Letter
No. 252
Dear all,
While Katie was away in England I started work at 5:30am
each morning and worked until 4pm. I made it home before the peak hour’s
traffic and then did all the domestic stuff like washing, ironing and cooking.
It seemed to work pretty well and I really liked the early starts and finishes!
Matthew and I went to a 21st
birthday party for a family friend Claudia Tod. I went in the afternoon to help
set up the lighting. It was a lovely party. Matthew actually had two 21sts
on that night and the other was for one of his closest friends. He stayed much
longer than he had intended as he was having such a good time. Actually I was
having such a good time I stayed much longer than I intended too. I stumbled
into bed at 2am. It is a long time since I have been out that late. It was a
slow day next day.
On Easter Sunday the kids and I went to SeaWorld.
We hadn’t been for many years and it was pretty much exactly the same. We had a
nice day looking at the penguins, seals, dolphins, polar bears, sharks and
other sea creatures.
Katie arrived home from the UK on Tuesday 23rd April at
6:30am. We had pretended that we wouldn’t be able to pick her up and surprised
her at the airport. I took the morning off work and had a nice morning catching
up on her news and gossip from the UK. It was a short week actually with Anzac
Day Public Holiday on the Thursday after Easter. It will be a bit tough going
back to a five-day week after all the recent public holidays.
It was Jessie’s
driving test on Friday 26th April but sadly didn’t pass. I was a little
surprised as she is a fairly good driver. There is a long wait time for tests
and the earliest she can get now is six weeks away.
I went to a Stag Party for one of the guys who work with me on Sat 27th April. It
started with barefoot bowls at noon. We played until about 3pm then everyone
went back to a fantastic Airbnb apartment they had rented in West End. We
played beer pong for a long time. It got very messy, especially when they
started mixing rum in the beer which was horrible. About 8pm we staggered into
taxis and went into the city. I lasted about an hour before the long day of
drinking got the better of me and I slipped out and went home. The others
kicked on until 3am. The stag made it to work on Monday but said he still felt
drunk. Matthew went to the UQ Law Ball on the same Saturday night and had a big
night as well.
On Friday 3 May Katie and I went with Matt to Dugald Graham’s 21st Birthday Party. He is the son of some family
friends. The theme was 70s Glitz and glam. I went as Elton John in a sparkly
jacket and glasses. I was quite pleased that quite a few people recognised me.
Katie wore Jessie’s Mamma Mia dance costume which was very retro and sparkly.
She was delighted that she could fit into her 16-year-old daughter’s dance dress
and told quite a few people about it. It was a great party and we danced to 70s
music until after midnight. Matthew had two 21st parties on that
night. He went to the other one first and arrived about 11:30pm, so he kicked
on much later than us.
On 4th May I went for lunch with my friends John
and Shaun. John is in training to swim the English Channel in September this
year. He had to qualify by doing a 10-hour cold water swim; the water has to be
lower than 16 degrees temperature. He is hoping to do it in 14 hours. You have
to do it without a wetsuit, as that is the way it was originally done. Part of
his training is to actually put on weight so he has a layer of fat to keep him
warm!
The next day I went hiking at Mt Maroon with my friend Derek Trebilcock. We left home
at 5:15am and drove to Boonah and met up with our guide and another seven
people who were walking with us. We drove a further 50km on to Mt Maroon on the
NSW border. We were doing a traverse of Mt Maroon and had to leave some cars at
the end point of the hike and then drive around to the start. We started off at
8:30am and it took us three hours to reach the summit. It was a very steep climb up
the mountain. We were scrambling up on all fours for quite a lot of the time.
It was quite tough. The 360⁰ views were spectacular. We went
down the back face of the mountain which was much less steep but still quite
rugged without any track down an unmarked gorge. We would have never found the
route without our guide. We made it back to the cars by 4:30pm – it was quite a
long walk – and then had to drive back to Brisbane. A very long, exhausting but
enjoyable day.
