Happy New Year (soon)!

 Letter No. 270

Dear all,

SEPTEMBER On 20^th September Pippa was desexed. I took her in at 7am after no breakfast and picked her up about 2pm. She was very woozy that afternoon and felt very sorry for herself. She had to wear a cone for 10 days so she didn’t worry at the stitches and we were also told that she shouldn’t run for 10 days but that was impossible to control. After a couple of days, she was back to her normal self, tearing around the yard. As she ran the cone would slap her on the top of the head and then under the chin, but she just kept running unperturbed. The cone really messed with her spatial awareness and she kept walking into things, bouncing off with a bemused expression on her little face. It was so funny. After ten days, Jess and Katie held Pippa down and I removed her stitches; I don’t think she had even noticed them.

On 24^th September I went for a walk around Toowong Cemetery with Molly and Pippa. I had never been there before. It was one of the earliest cemeteries in Brisbane and all the rich and famous Brisbanites from the 1800s were buried there. The grounds were huge and beautiful and it was interesting looking at all the old graves. A couple of days later, Jessie ended up in hospital. She had a bad sinus infection which developed into a retropharyngeal ulcer and the doctors were worried about how close it was to her brain and how high her temperature was. She took herself into the hospital (with her boyfriend Kyel) on Monday afternoon and was on an IV drip for three days. Poor little thing.

OCTOBER Katie has become very cultured in recent months and has been going to the ballet with a group of girlfriends. She saw Queensland Ballet’s Strictly Gershwin on 5^th October and Academy Soiree on 21^st October. I have been to the ballet once in my lifetime in Hong Kong, so twice in one month would have been a bit much for me. She had a wonderful time though and said both performances were fantastic. That Sunday, the local lawn bowls club had a Try Bowling Afternoon on Sunday 8^th October, which was more my style. I arranged a group of eight of our friends for an afternoon on the green. It was amazing how ridiculously excited and competitive we all got. We had a few drinks in the bar afterwards before an early dinner.

The following week was our 27^th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated on the Friday night with an evening at NightFeast at The Powerhouse, Brisbane’s main arts complex. NightFeast is a month-long festival of music, art and alfresco dining from top-class Brisbane restaurants preparing street food. The food all looked so delicious that it was hard to decide what to have! We spent the afternoon and early evening dining on some of the best street food ever with a few glasses of wine. Afterwards we went into the Powerhouse to view the entries in the Brisbane Portrait Prize. The portraits all used different media and style and were astonishingly good. We were surprised to discover our next-door neighbour featured in one of them. It was a very nice, relaxed evening.  

On the Sunday we went on a Mystery Picnic Date to Mt Tambourine, which Katie had booked for our anniversary. The company (Amazing Co.) sends a clue the day before and you need to solve the clue to discover your first destination. There are usually six or seven clues to solve, with suggested points of interest to visit on the way including a walk at a national park. We did a one hour hike in the rainforest and picked up prepaid food and drink at all the other stops. Our final destination was the Mt ambourine Botanical Gardens where we enjoyed a lovely picnic with our delicious cheeses, breads,  dips, meats, olives and desserts next to the lake. It was a really great day out.

We went to our friend Mel Burgess’s Engagement Party on 21^st October. She is getting married to a lovely man Bernie. It is the first second-round engagement in our group of friends! They had a lovely 1920s themed venue – The Gatsby Lounge Bar in Fortitude Valley – and about 30 people we knew from our social group were there, so it was a great afternoon. The wedding is next year and it’s been a very long time since we went to a wedding. Katie is already excited.

I went to a Murder Mystery Night as a work social function on 26^th October. Quite the 1980s throwback. It was fun although I failed to guess the murderer.  There were six tables of six from people randomly assigned from our group, so the game let us get to know people we often see but never get to talk to. That weekend, we went to the Siam Sunset in Kenmore on the Saturday night to celebrate Carolyn & Sue’s birthdays. Katie had a very social weekend as she went to the Prawnster for lunch the next day to celebrate Thao’s birthday with another group of ladies. The Prawnster is a trawler moored at Kangaroo Point which sells platters of trawler-caught prawns, bugs, oysters and salmon sashimi. They don’t offer anything else (even plates) but you can BYO salads, cutlery and other food. It is quite cool.

