Melbourne and Term 1

 Letter No. 239

Dear all,

JANUARY On Friday 20 January we set off to the airport early Friday morning. Katie gave me a Mystery Weekend away for my 50^th Birthday with two days of entertainment and I had no idea where we were going. Matthew dropped us off and I was pleasantly surprised to discover we were going to Melbourne for a long weekend. Our plane was a little late and due to the time difference we arrived around lunch time. We had been planning to go to our hotel just off Bourke Street and then wander around and look for something to eat but as it was a bit later than planned we decided to grab a bite at the airport instead. We then caught a taxi into the city. As we were coming in we saw a police helicopter hovering over the city and police cars going crazy everywhere. We checked into our hotel and switched on the TV to see the coverage of the idiot who had just driven down Bourke Street killing eight people with his car. It was quite shocking. If we had not stopped for lunch at the airport we could have easily been walking down Bourke Street at that time.

We went for a walk in the afternoon along the river and wandered around the bars and sights. Katie said we had an appointment at 5:45pm and had to be there on time. It was hard to get across the city with all the police barricades. We had to cross Bourke Street and it was barricaded for the whole length (1.6km) about four blocks wide.  I have never seen so many police cars. At one intersection I counted 30 police cars blocking all directions, and there were dozens of intersections!

Katie was wandering around a small alleyway trying to find the place we were going when we ran into Liz Redfern in the street. She is a great friend of ours who had just moved from Hong Kong to Melbourne. I was thinking to myself what a shame it was to run into her just when we were late for an appointment as it would have been nice to catch up when the penny finally dropped... Doh! She was coming with us. So we went on to a hidden speakeasy bar for drinks, which was very hard to find with no sign and behind a nondescript brown door. Inside it was heaving with people queuing for a table. Our table came with its own waiter in 1920s period costume. Ian Whitton arrived a short time later and we had a lovely time catching up. The table was only booked for 1½ hours so we had to leave at the end of our time – weird for a bar. We then went onto a fabulous French restaurant for dinner. It was a lovely evening catching up with Liz & Ian and finding out all the gossip from Hong Kong.

Next morning we caught the tram down to the Melbourne Tennis Centre for the Australian Tennis Open. Katie had booked seats on the Rod Laver Arena where we saw three terrific matches including Rafal Nadal in a very long match and Serena Williams in a very short one. We had great seats and it was a fantastic day. We had been planning to go out for dinner that evening, but the tennis went on so late we just grabbed a bite on the way home. The daytime session was meant to finish at 6pm but we were still there at 8.30pm. We were glad we didn’t have tickets for the evening session as it didn’t start until after 9pm and went on until nearly 2am.

We were back nice and early the next day with our tickets for the Margaret Court Arena. We saw some fantastic doubles and women’s tennis and also spent a bit of time wandering around the other courts and food venues. There were some great eating zones based on all the other tennis grand slam cities – London, Paris & New York. Naturally we spent some time in the Wimbledon section having champagne and strawberries. The tennis went on until after 8pm again. It was a lovely two days.

The next day we caught the tram down to the Melbourne Star, a large observation wheel in the docklands to look at the view of the city. We then caught the tram back to Bourke Street and went to view the floral tributes for the people who had been killed on Friday. It was very sad. We had lunch and a little mooch around the shops before flying back to Brisbane.

While we were flying to Melbourne Matthew had a car accident on his way home from the airport. It was actually down the end of our street. He had just turned into Mortlake Road and found there was a stationery Ute in front of him. The Ute driver then tried to reverse into a driveway, without seeing Matt who had turned into the road behind him, and slammed straight into the front of Matthew’s car. Matt’s car was stationery at the time and he said he tried to beep the horn but it all happened very quickly. He couldn’t have backed up anyway, as that would have put the car on the main road! We could tell that it was going to be awkward as the Ute driver had refused to give Matt his insurance details (possibly because he had noticed Matt’s P plates). I asked Matthew to door knock the nearby houses in case someone had witnessed the accident. Luckily a neighbour a few doors up was standing on their footpath at the time and corroborated Matthew’s story that he had been stationery and the Ute driver had reversed into him. I tried to resolve it with the other driver on the phone, but he still refused to give us his insurance details so we assumed he must be uninsured so we put it in the hands of our insurance company. They fixed up Matt’s car almost immediately and I understand they are now taking the other driver to court as he still is refusing to pay. No doubt Matthew will have to go and testify eventually, which will be good practice for his legal training.

