We are sending this annual missive a little early this year as we are going travelling in November, more on that later.
2018 has turned out to be something of a bitter sweet year. As many of you know in January we were in the UK spending time with Jacky’s Dad, Bertie. We had
a lovely Christmas and enjoyed being with family and celebrating his 92nd birthday. Sadly shortly before we were due to head home Bertie’s health suddenly deteriorated, Jacky stayed on in the UK and but sadly Bertie died in mid-January. Jacky remained in Newick for a while to be there for the funeral. A special thank you to all the friends who came down to Sussex, bringing Jacky care packs or taking her out to the pub for dinner, or met her at the airport hotel before her flight home. It was all very much appreciated, thank you. The family gave Bertie a terrific send off, a full parade through the village to the church which was packed, followed by a wake which stayed true to Bertie’s specific requests for catering, “no soggy sausage rolls” being just one of the instructions!
Jacky headed home in February keen to be back as Dave and Rachelle’s baby was due in March.
Little Arlo Bond Burkett was born on the 9th March. He’s very cute, looks so much like David did at that age and seems to spend a lot of his time smiling, just like David did (and still does). Dave and Rachelle are doing a fantastic job as parents and Arlo is thriving.
Mark and Emma have just celebrated their first wedding anniversary. They’ve had a busy year, Mark’s video production business continues to grow and Emma now has a full time role in a design agency. They are renovating their house and plan to have it finished next year.
Amy is currently working at a new 5* boutique hotel in Brisbane as Sales and Events Coordinator, it’s a short term maternity cover contract but she’s certainly learning a huge amount about the hospitality industry. She’s continuing to do some make up jobs and run small workshops. But in her spare time she has taken up cabaret dancing and loves it. She’s even learning how to do fire eating to add some sizzle to her act!
John is continuing to work on advisory boards and has
recently been doing lots of pro bono work helping set up a new local Angel investor association and being co-chair of something called the Redlands Innovation Advisory Group. The eventual objective of which is to see a new startup/innovation hub established locally. In July, John entered the Australian National Malt Whisky Tasting championships in Sydney, came nowhere but had fun!
Jacky continues to spend a lot of time on Soroptimist International volunteer work, in May she represented her club at the Federation conference in Melbourne. She also now doing regular volunteer shifts as a JP at the Cleveland Courthouse. In the small extra time she has managed to squeeze in a little paid work with some local not for profits assisting with their governance and planning.
Regrettably more sad news arrived at the end of August. Tony Hiller, the songwriter Jacky used to work for, passed away. As many of you will know Jacky and Tony enjoyed a great working relationship that went on to become an enduring friendship. We visited Tony and his lovely Australian wife, Leigh, in London just last December. Tony and Jacky reminisced about the crazy things they got up to in the music industry back in the 70s and 80s. Tony’s achievements as an award winning songwriter have been recorded in many fitting obituaries including BBC Radio 4’s The Last Word (scroll forward to 23 minutes in to hear about Tony).
So while it’s been a year of highs and lows, we are going to do our level best to end on a high! We are off to South America to fulfil John’s wish to visit Machu Picchu, we’ll also spend a little time in Cusco and the Sacred Valley before returning to Lima. In Lima we will once again board our favourite cruise ship, the Seabourn Quest, and head south! Yes, we are going back to Antarctica again, Jacky wanted to end the year on a high by seeing the penguins – she loves penguins in case you had not guessed! It’s a long cruise (31 nights) going all the way down the west coast of South America and then heading to the Antarctic peninsula. After that, providing the weather is ok, there will be a stop in the Falkland Islands before heading back up the east coast to Buenos Aires. We planned this trip meticulously so that we would be home 3 days before Christmas, unfortunately though Air New Zealand had other plans for us. They cancelled our flight home from Buenos Aires and can’t get us on another flight for 2 days! So rather than hang around Buenos Aires we’re going to take the opportunity to visit Iguazu Falls, staying in the national park just over the border in Brazil. All this means that, even if all the revised flights back connect OK, we won’t be home until Christmas Eve. So we suspect it might be a fairly laid back, low key, somewhat jetlagged, kind of a Christmas!
Seasons best wishes to you and yours, hope 2019 brings you good things.
