Ten Years in Australia

Letter No. 258

Dear all,

Our Christmas Drinks party last year was on Sat 21^st December. It was much smaller than usual, just people in the neighbourhood that we had been seeing anyway, as there were still restrictions on the number of people in your home at indoor events. It was good to have the opportunity to raise a glass with close friends after such a difficult year.  Katie went all out with the usual feast of canapes, ham, mince pies, Christmas cake and cheeses.

We had our traditional English family dinner on Christmas Eve with just the four of us. I have finally managed to convince Katie that we don’t need to leave out a glass of port and a carrot for Santa and the reindeers. It was a bit sad for her though! We had Australian Christmas Day with Mum, Dad and Lisa and family at Brookfield which was nice as usual. We didn’t see them enough in 2020!

We had our Christmas holiday at Peregian Beach this year as we were not able to leave Australia and interstate travel is risky now with continual border closures, lockdowns and quarantines. Katie had booked a lovely three-bedroom house a short walk from the beach. The kids came and went intermittently. We had a few beach days and nice dinners in Peregian. On 30^th we went to our friend Kylie’s Peregian beach house for a NYE Eve Party. There were a few of our friends from Graceville there so we had a nice evening, concluding with perhaps one too many drinks for the road. It was quite late and we had a slow day the next day.

We hadn’t booked anything for New Year’s Eve, so we decided to stay at the holiday house. We made a trip to the local Seafood Market to buy a feast of fresh lobster and Moreton Bay bugs, and had it with nice pre-dinner drinks, a bottle of wine and some chocolates from Katie’s brother Chris’s fabulous Betty’s Christmas hamper. Everything was delicious. It was only Katie and I that night as Matt was at a party in the Sunshine Coast hinterland and Jessie had driven home to have a party at our house for 40 of her closest friends. We were a bit concerned about Jessica having a party without us being home, but her friends are mostly quite studious and responsible. She had to call a few times for assistance in how to set up for a party! Our good friends Jeremy and Leona live just around the corner and were on notice to pop round and help if there was any trouble on the evening. Luckily for us (and for Jeremy) she didn’t need help and the party went really well (at least that’s what she told us). She was quite shocked though how much effort was required to clean up the next day! Apparently it took her 8 hours!

JANUARY We went to see the movie “The Dry” on New Year’s Day and then on to the beach at Noosa and to the Sunset Bar for cocktails and bar snacks in the evening. A few more days at the beach and we headed back to Brisbane in 3^rd January. We stopped at Peregian Markets and Caloundra for lunch and a swim on the way home. It was very hot!

Brisbane went into a very sudden “snap” three-day lockdown on 8^th January. Yes – three days – sorry to the rest of the world! We didn’t have any plans so it wasn’t too hard. The worst thing was that the tennis courts were closed. It was my 10-year anniversary at AECOM Brisbane on 10^th January – the celebration lunch was postponed. This year also marks my 25^th year with AECOM in Hong Kong, UK and Australia.

On 16^th January 2021, after 22 years and 37 days, Matthew moved out. He was super excited about the move and we are happy for him but also a little sad as it is quite a milestone. He is sharing a house in Toowong with two of his BBC friends. The house is owned by the mother of one of the boys, so an easy landlord to have. The house has been previously rented and needs a fair bit of work – painting, garden, furniture, air conditioning, wi-fi etc but the boys are calling it a “fixer-upper”. We helped him move his bed in the morning. He didn’t have any other furniture and was living out of a suitcase for a few weeks until he found a chest of drawers and we helped him move that in as well. That evening we went to a tennis party at the Tods but my day was tinged with sadness.

We had an Australia Day BBQ with our friends the Biddles on 23^rd January. John had applied for and got a job in Papua New Guinea. The only problem is that he cannot travel there due to all the Covid restrictions. The next day Katie and I took Molly for a walk up Mt Cootha to look at the view. She wasn’t much interested in the view but did have lots of good smells to sniff.

Katie has been accepted to do a Masters program in Writing Publishing and Editing at the University of Queensland. She is very excited about the new challenge and the possible opportunity to move back into publishing after a gap of quite a few years. The course starts at the end of February and will take her two years to complete. Matthew took her for a full tour of the university campus on 3^rd February. He showed her all the libraries and buildings and places to park and most importantly where to get good coffee! She also has a student card now with her photo and age on it just in case she gets challenged at the bar.

FEBRUARY  We had a nice Thai dinner out with some friends at the local Thai restaurant. It turned out that one of the people we were having dinner with is a good friend of the owner, so our meal ended up being free, which was nice. I felt a bit guilty though because of the rough time the hospitality industry has been having lately. We also had a family game of Putt Putt Golf at Hillstone Golf Club on 7^th February. It was quite fun as usual and we had cocktails and pizza afterwards. Jess once again proved that she should not give up Uni and become a golf pro.

