1770 and Skiing in Japan.

                                                                                                                                              Letter No. 275

Dear all,

DECEMBER 2024 We had a very different Christmas this year, with Matt overseas and most of Derek’s family sick with flu and COVID. The three of us enjoyed a slow relaxing day with lots of yummy Christmas food. Straight after Boxing Day we headed up the coast, taking the dogs with us on their first long road trip. The first stop was Noosa and Jessie drove up to enjoy this part with us. The traffic was terrible, and it took over 4 hours for what is usually around 2.5 hours. We had a lovely two-bedroom Airbnb with a pool, and did the usual Noosa beaches, restaurants and shopping. The dogs were very well behaved, sitting nicely under the tables and loving the local dog-friendly Sunshine Beach.

Katie spent a lot of time watching the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race placings, as our good friend Paul was racing his yacht Solace in it. This is a very challenging 1200km ocean race which often has terrible weather conditions. This year was no exception and sadly two people died on the first night being hit by the boom, and one person was washed overboard. It was the first time Paul had raced in the Sydney to Hobart, so we were all quite anxious. There were 16 boats in his class and Solace came 8^th in just under four days, which was a great result.

After three nights in Noosa, we drove on up to Agnes Waters, just north of Bundaberg, and Jessie returned home. It should have been a 4-hour drive but when we were nearly there, we discovered that the police had just closed the road due to a fatal car accident just ahead. We were the first car stopped by the police and then had to make a 1.5-hour detour to get around the road blockage, retracing our route back to the motorway and then driving further north and back-tracking.

When we finally made it to Agnes Waters we were staying in a huge eco-retreat on 7 hectares with a paperbark forest surrounding the house and a lake at one end of the property. We were worried that Molly & Pippa would run off into the forest never to be seen again, so I walked the boundary fence with them both as soon as we arrived which took about 15 minutes. It wasn’t too big and was fully fenced so it was quite secure. They were both very good and stayed within visual distance of the house most of the time, except for the morning when Pippa saw a huge kangaroo just outside and was off like a rocket chasing after it. The big roo took a few large leaps and was over the fence and gone in a flash, but Pippa spent the next two days looking out for it at the exact spot where it had disappeared.  

We spent four days exploring Agnes Waters and neighbouring town of 1770. There wasn’t a lot to see, but we did a few nice walks and looked around a cute little museum dedicated to Captain Cook who had stopped in the nearby bay in 1770, obviously. We ate fish and chips one night while watching the sunset, and did a tour along the coastline in a submersible, looking at the black cockatoos and other wildlife and learning about the ecology of the area. It was New Year’s Eve during our stay, but there wasn’t much to do so we had a nice seafood feast and watched a movie. A pretty sleepy place and a relaxing few days.

JANUARY 2025 After four days in Agnes it was time to head south again. Our next stop was the Bundaberg Rum Distillery, where I did a tour while Katie took the dogs to the dog park. The tour was fascinating and delved into the history and the processes of rum production. The distillery had burnt down entirely twice due to the flammable nature of its product. The Australian Navy had also requisitioned the full output of the distillery in both world wars for the sailors. Katie met me in the gift shop, and we struggled out to the car groaning under the weight of all the Bundy rum and liqueurs I had bought! Pippa and Molly were a hit in the café but weren’t allowed on the tour as they were under 18 (and also dogs).

Our final stop was Rainbow Beach, just north of Noosa. I had last been there when I was about 12 and the town had barely changed! Katie had booked a cute little Airbnb just walking distance from everything, and we had a few more relaxing days playing tennis in the mornings, taking the dogs to the beach and going for walks and drives. We also went to the Carlo Sandblow, which was quite an astonishing sight – a huge sandy area like a giant sand dune, where nature is reclaiming the land by wind blowing the sand up the side of a tall hill. It’s a very unique site which has been used as a movie set due to its spectacular lunar landscape.

We drove back to Brisbane on Tuesday 7^th January and were both back at work the next day. A great little road trip for all of us and the dogs were very well behaved.