Katie and I went out for dinner at the Rocklea Night Market on 10th May. It is a
copy of a similar concept on the other side of town, with an Eat Street which
has loads of lovely food stalls plus a live band. It was OK but not as well
designed or as lively as the original. We did enjoy the band though. There was
a torrential thunderstorm just as we got our dinner so we stayed undercover and
watched them for a bit longer than intended.
We saw a few movies in May and June – All
is True (clever but slightly depressing true story about the end of
Shakespeare’s life); Rocketman (slightly
confronting life story of Elton John with great music) and Men in Black – International (just fun). We have given up waiting
for the kids to be free to come with us and Katie and I just go when we want. We
often go to the little boutique cinema in Graceville. It is so nice to have a cinema
in our own suburb so we try to support it … plus we can walk home afterwards.
We went to Billy Kart Kitchen for Mother’s Day lunch. It is run by some “celebrity” chef I have never heard of.
They have two restaurants and I booked for one in West End, forgot and we went
to the other one in Annerley. I was a bit confused when they had no record of
my booking but luckily they managed to fit us in on a very busy day.
Katie and I went to the Queensland Pops Concert at QPAC on 18th May. They had used the BBC
College Hall that Katie manages for a concert rehearsal and gave her some free
tickets. They were great seats and it was a nice variety concert with Scottish
and Irish singing, dancing and bagpipes plus the BBC pipe band. We had planned to
just go for the first half and then slip out at the interval if we wanted, but it
was so good that we stayed to the end.
The next day Jessie’s boyfriend Bryce came over
for Sunday lunch. He was a bit nervous as it was the first time he had properly
met Matt and I. He was an ex-BBC boy and took Jessie to her Formal last year so
we had met him before and Katie had seen him a few times around the halls of
the school. He lives in Ballina now so they can only see each other every two
weeks or so. We had a nice family lunch together, which is rare these days as
the kids are so busy working/tutoring/studying and seem to be rarely at home.
That night was Matt’s annual Eurovision Party. He had about 20 friends over and
they all picked a country and dressed up and also brought food or drinks from
their chosen country. Their costumes were hilarious and they had a fantastic
smorgasbord of European dishes and desert which Katie and I helped to reheat
and serve at appropriate intervals. The kids all piled into the pool room and
it was actually quite a fun night as we spent quite a bit of time chatting and
eating with Matt’s friends.
On 25th May the date had finally
come to move my telephone box to the
street to fulfil its original purpose as a Street Library. I had spent the last
few weekends preparing for the move. I cut a hole in the fence and prepared the
foundation. The telephone box is incredibly heavy – it weighs about 200kg -- so
the move had to be carefully planned. I asked four friends to come over on
Saturday morning to help me. I had borrowed a fridge trolley and bought a whole
heap of straps and ropes. To move it we had to lay it down almost flat to get
it under the front stairs. I was a bit worried that the dome roof (which is made
of concrete and weighs about 100kg) might peel off when we tipped it back. I
had not intended to ever move it when I built it and hence the roof was mainly
held down by its great weight. I strapped the roof down and we started the
move. At one stage I was right under it as it tilted back and was worried that
we might drop it and I would be crushed! It was a pretty hard task and five of
us only just managed to get it moved between us. Even though it was hard work it
only took half an hour and Katie missed the whole thing as she was doing a
Pilates class! Probably for the best I guess.
The telephone box looks pretty good in its new
location. It is inset to our fence line, so that the door can be opened from
the outside without anyone having to come into our garden. I spent the rest of
the weekend patching up and repainting the fence and putting books in the
library, while Katie dropped off invitations to everyone on our street to the
official “opening” the next weekend. I was a bit concerned that we might not
manage to move it, so didn’t want to send out the invitations until we were
sure.
On Sunday 26th May Katie and I went
to Barefoot Bowls. It was a fund
raising event for the butcher in Graceville who supplied a heap of meat and
food for a lovely BBQ. We had a group of ten people and spent the afternoon
playing bowls in the lovely autumn sunshine. It was quite a lot of fun. The
bowls club is only a short walk from home. They were on a big recruitment drive
for new members but we decided to give it another ten or fifteen years before
signing up as the average age seemed to be early 70s. We had a really fun
afternoon and loads of drinks so the kids had to fend for themselves for
dinner.
