Greetings from Queensland
In November this year Brisbane took centre place on the world stage as it hosted the G20 summit welcoming (or in the case of Mr Putin, not quite so welcoming) world leaders to Queensland. It had a huge impact on the city for a few days and there was a big sigh of relief all round that it was all over.
We noted that the world leaders and their wives enjoyed the traditional Australian cuddle a koala photo opp. We always include this experience on UK visitors’ activities lists and this year we were delighted to share this experience with Penny (John’s niece) and Jacky’s old school friend Diane and her husband Steve.
We had plenty of time to show Penny not only Koalas but Ozzie life in general as she was with us for about 2 months as she recuperated from a foot injury sustained in Japan. When she was fit
enough she headed off south to visit other relatives and then returned to us in August. We then headed up to tropical north Queensland for a few days. From Cairns we drove up to Cooktown and had the pleasure of being shown around by Loretta of the Captain Cook Re-enactment Association who Amy had worked with when she was up there last year. Cooktown is an interesting place and well worth putting on an Australian itinerary if you can spare the time to drive up there. We also enjoyed a few days sojourn in Port Douglas and of course went out to the Great Barrier Reef for Penny to have a dive.
As many of you will know the beginning of the year was a rather sad time for us as John’s brother in law Sandy lost his valiant battle with cancer. We had planned a visit to the UK in March particularly to see him, but sadly he passed away in January. Mark and David were actually en route to Heathrow when we got the news which was particularly upsetting, but it did mean that they were both there to support John’s sister Joan. John then flew over to join them as
soon as he could. No sooner was he back from that trip before he was back on the plane with Amy and Jacky for the originally booked journey. It was an emotional trip but it was good to spend time with family and friends.
One highlight of the trip was a big catch up with friends in London, we’d emailed our London based friends letting them know we’d be in a certain pub on a certain date and were delighted when we had so many RSVPs that we had to book a private function room! It was a fun evening seeing mates that in some cases we had not seen for many years, John even caught up with his old chum from hospital radio days, Andrew Karno. The other highlight was a belated (or was it early?) Christmas dinner that Bertie (Jacky’s Dad) put on for 12 at the cottage in Newick.
Everyone here is well at present and as always keeping busy. Jacky is working part-time at Artslink Queensland and still heavily involved in the local arts council, RedArts. Also this year she organised a Favours Auction in aid of the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation, it was a lot of work but a great evening, John was MC and our good friend David Cameron auctioneer. The evening raised almost $4,000.
Mark turned 30 in February and Emma (who he shares a birthday with) organised a fantastic back garden beer festival for him. For Mark it was a highlight in what was otherwise a fairly tough year for him as one of his old mates from Didcot passed away in July. He flew over to support family and friends – and returned home with a tattoo of the White Horse (as in the one immortalised on the Oxfordshire downs). He and Emma are still living in Brisbane and Emma is halfway through her degree.
Dave is living up in Rockhampton with Rachelle. They enjoyed a holiday to Asia earlier this year taking in Vietnam and Cambodia. Dave is now State Business Manager for Nextbyte, an Apple reseller chain. As Queensland is such a large state he spends a lot of his time flying between stores but at least he can still go home to Rockhampton. Amy spent the first half of the year working in Brisbane, but she is really now basing herself in Sydney and also doing the odd show in Melbourne. She’s been working on a mix of productions including comedy and drama. Although she is an Assistant Stage Manager she has had to spend a lot of time on stage – as a Nurse in one show and as a gigantic dancing rat in another – obviously well worth 3 years studying at NIDA to be a dancing rat ☺
As you are probably know, Amy is a big dog lover and recently she was able to foster a greyhound for a few weeks which made her very happy.
Speaking of dogs brings us to our newest family member, just before Christmas 2013 Amy and Jacky just ‘happened’ to be passing the local RSPCA headquarters and went in to have a look. Surprisingly (!) they met and were smitten with a little black and white Maltese Shitzu, and as John was not there to object, home she came! Because it was Christmas we named her Holly and she’s now a big part of the family, a great guard dog, a bit of a sea dog and definitely way too cute for her own good.
