Weekend Triumphant in Newcastle

 This past weekend we spent in Newcastle. Steve, together with Bev, had been nominated for best costume design in a non-professional production, for their costumes for Metropolitan Players production of Phantom of the Opera, so we flew down on Friday afternoon in time for the CONDA Awards in the sumptuous Civic Theatre.

 The category was second up so Steve and Bev didn't have long to wait.  The agony was over when they were announced joint winners along with Valmay and George for hair and wigs, also for Phantom.  Phantom picked up 7 CONDAS and Steve's CONDA was his 6th.

 And here is the proud costume designer flanked by our friends, Joel and Glen, who were looking resplendent in matching ivory tails with sequinned fronts (courtesy of Steve some time ago, for another show, 42nd Street).  We celebrated in style after drinks at the end of the awards ceremony by sneaking into Hamburger Haven around midnight. (Well it is a culinary icon in Newcastle, let's face it, though we both agree its glory days are in the past).

 The next day saw us enjoying a lovely lunch with friends, Glen, Graham, and Geoff, who took the photo. Always great to catch up with the boys when we are in Newie. We needed to do a bit of shopping in the afternoon and then we celebrated our friend, Damien's 40th birthday, which was much fun, held in the salubrious Gallipoli Legion Club.

After a bit of a slow morning, Geoff (who's fabulous art deco flat we were staying at), Steve and I visited our friend, one of Newcastle's Living Treasures, Terry (aka Miss Bubble LeGay) who was recovering from having his second leg amputated. He was in very good spirits considering all that he had been through and the challenges he was facing with getting up to hospital three times a day for dialysis and delays in being properly equipped with various devices to help him with his daily life.
Then on to my mum and dad's for lunch with my bro, Brett who had come up from Sydney and my sisters, Alison and Leanne and their respective families.  Mum always puts on a great lunch and it was lots of fun.  We won't be coming down to Newcastle for Christmas this year, but instead we are having a quiet, low key, Larnook Christmas, so this lunch was a pre-Christmas celebration, where we could celebrate that we were all together and in good health and in good spirits.