Dispatch and Match
05 January 2020
I arrived back in Australia while Jay still had a week in Stockholm for Frostbite DevDays. While we were in South America, a close friend at the rowing club, Sandy Mitchell, had died.
His memorial service was a lovely mixing of his rowing friends and crews he had coached, students from Brighton Grammar where he worked and music friends from his time with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
One of my longest-standing friends from primary school, Chris Scholten, had asked me to help with his coming wedding by acting as MC for the reception. Not having been to all that many weddings, I did some reading and had a detailed discussion over lunch with Chris and his fiancée Helen about exactly what they wanted.
The wedding, on December 15, seemed to go smoothly. I can't recommend being the MC as a way of enjoying the event. I only took one photo and was pretty much the only guest who had to stay sober because the duties continued through to the farewells and throwing of the bouquet. It was good to see Chris so happy.
Christmas this year was with my family in Australia. On Christmas Day the plan was for lunch for just my mother, sister, Jay and me. We had seen my Aunt and Uncle a few days before and were going to see my cousins while at Sorrento after Christmas.
Jay did an excellent job with the turkey and stuffing. Even my mother ate a good lunch. It was a fairly relaxed Christmas Day and we spent the evening getting ready to go to the beach for a week.
On Boxing Day we drove to Sorrento. Our friend James came with us and Derek flew in from the US for a short vacation at the beach as well. Now that we have easier access to the family beach house at Sorrento, this sort of thing should be easier to organise. We were very lucky with the weather, with good swimming conditions for almost the entire week. We also found that the town now has a reasonably good gym to go to.
We came back in time for New Year's Eve. We had been invited to a friend's "Royals"-themed party. His place had quite a good view of the fireworks in the city at midnight. The following day we went to another party with friends. Because the holiday fell mid-week we took time off until the following Monday, giving a very gentle start to the new year.
< Previous
His memorial service was a lovely mixing of his rowing friends and crews he had coached, students from Brighton Grammar where he worked and music friends from his time with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
One of my longest-standing friends from primary school, Chris Scholten, had asked me to help with his coming wedding by acting as MC for the reception. Not having been to all that many weddings, I did some reading and had a detailed discussion over lunch with Chris and his fiancée Helen about exactly what they wanted.
The wedding, on December 15, seemed to go smoothly. I can't recommend being the MC as a way of enjoying the event. I only took one photo and was pretty much the only guest who had to stay sober because the duties continued through to the farewells and throwing of the bouquet. It was good to see Chris so happy.
Christmas this year was with my family in Australia. On Christmas Day the plan was for lunch for just my mother, sister, Jay and me. We had seen my Aunt and Uncle a few days before and were going to see my cousins while at Sorrento after Christmas.
Jay did an excellent job with the turkey and stuffing. Even my mother ate a good lunch. It was a fairly relaxed Christmas Day and we spent the evening getting ready to go to the beach for a week.
On Boxing Day we drove to Sorrento. Our friend James came with us and Derek flew in from the US for a short vacation at the beach as well. Now that we have easier access to the family beach house at Sorrento, this sort of thing should be easier to organise. We were very lucky with the weather, with good swimming conditions for almost the entire week. We also found that the town now has a reasonably good gym to go to.
We came back in time for New Year's Eve. We had been invited to a friend's "Royals"-themed party. His place had quite a good view of the fireworks in the city at midnight. The following day we went to another party with friends. Because the holiday fell mid-week we took time off until the following Monday, giving a very gentle start to the new year.
< Previous
Next >