On 16 January we went to The Gabba to see Brisbane Heat play the Hobart Hurricanes at cricket with our friends Mel and Bernie. It was quite an eventful night as the DJ’s mixing booth caught fire midway through the game. There was a lot of smoke and flames about 3m high. It was on the other side of the stadium, and it was pretty concerning. We thought they would evacuate the stadium, but after about five minutes someone found a fire extinguisher and put the fire out quite quickly. There were a lot of jokes about burning the dance floor, not the stadium. The game was very exciting too and Brisbane lost on the last ball.

In other January events, we went to Slipstream Brewery for lunch with Ian and Cathy Muir who have moved back from Hong Kong after 30 years! Our school mate John and his wife Karen also came, and it was great to catch up. We also enjoyed Australia Day long weekend, with the usual Australia Day BBQ at our friends the Biddle’s. They had a cute new puppy who was very cuddly although also a little bitey.

FEBRUARY 2025 On 1^st February Sandra Rontree came to Brisbane. Sandra was a great friend during our Manchester days and was here for five days on a work conference. She arrived on Saturday night and on the Sunday we all went on a boat trip to Tangalooma on Moreton Island. Jess came with us as well. We picked Sandra up at her hotel and were on the boat by 9am. It was a perfect summer day. It was about 1.5 hours ride to Tangalooma and then we had 45 minutes snorkeling around the shipwrecks just off the beach. There are 15 shipwrecks, all deliberately sunk by the Queensland Government between 1963 and the 1980s to create a safe anchorage for recreational boats. Over time, the coral has formed around them, attracting diverse marine life and heaps of colourful reef fish, so it is a popular spot for snorkeling and diving. It was awesome. We had a seafood lunch on the boat and an afternoon on the beach before heading back to Brisbane.

Sandra’s daughter Zoe arrived in Brisbane a couple of days later and on Wednesday 5^th February they both came to our house for a Surf and Turf BBQ dinner with Moreton Bay bugs. Zoe and Jessie had best friends in primary school but hadn’t seen each other for 14 years. They got on like a house on fire and it was great to see them reconnecting. The next night we met Sandra and Zoe again at Howard Smith Wharves in the city for cocktails at Mr Percival’s followed by a delicious Greek dinner at Greca. It was so great to see them both and especially to catch up on all the Hale and Bowdon news and gossip.  

We went for a belated Christmas lunch with Lisa and Andrew on 9^th February as everyone had been sick at Christmas and our usual festive gathering had been cancelled. Everyone was looking fully recovered and we had a good family day.

The next weekend I went on a Boy’s Ski Trip to Japan. There were six of us going altogether, four on the same flight on Friday. The flight left on Valentine’s Day; luckily, I had someone else to blame as I hadn’t booked the flights. We flew into Osaka, but the flight was delayed and we didn’t get to our hotel until about 11pm and hadn’t had dinner. Luckily there was a noodle place just downstairs. We made it to bed just after midnight. We were all in a dorm style room, but I was so tired, I didn’t wake up at all despite the inevitable snoring.  Next morning we had to get up at 6:30am to get back to the airport for our flight to Chitose Airport. The flight was again delayed (thanks Jetstar) and we only had time for a quick bite in the airport before we jumped on a bus for the 1.5hr trip to the ski field at Niseko, arriving around 4pm. I hadn’t realised what an epic journey it would be to get there. Fortunately, we were staying in a nice modern 4-bedroom (8 bed) house right in the centre of town.

Our group of six had very mixed skiing abilities. Two were complete beginners (never skied before), two were competent (I was one) and two were expert (aka insane for people our age). We helped the beginners get their skis on and to the meeting place for their first lesson and set off. We had six full days skiing and made it round all three valleys over the course of the week. Due to our different ability levels, we mostly skied in pairs and met up for lunch. On the last day we took the beginners almost to the top of the mountain and skied down together on red runs. They were pretty nervous. They didn’t really trust the “expert” skiers to look after them but trusted me. Sure enough, the experts decided to go down a black run to meet us at the bottom. One of the beginners fell and lost a ski about 50m above me. I had to take off my skis and trudge back up the hill to help him get his skis on again as the slope was too steep for him.