 
On Australia Day, 26^th January Katie had her Citizenship Ceremony. We had been hoping it would be at City Hall as Jessica often sings in the ceremonies with the Australian Girls’ Choir. However Katie was assigned the Oxley Bowls Club – how very Australian! It was a baking hot day and there was no air conditioning, just a few slow-moving fans. We had tea and lamingtons and waited for the local politician to show up, who was 15 minutes late. The ceremony finally got underway when we were all a lather of sweat. Of the 58 people getting citizenship, there was one other from the UK, a few eastern Europeans and the rest were from India, Africa and the Middle East. Katie was definitely in the minority. Our friends Tony and Wings had come as well and Tony said it was tradition to go to a dingy pub and have a pot of XXXX after your citizenship ceremony so that is what we did. Afterwards we went to an Australia Day party with our friends Helen and Gary, played cricket on the river bank and then raced home to host our own Barbie with another six couples. It was a lovely if exhausting day and it was good to get back to work the next day for a rest.

FEBRUARY On Friday 3 February Katie was organising the Welcome to STAGE Evening to kick off another year of Jessie’s dance troupe STAGE. Katie is the president of the Support Group now so we are more involved than ever before. There is a new coach/coordinator this year Chelsea who is a terrific teacher and so everyone is quite positive about the exciting year ahead for STAGE. As usual I ran the bar and packed it up afterwards while everyone was having the meeting. Katie tells me everything three or four times so I didn’t bother going for the briefing – I could have given it myself!  

On 7^th February I went to see Guns N’ Roses, supported by Rose Tattoo with my mate John. It was a great concert but I had to fly to Darwin the next morning very early and hadn’t packed so it was a bit of a scramble in the morning. I had two days of meetings with Defence in Darwin before coming back on the Friday. The following Sunday, Katie and I went with John and Karen to A Day on the Green at Sirromet Winery to see Simple Minds, B52s, Models and Machinations. John managed to wing some corporate tent tickets so we sat in the tent eating free food until the sun went down. It was still very hot in mid-February as you would expect, so the shade in the tent was a huge bonus. We went down to our seats near the front to watch B52s and then Simple Minds. It was a really fantastic night!

Jessica received an Honours award at school on Weds 15 February. It is for all girls with a GPA over a certain value.  It is about 5-10% of each year level that receives an academic award. They had a special assembly and the girls were allowed to wear the formal white dress for the day to make them stand out. Jess was very pleased to get the award and she strives for it every year.

Two days later we went to dinner with some friends at the Stokehouse Restaurant in Southbank. It is quite upmarket and has a fabulous view of the city. The friends we went with, Nathan and Sigrid had been burgled two nights before and had lost all their credit cards, which made paying a little difficult. Thieves had come in through an unlocked back door while they were home, grabbed their purse and wallet off the dining table and spent hundreds of dollars via paywave within an hour. A little scary that they had been in the house at the time. They were going to Melbourne for the weekend leaving the next day, which made things a little inconvenient. It was a big drinking evening however and we had a very slow start the next day!  

The next weekend we went to our friends the Suggs on Saturday night for Lisa’s birthday. They had drinks and nibbles on the lawn. They did a lovely pulled pork dinner. It was a very late night. The next day Katie and I went to IKEA to buy 12 chairs as props for STAGE to use in one of their dance routines. Unfortunately the chairs needed to be assembled and that took most of the rest of the day unwrapping and putting them together. STAGE is already taking over our lives.

MARCH It was the St Aidan’s Open Day on 4^th March. Naturally Katie was at school very early setting up the display table for STAGE and was there until midday. Jessica had volunteered to give school tours to prospective parents and STAGE also did a dance performance to entertain the crowds. That afternoon Katie and Jessie headed off to the Gabba to see Adele who was in Brisbane for two nights on her “Hello” tour. The Gabba is not easy to get to as there isn’t a nearby train station, and there were 60,000 people attending the concert. The city council had closed roads and laid on hundreds of extra buses but this just created massive traffic jams. The concert start was delayed but it was all worth the wait as Adele was fabulous by all accounts and they had a great time. Not everyone was happy though; apparently the cricket pitch had to be re-laid afterwards and the greens master at the Gabba was reported in the media saying that it would be 15 years before the pitch would be the same again.