Katie hosted a Cocktail Party at our house on 12^th February for a group of St Aidan’s mums from Jessie’s school year. I was voluntold that I was the barman. Actually, I don’t mind as it is quite fun. It was a Friday night and I took a day off work to help set up. I have so much unused annual leave now that it was nice to have a day off to potter around the house. There were 20 ladies and we offered three cocktails – a Pina Colada, a Strawberry Daiquiri and a Moscow Mule. It was quite a production line making around 30 of each cocktail (some ladies had seconds or even thirds). Every cocktail required a different type of glass, so it all needed a bit of advance planning and preparation. We had gourmet pizzas delivered mid-evening and then they all finished off sitting around the fire as the evening wound down. I stayed until my bar tending was no longer required.

Katie went to a Post Graduate Welcome party on 15^th February and met a few of her fellow students and lecturers.  She says she is the oldest student by a country mile but they all seem very friendly. That Friday I had a Go Karting night with twelve members of my work team. It was an indoor two-level circuit. There were two slots of twenty minutes with a break in between. The whole evening actually took about two hours in all with registration, safety briefing, watching other races etc, etc. The first twenty minutes was a qualifying race and we were ranked in order of who did the fastest lap times. One of the guys in my team is a fairly serious race car driver and of course he came first. I was quite pleased to come fifth in the qualifying race. In the final race, I was even more happy to increase my standing and finish in fourth place. Each lap took 40 to 55 seconds and it was quite intense, and very hot. We were all a lather of sweat by the time we finished. It was a really fun evening.

We decided to take Molly to her favourite dog beach on 21^st February, Palm Beach on the Gold Coast. Molly is our only child now! We had the morning on the beach reading the paper and Molly really enjoyed playing in the surf. There is a lovely café there so we always have a nice lunch and an ice cream.  The next day I went to Darwin. I have three projects there at the moment, so I flew up in the morning, did a flying visit to two sites, had a night out on the town, visited the last site the next morning and flew back that afternoon. It was really great to actually go somewhere again, even it if was a brief work trip. It is so much harder to plan anything these days though, with the different states snapping the borders shut all the time!

There was a Brisbane Boys’ College Old Boys drinks function on 26^th February. I went along with an old school friend, John. There were about 100 old boys there, but only one from our year there, but we had a nice catch up. I had tried to talk Matthew into coming as it was very close to his new house, but he had something else on that night. His house has now been painted and tidied and air-conditioning installed so it is all looking a lot better.

MARCH I went out for a Director’s Dinner on 3^rd March to celebrate my 10 years at AECOM Brisbane and 25 years with AECOM. We had a dinner at a fusion Chinese restaurant, Happy Boy, in Fortitude Valley followed by cocktails at the next door wine bar. It was a very nice evening and good to be appreciated.

Matthew and his flatmates have now decided they want a built-in desk in their house. They talked to the landlord (Fergus’ mother) who agreed to pay for materials if they got someone to build it. Guess who got that job? Actually, I didn’t mind as I like building stuff. It took me three Saturdays to measure and plan, buy materials, prep and construct the desk. It was nearly 4m long with an integrated cable tray and invisible legs supported off the wall. I had built one similar at our home several years ago. It is always good to build something two or three times so you can perfect the technique. The boys were delighted with the result and all three of them set up their computers and chairs with a lovely view over the garden. I finished the project on 6^th March, just in time for Uni lectures to start again. They were so pleased that they presented me with a bottle of gin as a thank you for my efforts.

I went to a few exhibitions in March. Queensland Museum had a special exhibition of aquatic dinosaurs so Jess and I had a “Day at the Museum”. It was pretty cool. I think I am still a child at heart! A few days later Katie and I went to Curiocity, which is a 6.5km art circuit through the City Botanic Gardens, South Bank, CBD and the Cultural Precinct. Along the way there were interactive and digital installations celebrating art, science and technology. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and we had to keep ducking inside coffee shops to avoid getting wet.

On Sunday 14 March, I went for a guided hike up Mt Knapp with my friend Derek. It was on private property and we had permission from the farmer to hike. It was about 8km but took us 6 hours as it was totally off track with uneven footing, steep cliff sections and sections of head high grass. Walking on the flat in long grass was the hardest, especially when the top of the seed stalks was at head height and kept on poking you in the eye. I had so many seeds in my socks I almost threw them away at the end of the hike. I have since bought gaiters for next time. It was a very rewarding hike with some spectacular views and interesting rock formations.

On the 28th March we went to the Mould Cheese Festival at the RNA Showgrounds with some friends. We had bought tickets for the March 2020 event but it had been delayed by Covid and reinstated a year later. There were about 40 small booths of boutique cheese producers. We had a nice three hours, tasting cheese, buying cheese and sitting at a picnic table eating our purchases with a glass or two of wine. Very pleasant. We got a lift home with the Tod’s daughter and then decided to kick on, so invited them back to our Studio Bar to try our latest favourite cocktail – a Sgroppino with limoncello, lemon sorbet, and prosecco.

