Day 17: Vicky and David 1

Bretty and Bowl at Claypool

The golden thread running through Sydney University headed in an entirely new and unexpected direction in the mid 1990s, bringing me into contact with a group of incredible people who have become treasured friends. Through a complicated route that can be traced back to Lizzie, I met my friend Anthony Heffernan who introduced me to Brett Stone. Bretty is an art curator, a ceramicist - who makes the most divine bowls at Claypool - and is an all round wonderful man. 

Miss V and Mr D

Through Bretty, I was introduced to Vicky Tycho and David Matchett, the most generous couple imaginable, and through through V&D, we met fabulous Geoffrey Harrison, former finance trader and now on faculty at Sydney University Business School (and who has worked there with two other wonderful friends Leanne Piggott and Carson - but more about these two amazing women another day). 

Geoffrey, Bretty and Robbie 2016

Together, in 2000 we travelled to Portugal, joining Cazy and Ben who were living in London at the time, and other close friends Maddie Drake and Bill Budd (see future post), where we spent much of the time lazing around the pool devouring pistachios and drinking Tinto, the local favourite tipple.

Geoffrey, Robbie and Maddie, poolside, Portugal 2000.

In 2008, we arranged another trip to France before our family headed to Leiden where I was taking up a visiting fellowship. Sadly, Vicky and David had to cancel at the very last minute when Vicky's Dad, Tommy Tycho had a stroke the day they were due to depart. Tommy was an Australian icon, a musical legend who was a founder of the Australian music industry. Dear Tommy, with the twinkle in his eye and wicked sense of humour, was such fun to be around, and he was so kind to our boys. He died in 2013 after being lovingly cared for by Vicky and David for many years. 

Vicky with Maestro Tommy

When we arrived in France, not only were we missing Vicky and David, but the world sort of fell apart with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the start of the GFC; it was a particularly traumatic to watch the spectacle with Geoffrey who was working in the finance sector at the time. Somehow, we struggled through with the aid of great local wine and food. 

Bretty, Geoffrey and Robbie contemplating life, St Remy de Provence, 2008

After our trip to Portugal, to make sure we saw each other on a regular basis, we established the Nosh Club, with Jason Maher and Jen Fleming as additional members. The original rules of the club were that every couple of months we would take turns to select a BYO restaurant where we spent no more that $25 per head for our meal. Overtime, we've become a bit more flexible, occasionally suspending the BYO rule, or splashing out on a more expensive meal for a special occasion. During the past 17 years, our Nosh meetings have not always been as regular as we'd like and our number waxes and wanes, but they remain an important way for us to keep in touch and support each other through new jobs and redundancies, new partners and break ups, sickness and health, births and deaths.

Jet hoops

Some of us met for a Nosh tonight at a small Japanese restaurant around the corner, which complied fully with the rules. We were a smaller crowd than usual, especially missing dear David whose Dad died this week and he was away with his family. We held him in our thoughts.

Appropriately and not without coincidence, I was wearing a pair of earrings from Vicky and David today. Picking my earring obsession early on, they bought me many pairs as birthday gifts over the years. Today's are a great pair of hoops with jet crystals, that move and sparkle just as I like. I reckon Vicky is one of the few people I know who has more earrings than me - I challenged her tonight to count them, and will be keen to know the answer.

Day 17 was a good one. A constructive early work phone meeting followed by a visit with Rob to the Kinghorn Centre's exercise physiologist. I now have an exercise program that should stand me in good stead throughout the treatment. Apparently I need to ramp it up a few days before each infusion, but not sure how I'll go in the extreme heat this coming weekend. It's wonderful to see the research going into this aspect of cancer treatment both to enhance the efficacy of the chemo and radio therapy, and to address the associated fatigue and other side effects. A surprise visit from my brother Paul this afternoon was a treat. We are all very excited about Paul, Geeta and Jai moving to Sydney next week. Given the way I'm shedding today, I'm not sure I'll have any hair left by then.