I went to A Day on the Green again on Sunday 12^th March with John, this time to see Don Henley. He was supported by Melody Pool, Richard Clapton and Jewel. The last time we went there we got passes to a VIP tent with food and private bar.  Luckily we had kept the access passes and were quite pleased to discover that they worked again! We sat in the shade until the sun went down and then went down to our seats near the front again. Don Henley was awesome. I really should have made an effort to see The Eagles at some time in the past.

We went to see Hidden Figures on 19^th March. It was a really fascinating movie. It was about a group of black women who were brilliant mathematicians and were working on the NASA space program in the 1960s computing the trajectories of the spacecraft. The ladies were called “computers” and the racial segregation and discrimination at the time was fascinating.

It was the St Aidan’s Trivia Night on 25^th March. As usual we made a bit of an effort. The theme was Rock of Ages and our table went as “Spice Girls & Friends”. Katie went as Ginger Spice and had recruited a few girlfriends as Posh, Sporty, Scary and Baby. The “Friends” included David Beckham, a few roadies dressed as stage crew and I went as Elton John who I discovered had sung with the Spice Girls at least once. I was also the Table Captain. We had a great night, and came 5^th out of 14 in the Trivia. Katie came second in the women’s fancy dress competition. It was universally acknowledged that she was robbed. Fortunately I came first in the men’s fancy dress contest and won a $50 David Jones voucher!

I took the day off on 29^th March to attend Jessica’s School Gymnastics competition. Katie had to work so I went by myself after dropping Jess at school to catch the school bus there. I felt a bit out of place as there were only two men in the whole audience but it was nice to see her compete.

The next day ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie swept through Brisbane. I had a 7am meeting in the city and the rain was horizontal as I caught a cab into the city. When my meeting finished at 9am I could not get a cab for love or money and the weather had worsened. I ended up catching the train / walking in the rain back to the office. I was talking to someone in the lift up that I bet our office would get closed as our company is so risk adverse. He didn’t believe me. About an hour later we got a message we could all go home due to the “weather event”. All managers were then expected to check that all their staff got home safely. As I had taken the previous day off, I stayed back working after everyone else had left. I ended up getting told off for not going home despite the fact that the rain was no worse than dozens of thunderstorms through the summer. Talk about a nanny state.

On 31^st March Matthew, Katie and I went to Siobhan Brodie’s 18^th birthday party. It was an outdoor party on the cliffs of the river overlooking the CBD at Kangaroo Point. They were really lucky with the weather. It had been bucketing down rain all week as the rain depression from Cyclone Debbie swept through South East Queensland, but fortunately this was a lovely evening. There were about 50 teenagers and 10 parents there. We left about 11pm as the teenagers went off clubbing in the Valley.

APRIL Our friends Mo & Dave Lawson and their girls Cat and Maggie came to visit us on Sunday 9^th April. They were in a campervan stopping with us for a night on their way north to the Great Barrier Reef. We knew Mo and Dave in Hong Kong when Mo and Katie worked at Macmillan together over 20 years ago. They left in the 1990s and have lived variously in Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and now Scotland. Over the years we have caught up with them in various locations including Sydney and Glasgow. We had a seafood BBQ dinner and the girls spent almost the whole time in the pool. Cat loved playing with Molly too. Jessie was away on week-long choir camp in Sydney which was a pity, but it was really lovely to catch up and didn’t seem like it had been several years since we’d last seen them all.

Mo and Dave and the girls had a few hours back in Brisbane on Saturday 15^th April before their flight home, so we met them for an afternoon at Southbank. We went for a nice wander around the markets while they bought souvenir Tim Tams and Australian flag bikinis, so that the girls could swim at City Beach. It was a lovely afternoon. Afterwards there was just time for hot chocolates at Max Brenner before they were off to the airport for a long trip home.  We do love catching up with old friends and our studio is always ready for visitors… a hint for those of you who haven’t made it to Brisbane yet.   

Love Molly Katie, Derek, Jessica and Matthew

A new Australian!

With her proud family.

Jessica's academic award ceremony

Liz and Katie - cocktails again.