The next day I was flew up to Rockhampton for work. My flight left at 6am and I picked up a car from the Rocky office and drove about 1½ hours to get to the site. On the way I heard that Greater Brisbane was going into another snap lockdown from 6pm that night. They knew all about it on the site but didn’t give it much thought. I spent a few hours at the site out of phone contact and headed back about 3pm. As soon as I got back into phone range, I got heaps of missed calls and phone messages from the Rocky office. It appeared that I had to get on a flight back to Brisbane before 6pm, otherwise I would have to do the three-day lockdown in a hotel room in Rockhampton! I had been planning to stay overnight and do another site visit in Gladstone the next day, but instead I hot-footed it back to the airport and got the last seat on the last plane out! I made it home just in time for the three day lock-down. The annoying thing was that I had to go back to Gladstone the next week as soon as everything opened up again to finish the other site job!

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

Merry Christmas!!!

Letter No. 257

Dear all,

JUNE, JULY & AUGUST We had an uneventful few months during lockdown. Stupid COVID sums up my feelings! The only social events were socially distanced Sunday cocktails at our home bar or socially distanced dinners out with just one other couple when allowed. We did our best to support our lovely local (and very international) range of restaurants in Graceville.

We had Sunday cocktails regularly either with family or with invited friends (just one couple at a time). Our current favourites are Moscow Mules, Cosmopolitans, Espresso Martinis and Lemon Sours and of course we keep discovering new ones.

We had local dinners at Kafe Meze (Greek), Il Viale (Italian), Botellon (Spanish) and the Hundred Acre Bar which has a lovely new putt putt course which is great fun. Jessie served us at Kafe Meze which is always entertaining for us. We also went to dinner at my sister Lisa’s house on 5^th July (just yum) and visited Mum & Dad on 7^th June for morning tea and lunch to belatedly celebrate their April birthdays.

On 16^th June Jessie went into the Mater Private Hospital for her Tonsillitis Surgery. She was a little in the wars as she still had her cast on from her broken wrist following her roller-skating mishap. She had to stay in overnight and Katie picked her up the next day. The next ten days were hell for the whole family. Jessica was in severe pain and we all suffered along with her 😊. The poor little thing. I think her advance internet research into how painful a tonsillectomy would be decreased her pain threshold substantially. She also joined a worldwide chat group of post-tonsillectomy sufferers and they all fed off each other’s misery. She couldn’t eat anything at all and lost nearly 7 kilos. Eventually after about ten days she finally felt well enough to eat again and then recovered quickly. Hopefully that will put an end to her constant bouts of tonsillitis. Two weeks later she got the cast off her wrist so she was finally a normal healthy girl again. She hasn’t been game to go roller skating again yet though!

Katie has been talking for a while about having new living room bookcases built in. She got a quote from a professional cabinet maker which was ridiculously high. Subsequently she happened to mention it to an architect friend and next thing he was around for dinner and drawing up plans for bespoke cabinetry over a glass of wine. After several weeks of thinking, I decided I could probably build them myself following his plans. We had to get rid of the existing freestanding shelves first which we had originally bought in Macau and subsequently moved with us to the UK and Australia. I put them on ebay for quite a high price and thought that if they didn’t sell then the whole concept would (thankfully) get forgotten. Much to my surprise, the darn things sold in a day, so I was committed. I spent the next six Saturdays constructing new shelves and am quite pleased with the result. The lamps Katie ordered got stuck in a Melbourne warehouse for weeks due to the second COVID lockdown in Victoria, but it’s all finished now.

It was Katie’s Birthday on 12^th July. We went to Howard Smith Wharf in the city and had cocktails at Mr Percival’s overlooking the river and then pizza at Felons Brewing. It was a little rainy but we had a nice evening. Matthew gave Katie a “voucher” for a night out with him so the next Friday night they went out for a bar crawl and dinner in some cool city bars.

I went to Cloncurry via Mt Isa on 20^th July. It was the first time I had flown anywhere for quite some time. We are building a drone testing facility there. It is designed for high tech military grade drones the size of small cars and smaller commercial drones. It was a 90-minute drive from Mt Isa and I arrived on site just past noon. I spent four hours inspecting construction before heading back to Mt Isa. I could have flown to Cloncurry directly but they have no hire car companies there, so it is easier to fly to Mt Isa. I was quite surprised that lots of restaurants in Mt Isa were still closed due to Covid, even in central Queensland which has recorded no cases. I had a great steak in the Mt Isa hotel, a run in the morning and then flew back to Brisbane. It was so good to get out of Brisbane and go somewhere – anywhere really!