Niseko was nice but was full of Aussies. Even the locals had Australian accents! We had some great meals out over the week. There were also lots of food trucks in little squares with seats and open fires to keep warm. They were cute, but it was too cold to sit outside for long. After dinner we went back to our house most nights and played cards (and drank whiskey). We left on the Saturday morning and did the whole trip in reverse. We arrived home on Sunday morning after an overnight flight from Tokyo. It was a great week’s skiing, but I would think twice about going again to Niseko due to the long journey.   

The day after I got back I went to work but started to feel unwell by lunchtime and had to go home. I spent the next two weeks only working half days with a high fever and hacking cough. I must have picked up some germs on the last flight home. I isolated myself downstairs in Matthew’s room, so Katie and Jess wouldn’t catch it from me (they didn’t).

At the end of February, it was time for another Winosaurs evening. For something different, rather than talking about the wine we had bought, we had to talk about something of historical interest in the suburb. Lots of people had researched their own houses and told us when they had originally been built, who had owned and lived in them and so on. It was pretty interesting. We talked about Francis Lookout which is in the next suburb and has early settlers’ graves from the 1800s. Jessica had volunteered for our local council woman a few years ago and helped to research and construct a signboard at the site talking about its history, so we had a ready-made information talk. It was a good evening and very interesting. One of our neighbours is planning to put the information together into a little book. I was still a little worn out from my flu, so I went home promptly at the end of the formalities while Katie kicked on a little.

MARCH 2025 We had a sad day on 1 March as Jessica moved out. She moved into a four-bedroom house in Milton with three girlfriends. I helped disassemble and reassemble her bed, while she and Katie moved everything else and gave her new room a good clean. Her room is a good size and looked lovely when she got it all set up. It was very quiet at home without her and felt strange to now be “empty nesters”. She wasn’t gone for too long though, as she came back the next day (Sunday) for Family Dinner. Pippa was devastated too, and every night for weeks she waited downstairs for Jessie to come home. We had to drag her up to bed every night, poor little dog. Eventually she got used to it and rejoined us upstairs. She still gets wildly excited every time Jessie calls in for a visit.

The next week Brisbane was threatened by Cyclone Alfred. People started panicking waaay too early and started closing things down from Tuesday when the cyclone wasn’t expected until Thursday evening. Just as the entire city had shut down, the cyclone promptly slowed down and hung around off the coast for three more days. Our office was closed from Wednesday, but the Cyclone didn’t end up getting to us until Sunday morning. During this time, it got far less intense. There were some quite strong winds on the coast and fallen trees and 500,000 people lost power but (luckily for us) there was hardly any impact at our house. We did have a lot of rain over the week – 685mm according to our rain gauge. Meanwhile in Milton, Jessie’s house lost power for three days, so it was an interesting start to her life with her new housemates.

I had a work trip to Mulwala on 12^th to 13^th March for a project we have there. It is on the New South Wales / Victorian border and a very beautiful part of the country. It was very dry and hot but still very scenic. That weekend, Katie went to see a Collectivo concert with a group of her Pilates girlfriends. Collectivo is a classical music group run by my sister Lisa’s sister-in-law Tanya Frazer. Katie said it was very good and met Tanya and the other musicians in the foyer afterwards. The husbands met in West End after the concert, and we all had dinner at Italian Street Kitchen which was nice.

On 16^th March Katie and I had a date night and went to Sirromet Winey for A Day on the Green to see Roxette. The were supported by Jon Stevens and Boom Crash Opera. Jon Stevens was fantastic and alternated between INXS and Noiseworks songs for the whole set. He is so great. I had never seen Boom Crash Opera before, but they are also one of my favourite bands. Roxette was fantastic. The lead singer, Marie Fredriksson, died of a brain tumour in 2019, but had been replaced by another Swedish pop star Lena Philipsson and sounded almost identical. The band was so good. I still have an earworm of Roxette songs two months later.