NOVEMBER One of Matthew’s best friends Adam came over from the UK, travelling around New Zealand and Australia and staying with Matt for a few weeks. We met Adam in Amsterdam in January this year. The boys came over for an Aussie BBQ on 1^st November which was lovely. The next night was Katie’s Clubbies event at the Brisbane Convention Centre. This was her work event for the year, a celebration awards ceremony for clubs at The University of Queensland, with around 300 students attending for a drinks reception, awards show with presentations, speeches, videos and over 40 awards handed out, followed by an After Party with DJ, photobooth and lots of food and drinks. Katie had done the run sheet, made PowerPoint presentation, ordered and checked all the glass trophies and coordinated all arrangements with the venue, AV technicians, DJ etc. She & her boss Emily were at work at 7:30am, started setting up at the venue before 3pm and didn’t get home until nearly midnight, so it was a long day.

We had several very social weekends in November. We had dinner with our friend Derek and his new partner on 4^th November. They live a short walk from us, so it was super convenient and lovely to meet his new partner. Katie had lunch in West End the next day with some Uni friends. On the 10^th we went for dinner in the French restaurant in Graceville with another two couples (Tods and Donaldsons). That weekend we also took the dogs hiking up Mt Coot-tha to try out Katie’s new knee. We did about 6km up and down on quite a steep trail and it seemed to hold up well. The dogs had a lovely time. They met another identical Jack Russell (called Jack) and walked with him for a while.  

We went to see Robbie Williams at Sirromet Winery on 18^th November with our friends Ant and Katie Whittle. We arrived about 5pm just in time for a pizza and wine dinner before settling into our seats. Robbie was fantastic and seemed very authentic and honest. He made some sharp comments about Take That and how much he disliked his previous band members but otherwise he was terrific and he definitely did entertain us. One of the better concerts I have been to for a while! Next morning, we met Diane Powers for coffee in Fortitude Valley, a friend from our Hong Kong days who now lives in Sydney and was up for the weekend. We had a nice catchup before Diane went to catch her plane and Katie went out for another girls’ birthday lunch. Funny that so many of her close friends have birthdays in October and November.

The next week Katie went to Wollongong for SENCON, a four-day work conference at the University of Woollongong. This is an annual Student Experience & Networking conference, focusing on student engagement. Katie didn’t love the 5am flight time down to Sydney with her work colleagues, but really enjoyed meeting with Clubs & Societies professionals from 40+ institutions across the Australian university sector. She discovered that the student issues and club processes are very similar across the board, which was very validating for her. Other highlights were meeting the keynote speaker Jess Fox (Olympic gold medallist in canoe and kayaking) and also the three awards that UQU won at the Gala Awards Night.

On 24^th November it was the AECOM Christmas party at the RNA Showgrounds. This year’s theme was White Winter Wonderland and it was actually one of the best AECOM Christmas parties. The room was amazingly decorated in white with blue light effects; we entered the room through an ice tunnel with snow falling and there were snowflake projections on the walls and ice sculptures on the bar. There were heaps of live performers – two stilt walkers, a close-up magician, juggler, eclectic electric violinist and two fantastic aerial ribbon acrobats, all dressed in white. My whole work team was there, wearing white and naturally I had gone all out with the white theme, including white braces, bow tie, sunglasses and a large white Stetson which certainly got me noticed! Katie wore a fabulous backless white linen suit and high heels. We all had a great time dancing to the live band until midnight.

On 26^th November I was invited to Queensland Raceway to do HotLaps in a race car at the speedway. One of my employees races a BMW and this was a special event so he (and other drivers) could take their sponsors and friends for some very fast laps! There were four of us from the office and it was great fun but pretty scary. We had to wear a race helmet, get strapped into a six-point harness and then driven around at about 200km/hr down the straight and still going 140km/hr only 150m from a hair pin bend, getting thrown around in the harness. We had two turns, each time doing 4 or 5 laps of the track, which was enough!

