

On Sat 19 May it was Our Party. It was to celebrate, among other things, the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry. Actually we had planned the party before they set the date for their wedding; that was just a coincidence. We had “bought” a live band gig in an auction at one of last year’s St Aidan’s events, so we had to have a party for the band to play at. We originally decided to make it an easy party and just get a wood-fired pizza van for food and make it BYO. However, Katie wasn’t happy with just a low-cost, low-effort party. She went over the top with her party styling (Eat Street market meets the Royal Family), so we had to borrow/buy endless strings of lights, buy tables and stools, book an acoustic guitarist as a warm up act for the band, provide three craft beers on keg, hire a keg fridge, put up Union Jack flags and then string lights all over the garden. Katie provided a mountain of home-made mini sausage rolls to start with and naturally there was also a royal touch with the Queen and Prince Harry both in attendance (in flat form) along with a wedding tiara and veil for photo posing. We spent three weeks before and two weeks after the party setting up and clearing away!

It was a good party though and we had about 120 people. The acoustic guitarist was awesome and the band was fantastic. The band Teachers Pet (note the ironic missing apostrophe) was made up of teachers at St Aidan’s so Jessie thought it was very funny having them play in our garden. The Royal Wedding coverage began just as the party started and there was wedding fever throughout the night. We had the TV on in the Studio so people could get glimpses through the night and several ladies actually came in their wedding dresses. At one point I was surprised to see about 50 people crammed in there watching Meghan arrive at the church and we had to hold the band for half an hour while everyone watched the service. Then the band started up and everyone came back out, there were heaps of people dancing while the band played for about an hour. They were really fun and played mainly 80s music which we all loved with a few Aussie classics mixed in. The party slowed down about 1pm and we sat around the fire pit for about another hour with the stragglers, finishing off the craft beer keg, while Matt and his friends polished off a bottle of Bundy at the Rum Bar. It was a great evening but a lot of work so thank goodness there are not many more (real) royals to get married!

Next weekend we went to the St Aidan’s Trivia Night. Our lives will be much less busy next year without all these St Aidan’s school events. The theme was Commonwealth Games and you could go as a country or a sport. Our table went as England and unsurprisingly Katie was in charge of decorations/costuming. The girls had matching red “Made in England” T-shirts with red and white striped headbands and wristbands. I went as security guard in my Welsh Guards uniform (red with blue sash the royals are always wearing). Another chap came in a bowler hat and British flag waistcoat. We took the Queen for good measure. We had a fun night but didn’t do very well in the trivia. However, I was very pleased to win the Best Dressed Male contest for the second year in a row.

Cheers

Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie and Molly.

Jess and Prince Edward