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 11th 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 15th 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 19th 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 28th 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
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