The next day Jessica went to Thailand for three weeks. She had finished her course in November and starts working full time in January, so she had some free time. She flew to Phuket and had a couple of days by herself before her friend arrived. Together they went to Ko Phi Phi island, flew up to Bangkok, joined a tour for a few days, then caught the overnight train to Chang Mai and northern Thailand. She had a ball.

On 29^th November I flew to Melbourne to attend the Engineers Australia Annual Awards. AECOM had won Queensland’s Project of the Year in September for our project at 80 Ann Street and were now competing against all the other states. Sadly, we didn’t scoop the national award but it was a nice night. Our project is fascinating though; you can read about it here: Heritage Lanes by Mirvac — Brisbane CBD (heritage-lanes.com.au) and here: Heritage Lanes among engineering excellence award winners | Engineers Australia and here: Engineers Australia celebrates engineering excellence in Brisbane - Build Australia.

I started to feel ordinary on the way home from Melbourne, so I kept away from Katie. I tested positive for COVID-19 the next morning. That night was the UQ Union Christmas Party (Katie had mostly organised this as well), with lawn bowls, a live band, American diner style food and drinks. The Union Sunrise cocktails proved very popular and Katie wobbled home quite late. For the next two weeks, I stayed downstairs, working from home in the morning and sleeping in the afternoon, with Katie providing meals at regular intervals (she didn’t want me coming near the kitchen). It was my first bout of COVID and it left me with a lingering cough for weeks.

DECEMBER We had to postpone Matthew’s birthday dinner on 6^th December, so we ended up having a birthday lunch instead a few days later at a local café, while Jessie was still in Thailand. Matt is 25 now. The next day was the Mortlake Road Christmas party, just across the road. I was still not feeling my best so didn’t stay long but Katie managed to party for both of us. The next day was Jessie’s graduation with a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology. The ceremony was at 11:00am but we went to pick up her gown and take photos in the Great Court beforehand. The ceremony was lovely except for some Palestinian protestors in the actual ceremony which was inappropriate. Afterwards we went to Patina for a lovely lunch with Matthew and Jessica’s boyfriend Kyel.

Saturday 16^th December was my birthday and also our annual Christmas Party at home with around 50 friends. It was ridiculously hot at 35⁰C and there was a huge storm that afternoon but luckily it cleared just before 5pm. I made a Raspberry Gin Fizz as our Christmas cocktail this year which everyone enjoyed and Katie did her usual fantastic spread with canapes, ham rolls, cake and mince pies. The next day Eleanor & Bernard arrived from the UK for a brief visit with their two boys on their way to Sydney. It was so lovely to see them and Queensland treated them to some glorious blue-sky weather. We’ve spent Christmas at home this year which has been a nice change after two years of being away. Katie did her English-style roast turkey dinner on Christmas Eve and then we had an Aussie Christmas feast with my family on Christmas Day. It has been a really great few days.

Cheers from Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie, Molly & Pippa

Lots of pictures of dogs (and a letter)!

Letter No. 269

Dear all,

JUNE The day after we got Pippa we went out for a belated Mother’s Day lunch. We left the two dogs together for a couple of hours and went down to the village to Hunter and Scout. We watched them on the security cameras while we ate lunch, but they were fine. The next weekend my sister Lisa and family came over for morning tea and to meet Pippa. She is so soft and little and cuddly that she was a big hit with everyone.

On 6^th June Katie went into hospital to have her ACL surgically repaired. She had the operation in the afternoon and stayed in hospital overnight. It was a long surgery, in which the surgeon pulls down a hamstring from the upper thigh and repositions it in place of the ligament, which is pretty amazing. Katie was really knocked out by the anaesthetic and was as sick as a dog for two days afterwards. I went to collect her at 11am the next day; she was sick in the car on the way home, then sick all day, most of the night and all the next day. For the next two weeks, Katie was in a full leg knee brace which she couldn’t even take off at night and had to use crutches to move from bed to sofa! She even had to sit on the floor in the shower. She took the rest of the week off as sick leave and then few days annual leave the next week, but then went back to work the following week working from home at first.