The next weekend Katie went up to Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast for a Girls’ Weekend, staying at a friends’ beach house. They had a few nice walks on the beach, long lunches and a boozy night in. I had the house to myself as the kids are always out these days. I had pizza by myself and fell asleep on the sofa in front of a movie – the perfect night in. Katie also discovered a new cocktail (French Martini) at a friend Sue’s house on 9^th August. It was so nice we had to buy the ingredients and try it ourselves the following week – Vodka, Pineapple juice and Chambord (raspberry flavour – yum).

There was some tragic news in August. Our close friends lost their son who was just 18. We were all so very shocked and saddened when we heard the news. Our kids had grown up together as young children in Hong Kong and then seen each other in locations all over the world – Manchester, Spain, Germany, Singapore and Brisbane. Jess took the news particularly hard. His funeral was on 23^rd August in Hong Kong and we had a minute’s silence for him while it was going on.

I did another DIY job in August. Our front fence was installed 35 years ago and most of the fence posts had rotted considerably under the ground. I am not sure how the fence was standing up as many of them were completely gone. Every winter I replace two or three of them. This is very hard work as I have to jackhammer out the old concrete post mix first, and it is never as straightforward as it sounds. This time I was working on the eighth post (of thirteen) and then decided I needed to widen the hole at the base a little bit, to straighten the angle of the post. On the final crowbar strike I caught what I thought was a tree root. Sadly, it turned out to be the incoming copper water main. I was not game to bend it back in case it burst, so had to stop work and arrange for a plumber to come a few days later which was very frustrating. The plumber found that the huge tree nearby had really mangled the pipe and it was very displaced so he decided to totally reroute the water main away from the tree which turned into quite an expensive exercise!

On 28^th August we went to Moda Restaurant in Petrie Terrace for dinner with our ex-AECOM group of friends Sigrid & Nathan and Phil & Anne.  It is a Spanish-style Tapas restaurant and is very highly rated. We decided to have the degustation menu which comprised five starters, three main courses and three desserts. The dishes were all tiny, but even so it was a lot of food!  It was one of the best meals I think I have ever had. The chef Javier Codina is very well known in Brisbane and the restaurant is highly recommended if you are in town.

The next night our friend Lisa invited us to Firepit Drinks at her house. Social gatherings were still limited to ten people, outdoors only, and luckily we were just a group of ten. The evening was to meet Lisa’s new partner Simon. I was really surprised when we arrived to find out that I already knew him as we had worked together on a big project in Toowoomba about six years previously! It was very pleasant evening with drinks and a curry around the fire.

SEPTEMBER The first weekend of September was surprisingly busy. Katie went for a girls’ night on the Thursday night with a group of BBC ladies; then I had a boys’ Backyard Drinks the next night with a group of five local dads; then Katie went out on Saturday night for a foot massage and cocktails in the city with her girlfriends to use a birthday gift voucher. On the Sunday morning we finally went out all together for a Father’s Day brunch at the café next to the restaurant where Jessica works. We had a lovely meal and stayed drinking coffee until it was time for Jess to start work at 11am.

It was Jessica’s 19^th birthday on 7^th September and she made it into a three-day celebration. She went out with friends on Sunday night, we had a family dinner at home on the Monday night and on the Tuesday night she went to her restaurant Kafe Meze with a huge group of girlfriends. She loves the food there but never gets to eat it!

Matt gave me a “voucher” for Father’s Day for a visit to the Stone & Wood Brewery in Fortitude Valley. He is always discovering cool new places in the city and the valley that he wants to revisit.  He and I went there on 13^th September for a few rounds of taster beers and then went on to a fusion Chinese restaurant, Happy Boi, for dinner. It was a really nice present and a great place. I was so impressed with it that I arranged a work drinks function there a few weeks later. It was the first work drinks we’ve had for a very long time. AECOM used to do Friday works drinks every fortnight but there have been none since February. My team at work is pretty fed up with working from home and not having Friday drinks anymore.

OCTOBER Katie and I went to Hamilton Island for a long weekend on 8-13^th October. We had been invited by our friends David and Thao to stay on their boat which was berthed at the Marina there. Thao is the mother of one of Jessica’s best friends Porsche and we know Thao and David quite well through the St Aidan’s community, but had never been on their boat before. Katie’s friend Lisa and new partner Simon were also invited, which was great. We flew up on Thursday. It was a short five-minute drive from the airport to the Marina and that was when we discovered that the boat is completely amazing and is straight out of a film star lifestyle!  It is a glossy 24metre motor launch with five double bedrooms, three with ensuite, plus a full galley kitchen, dining area, enclosed indoor sitting area and three lovely outdoor sitting areas on the bow, stern and upper deck. They also have a jet ski and a small tender/speed boat. It was all pretty fabulous. Our bedroom was at the bow and had a hatch directly over the bed which we opened every night to gaze at the stars.