The next weekend we went to Peregian Beach for the weekend. I took the Friday off and picked Katie up from work early afternoon and we made it to the pub for dinner by 6pm. We stayed at our friend Kylie’s house. I have been helping her do structural alterations to the house. Unfortunately, the renovations were in full swing, so we had a bedroom but no running water. It was a little like posh camping. The dogs came with us too and we spent Saturday morning on the dog beach. The weather was perfect, and they had a great time on the beach. It is funny that now Matt and Jessie have left home we’ve started taking the dogs out instead and doing nice things for them rather than the kids. Pippa just loves racing up and down the beach, seeing all the other dogs and dashing into the surf.

That’s about all for now.

Cheers from Derek, Katie, Molly & Pippa

Katie's Trip to China & Christmas

 

Letter No. 274

Dear all,

Katie went to China on 25^th November to meet Matt for two weeks visiting Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xi’an. Here is her trip report:

SHANGHAI Matt and I met at the airport on Sunday. It was so great to see him there waiting for me. We took the fast Maglev train to town and a taxi to our hotel, the very luxe 5-star Shanghai EDITION, a contemporary designer hotel with a New-York-meets-Milan vibe. The view of the Shanghai Bund from the 29^th floor Roof Bar was astonishing; we had drinks there and then dinner at the hotel’s refined Chinese restaurant Canton Disco.

On Monday we strolled along the Bund admiring the heritage buildings, then on to the Yuyuan Gardens Bazaar with its cute and charming shops and restored historic buildings. Ye Olde Shanghai for tourists but lovely nevertheless. We visited a tea house for tea tasting and sweet treats, with a huge selection from which we chose jasmine tea and white rose tea with jellied cumquats and crystallised sugar pandas. We ate fried shallot cakes from a street vendor for lunch, which were so good. In the evening, we took a one-hour Night Cruise on the Huangpu River and then went on to a tiny local restaurant for dinner, which serves the most delicious Xiao Long Bao crab dumplings (steamed buns) -- so good that the restaurant has a Michelin star! We finished the night with a cocktail in the hotel’s elegant Lobby Bar.

Tuesday was a great day exploring the French Concession area in a full-day walking tour. The whole area was conceded to the French from 1849-1946 and so there are European style buildings and tree-lined streets not found anywhere else in Shanghai, with a distinct feel in each of the different areas. Our first stop was Xintiandi which has very high-end French restaurants and boutique stores selling French perfumery, Moet & Chandon and other luxury goods. Second stop was Tianzifang, with mostly arts & crafts type stores, hole in the wall places and stalls offering hands-on activities like massages and ear-cleaning.

We also did a somewhat accidental deep dive into propaganda, visiting four tiny museums, each no more than half an hour to explore. The first two were very current and thronged with Chinese people: the Museum and the Memorial Hall of the Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Very interesting to see the way that the CPC presents history with multiple videos of happy smiling Chinese people enjoying prosperity in flourishing Chinese nation etc etc. We then visited the Former Home of Sun Yat-Sen, who is considered the prime revolutionary of the breakdown of Chinese dynastic rule and the initiator/father of a new China.  Uniquely, he is revered in both China and Taiwan. Finally, the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre, a tiny space packed with over 6000 propaganda posters from the 60s onwards, all collected by one man (who was there and who we talked to). Many of Chairman Mao’s posters were destroyed in the 80s, which is why he started his collection “to preserve history”. It would have been pretty subversive / revolutionary at the time. It was completely fascinating. Very few people there, no Chinese, only foreigners.

In the evening, we emerged in the hotel lobby just as a large “tree-lighting” event was starting. The hotel’s friendly concierge spotted us, ushered us straight into the VIP area and handed us champagne and canapés. Afterwards we were photographed with all the presenters as VIP guests. We had a nice Shanghainese dinner with a 1950s style cabaret singer and then a final drink in lobby before bed.