When she was ready to get back into the office I had to drive her around for another four weeks. It was pretty inconvenient, because I had to drop her at her work around 7:30am and then catch a train to work, then leave early and return to pick her up at 4pm. I was only managing a 6-hour day and taking carer’s leave for the rest of the time. Katie was also seeing her physio twice a week at this point, but the kids helped to drop her off and pick her up a few times and otherwise she got Ubers. At the five week mark, things were not going well, as the left knee was still not bending or straightening as it should. There was lots of concern about her “failure to progress”, “going backwards”, and whether she might need further surgery. She was referred back to the specialist and had to have extra physio manipulation which was very painful. Fortunately, her leg started to move again, and suddenly everything fell into place and a couple of weeks later she was off crutches and driving again (I was very happy about that).

Meanwhile, I took Pippa to puppy training every Saturday in June. She quickly learned all the commands and would do them if there was a treat on offer, but steadfastly ignores me if there is nothing in it for her. This is a sign of an intelligent dog, according to the trainer!

On 23^rd June we went to Winosaurs, the local quarterly wine tasting in the street. Katie was on crutches at this point, but managed to make it up the stairs, find herself a chair and hold her glass of wine. The evening was a little more exciting than normal though, as one of our neighbours Trevor became light-headed and collapsed on the floor in the middle of the evening with a suspected heart attack. Sadly, when he fell he also broke a bone in his back, which made things worse. Another of our neighbours is a doctor, so he had good care until the ambulance arrived, and was in reasonably good spirits despite everything. As he was wheeled to the ambulance he passed someone the tasting notes for his bottle of wine and insisted that we carry on and taste his wine without him. It did put a bit of a damper on the evening, but we all felt we owed it to Trevor to try the wine anyway, with a toast for his good recovery. Astonishingly, he was back at home and seemingly none the worse for wear after only a few days in hospital, so it must have worked.

On 24^th June we went to lunch at Blume in Boonah, about an hour’s drive into the country with a few friends. The restaurant had a spectacular degustation menu. Katie was still on crutches, so I dropped her right outside the door and she hobbled in. We had a really lovely afternoon, followed by a coffee at the pub in the warm winter sunshine before driving back to Brisbane.

JULY The next week I went on a work trip to Alice Springs for three days. It was a long way to go for only about four hours of work. Direct flights to Alice only go a couple of times per week, so travel options are limited. It was extremely cold and rainy the whole time I was there. One day the maximum was only 8 degrees.

It was Katie’s birthday on 12^th July. We went to a very cool Japanese restaurant, Honto, in Fortitude Valley. The entrance was down a dark alley behind a set of industrial bins, then down a long dark hallway. The restaurant was huge and packed but so dimly lit that it was hard to find your way back from the bathroom! The food however was fantastic. Katie was walking very gingerly by this time, although off crutches. Later that week we had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Paddington with our BBC parent friends and then a long Christmas in July lunch at Spicers Balfour in the city with some other friends.

Katie did have another birthday dinner planned with a different group of girlfriends the following week but had to cancel, because she came down with a nasty bout of laryngitis and bronchitis. One day she was fine, and the next day she had lost her voice entirely. She was quite unwell with a hacking cough, and it took almost four weeks for her voice to get back to normal. I felt sorry for her on top of all her knee issues, but at least my ears had a nice rest!

It was the Brisbane Boys’ College 40^th year re-union on 29^th July. It was held at the Regatta Hotel – our old underage drinking hole. About 40 out of the 110 boys who left school in 1983 made it which was not a bad turnout. I wasn’t the baldest, wasn’t the greyest, wasn’t the fattest (by a long, long way), and was still on my first marriage (lots on their third!), so it felt like a win for me. One guy in his third marriage was just about to have a new baby – an adventure too far for me! One of the guys circulated with another old boy on FaceTime on his phone who had planned to come but was in hospital in Sydney. He was one of the really athletic people from our year group and had contracted a terrible virus and just had both legs amputated! It was fairly shocking, but he seemed very cheery on FaceTime. Ian Muir had arranged his annual trip back from Hong Kong around the event and we had had dinner (with John Haughton) beforehand. It was a great evening of catching up.

