sw’as

Greetings everyone! Happy holidays to all my teacher friends (remember I’m not one of you anymore, so you’d better enjoy.) How are the rest of you? I know the weather has been quite mild, except for Toowoomba of course.

We have obviously had some excitement in our lives this past week, although it’s certainly resulted in a desperate bout of homesickness. It seems everyone but us has met my lovely new nephew Charlie. Simon and I were absolutely thrilled with his arrival. After seemingly taking so long to get around to being born, he was suddenly in a tremendous hurry. I received a quick call and a text at work, and then a couple of hours later, he was born! I don’t know how long skype will sustain us (Charlie bawled on first sight of me – brilliant), but we are certainly grateful for it and all the photos we have received so far. I’m afraid to say Haddons and Dowricks, but I think Charlie detoured us and looks like every member of Tony’s family that I know. And he is gorgeous and healthy and has made his mum and dad so happy and proud.

Nothing compares with that, but there have been some other highlights during the last fortnight that will make for lovely memories for us both. Our good friend Miriam celebrated her 29^th birthday with dinner and then a trip to an 80s roller disco. As I watched hundreds of fluoro-clad Londoners glide/shuffle past, I was reminded of Toowoomba Skatehaven Saturday session (2pm til 4pm – no pass outs.) Remember the Skittles and the giant pythons? The speed skate? The outfits in Battersea were just as outrageous, but admittedly there were a few differences. The $30 cover charge would be one. The surlies on the door who confiscated packets of chewing gum (“you’ll throw it on the floor and people will hurt themselves.” No I won’t.) and bottles of water (no reason.) Guns and knives fine, but absolutely no hubba bubba.

On Saturday we went to our long awaited performance of King Lear at the Globe. I had never seen my favourite Shakespeare play performed and was so excited to see how it could be done. Our seats were excellent. There are 700 seats for groundlings at only five quid, but the idea of standing for three hours didn’t appeal. We had front row balcony seats in the middle gallery with a perfect view of the stage. The performance was hilarious in parts, incredibly bloody in others and just so moving. I pretty much cried the whole final scene. Loved it.

On the Sunday we finally made a trip to the Victoria and Albert museum. The exhibition I went to see was disappointing and we got through that in about twenty minutes. But the rest of the museum is exquisite. I loved the historical fashion, the jewellery room and the cast court, where there are enormous, yet intricate, replicas of famous columns and buildings from all over the world. As usual Simon was mesmerised with the sculpture section and plans on creating a bronze statue in the future. How long would that take? Five, six days?

A few weeks ago, my friend Bec and I decided that a surprise was in order for our husbands. There is a famous cabaret club in Chancery Lane called the Volupte Lounge. The boys were told to don suits, Bec and I glammed it up a little and we tottered down a dark alley (it wasn’t really that dark.) The boys were suitably surprised and very impressed with their introduction to a burlesque house. It was such a fun night; we drank classic cocktails painstakingly made by the bartender, were shown to our seats by a Russian with feathers in her hair and enjoyed a delicious three course meal. There was also singing, dancing and lots of sequinned flesh. All brilliant and in such good fun.

If you’ve considered queuing in the sun for four hours, but didn’t know how it would turn out, you could ask us. Wimbledon makes crazies out of a lot of people and we are delighted to be part of that group. We dragged ourselves out of bed to meet Bec and Aaron on Saturday morning and began lining up at 8am. It was actually quite fun; it’s on a big oval, with people playing games and picnicking. A couple of people I know, Jason and Sarah M, camped the night before and were 135 and 700 in the queue respectively. Stewards come round to give you a queue card with a number (we were 6677 and 6678) and if you’re not there to get a queue card, no one can get it for you and you’re on your own (I seem to remember this creating a problem for aunty Pat and uncle Ken.) Painfully the ticket booths didn’t even look at our queue cards; they just took our general ground fee of twenty quid and we were in!

