We hope that this year’s letter finds you and your family well in these challenging times. We have all experienced a year we weren’t expecting in different ways, learning to adapt and change with the times, in that spirit we are happy to be moving the family newsletter online (hopefully saving a modest amount of paper in the process). Currently, it seems that next year offers a little more optimism, with light at the end of this tunnel of restrictions and repeating lockdowns.

In Dublin, Teresa and David were confined early on and the rules were strict for most of the year. Initially, we were only allowed out for exercise 2km from home, then relaxed to 5km, and then to the county border; whilst we were working from home and most shops closed. So, it’s been a very quiet year.

However, we started 2020 in Australia (which seems like a distant memory now), having gone there for David’s niece’s wedding earlier in December, with one son (Matthew) managing to join us. After which, we spent a fascinating week in Hobart, Tasmania, and the surrounding areas—about the only place in Australia not affected by the bush fires. We took a boat trip into the Southern Ocean, visited historic sites, walked through many nature reserves, and tasted multiple local wines, beers and oysters. It was then back to Brisbane for a family Christmas around the pool, catching up with friends, and an overnight stay in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast.

From there we travelled to Sydney, to be greeted by a grey sky and an iridescent orange sun, due to the smoke from the bushfires miles away on the southern coast of New South Wales. New Year was spent near Canberra on a friend’s farm and vineyard. We enjoyed the views from Mount Ainsley and the new National Museum of Australia, which tells the story of Australia’s evolution in an accessible and engaging way. On our return to Sydney, we took historic city walks and harbour cruises, spent hours in the art galleries, visited beaches and most importantly enjoyed relaxing with friends.

Mid-January saw us (David and Teresa) both back at work in Dublin. This was interrupted by a brief trip to France to get our house ready for what we thought would be further visits during the year.

David has spent most of the year detailing what is required of a new IT system for the Valuation Office of Ireland. The work on this fascinating and challenging contract continued from home during lockdowns until a tender document was completed in September. For Teresa, this year was meant to mark the conclusion of her full-time work in Dublin as the unit she established is running well. It was also the year she planned to visit various teaching sites around the world, attend conferences to present her research, and explore possibilities for the next phase of life. In the end, none of this came to pass as the early cancelling of a conference and trip to Malaysia in February, with news of the pandemic establishing itself, began the year’s all too familiar pattern. A whirlwind daily ritual of virtual meetings followed, proving every bit as busy and potentially more tiring due to the additional concentration needed. Her farewell event was also virtual, with colleagues being touchingly complementary in their tributes. She will continue, as Professor Emerita, to support her PhD and Master’s students, as well as doing her personal research, including publishing a review of the responses to C-19 in medical education. However, due to team staffing changes it is proving harder to fully hand off projects and she is rather busier than she had hoped! Thinking back its also amazing that Teresa managed three days in Paris at the end of January visiting friends and wandering around the Louvre, Musee D’Orsay, and Jeu de Paume—the memory of which has had to last her all year.

Luke’s busy end of 2019 at Kirkland & Ellis LLP kept him from joining the family in Australia for Christmas. This year, he took the flexibility offered by 2020’s working arrangements to continue exploring California’s natural splendour and great outdoors on hikes and cycles; as well as road trips and boating on Lake Tahoe with flatmates (all in compliance with one of the U.S.’s more astute Covid regulatory frameworks). However, in addition to the pandemic, Luke also experienced California’s own wildfires and marched with campaigners for racial equality. In the Autumn, he took up an offer to join Cooley LLP’s mergers & acquisition practice in San Francisco, to focus more on life science and technology companies. As a result of the change in firms, he ended up having to travel to Australia to renew his U.S. visa this December (the result of the convoluted interaction of U.S. immigration law and global travel restrictions). After the mandatory two-week hotel quarantine and necessary consular bureaucracy, Luke is currently enjoying the Christmas and the New Year period with family and friends in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney and looking forward to starting at his new firm in January. He also had a front row seat to America’s great democratic experiment and spent time volunteering for a non-partisan, legal non-profit, promoted by Barack Obama, working to protect and advise voters on how to exercise their right to vote across the U.S.

Matthew has had an eventful first year at EY, which started with his first audit ‘busy season’ from January to March, after which he was not to see the inside of the office for 6 months. In adjusting to working from home so Matthew has upgraded from working at the kitchen table to setting up his new ‘office’ in his old bedroom with the addition of two widescreen monitors (halfway to the ‘trader setup’) and a comfy desk chair (his spinal cord would like to thank EY for their generosity). He looks forward to the partial return of office life in 2021. He has joined new audit teams remotely and had to endure a round of virtual tuition and exams. In between all this, Matthew has managed to pick up a new sport, sort of, as he joined his firm’s touch rugby team (Go Vipers!) and he has been able to continue training outside of lockdowns, as the sport is deemed not close contact, go figure. The only other 2020 highlight he wishes to mention is his Lockdown 1.0 project of a ‘beer die/pong’ table, which debuted at the third Annual Blackett Brothers BBQ in September (which was held with only one brother for the first time—and thus mildly erroneously named in the plural).

Covid really started to affect us when friends from overseas began cancelling visits to us and we were also forced to do the same to others. David was lucky to be able to organise an excellent South African wine tasting for the Imperial College wine group in mid-March just before the first lockdown. We (David and Teresa) spent most of the year in Dublin, as the incidence was lower than London and most of France, but after the first Covid wave we took the opportunity to visit a few of the places in Ireland we hadn’t been to. This began with some sunny, but windy, days wandering around the Ring of Kerry, enjoying the sights and food. A few weeks later we went to The Burren in County Clare, staying at The Wild Honey Inn (Ireland’s only one-star Michelin pub), visiting the Cliffs of Moher, and going for walks over the distinctive limestone pavement hillsides covered with unique flora and fauna. We also spent a weekend in Dungarvan (on the coast between Dublin and Cork), having wonderful meals at The Tannery, owned by chef Paul Flynn who writes about food for The Irish Times and whose dishes we often try to recreate at home.

We were missing seeing our sons, despite weekly video calls (much to their chagrin), so by carefully analysing travel restrictions we managed to meet Matthew for a few days in Northern Ireland in September, staying in a quaint cottage on County Antrim’s northern coast, visiting the Giants Causeway, the nine Glens of Antrim (think Game of Thrones), doing coastal walks, and exploring the Mourne mountains (the inspiration for Narnia). Luke remains safe from parental visits due to being on the wrong side of the outgoing U.S. President’s travel ban.

David has again been able to import a pallet of Lamiable Champagne and another pallet of red, white, and rose wine from Domain de Brunely in the southern Rhone and has spent the last few weeks delivering it to his happy customers. Hopefully the uncertainty and potential cost increases from Brexit will not make it uneconomical or too onerous to continue with the importing in 2021. Please enquire if you would like your cellars stocked up.

In 2021 we are looking forward to being vaccinated and hopefully catching up on many of the things we weren’t able to do in 2020, especially seeing many of you in person. In the meantime, please keep well and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happier New Year!

— Teresa, David, Luke, & Matthew —