The next day Katie, Jess and I took out Pippa up to Mum and Dad’s place to introduce her to the farm. Pippa was very interested in the sheep, chickens and all the new smells. She was particularly excited when Molly caught and killed a mouse! The dogs seemed to get along with Mum and Dad okay which was good as we are hoping the two of them won’t be too much trouble when we go away on holidays. We had a nice morning tea with them.

AUGUST Katie and Jess went to the Barbie movie on 1^st August. I decided to decline. Apparently it is very enlightening so perhaps I should have gone. The next week Katie and I saw Oppenheimer which was brilliant and profound. It was quite astounding that they created atomic weapons in our parents’ lifetime, considering the level of technology that they had.

We had dinner with Ian and Cathy on 9^th August, the day before Ian went back to Hong Kong. They told us about all the political changes in Hong Kong since we had left. It is certainly not the place we left and no longer the one-country-two-systems promised by China in 1997. When we got home that night, Katie accidentally walked into the coffee table and broke her toe – it has not been her best year.

On 12^th August we went to see Australia play France in the Rugby World Cup at the Brisbane stadium. We had lunch at Libertine, a lovely Vietnamese restaurant beforehand for a six-course degustation menu, which was WAY better than having a greasy fish and chips at the stadium! Matthew and I had gone to an Australia-France rugby game about ten years previously and I still had the yellow berets which said Aus V France on them, so Katie and I wore them to the game. We went with Shaun and Juliana and some of their friends. It was a great afternoon and evening, with a thrilling 11-kick penalty shootout which Australia won!

A few days later we went to an Outback Futures fundraising dinner at City Winery, a little boutique winery / restaurant in Fortitude Valley. As always, Katie had arranged a big party of around 30 of our friends and our group was about a quarter of the total attendees. The food and wine were great but the speeches went on waaaay too long. The following week we had dinner in Graceville with our friend Kylie Bolton to get to know her new partner Paul. It is great to have a more men in our social circle, we have been severely outnumbered for some time!

SEPTEMBER Katie and I went into Southbank to watch the RiverFire fireworks display on 2^nd September. We caught the train in for 5pm and just wandered around. There were 500,000 people projected to watch the show along the riverbanks, and we quickly realised that we should have booked somewhere. Astonishingly, we found a bar very close to the river that still had seats in the general admission area for only $25 (including a drink), so we had dinner there watching the pre-show aircraft flyovers. When the fireworks started everyone rushed to the front to watch the fireworks, so our view was pretty much the same as the people who had paid $180 for river-side tables. The fireworks were spectacular, apparently there were 11 tonnes of fireworks, but what was even better was the drone display afterwards with 400 drones forming an enormous sky whale, amongst other things, swimming through the skies high above the river. It was pretty cool.

Katie, Jessie and I took the dogs for a walk up Mt Coot-tha on 3^rd September. It was really nice that Jess came with us. It was only about a 5km round trip, and I took everyone out for brunch at the peak for Father's Day. Katie has just passed the 3-month mark with her knee (her full recovery will take a whole year). Her physio has put her onto a new program for the 3-6 month phase. It is called the Melbourne ACL protocol and is designed for elite athletes in their 20s and 30s. Katie is hoping he will cut her some slack but is nevertheless determined to hit all the key markers going forward, given her failure at the 5-week stage.