Australian Open

Elton and Ginger Spice

 

Fiji

Letter No. 238

Dear all,

We had a lovely Christmas at my sister Lisa’s house and two days later we set off on our annual holiday, this year to Fiji. We caught an Uber to the airport. It was the first time I had used Uber but after only one trip I am a convert - it was so efficient and half the price of a regular taxi. The flight to Nadi in Fiji was about three and a half hours. We picked up a hire car at the airport and drive to Lautoka, Fiji's second largest city (actually a small town), which was a forty-minute drive. By the time we arrived it was about 5pm due to the time difference, so we went straight to the pool to watch the sun go down.

The next morning I went for a run along the harbour front and into the town. It was only 6:30am but the town was bustling with people and buses, dogs and chickens all going somewhere. After a quick breakfast we set off to drive to Navala Village. This is number four on the top ten things to see in Fiji. It is a traditional village high in the mountains. All of the houses are constructed in the traditional way with timber and high thatched roofs. The road was apparently a very rough dirt road. It was only 76km but we asked a few people how long it would take to get there and estimates varied from two hours to several days! We had to stop and ask people for directions about six times as there were no apparent signs to Navala. The road was fairly rugged with a few hairy single lane rickety timber bridges and many potholes but we eventually made it. For one of the top sights in Fiji you need to be pretty persistent to actually get there.

We arrived at the village and the first person we saw asked us to wait and seconds later came back in full traditional costume. She then took us to see the Village Chief who took our entry fee and told us a bit about traditional village life. He didn't really have a tourist patter so we just asked him lots of questions. It was quite interesting. His concept of numbers and time was a little vague. We were told there were 900 houses in the village (I guessed 100 after a quick walk and count) and also there were 900 people in the village. As we walked around the village we acquired a group of children about four to seven years old who held our hands in a big line and showed us around. It was quite beautiful and remote, up in the hills and set against a backdrop of rugged mountains. There was no electricity or running water. We went to see the main village features – the school, the church, the graveyard and the river. They asked if we wanted to stay for lunch and were delighted when we said yes. We had a huge feast of traditional Fijian dishes sitting cross legged in the floor. It was very hot and humid and it was good to sit inside and cool down.

In the afternoon we went to the Lautoka market. It was a typical Pacific Islander market of fruit, meat and fish, as well as a small craft market with lots of interesting woven and carved objects. We bought a Fiji rugby T-shirt for Matthew before going back to the hotel for a swim. That night we walked into town for dinner. There were only two restaurants recommended in the guide book and one was closed, so we went to the Chinese restaurant. We were a little alarmed that they had a plaque proudly proclaiming that they had "90% compliance with Fiji food health standards". We decided this must be a good thing if they were advertising it on their front desk and anywhere else would only have a lower compliance, so we were undeterred and had a lovely Chinese meal.

The next day we got up early and left Lautoka and drove past Nadi and on around the island. We stopped en route at the Momi Guns. Again for a fairly prominent tourist attraction they were poorly signposted and we drove a long way in the wrong direction on another bone-rattling dirt road. The Momi guns are two impressive 6-inch guns installed in 1941 by the New Zealand defence force to protect Fiji from invasion by the Japanese. The guns are at a perfect lookout spot with an amazing 200-degree view over the ocean. During the Second World War the guns were only fired once which was a mistake. The New Zealand troops stationed there fired at a ship which had failed to signal properly and turned out to be a New Zealand navy ship. Luckily they missed, otherwise there could have been an international incident. Fiji was not invaded during the war and most Fijians will proudly tell you that this was due to the fact that the Japanese thought they were all cannibals.

We drove on a bit further and stopped at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes. These are a series of wind-blown sand dunes stretching down to the ocean. They are 5km wide, 1km long and up to 60m high. We did a lovely hour-long walk through the dunes and adjacent mahogany forest. It was very hot though and we had to sit and rest for quite a while afterwards to cool down. After lunch in Sigatoka town we drove on to Namatakula Village where we had pre-booked a Homestay. Again it proved very difficult to find. We drove to where we thought it was but discovered that everyone in the village was getting ready for a wedding. We asked for directions and got sent down a very rough road. We were too concerned about getting bogged and turned around, drove back to a nearby resort and asked for directions. Luckily they knew the place and phoned ahead. We eventually found the place, less than 50m from where we had previously stopped. No signs whatsoever and our hosts had "forgotten" we were coming!