Apart from the UK visits our travelling so far this year has all been Australia based
. There’s been the usual trips to Sydney to see Amy, a visit to Rockhampton to see David and Rachelle plus 2 trips up to Cairns and Pt Douglas. Tropical north Queensland is an area that always delights and it’s so lovely to be able to share some of its sights with friends and family. When Diane and Steve were over in October we were able to tick off most of their wildlife wish list. They spotted a Koala in the wild, they also saw crocodiles, humpback whales, dolphins, turtles, glow worms and even a snake (at a safe distance).
Just before Christmas John and Jacky are embarking on a major overseas trip. We’re flying to Santiago in Chile and will then cruise down the Chilean fjords and see a little of Patagonia before heading across the Drake Passage to Antarctica. Weather permitting; we should then spend a few days hoping in and out of Zodiacs on the Antarctic Peninsula before heading up to South Georgia. There we will hopefully see 1000s of penguins, pay our respects to Sir Ernest Shackleton and soak up some of the history. Hopefully though we won’t soaking up too much of the smell of Penguin poo which we understand is fairly potent! Then it’s off to Montevideo before disembarking in Buenos Aires. It’s going to be 24 days on board the Seabourn Quest, so aside from icebergs the biggest risk is the weight we will almost certainly gain! Jacky is of course very excited about the trip and even John has gone on record as saying that he ‘might almost be excited’. Those of you who know John will understand that he never usually expresses any level of excitement about anything, so it must be a big deal!
It will be strange to not be with any of the kids over Christmas. Mark and Emma plan to be with Emma’s family in Gladstone. Dave will be with Rachelle and her family and Amy’s plans include a visit to Melbourne to be with her boyfriend Andrew and his family. Poor Holly has got to go to kennels but at least she will have company.
In 2015 Bertie, Jacky’s Dad, will be celebrating his 90th birthday and as he would like a birthday celebration in the English summer we will all be heading over to the UK in late June. Mark and Emma have already booked tickets for Glastonbury. It will be great to all be over there together, it’s a few years since we’ve managed that. We’re not sure yet of our exact dates or plans but if you are UK side we will stay in touch and hopefully we can catch up during our trip.
In the meantime we wish you and your loved ones a very special festive season and wish you joy and good health in 2015.
Love
The Burketts Down Under
In November this year Brisbane took centre place on the world stage as it hosted the G20 summit welcoming (or in the case of Mr Putin, not quite so welcoming) world leaders to Queensland. It had a huge impact on the city for a few days and there was a big sigh of relief all round that it was all over.
We noted that the world leaders and their wives enjoyed the traditional Australian cuddle a koala photo opp. We always include this experience on UK visitors’ activities lists and this year we were delighted to share this experience with Penny (John’s niece) and Jacky’s old school friend Diane and her husband Steve.We had plenty of time to show Penny not only Koalas but Ozzie life in general as she was with us for about 2 months as she recuperated from a foot injury sustained in Japan. When she was fit
enough she headed off south to visit other relatives and then returned to us in August. We then headed up to tropical north Queensland for a few days. From Cairns we drove up to Cooktown and had the pleasure of being shown around by Loretta of the Captain Cook Re-enactment Association who Amy had worked with when she was up there last year. Cooktown is an interesting place and well worth putting on an Australian itinerary if you can spare the time to drive up there. We also enjoyed a few days sojourn in Port Douglas and of course went out to the Great Barrier Reef for Penny to have a dive.As many of you will know the beginning of the year was a rather sad time for us as John’s brother in law Sandy lost his valiant battle with cancer. We had planned a visit to the UK in March particularly to see him, but sadly he passed away in January. Mark and David were actually en route to Heathrow when we got the news which was particularly upsetting, but it did mean that they were both there to support John’s sister Joan. John then flew over to join them as soon as he could. No sooner was he back from that trip before he was back on the plane with Amy and Jacky for the originally booked journey. It was an emotional trip but it was good to spend time with family and friends.One highlight of the trip was a big catch up with friends in London, we’d emailed our London based friends letting them know we’d be in a certain pub on a certain date and were delighted when we had so many RSVPs that we had to book a private function room! It was a fun evening seeing mates that in some cases we had not seen for many years, John even caught up with his old chum from hospital radio days, Andrew Karno. The other highlight was a belated (or was it early?) Christmas dinner that Bertie (Jacky’s Dad) put on for 12 at the cottage in Newick.