The 7^th September was Jessica’s birthday. We all went into the Valley to Snackman, a very upmarket Chinese restaurant and wine bar. Kyel came as well. It was close to my work so I just walked over while everyone else came from their various offices in the city and uni. Jess also had a party, which she had creatively decided would have a Bald theme. She was so keen to have everyone wear a bald wig that she bought out bald wigs from every party shop in a 20km radius, even finding one place that had darker skin toned wigs for some of her Asian friends. The party was supposed to be a pre-gathering before they all went clubbing the valley around 10pm. When we pointed out that perhaps they should have something to eat, we got the job of providing food, and I also got the fire pit out for them. The kids brought all their own drinks, so it wasn’t much effort really. There were about 45 people and about 70% did wear bald wigs with costumes as well. Jessie dressed as Pitbull (rapper), Kyel was a white Mike Tyson, and there were an array of costumes including Dr Phil, Dobby from Harry Potter, and several yellow minions. It was very funny. Katie and I produced food and retreated upstairs about 8pm. There was no sign of them leaving by 11pm and I think the idea of going clubbing was abandoned around midnight as the hard core settled in for a night around the fire pit.

Next morning, I had to get up at 5am as I was going hiking with my mate Derek. We went to O’Reilly’s and did an 18km hike in the rainforest up and down mountains. I was very tired when we got home that afternoon and nearly fell asleep in my dinner. The following weekend we took the dogs to Palm Beach. It was Pippa’s first day at the beach and Molly LOVES going. We had planned a relaxing morning reading in the sun on the sand but that was impossible with two dogs. Pippa was SO excited. There were so many other dogs to play with, the sea to splash in and the surf to run away from the waves. She had the best day. We had a lovely morning running after both dogs, followed by lunch at our favourite Dune Café. In the past, the café didn’t allow dogs, even though it was located right next to a dog beach, so we’d always had to tie Molly up outside. The café now had new owners who allow dogs in the outdoor cafe area sitting under the table. Hooray, no more dogscrimination!  

Cheers from Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie, Molly & Pippa

 

Knee troubles

Letter No. 268

Dear all,

Katie started her new job as Clubs and Societies Coordinator for the University of Queensland Student Union on 23^rd January. It was a bit too soon after we got back from our holidays, and she wasn’t quite ready for the transition to full time employment. January is the busiest time of the year for the role, so they were desperate for her to start as soon as possible. Her knee was still giving her trouble after her skiing accident in Meribel, so she was hobbling a bit and found the walk up from the car park difficult. There was a steep learning curve with lots of new processes, procedures, and software but she coped with it all very well.

We also went to see Avatar on 26^th January – a fantastic movie but too long and the same storyline as the last one! We also had dinner at Always Thai with our friends the Biddles and Rasmussens to celebrate Katie’s first week on the job. Her knee wasn’t getting any better though, so she saw her GP who sent her for x-ray, ultrasound, and MRI scans. It was tricky and time consuming because she had to schedule all these appointments around her new full-time job, but ultimately revealed multiple injuries: a fully ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), torn meniscus ligament and a hairline fracture of the tibial plateau.

We had quite a social month in February, with dinner at Miku (Japanese), champagne with our neighbours, a Winosaurs wine tasting with the whole street, dinner at Matthew’s house (with him cooking) and dinners out whenever Katie went to see her knee specialist after her evening appointment (multiple times!). He is a highly regarded orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in lower limb sports injuries and is the orthopod for the Brisbane Broncos.

We also went to see Ed Sheeran at Suncorp Stadium on 17^th February with a team of six. We had dinner at a micro-brewery near the stadium beforehand – much better than stadium food. The concert, stage and lighting were fantastic. We had such a good night. The only downside was the 45 minutes it took us to get out of the stadium. Unfortunately, we were on the far end from the train station and Katie was on crutches, which wasn’t fun for her, although she did get priority treatment as a “disabled person”. By this time, she was having weekly appointments with a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist to work through prehab in preparation for possible surgery. He was appalled to discover that she had been walking (even briefly skiing) on her multiple injuries and instantly put her on crutches for a few weeks.

We went for a day out with Jessica and Molly to the Redcliffe Markets on 5^th March. The markets are great but very long. When we got to the far end Katie couldn’t face crutching back, so I went and got the car to pick her up and we went on to the beach (Molly loves the beach), and then a nice fish and chips lunch. Redcliffe was surprisingly deserted but we realised afterwards that everyone from Redcliffe was in Brisbane for the inaugural local football team (Dolphins) game at Suncorp stadium.