When we arrived, Thao had arranged a fantastic seafood feast with oysters, prawns, Moreton bay bugs followed by fish and chips all washed down with champagne while we watched the sunset and admired all the other luxury yachts and motorboats in the marina. The next day I went for an 8 km walk around Hamilton Island with David and their dog Asha before breakfast. We then took the tender out to a secluded beach on the other side of the island and had a picnic lunch on the beach. In the afternoon we cruised over to the beautiful long white sands of Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, where we anchored for three nights. We had a lovely long weekend there swimming, snorkelling and going for walks on islands and along the beaches. One afternoon we went oyster hunting, prised them off the rocks, took them back to the boat and ate them with lemon in less than two hours. They don’t get much fresher. We sailed back to the marina for the final day and spent a few hours at the pool in the Hamilton Island resort. On the final night we all dressed up and took David and Thao out for dinner at a great Thai fusion resort restaurant. It was also our 24^th wedding anniversary that day, so it was a fantastic way to celebrate and a fabulous holiday.

Matt went to a Law Dinner on 17^th October with a group of his Law friends. They had a Pre at our bar beforehand. It was black tie and they all looked very smart. The pre went on for quite a long time, so they probably didn’t need many drinks at the event! It was Carolyn Biddle’s 60^th birthday on 23^rd October. Katie had arranged dinner, balloons, guests etc at another Graceville restaurant – Boucher (French). Our second 60^th birthday party this year and there are more to follow which is a bit worrying. 

For our wedding anniversary, Katie had bought tickets for the Opera Queensland grand reopening event at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). It was their first performance since January and the first per event held at QPAC in a similar timeframe. Due to COVID restrictions they only had sold 50% of the tickets and there were two empty seats between everyone, all seated in a checkerboard pattern. It was great for seeing the stage but a little sad for the performers that their grand reopening event was playing to a half empty hall! They seemed happy to just be back on stage though. We went over the road to the Charming Squire for dinner afterwards. It was the AFL Grand Final that evening, (playing to a capacity crowd of 40,000 at the Gabba (oh the inconsistency with indoor and outdoor events!!) and the streets and pubs were all very lively. Still no Covid community transmission in Queensland at this point though; we have been very lucky really.

We were in a dilemma about Halloween this year and Katie had lots of discussions with our neighbours. Every year we have more and more people and last year we estimated about 1300 kids, judging by the number of sweets & lollies consumed. In the end, Katie led the decision for our street to not to do anything. The official guidelines restricted us to small gatherings of max 30 people and it would have been impossible to impose any restrictions of social distancing or take contact details. We still felt a bit sad on the evening, as there were quite a few kids walking up and down in costume and we felt compelled to apologise as they went past.  

NOVEMBER The next day we went for a final boat trip on our friend David’s boat. He had brought it down from Hamilton Island to the Gold Coast as he plans to sell it -- and buy an even bigger boat!! There were about 16 of us and we all arrived first as a big surprise for his 60^th Birthday (third 60^th birthday party this year). Matt came as well so that he could drive us home. We went to South Stradbroke Island which was about a 40-minute motor. We anchored at a beach and spent the day swimming, lunching, jet skiing and going for a hike over to the surf side of the island. It was a lovely day.

It was Melbourne Cup on 3^rd November. We were still only allowed small gatherings outdoors, so Katie had arranged a nice lunch for 12 girlfriends, poolside at home and they watched the race on the big TV in our Studio. It worked very well. I was at work and some loser had arranged a Teams meeting at the same time as the race. There was no official work function this year either. We usually have a lame chicken lunch but not this year due to Covid. I came home a little early and the ladies were still going hard, so I started whipping up Espresso Martinis. Katie had mentioned to quite a few friends that they might like to pop in after their events finished. Surprisingly, we ended up with quite an after-party as people started arriving. Some of them were falling out of taxis at our front gate at 7:30pm, so things kicked on for quite a while!

I went to the Bledisloe Cup at Suncorp Stadium on 7^th  November. I went with four mates but one had a family crisis and couldn’t make it (but did meet us for pre-drinks at the Regatta Hotel). It was a great game. We were very pleased that Australia beat New Zealand, especially after the thrashing we got in the previous match. The stadium was almost full, circa 50,000 people. It was great to be out at a big event again. Afterwards we tried to go to the Caxton Hotel, but the line was more than 200m long! Everyone still had to sign in with the Covid App. It is so ridiculous as there have not been any community transmission cases in Queensland for months. We gave up and caught the train back to Graceville and had a final roady at the local bar instead. Meanwhile, Katie went to a 21^st party for one of our friend’s daughters, Tara.