HANGZHOU On Wednesday we had a 1.5 hr train trip to Hangzhou. Chinese train stations are huge, as big as airports, and the trains are fast, clean and efficient. We stayed in Westlake enclave, a country village almost in the forest and close to the lake. Dan’s Sea Country Guesthouse couldn’t have been more of a contrast to the Edition. It was small, cute and traditional, with only five guest rooms and very quaint and quirky. There were cats everywhere.

In the afternoon we walked to the Lingyin Temple complex. It was a pretty forest area and vast temple complex. One temple had 500 bronze Buddhas and another housed the largest wooden Buddha in the world, apparently. We used our incense sticks to wish for family health and prosperity. On our walk back we stumbled upon the most amazing Chinese restaurant. It was tucked away but was heaving and seemed very elegant. We had a cute, curtained cubby inside the restaurant. Only after we sat down we realised that it was a vegetarian, organic, alcohol-free, and fusion restaurant bringing in flavours of Thailand, Japan, India and Italy. It also turned out to be Michelin-star recommended! The food was unusual but absolutely delicious. We had vegetable wontons with chilli oil, Westlake sweet and sour lotus root, mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and truffle-infused rice, which was divine.

Thursday started with a very traditional breakfast at the guesthouse of Chinese rice pudding, boiled eggs, dumplings and a few cooked vegetables. We then set off to explore the beautiful Westlake area from all angles. We walked around it on very pretty paths, cycled around it on rented bicycles, and took a lovely boat cruise across it. We also visited the famous Leifang Pagoda for fantastic views across the whole lake. There was also a tea plantation and museum. There was a LOT of walking (my iphone Health app was in shock) so we had to stop for restorative coffee breaks at the ever-present Starbucks.

Friday was a slower-paced day exploring old Hangzhou old town – the tourist shops, the market, the Drum Tower, the very beautiful home of a wealthy businessman built in the 1870s, and the museum of Chinese medicine (this area is quite well known as a centre for pharmaceutical knowledge). We did some shopping, ate more delicious dumplings and then in the evening we found an Italian wine bar and had pizza and red wine for a change.

XI’AN Saturday was a travel day as we flew from Hangzhou to Xi’an. There was a stuff up with taxis in the morning, as we hadn’t realised that taxis couldn’t enter the gated village we were staying in at the weekend. It was a bit of a mad rush, but we made the plane and then arrived at the Han Tang Inn in Xi’an around 4pm. It was a very different vibe again, a small hotel, but very elegant in a minimalist but homely style. We had a delicious Chinese dinner that night at a nearby restaurant, with a new favourite -- sweet and sour eggplant.

On Sunday we went to the Museum of the Terracotta Army, which was an absolute highlight of the trip. It was a full day with a one-hour bus ride and there was so much to see. The scale of the site is just breathtaking. Emperor Qin had it built over 2200 years ago to protect himself in the afterlife; it took 720,000 workers nearly 40 years to complete the work. There were three pits to see. Pit 1 houses around 2000 warriors, mainly soldiers, with many more yet to be unearthed and possibly over 6000 in total. The museum was built around the site in 1976 when they were rediscovered, and the archaeological teams are purposely not excavating them yet because the original bright colours fade or peel very quickly when exposed to natural light, so for the time being they remain buried. Pit 2 has about 700 warriors and captains, and Pit 3 has just 72, these were the army leaders & generals. There were clay horses too, but the carriages (made of wood) have long since disintegrated. Some of the warriors were found almost whole, but some were in pieces, most likely due to fire, earthquakes and looting, and some have been painstakingly reconstructed. No two faces are the same, and the detail in the hairstyles, the armour, the body shapes, the faces, the shoes, is all just incredible. Sadly, all the original craftsmen met an unfortunate end when they were buried alive to keep the army’s location secret. Emperor Qin was quite the tyrant. We also went to see a smaller museum with a reconstruction of horses and two carriages, which was also astonishing. We took so many photos. It was an incredible sight.