We went into the city and to Southbank on 17^th March to have dinner with Katie’s two closest friends from her Uni course. We went to River Quay Fish, a lovely fish restaurant overlooking the river. Her friend Cassie has been trying to get pregnant for quite some time and was now eight months’ pregnant which was nice.

We also went to see Rod Stewart and Cindy Lauper in March with our friends Ant and Katie Whittle. It was another really great concert. They were supported by Jon Stevens (ex-Noiseworks and INXS). We arrived just as Jon started and really enjoyed hearing him perform heaps of INXS songs. Cindi and Rob were also fantastic, and both put on very energetic shows despite being in their 60s and 70s. Katie was still on crutches at this point and the concert venue was essentially a field, but fortunately they had a little 4WD buggy to get her in from the car park. A great evening except for the hour it took to get out of the car park at the end!

At the end of the month, we discovered that a litter of Jack Russell puppies had just been born on our street, just two doors down. We went round to see them the day after they were born. They were so tiny, like small squirmy jellybeans with closed eyes. We went back to see them almost every weekend and each week there was something new to see as they opened their eyes, got a proper coat of fur, started walking, running, playing, and biting. It was so cute.

Easter was in early April this year, and we went down to Kirra Beach on the Gold Coast for a long weekend. The kids had both said they didn’t want to come so Katie had booked a beautiful one-bedroom apartment. We had a lovely Friday afternoon and dinner at a Mexican Restaurant, Agave Rosa on the ground floor of our building. The next day we had a morning at the beach, then surprisingly Jessie showed up about 2pm to stay for a night or two, and a few hours later her boyfriend Kyel arrived. Katie and I went out that night with our friends Juliana and Shaun who have an apartment in Kirra. We had drinks at their apartment first and then walked to Siblings, a lovely seafront restaurant. Fortunately, Katie was off her crutches by this time, and it wasn’t too far. We had been to the restaurant before and liked it so much we had to go back. We ended up staying a LONG time and were almost the last to leave. In the meantime, Jessie and Kyel went to the Mexican that we been tried the night before. The apartment was a bit squeezy that night as they both slept on the living room sofas. 

Next morning, we had a slower start and morning on the beach. Kyel left early but Matt arrived unexpectedly in the afternoon, so we all had dinner at a lovely Greek restaurant Xena on the next beach over. We got good value out of an apartment for two. Unfortunately, Matthew picked up a stomach bug and was sick the next morning. Jess left earlyish and Matt had a slow start while Katie and I had a third morning at the beach. Katie helped Matthew pack up and spent a bit of time with him (more than I did) that morning and unfortunately caught the stomach bug herself and was sick a day later. Despite this, it was a lovely break. Kirra is a really nice part of the Gold Coast!

We had an AECOM Social Drinks for my team and their partners on 14^th April. It was at a nice brewery, Brewdog in Fortitude Valley. Pretty much everyone in my team came and most with their partners. The next night we went to see Hamilton at QPAC, a rap and hip-hop musical based on the history of the American Founding Fathers. Luckily, I had read a synopsis of the story beforehand or I would have had no hope of understanding what was going on. It was a fantastic show nevertheless and we all enjoyed it enormously.

We went to my sister’s house for Mum and Dad’s birthday celebration the next day (16^th April). For the first time in ages the whole family managed to be in the same place at once. Lisa cooked up a fabulous meal and then we spent the afternoon wandering around looking at the multitude of animals they have surrounding the house: dogs, cats, sheep, miniature donkeys,

highland cattle, chickens, ducks, geese, peacocks, and others I’m sure I have forgotten. We also went and admired Andrew’s ever-expanding collection of classic cars – at least twelve now!

On 29^th April, we went to a tennis party at our friends the Tods. It was our wine club Winosaurs the same night, so we had a difficult decision choosing which one to go to. Katie had been doing extensive physio and exercises to improve the strength of her knee, but it was definitely not up to playing tennis, so I played for two and we had a lovely BBQ dinner and drinks well into the evening.

