Letter No. 251
Dear all,
Back to real life after our holiday to Western
Australia... On Friday 18th January we were invited to a party for Jack Biddle’s 21st birthday.
This year is Matt’s “Year of the 21sts” and Jessie’s “Year of the 18ths” and it
feels as though the kids are constantly out partying with their friends. Jack’s mother Carolyn had invited us along
for moral support and security – not that we would be much use against a group
of drunken 21 year olds. Luckily all of Jack’s friends are well-behaved ex-BBC
boys. We had quite a nice evening and there were some interesting speeches so
we are getting some ideas for Matt’s birthday at the end of this year.
We were back at the Biddle’s house the next
weekend for an Australia Day BBQ with
a group of ex-BBC parents. Jessie had been up to Caloundra for the weekend with
a friend and we drove up the next morning to collect her. We spent a morning on
the beach but it was almost too hot and Katie even went swimming! We had a nice
lunch at a beach side café but when we went back to the car the alarm went off
and we couldn’t make it stop it or get into the car. After a lot of stuffing
around we realised the battery in the car key was flat. We managed to get into
the car eventually and had to drive to a shopping centre with the alarm going
on and off intermittently and get a new battery. It was a bit annoying. Jess
drove home as she is still counting the hours towards her learners permit (100
hours required).
Meanwhile Matt was having his own Australia Day BBQ party at home with a
group of his friends. They spent most of the day drinking champagne in the boat
in the pool. They had a BBQ and made pavlova and had a nice afternoon sitting
in the pool in the sun. Amazingly they cleaned up most of their mess and had
gone on to another party by the time we got home. A few days later we went for
drinks with our next door neighbours who used to own our house. Our neighbours
from the other side also came so it was a very neighbourly evening. They keep native Australian bees and have five
hives spread around their garden. The showed us the hives which was really
interesting. I would get a hive myself but there may be enough bees in our area
now.
I have joined a hiking group with a friend and
we went on a Larapinta Falls Hike on
Sunday 10th February. There were 10 people and a paid guide going on
the 16km hike. We drove down almost to the New South Wales border, to the end
of Christmas Creek Road and then to a dead end road up the valley. There is no
trail to the Larapinta falls and we were just bashing uphill through the
forest, criss-crossing the creek. It was a very hard hike! After three hours we
made it to Westray’s Grave, the burial site of one of the initial survivors of
the Stinson plane crash in 1937. He was walking out from the crash site for
help when he fell off a cliff and succumbed to his injuries in the forest. He
was buried close to where he died. After another hour of rock-hopping up the
creek we made it to the falls. There was a wonderful swimming hole at the base
of the falls and we spent a pleasant hour and a half there, swimming and having
lunch. Then it was a four-hour walk back through the forest to get back to the
car. I was pretty knackered when we made it back and happy to sit down in the
car! There is no way we could have made it without the guide. The forest is
almost impenetrable in places. It took eight hours of walking and I got a leech
on my ankle which was still itching over a week later!
Katie and I went for a Weekend in Noosa by
ourselves from 15th to 17th February. I took Friday off
work and we drove up in time for lunch. We had a nice studio apartment in
Hastings Street which was a great location and we enjoyed time on Noosa main
beach, a couple of hikes around the Noosa coastline and some lovely meals out.
On Saturday night we went to Locale,
probably the fanciest restaurant in Noosa, for a very upmarket dinner. We left
after lunch on Sunday and drove straight home as we were invited to a Chinese
New Year Party that afternoon at the home of our friends Tony & Wings Malins.
The theme was Crazy Rich Asians so
we had to dress up like one of the characters from the movie (which we hadn’t
actually seen yet). Katie rummaged in her wardrobe and dragged out a couture Shanghai
Tang cheongsam that had been hand made for her about 15 years ago when she was
slightly slimmer. It still fitted although she couldn’t sit down! She looked fabulous
and we had a lovely afternoon and fantastic Asian feast before playing a
Chinese dice gambling game into the evening. We only lost a small amount!
The next day, 18th February, I took
a day off work and went to Wet’n’Wild
with Matt and Jess for a day of watersliding. School was back so it was very
quiet with no school age kids and we got more rides than we ever had before! That
week was also Orientation Week at
Uni. Jessie went to the market place and signed up for lots of different societies
that we didn’t know existed: The Vegan & Vegetarian Society; Yoga &
Meditation Society; Chocolate Lovers’ Association; Social Volleyball group; Journalism
Club; Psychology Society. We are a little concerned that she may forget to
study.
