Happy 80th Birthday, Brian, Daddy & Pop!!!

ON February 28, 2009, Brian Walsh turned 80. Friends and family celebrated at a special lunch at the Castlemaine Art Gallery in central Victoria. As a special treat (and BIG surprise), he officially “launched” this website after lunch.

Guests travelled from across Australia and from the United States and Europe to join the celebrations, drank copious quantities of great Australian reds and whites, ate massive amounts of fresh seafood, enjoyed BBQs galore and played lots of games of Scrabble.

Speaking of Scrabble, Brian’s birthday cake reflected the love and high regard in which he is held – and his fondness and aptitude for the wordy puzzle. Here’s the design, so see if you can work out the greeting. (Here’s the solution!)

For a peek at some of the highlights captured on film of Brian’s adventures and experiences over the last 80 years, we planned to have image CDs available on request (there’s nothing worse than having a plethora of other people’s pictures foisted upon one!) We will also post some photos of the birthday lunch etc in late March.

Visit Brian’s Page for his reminiscences, ditties, thoughts and a bit of family history…and for someone who has “never really bothered with computers”, we may still convince him to author a blog every now and then. Well, we can try.

Cheers! Brian enjoys an Australian red from the Chewton cellar, June 2007. Photo by Greg Walsh

Brian backpacking in Ireland c.1955