These tickets gave us access to either standing or unreserved seating at courts two to nineteen. It’s a beautiful venue, so green and bright and I’d seen it so many times it felt familiar. We parked ourselves on Henman Hill with Pimms and strawberries and cream (simply too complicated to make at home) and enjoyed the sweltering heat and the big screen. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun, with drunken Scotsmen in eighties wigs providing entertainment in the form of huge Mexican waves. In the afternoon, for charity, people from centre court and court one can hand in their tickets to be re-sold. We were very fortunate to pick up two great seats on court one and saw James Murray (Andy’s brother) play men’s doubles and Molik versus Stubbs in mixed doubles. A strange thing (bit too quaint for my liking) about Wimbledon is that the male players are referred to by their first and last names only, but all women players are referred to as Miss this and Miss that. Overall, Wimbledon was one of the best days of the year and worth every second of the four hour queue.

Cannot wait to see the Elverys in only eleven days now! We’ll meet them and Hannah in Norway on the 11th. Best wishes to you all. Hope you’re all well. Stay in touch!

Laura and Simon.

Well, th’ RSVP date has come an’ gone, an’ thar be only a couple o’ stragglers; ‘t looks as tho we be goin’ t’ be havin’ a pretty full restaurant fer th’ reception. By me count we be havin’ twenty swabbies who canna make ‘t, which be more than we thought we’d get but most o’ them be havin’ good excuses, so ’tis arrr.

Th’ buck’s an’ hen’s parties be held on th’ weekend an’ from what I’ve heard, sea dogs an’ land lubbers seems t’ be havin’ had fun. Th’ lasses had a cocktail party on Saturday night while th’ lads spent th’ whole weekend at Straddie.

Aidan an’ Th’ Ooze did a most fantastic job o’ organisin’ ‘t, also a big thanks t’ sea dogs an’ land lubbers who came along fer makin’ ‘t a great weekend. I appreciate ye puttin’ in ‘t effort.

Go check ou’ all th’ photos.

As per usual, Th’ Ooze’s retellin’ o’ th’ tide be a much more interestin’ read so check that ou’ too.

Since I’m having trouble finding the time to post anything, I thought it might be quicker to do a top five type post rather than ramble and bore people.

1. The Music

Ok, so that should be obvious, but if I did a top five and didn’t bunch all the music into one item, there’d be nothing but music. The stand out act for me was Scissor Sisters who put on an awesome show. Grinspoon came second and other acts I really enjoyed include The Grates, The Avalanches, Something for Kate^[1], The Presets and Brian Wilson.

2. The Coincidences^[2]

The number of coincidences we encountered was increadible. We ran into a long lost friend from high school, Sarah. That’s coincidental because I had brought her up in conversation earlier in the day, after not thinking or talking about her for maybe two years! It was awesome to catch up with here and find out that her boyfriend (get ready for the next coincidence) is none other than Mike D, who Browny and I did a huge assignment with at uni a couple years back. On top of all that, on the first night we dropped into the movie shed they had set up only to find I [Heart] Huckabees playing, which for the uninitiated, is all about coincidences.

3. Running into Sarah

That was just way cool, we spent a bunch of time hanging out with her, Mike and all their friends at their most awesome Mexican themed camp.

4. Possibly being on Channel V

Mid way through Sunday, a Channel V crew came through the Mexican themed camp and did an interview with Sarah and checked it all out. I don’t know if any of it actually went to air (it was supposed to have on Friday) but if anyone recorded it I’d like to see.

5. Hanging out with Aidan for the weekend

It’s always fun hanging out with Aidan, but combine that with music and fun (two things we both love) and it makes for a great weekend.

If this had been a top ten, vikings and mud would both definitely have made the list.

1. I’m not really a fan of Something for Kate, but they put on a great live show. [↩]
2. Thanks to Aidan for the pictures. [↩]

Saturday night went off pretty well, I think. We had about 23 people in the end, which is a pretty bloody poor turnout given the invite list had over 50 people on it.

In hind sight, I should have started the evening a little earlier. 6-6:30 would have been better than 7pm, and I probably shouldn’t have drunk quite as much. Most people had arrived by about 8pm which is when we started the BBQ…things after that start getting hazy.

I decided for some reason (probably so he didn’t feel left out) that it would be a good idea to ring Aidan. Unfortunately I drastically miscalculated the time difference. Remembering that California was -8hrs was all I could manage. It didn’t occur to me that this actually meant -8hrs GMT, and with Queensland being +10hrs GMT my approximate estimation of the time over there (mid-afternoon) was out by a good 10 hours…sorry dude. The fact that he was staying at Chelsea’s grandparents’ house made the phone call even less convenient and even more rude. Again, sorry.