The next week was a bit of a St Aidan’s
throwback week. On Tuesday 19th February we went to the St Aidan’s Honours Assembly for high
achieving academic students. Out of 110 students, seven got OP1 (the highest)
and three (including Jess) got an OP2. It was so nice to see Jessie in a small
selective and high achieving group. The girls were honoured in a whole-school assembly
to all current students. They each had one minute to give advice to the current
students. Jessie’s message was about being kind to others; she said “the
prettiest girl in the room is always the one with the kindest heart” which is a
lovely thought. She also got two laughs in her one minute so we (unbiased)
thought she was the best.
That Friday night Katie went to a Y12 Mums’ reunion dinner at Hunter
& Scout in Graceville. There were about 40 mothers there who clearly can’t
let go of the school years. The next night we went to a St Aidan’s Parents & Friends Cocktail Party, for current parents
plus a few ex-parents (like us) who obviously can’t let go of the school years...
Actually it was really good and we still knew heaps of people and had a nice
time. It was also an art show featuring local and student artists. Katie bought
a painting of a black orchid from one of Jessica’s school friends who is a
fantastic artist.
The next weekend we went to the Sunset Cinema, a pop-up outdoor movie
theatre in the Botanic Gardens. It was the opening night, but sadly the
organisers were having trouble with their liquor licence so it was a dry bar.
They had a lovely food truck and we had reserved bean bags in the front row. We
really enjoyed our evening watching Crazy
Rich Asians (finally) under the stars, a very funny movie.
We went for dinner at My Thai on Sat 9th
March with our BBC parent friends. I love Thai food – we haven’t been to
Thailand for so long. The next day, Sunday I went to see The Eagles with my friend
John at Boondall Entertainment Centre. I have wanted to see them for so long
and thought they would never tour Australia again. When the tickets came on
sale, there was a bit of a mix-up and for some reason I had forgotten we had
tickets. John reminded me about a week before the concert so it was a really
pleasant surprise and a fantastic concert!
Katie and I had tickets to see Kylie Minogue at Sirromet Winery the
following Sunday and it was rather eventful. Kylie is not really my favourite
Aussie singer but Katie felt that we should go to see her perform as she is a
bit of an Australian icon. It had rained heavily all weekend and Katie
predicted (correctly) that the field where the concerts usually take place
would be a muddy swamp. On Sunday morning Katie got an email saying that the
event would only be open for 4WD cars, not regular cars, as parking is on a
slippery wet grass slope. They were putting on free shuttle buses for anyone without
4WD cars from a far distant shopping centre! Sirromet is already a 40-minute
drive from Brisbane so we were not at all keen on the shuttle bus option as there
would now be thousands of people waiting for buses at the end of the night and
it would be a long journey home.
I rang my sister Lisa and asked if she or
Andrew had any spare 4WDs lying around their property. Luckily they had an old
Toyota Landcruiser which we could borrow. It was quite old with no air-conditioning
and the windows were also broken, so they couldn’t be wound down, but we were
not complaining… at least not until we hit the traffic jam 2km from the event.
It took over an hour to go 2km and I almost expired in the humid heat with the
windows up and no AC. Katie ended up getting out and walking beside the car as it
was so hot. We made it to the car park, got a brilliant parking spot near the
exit and just made it through into the grounds as the heavens opened once again.
As predicted, the grounds were like a bog but we were not too fazed; Katie had
dressed in best Glastonbury style with her green Hunter wellies, mini skirt and
a good waterproof jacket and I was also in boots and a waterproof. We were
astonished though at the number of people who had cluelessly dressed in thongs
(flip flops), long floaty trousers or high heels, all of which were getting
ruined or lost in the mud. Luckily we had tickets to the VIP tent so we headed
straight there and then enjoyed the free food and private bar securely under
cover while it absolutely bucketed with rain and the rest of the patrons got
soaked. We watched the support acts and then the rain stopped just in time for
us to go to our seats at the front. So lucky lucky lucky… Kylie put on a great
show; very different to the other rock bands we’ve seen there and more like a
stage show with backing dancers and lots of outfit changes, but we had such a
fun evening and we knew all the songs. We started walking out as the final song
was playing and made it back to the car and out of the car park in record time.
I dropped Katie home by 10:00am and returned Andrew’s car and made it back home
before 11pm. Some friends who had opted for the bus didn’t get home until
nearly 2am so we were very lucky. Thanks Lisa and Andrew.
