There didn’t seem to be a right way we had to do things, a correct attitude we were expected to endorse or any egos we had to take care to flatter. Everyone met on a first name or nickname basis without reference to former rank or current position in the Vampire organisation.

I anticipated the joy of meeting people I had not seen for thirty years. The unexpected delight of meeting so many of their family members was an added bonus.

It is fascinating the way memories can come sneaking back. At the beach barbecue there was a bloke who had been at the hospital at the same time as I had been there, but there  was no way I could remember him or anything about him. Then he mentioned he came from the Atherton Tablelands. This jogged a grey cell – it might have jogged both of them – and I remembered a fine athlete, a skilled trampolinist, and a man who could discuss the finer points of rainforest timbers. Of course I remembered him. Know him well. Just a few salient points that have arisen over the last three decades to fill in and we’re back to normal. I am stuck with one set of nagging details that I cannot recall. The beach barbecue had been faithfully re-created. I was surrounded by people who had been to just such Vunger’s gatherings in the past. There was even a genuine Army trailer with cans of beer and soft drinks on ice. But the memory won’t come back. Try as I might, I have definitely forgotten about the food being as good as this, the excellence of the service and such a great variety of choices. But I think I’ll remember the Sunshine Coast Barbecue.