On 6^th May we had a party to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III with 40 of our closest friends. Katie had been planning for a coronation party for what feels like several years and she does like a theme. She bought 50 metres of union jack bunting, ordered tableware, organised printed menus, place cards and invitations (thanks Chris) and wrote a very difficult Right Royal Quiz. The dress code was formal attire with military uniforms optional, and ladies were asked to wear tea dresses and tiaras. I wore my Irish Guards Uniform with the red jacket and Katie dressed as the Queen in white (she had upgraded her tiara specially). We both wore blue sashes with our medals pinned on. Everyone scrubbed up very nicely for the occasion.

The event started with champagne on the front lawn from 4pm, with Matt on duty as bartender and chief champagne pourer. Katie had instructed everyone to be on time, and after a few glasses we moved around to the back lawn for a sit-down Afternoon Tea. We had set up two rows of long tables with union jack bunting overhead and tables set with vintage crockery and flower arrangements in red, white and blue colours. Food was served on high tea stands with lots of traditional afternoon tea favourites, including cucumber sandwiches with crusts cut off, coronation chicken tartlets, and scones with jam and cream. Jessie and one of her (English) friends waited tables, refilling the supply of sandwiches and pouring tea in three varieties. I was a little put out that Katie wouldn’t allow coffee at all. About 6pm I read out the answers to the quiz and made a Loyal Toast to the King (speech kindly written by Chat GPT).

Next we all moved over to the studio for Twilight Cocktails with Matt serving up an Elderflower Gin Spritz, a classic Pimms, and a Windsor Pink Gin & Tonic, while Jessie and Megan cleaned up the afternoon tea. Some of our guests decided to test all three and were very pleased with themselves when they completed the cocktail trifecta. We had about an hour for cocktails during which Katie made her Royal Toast and awarded a prize for the quiz.  

Around 7pm the TV coverage started. We had two TVs set up for everyone who wanted to watch, and a firepit outside for everyone else. About 8:30pm we had a huge delivery of fish and chip dinners for everyone, followed by individual Platinum Jubilee trifles decorated with real gold leaf. There was also a huge Union Jack cake that Katie had made. Everyone loved the fish & chips but there was so much dessert left over we were still eating it a week later! The last stragglers left around midnight. It was a really fun evening. We had a steady stream of friends dropping in unexpectedly on Sunday to help with clean-up, which was lovely, although we were finding miniature flags for weeks afterwards.

A sad piece of news that day was that Jessie’s schoolfriend Charlie had lost her father very suddenly. David Bell was 55 and had a massive heart attack. He had been the head of Middle School at BBC while Katie worked there, so she had known him both as a work colleague and as a fellow parent at St Aidan’s. Jessie and Katie went to the funeral on 16 May. It was at the BBC College Hall with at least 700 people there. Jessica was a bit freaked out and kept coming to hug me for a few days.

On 20^th May we picked up our new puppy, Pippa. She was eight weeks old. We had been to see her almost every week since she was born, so it was a foregone conclusion we would get her. On the first week I had already picked out which puppy we would want and told the owner just in case Katie and Jessie talked me into getting one. She is a Parsons Jack Russell, which is a slightly taller and leaner breed than Molly, but they look very similar. Her colouring is tan and white, the same as Molly. They were a bit unsure about each other at first. For the first week or so she was waking us up once or twice at night and I took her outside to the toilet. It was just like having a new baby again, but fortunately for us she started sleeping through the night after only a week or so. At first, Pippa would try to get into Molly’s bed at every opportunity, but Molly was having none of it, and either just got up and went to a different bed or growled at Pippa until she moved. Pippa is very bouncy and annoying for Molly when she has a mad half hour – usually just after breakfast and just before dinner. Molly will snarl and put her on her back to settle her.

The two dogs have now started playing quite nicely together. They love getting a toy and tugging and wrestling over it. Molly has even started initiating play quite often so she must enjoy it as well. Pippa is a terrible ankle-biter and a real tripper-upper but is slowly getting less annoying. When I am working in the garden on the weekend I have two supervisors now so can’t make any mistakes. Pippa is a lovely little good-natured dog. I am so pleased we got her.

Cheers from Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie, Molly & Pippa