Letter No. 268
Dear all,
Katie started her new job as Clubs and Societies Coordinator for the University of Queensland Student Union on 23rd 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 26th 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 17th 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 5th 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 17th 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 14th 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 (16th 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 29th 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 6th 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 20th 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
