Dear all,
JULY The month started with the Winosaurs on Tour weekend in Stanthorpe, organised by Katie and one other neighbour. When it was first suggested everyone was keen, but we didn’t think many people would commit. To our astonishment almost everyone did and there were 23 of us altogether, all from Mortlake Road. We both took the Friday off work and drove up with a few stops on the way. We had lunch at Sutton’s Apple Factory then walked around the rock formations admiring the spectacular views at Donnelley’s Castle Lookout. We also stopped at the Granite Belt Christmas Farm (where it is Christmas every day) to marvel at the most enormous quantity of Christmas kitch! It was like being in a giant Christmas department store. Stanthorpe is high up (sometimes it even snows), so it was cold and felt quite Christmassy. Katie had prepared a list of things to do in and around Stanthorpe, so we kept bumping into Mortlakers everywhere we went. It was so funny. We were all staying in a htoel the middle of Stanthorpe and we had a nice group dinner at the Italian restaurant that night. One couple had been upgraded from a standard room to a nearby house and after dinner they invited a few of us back to the house to demolish a nice bottle of port. We stayed quite late and felt like the naughty kids on tour.
On Saturday we went for a morning wander around Stanthorpe and to the markets. Again, we kept bumping into our neighbours everywhere. Katie had organised a wine tasting tour of three local wineries for the day. The bus took us to Symphony Hill Winery first for a full tasting, then St Jude’s Winery for a delicious lunch and tasting and finally Ballandean Estate. I brought speaker and played music on the bus, and things got quite merry as the afternoon wore on. We had a surprise stop at Severn Brae Estate on the way back to Stanthorpe -- a very eclectic winery which also sold all sorts of weird and wonderful things – it was really interesting, and people came home with odd purchases like milking stools and decorative bird cages. We had a good old singalong on the final trip back to the hotel. After a lie down, we all headed to dinner at Essen. It was a very cold night, but thankfully the restaurant was only a short walk from the hotel. The food was fantastic, perhaps one of the best restaurants I have ever been to, and surprising as the exterior is like a run-down old house. On Sunday we went to the Washpool Soapery, Truffle Discovery Centre and Stanthorpe Cheese factory, where Katie embarked on a solo mission to boost the Stanthorpe economy with her foodie gift buying. We bumped into our good friends Gavin and Rebecca from No. 53 at the last stop, so we did the cheese tasting morning tea experience together. We only just managed to fit all of our food and wine purchases in the car.
Friday 12 July was Katie’s birthday. She had over ten days’ celebrations including a fantastic Indian banquet dinner with our friends the Biddles and the Rasmussens on the 12th, a family brunch on the 13th, lunch with girlfriends at an Italian restaurant Ciao Papi in the city the following weekend, plus a family lunch at Short Grain which is a modern Thai restaurant. We liked it so much we have booked again for Jessie’s birthday in a few months.
Jessie had her first business trip away in July with two nights in Cairns facilitating a conference. She was excited and impressed with her lovely 5-star hotel! She had been a bit worried about the timing of the trip as she was the main organiser for a Girl Up event on the Friday night and her flight back was on Friday morning. We had convinced her not to worry as flights very rarely get cancelled. But sure enough, her flight did get cancelled and she phoned me in a panic. Fortunately for her it all worked out perfectly, and she got another flight (and even got upgraded to business class!) so she made it back in plenty of time. She then spent all afternoon organising the food and decorations for her event, Gig with Girl Up, which had live music, nibbles and mingling at a hip little venue called The Station quite near my office. Jessie is the President of Girl Up Brisbane, a not-for-profit United Nations affiliated women’s empowerment community group based in Brisbane - hosting social, fundraising and advocacy events promoting women’s rights. Katie and I went along to support.