That evening we decided to try out a bit of Xi’an nightlife. After some wandering, we found Sharky’s, a bit like a Hard Rock Cafe concept serving burgers, tacos, cocktails and with a live band. We had a great and random night. I ended up on the dance floor giggling with a group of local girls while Matt played pool with a couple of engineers from Kazakhstan who didn’t speak any English. We got back to our hostel well after 1pm. What fun.

Monday was another Xi’an highlight – cycling the imposing City Walls. They have been fully restored so you can cycle right around in about two hours. Each corner has a beautiful tower and there is a huge entrance gate on each side with an internal “trap” to keep out invaders. The city walls were so thick, it would have been almost impenetrable. Xi’an was one of the ancient imperial capital cities of China, long before Beijing was a capital, so it just oozes history and historical significance. Local couples love to dress up in ancient costume and go up there to have photos taken. That night we went to the Tang Dynasty Show. It was designed for tourists, but an impressive show nevertheless with dancing, costumes, music, staging, acrobatics and special effects, telling the story of Empress Qin.

Our final day was a full-day trip to Hua Shan, one of China’s five sacred mountains, known for its steep and precipitous geography. This is a huge granite rock formation, with the tallest summit being South Peak at 2154m above sea level. The cable car ride did most of the work but was the most extreme thing I have ever done. It was utterly terrifying and an astonishing feat of engineering as the cable spanned wide valleys and then went straight up the sheer rock. Derek would have loved it but I could barely look. Once at the top, there was still a fair bit of climbing to do, and eventually summitted the three highest peaks (South, West and East). It felt quite glorious being at the top of the South Peak, but not something I’ll repeat. What a special trip it was. I loved having this time to travel with Matt, with so many exciting experiences.

Back to Derek now. Perhaps too much food info from Katie there! I took the day off on Friday and picked Katie up from the airport. Unfortunately, she had picked up a bug (which had written off just the last day of her trip) and was quite unwell. I took her straight to the doctor from the airport and it turned out to be Influenza A and she then spent the next week in bed. It was Matthew’s birthday on 8^th December. He was in Taiwan by himself; it was the first birthday he has not been with us. We did have a lovely Facetime catch up with him though. Katie recovered well enough for us to go and see the movie of Wicked on 14^th December. We had dinner in the village afterwards at a new wine bar. The previous one on the same site went broke, and the food in the new one was much better, so hopefully it will stay in business. The movie was awesome if you haven’t seen it. The next day was the Mortlake Road Christmas Party. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon and good to catch up with all our neighbours.

It was our last day of work for 2024 on 20^th December. We had lunch at the Waterloo Hotel just down the road from the office and settled in for the afternoon. I wobbled home about 7:30pm and had a nap on the sofa. The next day was our annual Christmas Drinks party, so doing the setup was a bit of a struggle. We had a new Christmas Cocktail this year, an Apple Ginger Spritz – gin, sparkling apple juice, ginger beer, with mint and red currants. It was quite a hit. Katie did a lovely spread of canapes – cucumber dill circles, rare beef on crostini, smoked salmon with beetroot and horseradish, baked brie, devils on horseback and turkey cranberry pastry puffs. This was followed by the usual ham and coleslaw rolls, then mince pies and run balls. We had around 45 people but Katie vastly over catered as usual so we had all of the above for the next week. I also managed to stuff up the calculation for the cocktail quantities, so we’ll be enjoying the Apple Ginger Spritz for quite some time. Oh well. It was a great party.

We had an unusual Christmas this year. We were meant to go to my sister Lisa’s for lunch but their whole family got struck down with COVID. Lisa rang me on Christmas Eve, about 30 seconds after I had bought enough prawns and oysters for a party of 20. We invited Mum and Dad to come to us instead, so we could tackle the seafood feast, but on Christmas morning, Mum came down with the flu. So, in the end it was just Katie, Jess and I for the first time ever. We had a very quiet and relaxed morning, opened our presents slowly, had lunch, lots of champagne and a snooze and swim in the afternoon. I managed to struggle through the oysters, Katie had a few prawns and we froze the rest!  

We hope you all had a healthy and happy Christmas, with hopefully some travel opportunities and great food in the new year.

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