The next weekend I went to see The Reds (Rugby
Union) at Suncorp stadium with a group of guys. We went to the Newstead Brewing
Company for drinks and a pulled pork rolls before the game. The Reds lost so we
went to Caxton Street to drown our sorrows afterwards.
Sunday 2nd June was the Opening Party of our Mortlake Road Book Exchange. I had
spent the previous week putting the final touches to it and stocking it with
books. I even had a special stamp made with a picture of a telephone box and our address. We invited the whole street and a few
select friends from adjacent streets for 4pm and Katie made cheese platters and
we served drinks. Pretty much the whole street came, even people we hadn’t met,
and most people brought nibbles and drinks and donated books too. At 5pm I gave
a little speech telling everyone about how I had made the telephone box and how
long it took. Most people were astounded that I had made it myself and thought
it was a real one imported from the UK. After my speech the Queen arrived and
Katie (wearing her tiara) helped her cut the ribbon to “officially” open the
library. The Queen was having trouble with her cardboard arms so it was lucky
Katie was there to help her. It was a really lovely community event and the
library is well stocked now. Books really do bring people together.
On 12th June Jessica sat her second
driving test. Unfortunately the tester deliberately tricked her (again) and
asked her to do a really difficult manoeuvre of turning right from the left
hand lane (well that’s what she told us)... Unfortunately, it was another fail
so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for the third go.
We went to a new restaurant in the village on
22nd June. It is called Botellon and
serves great Spanish tapas and paella with a good range of Spanish wines. We went with the Tods and the Cilentos; the
food was delicious but the seats are mostly outside and it was a cold night. We
had to retire to our house for a nightcap to warm up.
The next weekend we went to Stanthorpe in the Granite Belt for a
couple of days with our BBC crowd the Biddles and Rasmussens. Katie had booked a
lovely farmhouse on the outskirts of town with a fireplace and lots of cosy
spaces. We drove up on Saturday morning and met for lunch in Stuttons, a famous
apple nursery with a nice restaurant and roaring fire. In the afternoon we
drove down to Ballandean to visit a few wineries. We had a nice afternoon
driving around to three wineries and had to buy some wine at each. We had
dinner and a movie back at our farmhouse next to the roaring fire.
The next day we had booked a winery minibus tour
and over the course of the day we visited six more wineries and also had a
lovely long lunch. The driver was very entertaining and the wine got better as
we went along. Of course we all had to buy wines at every one so our bus was
really clinking on the way home! It was a long day of sampling wine and
tripping around. We were all quite pleased to get home and have dinner and a
bit more wine with another movie! The next morning everyone headed back to Brisbane
relatively early so Katie and I took our time and went for a nice hike in the
rainforest at Cunningham Gap. There were great views from the top of the range
out towards the coast.
We had a busy weekend the next week. On Friday
night we went out for dinner with some ex-AECOM colleagues. We went to West End
and started at La Luna wine bar for wine and oysters, then on to Billykart Kitchen
for dinner and then on to Covent Garden Gin Bar. The Gin Bar had a wall of over
400 different gins and a gypsy jazz band playing with heaps of people dancing
in the aisle between the bar stools. It was a very cool place and we stayed
longer than we had intended. The next night I went to see The Radiators and Mental as
Anything with John Haughton and Ian Muir who was visiting from Hong Kong.
It was a fun evening. On Sunday we had lunch at Southbank with the Haughton and
the Muir families. I had to have a sleep
on the sofa on Sunday afternoon!
The next weekend was Katie’s birthday. We went out for dinner on her birthday with the
BBC parents crowd. We decided to go to Café Meze where Jessie works so that she
could serve us. Jess finished her shift and then sat down with us and helped us
finish off our platter of food. This was great as we subsequently got a 25%
staff discount! The next morning we went to the village for family brunch. This
was the only time we could all get together at the same time. The kids are just
too busy with their hectic jobs, tutoring and study schedules.
That’s all for this month.
Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie & Molly