On 27th July we went to the Brisbane Gin Festival with 14 of our closest friends. It was a three-hour session from 2pm to 5pm with 50 gin distilleries all doing tastings. They wanted people to really taste the gin so were serving it neat or on ice, with no mixers. We started hard with four samples in the first half hour, after which Katie had to go and sit down. Her capacity for gin is not as good as her capacity for champagne. I bought some bottles of tonic, and we all slowed down a bit, but by the end of the afternoon everyone had bought multiple bottles of gin. One couple bought nine bottles! We clinked out at 5pm. Luckily someone had parked their car nearby and we stashed around seventy bottles in the boot, then wobbled on to a nearby restaurant for an early dinner. Around 9:30pm we caught an Uber home with our friend Libby who lives a few doors up. As we got home there were a lot of cars in our street, so we thought someone must be having a party. Then we saw Jessie flagging down a Dominos pizza van right behind us and we realised that the party was at our house. We helped ourselves to a bit of pizza and garlic bread before it even got inside. It turned out that Jessie was hosting her Book club that evening, so we joined them for a little while which they all found hilarious. Some of them had even read the book, but it seemed that there was far more wine drinking than book discussion. I think the “Book Club” finished about 2am. Sunday was a slow day for everyone.
AUGUST On 3rd August it was Matt’s house farewell party. He has lived at the house in St Osyth Street, Toowong for 3.5 years, and the boys are now all heading off in different directions, so it’s the end of an era for them all. Katie helped with the Saltburn-themed styling while I strung up the fairy lights. It was a huge success, judging by the number of empty bottles I saw when I went to take down the lights the next day. Matt moves home in a couple of weeks.
The next day Katie had a wedding flower trial with a couple of girlfriends. Katie has been helping our friend Mel with her upcoming wedding plans. They have had multiple conversations about photographers, decorations and cakes, and Katie is also doing flowers for the day. This has grown into an epic mission, with a very specific “Australiana meets English spring country garden” theme and colours of white, cream, blush pink, apricot and mushroom, plus frayed edge silk ribbons, but Katie is across it. The girls went to Rocklea flower markets and selected a range of English roses, freesias, spray carnations and stocks, supplemented with geraldton was, blushing brides and thriptomene. The trial cost was $200 and they’ve worked out that the full cost for the wedding will be around $1100. Our veranda was covered in flowers.
The Hen and Stag evenings were the following Saturday. The boys had decided to start at the Cattleman’s Bar at the “Ekka”. It is a large Country Show that comes to Brisbane once a year. I hadn’t been for about 10 years, since the kids were much younger, so I made a day of it. I watched the wood chop, dog and cat shows, wandered around the cattle and sheep pavilions, sideshow alley, chicken stalls, home crafts, cake stalls and all things country. I now probably won't need to go to the Ekka again in my lifetime. I also popped by the food pavilion and located the gin tasting stalls. In hindsight, perhaps not a good idea at 11am when there is a long afternoon at the pub ahead. There were about 25 of us attending the Stag Party. We met at the Cattleman’s Bar about 3pm, then on to a nearby pub to watch the rugby and have something to eat. Meanwhile the girls were at a Ceramic Painting workshop in the afternoon, with cake and champagne (Katie doing all the organising once again) and then on to Valley Hops Brewing at Cloudland, for food and jugs of cocktails. Katie had brought Mel a “Bride to Be” sash, headdress and veil to wear, which drew lots of attention and Mel just LOVED the whole thing. About 9pm the boys started drifting to Cloudland to meet the girls and we headed home together.
On Sunday 24 August Matthew moved home. I went over to help him disassemble his bed and dismantle other furniture I had constructed for him. He had a mate with a Ute who did most of the heavy lifting though. Despite selling lots of furniture, there still seemed to be a lot of things coming back to our place. By the end of the day, our downstairs was groaning with all the extra furniture and all of Matt’s assorted possessions.