My team has started organising our own Work Drinks every month now. We went to the Osbourne hotel in Fortitude Valley on 13^th November and most of the team turned up for a very big night. Katie went to a couple of girls’ parties. One of them was a dinner with the St Aidan’s mums from Jessica’s year. She had a good chat with all the Mums and got the gossip on what all their daughters were doing now. School days seem so long ago already!

On 21^st November Katie and I went for a farm gate day trip to Tommerup’s Dairy on the new South Wales Border. We were a bit old to walk around the farm and pet and feed the chickens, sheep, calves and pigs but it was quite fun. We went for a walk down to the river, had morning tea and bought some lovely meat from their butcher. They also had some tiny and very cute five-week-old Jack Russell puppies. It was very hard to tear Katie away from them and she immediately wanted one.

There were a few more social events in November. Jessie had a pool party with about 35 friends with pizza, a fire pit, volleyball and general partying. They were all in the pool for ages then warmed up by the fire. I went to another dad’s Backyard Drinks, which have now been renamed the “Square Mile Drinks” as you have to live in the immediate streets! Alf hosted this time and really raised the stakes by providing a delicious roast beef dinner as well rather than our usual nibbles and pizza. He also did a blind wine tasting with seven different bottles of chardonnay to make it really difficult. We had 14 bottles of wine between seven of us. It was a good night. We also went for another lovely boat trip from Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast with some friends of Thao & David’s who have a similarly spectacular boat. It was another lovely day on the water with champagne and oysters for lunch and a disco on the top deck of the boat in the afternoon.

DECEMBER AECOM didn’t have their usual big Christmas cocktail party this year due to Covid restrictions in function spaces. Instead we were allowed to go out in smaller team groups. I took my team out to the Plough Inn in Southbank for dinner and drinks. I left the stay-hards at 1am and they didn’t finish until 3am so it was a pretty big night.

The kids completed their fifth and second years at Uni respectively in November and they are now both doing internships. Matt has a four-week placement at the Department of Public Prosecutions. He is finding it really interesting and spends a lot of time in the Magistrates and Supreme Courts assisting the prosecution. He has been to a high-profile rape case, which had a hung jury, and also a double manslaughter case which got lots of media coverage and his team was filmed leaving the court. It was also his 22^nd Birthday on 8^th December and he spent most of the day in court! Jessie is working for our local councillor Nicole Johnston doing a signage project for a local park. Katie has also been spending a bit of time on academic study and has completed two graduate certificate courses -- one on Philosophy, Literature & Socio-cultural change through the Wesleyan University, USA and another one on Film, Images & Historical Interpretation from the University of London. She is planning a move back to the publishing world next year.

We had a much reduced Christmas Drinks party was on Sat 21th Dec. We just kept it to people in the neighbourhood that we had been seeing quite a lot anyway as there are still restrictions on number of people at indoor events in your home. Although it was not quite as big as we usually make it, it was nice to have the opportunity to raise a glass with our friends after this very difficult year.  Katie went all out with baking and it was the usual feast of ham, mince pies, cake and cheeses. Wishing you all a wonderful happy and healthy Christmas and sending positive thoughts and hopes for 2021.

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

Hospitals and Cocktails!

Letter No. 256

Dear all,

FEBRUARY Katie and I had tickets to see Queen with Adam Lambert in concert at Suncorp Stadium the night after I arrived back from South Korea. The forecast was for a wet night so we went prepared for rain but had no idea how bad it would actually get. Unfortunately, the heavens opened just as we arrived and there was absolutely torrential rain for the rest of the night. People a bit further back were undercover and therefore remained dry, but we had fantastic seats right at the front of the stands, out in the open, and got soaked immediately. The rain was so heavy it was like being in a shower all night with the water full on. It was not fun. Queen continued bravely on with an amazing concert, under hastily rigged up canopies, but later described it as the wettest concert they had ever given.  After two hours of this total downpour Katie decided she had enough of being wet and cold and caught the train home by herself while I was at the bar. I stayed on as I was wearing my drizabone and thought I was dry underneath, but when I got home I discovered that I was wet through as well, as the water had been dripping down the back of my neck.

The next weekend we went to Sue Evans’ 50^th birthday party. Sue and Jason live in Graceville on the next street to us but have a hobby farm in Boonah, so they had the party up there. There was a bus option taking people to and from Graceville, but we decided to stay in Boonah for the night and drove up on Saturday morning. It was not far from Mum and Dad’s farm so we dropped Molly off for a one-night sleepover on our way there. We drove up to Mt French Lookout first which was a short walk and a fantastic view over the wonderfully green Boonah valley, after all the rain of the previous week. Such a huge change from the drought conditions just a few weeks earlier! The bus picked us up at 6pm and it was a lovely party with a large marque on the grass next to their house, with a great meal, band, and lots of dancing. There was also a bucking bronco for people to ride which spins and bucks faster and faster until it is impossible to stay on. It is surprisingly difficult. I only gave it one try and lasted quite a long time. The operator made it buck faster or slower depending on the age of the person having a go and made it faster for the young adults which was very entertaining for everyone watching.  Maybe he went easy on me. The bus picked us up at midnight and dropped us back to our hotel in Boonah. We were quite glad we didn’t have to sit on the bus all the way back to Brisbane.