Everyone here is well at present and as always keeping busy. Jacky is working part-time at Artslink Queensland and still heavily involved in the local arts council, RedArts. Also this year she organised a Favours Auction in aid of the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation, it was a lot of work but a great evening, John was MC and our good friend David Cameron auctioneer. The evening raised almost $4,000.
Mark turned 30 in February and Emma (who he shares a birthday with) organised a fantastic back garden beer festival for him. For Mark it was a highlight in what was otherwise a fairly tough year for him as one of his old mates from Didcot passed away in July. He flew over to support family and friends – and returned home with a tattoo of the White Horse (as in the one immortalised on the Oxfordshire downs). He and Emma are still living in Brisbane and Emma is halfway through her degree.Dave is living up in Rockhampton with Rachelle. They enjoyed a holiday to Asia earlier this year taking in Vietnam and Cambodia. Dave is now State Business Manager for Nextbyte, an Apple reseller chain. As Queensland is such a large state he spends a lot of his time flying between stores but at least he can still go home to Rockhampton. Amy spent the first half of the year working in Brisbane, but she is really now basing herself in Sydney and also doing the odd show in Melbourne. She’s been working on a mix of productions including comedy and drama. Although she is an Assistant Stage Manager she has had to spend a lot of time on stage – as a Nurse in one show and as a gigantic dancing rat in another – obviously well worth 3 years studying at NIDA to be a dancing rat ☺
As you are probably know, Amy is a big dog lover and recently she was able to foster a greyhound for a few weeks which made her very happy.
Speaking of dogs brings us to our newest family member, just before Christmas 2013 Amy and Jacky just ‘happened’ to be passing the local RSPCA headquarters and went in to have a look. Surprisingly (!) they met and were smitten with a little black and white Maltese Shitzu, and as John was not there to object, home she came! Because it was Christmas we named her Holly and she’s now a big part of the family, a great guard dog, a bit of a sea dog and definitely way too cute for her own good.Apart from the UK visits our travelling so far this year has all been Australia based
. There’s been the usual trips to Sydney to see Amy, a visit to Rockhampton to see David and Rachelle plus 2 trips up to Cairns and Pt Douglas. Tropical north Queensland is an area that always delights and it’s so lovely to be able to share some of its sights with friends and family. When Diane and Steve were over in October we were able to tick off most of their wildlife wish list. They spotted a Koala in the wild, they also saw crocodiles, humpback whales, dolphins, turtles, glow worms and even a snake (at a safe distance). Just before Christmas John and Jacky are embarking on a major overseas trip. We’re flying to Santiago in Chile and will then cruise down the Chilean fjords and see a little of Patagonia before heading across the Drake Passage to Antarctica. Weather permitting; we should then spend a few days hoping in and out of Zodiacs on the Antarctic Peninsula before heading up to South Georgia. There we will hopefully see 1000s of penguins, pay our respects to Sir Ernest Shackleton and soak up some of the history. Hopefully though we won’t soaking up too much of the smell of Penguin poo which we understand is fairly potent! Then it’s off to Montevideo before disembarking in Buenos Aires. It’s going to be 24 days on board the Seabourn Quest, so aside from icebergs the biggest risk is the weight we will almost certainly gain! Jacky is of course very excited about the trip and even John has gone on record as saying that he ‘might almost be excited’. Those of you who know John will understand that he never usually expresses any level of excitement about anything, so it must be a big deal!
It will be strange to not be with any of the kids over Christmas. Mark and Emma plan to be with Emma’s family in Gladstone. Dave will be with Rachelle and her family and Amy’s plans include a visit to Melbourne to be with her boyfriend Andrew and his family. Poor Holly has got to go to kennels but at least she will have company.
In 2015 Bertie, Jacky’s Dad, will be celebrating his 90th birthday and as he would like a birthday celebration in the English summer we will all be heading over to the UK in late June. Mark and Emma have already booked tickets for Glastonbury. It will be great to all be over there together, it’s a few years since we’ve managed that. We’re not sure yet of our exact dates or plans but if you are UK side we will stay in touch and hopefully we can catch up during our trip.
In the meantime we wish you and your loved ones a very special festive season and wish you joy and good health in 2015.
Love
The Burketts Down Under