Bill 'Adonis' Welbourne [pictured] blames Murphy's Law for almost missing the penultimate meeting of the Brisbane reunion organising committee, citing “an unfortunate senior forgetfulness” as a fallback excuse. Bill’s usually an efficient type. Going shopping he loads the garbage into the boot to carry it 400 metres to the entrance of his Mount Cotton property. But by the time the car roars through the gates Bill's forgotten the garbage and “I still have it with my freezer when I return from the supermarket.” Same with golf. Forgetful. “When it's my turn to putt out, I'm two holes away. Except if I'm nearest the pin.”

Bill had arranged with the nearby Bohlens and their beautiful red BMW for a ride to the reunion meeting – at Henry Bodman’s globally recognised (Bush stayed there once) “leafy Fig Tree Pocket”. On the night before the morning in question, though, Bill had spent much valuable sleep time mopping up water from a recalcitrant dishwasher. This followed a few late night Tia Marias with son Tony, just returned from overseas. The dishwasher became Bill, who brought to the arrangement a sponge mop,  a tea towel and a hefty desire for clean crockery.

“Finally to bed at 0100. Too much tea and wine forced me to an 0430 stroll. At that moment I heard a loud hissing. [That's 'loud hissing'.] The dishwasher hose had escaped and water was again flooding the kitchen.”

Despite all that excitement – a year’s worth for your typical senior – Bill and the Bohlens were only 15 minutes late for the meeting. But Henry was unimpressed and smarted, “Good afternoon! You're 15 minutes late!” To which Bill retorted, “Yeah, but that's better than half an hour ... and we didn’t get lost!” Bill can be very cruel to Henry, who was only doing his best to maintain order and decorum.

But all was forgiven. “Suffice it to say Henry was the perfect host on this occasion,” crawls Bill, “and we enjoyed an outdoor setting in the best weather we'd had after a week of unseasonally heavy rain. We gorged on Henry's seafood basket and he demonstrated the three move trick of peeling a prawn.” And that's how the organising committee got down to serious business.

Colin Huggins [pictured] comments: “Please observe how thoughtful one can become at an organising meeting. Ninety percent business followed by ten percent prawns and oysters. Odd drink thrown in for good measure.” Oh yeah. [Photo: Dick Arnold]