On 28^th February we had a work team Darts Night with partners. It was organised by one of the people in my team and around 20 people came along with partners. Katie came too. We had a three-hour booking for a darts “bay” which had an electronic program offering dozens of different darts games, keeping score and telling you whose turn was next. We were matched up by the computer into ten teams of two. Wait staff brought drinks and food to our bay and it was great fun and it never seemed like a long wait between turns. As the night wore on we all started to lose track of whose turn it was to throw next and what the score was. Lucky that the computer was doing that for us. Such a fun evening.

MARCH On Tues 3^rd March Jessie caused a bit of a health scare. Katie was running a work function that night and I was driving home when Matthew called me and said that Jessie was really ill. She was comatose on the sofa by the time I got home. After a phone discussion with the local GP we decided to call an ambulance as her temperature was extremely high. They showed up about 30 minutes later and put her on a drip immediately. They asked if any of us had been overseas recently and without giving it any thought I said that I had been in South Korea 21 days ago and Matt had been there and in the Philippines 19 days ago. Things rapidly went downhill from there and suddenly Jessie was a potential Covid-19 case. The Ambos said that it was most likely that she had Tonsillitis, but of course they didn’t want to take any risks. The Covid-19 situation was very new to Australia at this point and nobody quite knew what to do or how to treat this interesting new turn of events. The Ambos phoned around to find a hospital to admit Jessie. The Wesley and St Andrews (nearby private hospitals) both refused to accept her, but Greenslopes Hospital eventually agreed to admit her.

While this was going on another ambulance arrived as the first one was just a paramedic car and could not transport anyone.  Jessie was loaded into the ambulance and they took her off to Greenslopes Hospital under lights and sirens while I followed in the car. Meanwhile Katie was still at work in the middle of an event and had no idea any of this was going on. We arrived at the hospital about 8:30pm. Before we left home there had been a long telephone discussion with Greenslopes Admissions about how Jessie had Tonsillitis, but I had been overseas three weeks previously. Sadly, this information did not make it to the doctor who was treating us. As soon as he heard I had been to South Korea he backed out of the room and came back 15 minutes later in a full Hazmat suit. He made us all put on masks and move to an isolation room immediately. About an hour later he came back, still in Hazmat suit, and reported that the hospital couldn’t treat us as they only had one positive pressure room and it was already in use, so Jessie would now be transferred to the Covid-19 ward at the Princess Alexandra Public Hospital. All discussion that she actually had Tonsillitis was ignored at this point and we were left to wait for another ambulance to transfer us. I asked if we could drive ourselves (it was only 10 minutes away) but we were told that was too risky.

After another hour I told them I was just going to leave and drive ourselves so could I just have the necessary paperwork. I think they were glad to get rid of us, so the paperwork arrived quickly and we made it to the PA hospital by 11pm. I decided to take a different tack this time so I told them Jessica had already been diagnosed with Tonsillitis and needed IV antibiotics but our night had spiralled out of control due to the fact that I had been in South Korea three weeks ago. Nevertheless, we were immediately put in masks and placed in the isolation room. A nurse and doctor arrived in full Hazmat suits (again) and examined Jessica. After five minutes they announced that she had Tonsillitis (surprise) and put her on an IV antibiotic drip. By 1:30am, Jessica was feeling a lot better. The nurse said we just had to see the doctor and we could go home. Unfortunately, an emergency car accident case arrived just at that point so our doctor couldn’t come back to see Jessie until 4:30am. We were finally discharged at 5.30am with a doctor’s certificate and prescription for a course of antibiotics. Jess had managed to sleep a bit but I had not slept at all! I bailed out of work the next day and spent the day sleeping.

Matthew and I went to see Parasite on 7^th March. It was a South Korean movie which had won the Best Picture at the Academy Awards. We were keen to go due to our recent trip to South Korea. It was a good movie but very quirky and unexpectedly gory. On Sat 14^th March we all went to Jessica’s restaurant, Café Meze for dinner, which turned out to be our last dinner out before lockdown. Jessica really enjoyed being a guest at the restaurant rather than serving.

A few weeks earlier Katie had resigned from her job at BBC. She had been finding it challenging to manage the daily operations of an increasingly busy full-time venue when she was only employed on a part-time basis and she was also ready for a change. In hindsight her timing was excellent as she spent her final week cancelling all booked events until August. Katie’s last day at BBC was Friday 20^th March. She went to the Regatta for drinks with a few work colleagues about 3pm and I came along after work, stayed for a few drinks and a snacky dinner before pouring her into the car to go home.