On Friday 22nd March I went to a Zero Latency virtual reality game
evening with my work team. It is a warehouse scale, free-roam, multiplayer VR
game and is near my office. We had a few drinks before walking over, then had a
briefing and got kitted out with virtual reality goggles, headset, headphones,
backpack (containing a computer) and a weapon. The room was an empty warehouse
with a black floor and white painted lines in a 1m grid. We were in four teams
of four. In the first game eight of us were defending a fort against attacking
zombies. It was very realistic and almost like being in the Holodeck on Star
Trek. You could look around in 3D and see your friends in Avatar format fighting
the zombies. They would attack from different sides and you could go and help
on any side. If you died you had a 15-second time out while you were
resurrected. At the end the headphones told us to fall back for evacuation and
a platform raised us high above the zombies. It all felt so realistic; I kept
trying to grab the (virtual) handrails and it really felt like we were going
up. In the next game we had two teams of four attacking each other on a space
station. We had to run up ramps, go up and down lifts and through a maze to
steal the opposing side’s flag. If you died you had to go back to the start and
be resurrected. It was very intense. I really enjoyed it. It took about an hour
to play three games. We finished about 8:30pm and then went on for drinks at
The Green Dragon nearby. A very fun night.
Katie and I went to see the Book of Mormon on 27th March
at QPAC. We were planning to meet for a nice dinner beforehand but the traffic
was absolutely terrible and it took Katie over an hour to drive what usually
takes 15 minutes. We had a slightly rushed meal; the show itself was very funny
but we both thought it was unnecessarily crude in places so not one of our
favourites.
The next night, Thurs 28th March we
went for a dinner cruise on Kookaburra Queen
to celebrate my parents’ birthdays. It is Dad’s 80th birthday this
year so we wanted to do something special. We had a quick drink in one of the
lovely cafés on the riverbank before setting off on the boat. It was a buffet
dinner and there was a singer entertaining us during dinner. A lovely evening was had by all. After
dinner we went out to the bow and watched the lights of the city go by. Mum and
Dad had a night at a hotel in the city and it was a lovely memorable evening
for everyone.
On Monday 1st April Katie left
heading on a trip to Europe and the UK. Over to Katie…. My
first stop was Copenhagen, a city I
had never been to before, intended to conquer the jetlag before arriving in the
UK. I absolutely loved the elegant city, Danish design and the healthy outdoor lifestyle
– bicycles everywhere (actually more bikes than cars), pavement bars with
burners and blankets to sit and watch the world go by (even at 6⁰C).
Highlights were Nyhaven with its pretty colourful houses lining the wharf; Amalienborg,
home of the Danish Royal family (Queen Margrethe was at home); a cycling tour
around the historical parts of the city; Danish pastries; Fisksuppe and an
evening at the Tivoli Gardens.
Next it was straight to Oxford for a girl’s weekend with all
the girls I shared a house with back in 1986-87 in my Oxford days (Julia,
Eleanor, Mei-mei, and Nikki). We have kept in close touch over the years, getting
together regularly at times at each other’s weddings, pregnancies, with
toddlers, then teenagers etc, but it was so nice this time to meet up back in
Oxford. We drove past Oxford Brookes, visited our share house and lots of old
haunts/pubs, plus iconic Oxford places like the Covered Market, Botanical Gardens,
Broad Street, Bridge of Sighs, Turf Tavern, and afternoon tea at Browns. A lot
of talking, laughing, drinking, eating and falling into bed at 2am … just like
old times. So nice that everyone made the effort to make more fantastic
memories.
Only one day in London, but I still managed to fit in a
very nice lunch in Covent Garden with Suzanne (the daughter of my godmother
Annette), some shopping and then a theatre trip with Julia. And then it was on
up North to Cheshire (Hale, near
Manchester), where we had lived from 2003-2010. I had great fun packing seven
years of Hale lifestyle into four days, which meant a tour of all the new
restaurants with old friends – lots of lunches, dinners and breakfasts; a magical
early morning walk around Dunham Massey admiring the wildlife; plus a visit to
the kids’ old school and our old house. Managed to catch up with so many friends
… too many to name here. Sandra hosted a lovely glamorous girl’s night party on
the Friday and it felt like I had never left, but was so nice to see everyone
again and as always so hard to leave.
My final stop was Yorkshire to spend a week with my
brother Chris and wife Julie in their home near Tadcaster. The main purpose of
my trip was to celebrate Chris’ 50th birthday … with the opportunity
to speak at his party and embarrass him with lots of childhood photos and
stories. After the celebrations it was great to spend a few days together in
York and Leeds, as well as Bramham village where we grew up. I managed to fit
in visits to my two godmothers Annette and daughter Liz; and Margaret with Jill
and Peter; both looking extremely well. Highlights included a lovely day out in
Whitby with Chris & Julie for proper Yorkshire fish & chips and a
fantastic day at the rugby with Chris watching the Leeds Rhinos beat
Huddersfield (in the Director’s Box of course), plus a surprise lunch with my
cousin Karen and Steve. By the time I left the sun was shining and I crashed a
lovely lunchtime garden party (thanks Chris & Sharon, Caroline & Jon,
Julie & Peter) before heading to the airport for the long return flight home. Farewell England and thanks for a great trip
down memory lane.
Love Katie
(Derek, Matthew and Jessica)
Mum and Dad's Birthdays