The Homestay was in a traditional house in a small village on the beach. A group of children showed us around. The traditional Fijian wedding celebrations were in full swing by this time with singing and dancing and flowers and firecrackers. They showed us the roast pig, which was wrapped in vine leaves and had been cooked in a pit in the ground. It was being wheeled over in a wheelbarrow to form the centrepiece of the wedding feast. Matt, Jess and I went swimming in a freshwater creek and played tag with the local kids on the beach. We went back and had showers and a lovely traditional Fijian fish curry and vegetables with some of the family. It was a rather sprawling house and there seemed to be about 25 people living there with assorted dogs, pigs, chickens and horses.

Afterwards we went back to see how the wedding was going. At the community hall the village chief invited us to have some Kava with the men of the village. The men seemed to all be in one hall drinking and singing and playing guitars, while the women in the adjacent house were singing and dancing to great merriment. We were all made to feel very welcome. It was quite fun. Kava was not to everyone's taste though. It is a narcotic but we only had one glass so it had no effect on anyone. We stayed and listened to the singing for quite a while before going back to our house. Our room was very hot so we opened all the windows, dropped the mosquito nets and tried to sleep. The singing and laughing and dogs scrapping went on until well after midnight and then the roosters started to crow around 5am so we didn't get much sleep. After an early and quick breakfast we were on the road again. 

We drove back to Nadi to return the hire car and get a transfer to Denerau port to catch the catamaran to Malololailai Island which is in the Mamanuca island group. We dropped the car back at 9:00am and thought we had plenty of time for the 45-minute transfer to the port. Half an hour after our transfer time the driver had still not turned up. When I pointed out this to the transfer desk they seemed unfazed despite the fact we would only have 10 minutes between arriving at the port and the boat departure. I pointed at my watch a lot and then said I was going to get a cab so they started to take it a little more seriously. The driver showed up at 9:40 but fortunately the 45-minute transfer only took 15 minutes so we had plenty of time in the end. Fijians seem to have a poor sense of time and urgency!

The MaloloCat took us to Malololailai Island, where we were staying at the very elegant Musket Cove Island Resort. We were greeted with welcome coconuts and Fijian necklaces on arrival. All the staff came out to the deck and burst into song. It was all very welcoming, the weather was perfect and our garden villa felt very luxurious after our village homestay. We had lunch at the verandah café overlooking the marina and then spent the afternoon around the pool trying cocktails at the pool bar.

It was actually New Year's Eve so we looked around for dinner options after our swim. The resort had a beachside Gala Buffet Dinner at an extortionate price but we decided to forego that, especially as Jessie is vegetarian and wouldn’t be able to eat most of it, so we had a low-key dinner one of the smaller restaurants watching the sunset. Jessica had made a note of all our New Year’s resolutions from last year and we had a big laugh during the evening at how many we had failed at. She then recorded our new resolutions for next year. There were quite a few repeats! We walked back along the beach where the Gala dinner was finishing and asked if we could order a dessert from the buffet dessert table but they told us to just help ourselves as they had heaps left over. Bargain! After a yummy dessert feast we went to the island bar for the New Year Party. It is a tiny island connected to the resort by a small floating pontoon. There is a lovely covered bar where they had set up a DJ and dance floor, with pretty lights and lovely comfy seats to watch the ocean. We all went and sat at the bar and took turns dancing with Jessica who is a dancing machine! There are three resorts around the cove and they all had fireworks at midnight which was great. Our resort had fireworks as well but for some reason they went off at 10:30pm. It was a great night though and we were back at our villa by 12:30pm.

We spent the next couple of days taking advantage of the free snorkelling trips, kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding. There are lots of little canals around the resort and we went around them all with the kayaks through the resort and the marina. One evening we walked over to a restaurant at one of the nearby resorts for dinner. It was a beautiful walk along the palm-tree dotted beach to get there and we had our first drink watching the sun go down. We had a fantastic dinner and walked back to our resort for a few rounds of cards before bed. The next afternoon we took a boat to a floating pontoon called Cloud 9. It is a party boat on two levels which looks like something out of the movie Waterworld. It was pretty cool. There is a wood-fired pizza oven and a bar, and we spent a few hours there swimming, jumping off the top deck, eating pizza and sitting at the bar. It was great fun. Just as we were getting back onto the boat a storm came up and the heavens opened with a torrential afternoon thunderstorm. Luckily we had the only few seats under cover so we just got slightly damp while some people got completely drenched. The rain was so heavy that it was a complete white out and the boat captain had to use Sat Nav to find our way back! We made it home safely and had dinner in our resort that night.