The next two weekends were HUGE. It was our turn to host Winosaurs on Friday 30 August. The host gets to think of the theme, and most people are very serious about their wine regions, grape varietals and tasting notes, so we went a bit left field. Our theme was finding a bottle with the most interesting label and not talking about the wine but telling a joke instead -- the bluer the better! We were a bit worried, about how people would react, but luckily everyone was on board, and it was a hilarious night. There were some very inappropriate jokes that would have appalled anyone under the age of 30, but everyone seemed to have a great time. I think we also tasted some wine. Katie awarded a prize for the best joke which was a small trophy and a half size bottle of wine with a picture of a Jack Russell on it! We ended up sitting around the firepit with the stragglers listening to music until midnight. Everyone enjoyed it so much they decided the joke evening had to be an annual event! The next night, Saturday 31st August, was Matt’s Leaving Party at our house. He had invited about 40 of his closest friends and we “hosted” the party with cocktails, a cheese platter and Chinese nibbles on the upper veranda from 4pm onwards. It was nice chatting to all his friends, but we were feeling rather jaded after the previous night, so happy when they all left at 9pm to go night-clubbing.
SEPTEMBER The next day, Sunday 1 November, was Matt’s Family Farewell. We went to the Peaks Crossing Pub for lunch with Mum and Dad, along with my sister Lisa and her family. It was also Father’s Day, so the pub was heaving and we had a lovely lunch with Mum and Dad. It reminded me of when I left Australia in 1992, allegedly for 1 year and stayed away for 18 years living in Hong Kong and then the UK. It was a little bittersweet. We were pretty worn out after hosting two parties on consecutive nights, so had a very early night.
The next weekend was Mel & Bernie’s Wedding on Sat 7 September. Mel and Bernie were getting married at Yandina Station, a lovely rustic country wedding venue behind Coolum, about 15 minutes’ drive into the hinterland. We were staying in Coolum with two other couples (Kylie & Paul and Jeremy & Leona) in a lovely Airbnb, also booked by Katie. By this time, Katie was beginning to regret having volunteered to do the flowers as there were 24 huge flower arrangements along the tables plus a swag of greenery along the top table, plus candles and lanterns to set out. It was quite the logistical exercise. Katie took the day off work on Thursday and the three girls did the assembly of bouquets in two parts in the morning and then the evening, stacking them in six huge polystyrene cool boxes for transport up to the Sunshine Coast. On Friday morning Paul and Kylie collected the flower boxes, drove them up to the Sunshine Coast while we headed straight to the Airbnb. On the Friday night, we all went for pre-wedding drinks at Coolum Surf Lifesaving Club, which was heaving, followed by a dinner for 75 people at a nearby Greek Restaurant. It was a very chaotic but a fun evening.
On the morning of the wedding, Katie and the other girls went up early to arrange the flowers, lanterns, candles and ribbons on the tables which took about three hours. Meantime the boys spent the morning on the beach, with strict instructions to have lunch ready at 12:30pm. Fortunately everything went to plan, the girls finished the flowers on time, and we all had a lovely lunch before catching the 2:30pm bus up back up to Yandina Station. Meanwhile, my very big wedding responsibility was as Bus Monitor in charge of music for the short ride up to the venue. The wedding was lovely. It was a beautiful venue with old rustic farmhouse buildings. It was a spectacular afternoon - not a cloud in the sky, perfect temperature, stunning views and green grass as far as the eye could see. We were in black tie, and the ladies wore light and bright pastel colours, which made for beautiful photos. The vows were also lovely and it was very moving. Afterwards there was a cocktail reception, while the bridal party had photos on the meadow and then dinner, where Katie and I were seated at the top of the guest table, right in front of the bridal party, as a recognition of all Katie’s efforts. She was really touched. The room looked lovely, especially the flowers, there were great speeches and a band, and we all danced the night away until it was time to catch the bus back to Coolum. The bus monitor’s music responsibilities were even more critical after everyone had a few drinks. We had a great sing-along to 80s hits and I even asked the bus driver to take the slow road back to the coast. We wobbled back to the Airbnb around midnight. What a lovely wedding.
We drove home on Sunday morning for Matt’s last couple of days
with us. He left late on Monday 9 September, heading for Hong Kong for a few
days and then on to China. More about his plans in our next letter. It was sad
saying goodbye as we’re not sure when he will be back.
Cheers from Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie, Molly & Pippa