The next night, with more lockdown restrictions rumoured, we had a group of friends over for a socially isolated drinks night around the fire pit next to the pool. Katie made separate cheese platters for each couple. We ended up ordering pizza and it kicked on for quite a while. It was a nice relaxed evening and the last time we saw any of our friends socially for quite some time. The next night Premier Scott Morrison announced in the first of many press conferences that we would be in lockdown from the very next morning.   

 Jessica had another acute bout of Tonsillitis on 31^st March and ended up going to hospital by Ambulance again. She went to the GP in the morning with a sore throat and was diagnosed with Tonsillitis again and prescribed antibiotics. As soon as she got home, her temperature spiked very quickly, up to 41 degrees. Katie had impending eye surgery the next day, so she was not allowed to take her to hospital and I was still at work so Matt called an ambulance. Within a very short space of time, Jessie was on an IV drip and antibiotics and was raced to the Mater Private Hospital under lights and sirens (again). There was some concern (again) about the possibility of her being put in a Covid-19 ward due to the sore throat and high temperature, but Katie explained that she had already been diagnosed by her GP with Tonsillitis just a couple of hours earlier, so things worked out much better this time.  I picked her up at about 8:30pm. She is now booked in to have her tonsils removed in June due to this repeated severe reaction.

Katie had eye surgery on 1^st April. It had been booked in for late April, but they pulled her surgery forward to the very last day that elective surgery was permitted in Queensland. She had cataract surgery and lens replacement on both eyes, done on the same day due to the rush. I dropped her off at 11:30am and they told me to come back at 3pm. As usual Katie took a long time to wake up from the anaesthetic (she is terrible with any kind of drugs) and we did not get out of the Queensland Eye Hospital until close to 6pm. Despite the slow recovery time, Katie was delighted with the result and said that her vision was better than it had been since she was 14. A huge success. The surgeon was extremely pleased as Katie officially had the most complicated vision problems that he had ever corrected and now doesn’t even need glasses. He is going to write a study on her for the Lancet! Katie now has 2020 vision in 2020. 😊

APRIL was really a bit of a non-event due to the Covid-19 Lockdown. Luckily I was able to still go to work, sitting in a bay of 18 people by myself. Katie, Matt and Jessie were all at home; the kids doing Uni work online. Matt continued at KWM doing Paralegal work from home, but Jessie’s waitressing was hit hard. She only got one two-hour shift per week taking phone orders and packing the takeaway food. We had takeaways every Friday night from one of the local restaurants and Katie and I played tennis most weekends. I also did lots of gardening and carpentry jobs around the house, and one of my first projects was to reconfigure the Studio  kitchen into a bar. Katie and Matt had great fun planning our weekly family cocktail nights in the Studio Bar and Katie bought cocktail glasses online while Matt researched classic cocktails. Naturally, we had to wait until Jessie was legal to do this. 😊

Easter and Anzac Day were both very different this year. We usually have a birthday lunch for my parents on Easter Sunday but due to the restrictions we ended up just having Sunday lunch by ourselves. Naturally, Katie went to the same amount of effort, with Easter decorations and a fabulous slow-cooked lamb and pavlova. In the afternoon I did an Easter hunt for Katie and the kids. Katie has organised it every year but it was the first time she had done one herself since she was a teenager. Anzac Day was also very different. We all stood in our driveways at 6am. I brought out a music speaker and broadcast the dawn service from Canberra to the eight houses around us. There were people lined up all along the street.

MAY We had a social weekend when the first stage of Covid-19 restrictions lifted mid-May and we were allowed to gather outdoors in small groups up to 10 people.  Our Studio Bar was the perfect venue for this so we had four consecutive nights of cocktails. Matt had six friends over for Espresso Martinis on the Thursday evening, I had a few mates over for firepit drinks and red wine on Friday night, Jessie had a girlie night on the Saturday and Katie had a girls cocktail evening on the Sunday. One of Katie’s friends brought kumquats from her tree so I played barman and made them Frozen Kumquat Martinis which were delicious.

On 20^th May Jessica decided to try out her new lockdown purchase -- a pair of retro roller skates. She went roller skating on the local netball courts. She got home around 5pm with a sore wrist where she had fallen over. It got more painful as the evening went on, so we decided to get it X-rayed. We went to the Mater Public Hospital. This time she was seen by the doctor, X-rayed, diagnosed, treated and home by 10pm. She now has two fractures at her right wrist (she is right-handed). She had a half cast initially and had to go back ten days later for a full cast. The thing she was most worried about was whether she could get a black one! I have had a lot of bonding time with Jessie this year during these long hospital visits. Following her extensive research of leading Brisbane hospitals Jessie has reported that she likes Mater Public the best. Handy to know. 😊. I hope you are all coping well in lockdown. That is all for this time. 

Cheers,  

Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie & Molly