It rained heavily all night but was sunny and clear when we woke up. We had an early catamaran ride back to the main island and then stopped in Denerau Port for some shopping. It is a resort town very close to Nadi airport and you could be sitting in Brisbane! The shops were quite good though. We all got new rashies in a Fiji chain shop called CloudBreak which was half the price of Ripcurl next door. After a quick coffee in the Hard Rock Café we headed to the airport for our flight to Tavenui Island. It was a 19-seater prop flight and it flew at only 10,000 feet so we had a great view of the tropical islands as we flew over them on the 90-minute flight.

Tavenui is the “garden island” of Fiji and is known to be hot and steamy. The airport was about the size of a small bus stop and the pilot had to refuel the plane himself while we were waiting for our bags to be unloaded. There was no baggage carousel; we just picked up our bags from the trolley and walked out to meet our transfer. We were staying in some nearby villas which were on a hilltop with beautiful ocean views. It felt very remote and unspoiled and tropical, with lush thick greenery and massively overgrown vegetation. It could have been the film location for Jurassic Park; in fact Matt said he expected to see a tyrannosaurus emerging from the forest at any moment. There was a humming backpacker vibe at the restaurant so we chatted to other guests a lot and the kids stayed up playing cards with a group of British backpackers while we went to bed.

Our first day was marked by heavy rain. We had planned to go to the Tavoro Falls in the Bouma National Park but we decided to go despite the rain. It was a one-hour drive along the beautiful coastline through small villages. The rain increased in intensity as we drove. We changed into our swimming clothes for the short walk to the falls. At 26m it is the highest waterfall in Fiji, but due to lots of recent rain and the storms it was spectacular. The locals said they had never seen it so full. It was quite exciting and the spray was terrific. Matt, Jessie and I went swimming in the pool at the base of the waterfall and Katie got equally wet just standing watching due to the rain and spray! The current was so strong we had no hope of swimming over to the falling water. We walked on for another 15 minutes up to the lookout for great views of the coast and up the mountains, then back down for another swim. This time Matt and I climbed the cliff behind the waterfall and dived into the pool behind the main stream of water coming in. There was a fierce current and it was quite terrifying. I decided not to do that again.

Our next few days were spent snorkelling and diving at the Rainbow Reef.  Matthew and I scuba dived while Katie and Jessica went snorkelling. The dive operators were really great. They had an instructor who took Jessie and Katie snorkelling and named all the fish they saw. Jessica loved it! Matt had completed his Padi Open Water diving course in December and these were his first proper open water dives. We did four dives in total. He was a little nervous at first. He had not gone deeper than 5m before and his ears were hurting a bit and he had trouble descending at first, but soon got the hang of it. Our deepest dive was 26m and we saw fairly big reef shark and several huge manta rays.  It was awesome!

We also did a day trip to the International Dateline and hopped back and forth between today and yesterday. We went on to the Waitavala Waterslide which is a natural water passage carved into the rocks of a stream. It was really great. We had been warned to take old shorts to slide down the rocks as they often got ripped. I was glad I did as at the end of the morning, the seat had totally worn out of all our pants! Again this is one of the top tourist attractions on Tavenui but is almost impossible to find without a guide. You have to drive up an unsigned dirt road, stop at a random coconut half way up the mountain, walk along a rough unsigned bush track for 20 minutes before getting to the stream. The water was beautiful though and the rock slide was awesome!

On our final day we did another boat trip for some more snorkelling trip and lunch on the beach which was a great way to finish our holiday. Then it was back on the tiny plane back to Nadi and then a rather long wait for our flight back to Brisbane. When we got home we realised that the power to the fridge had been off for quite some time and we had to throw out the full contents of the fridge and freezer! Not a nice way to come back from holiday. Katie spent several hours on hands and knees cleaning the entire fridge before we switched it back on. The household insurance paid out $500 without any questions but I am sure there was much more than that which was thrown away.

Thanks all for this month. Love Molly, Derek, Katie, Matthew and Jessica.