The Burketts downunder.
2018 has turned out to be something of a bitter sweet year. As many of you know in January we were in the UK spending time with Jacky’s Dad, Bertie. We had
a lovely Christmas and enjoyed being with family and celebrating his 92nd birthday. Sadly shortly before we were due to head home Bertie’s health suddenly deteriorated, Jacky stayed on in the UK and but sadly Bertie died in mid-January. Jacky remained in Newick for a while to be there for the funeral. A special thank you to all the friends who came down to Sussex, bringing Jacky care packs or taking her out to the pub for dinner, or met her at the airport hotel before her flight home. It was all very much appreciated, thank you. The family gave Bertie a terrific send off, a full parade through the village to the church which was packed, followed by a wake which stayed true to Bertie’s specific requests for catering, “no soggy sausage rolls” being just one of the instructions!Jacky headed home in February keen to be back as Dave and Rachelle’s baby was due in March.Little Arlo Bond Burkett was born on the 9th March. He’s very cute, looks so much like David did at that age and seems to spend a lot of his time smiling, just like David did (and still does). Dave and Rachelle are doing a fantastic job as parents and Arlo is thriving.
Mark and Emma have just celebrated their first wedding anniversary. They’ve had a busy year, Mark’s video production business continues to grow and Emma now has a full time role in a design agency. They are renovating their house and plan to have it finished next year.Amy is currently working at a new 5* boutique hotel in Brisbane as Sales and Events Coordinator, it’s a short term maternity cover contract but she’s certainly learning a huge amount about the hospitality industry. She’s continuing to do some make up jobs and run small workshops. But in her spare time she has taken up cabaret dancing and loves it. She’s even learning how to do fire eating to add some sizzle to her act!
John is continuing to work on advisory boards and has
recently been doing lots of pro bono work helping set up a new local Angel investor association and being co-chair of something called the Redlands Innovation Advisory Group. The eventual objective of which is to see a new startup/innovation hub established locally. In July, John entered the Australian National Malt Whisky Tasting championships in Sydney, came nowhere but had fun!Jacky continues to spend a lot of time on Soroptimist International volunteer work, in May she represented her club at the Federation conference in Melbourne. She also now doing regular volunteer shifts as a JP at the Cleveland Courthouse. In the small extra time she has managed to squeeze in a little paid work with some local not for profits assisting with their governance and planning.
Regrettably more sad news arrived at the end of August. Tony Hiller, the songwriter Jacky used to work for, passed away. As many of you will know Jacky and Tony enjoyed a great working relationship that went on to become an enduring friendship. We visited Tony and his lovely Australian wife, Leigh, in London just last December. Tony and Jacky reminisced about the crazy things they got up to in the music industry back in the 70s and 80s. Tony’s achievements as an award winning songwriter have been recorded in many fitting obituaries including BBC Radio 4’s The Last Word (scroll forward to 23 minutes in to hear about Tony).So while it’s been a year of highs and lows, we are going to do our level best to end on a high! We are off to South America to fulfil John’s wish to visit Machu Picchu, we’ll also spend a little time in Cusco and the Sacred Valley before returning to Lima. In Lima we will once again board our favourite cruise ship, the Seabourn Quest, and head south! Yes, we are going back to Antarctica again, Jacky wanted to end the year on a high by seeing the penguins – she loves penguins in case you had not guessed! It’s a long cruise (31 nights) going all the way down the west coast of South America and then heading to the Antarctic peninsula. After that, providing the weather is ok, there will be a stop in the Falkland Islands before heading back up the east coast to Buenos Aires. We planned this trip meticulously so that we would be home 3 days before Christmas, unfortunately though Air New Zealand had other plans for us. They cancelled our flight home from Buenos Aires and can’t get us on another flight for 2 days! So rather than hang around Buenos Aires we’re going to take the opportunity to visit Iguazu Falls, staying in the national park just over the border in Brazil. All this means that, even if all the revised flights back connect OK, we won’t be home until Christmas Eve. So we suspect it might be a fairly laid back, low key, somewhat jetlagged, kind of a Christmas!
Seasons best wishes to you and yours, hope 2019 brings you good things.
The Burketts downunder.