80th Birthday Conference & CJE

Caterina Sardoni (Age 16)
Opening Remarks

Hello everyone, I am Caterina Sardoni, the oldest grand-daughter of Geoff Harcourt. Now, you all know him, and many of you from a longer time, but none of you know him as Dadoo, only Emma Claire, Yun Shi and I have that privilege. When my mother told me there was a conference in honour of Dadoo I immediately wanted to sit down on my computer to write how marvelous it is to have Geoff Harcourt as a grandfather. So here are a few words to make you understand:

1. The first thing I must tell you is why I call him Dadoo. It is because every time he would come back from college when I was little he would call out ‘Yoooo Whoooo! And Mummy and Nana would say ‘here is Grand dad’, but as I found Grand dad hard to say I called back to him hello ‘Dadooo!’
2. The second thing is that he only knows how to cook boiled eggs, steak and toast. But this doesn’t stop him from getting up early every morning to prepare a very good breakfast. His speciality is toast with vegemite and I must say that Dadoo makes the best vegemite toast in the world, in fact you must be sure to ask him if would do one for you!
3. The third thing is that when you go on trips with Dadoo you are sure to arrive at least three hours early. Well this is true of all the Harcourt family. Dadoo always has packed lunches for the trip. The last time we went to visit the family in Australia, he packed us a delicious round of polish sausage, well delicious to him, now that I mention it, I must tell you my dearest Dadoo that not everyone loves polish sausage as much as you do!
4. The fourth thing is that whenever we visit he makes sure we have a bath every night, well not now that I’m 16, but during my visits as a little girl to Cambridge Daddu was in charge of us having a bath, every night, no matter how late it was, he always made us have one. He really insists on personal hygiene, and of course we must brush our teeth everyday, though that is pretty logical as his brother is a dentist. Even now I can’t chew gum when Dadoo is around.
5. The fifth thing is that he is a true romantic and adores Disney films, like me. If I am not wrong his favourite is Snow White. I remember him telling me that his favourite song is ‘Hey Ho Hey Ho It’s off to work we go’, sung by the seven dwarfs.
6. The sixth thing is that he was very, very fond of teddy bear named ‘Aloysius’ given to him by his students. I also adored Aloysius and after many times of me asking, he finally, stupidly, gave it to me to take to Rome, and sadly I lost it. But now after some years, I bought him a Koala in place of the old teddy bear. And now my gift sits on the bed of my grandparents.
7. The seventh thing is that Dadoo is never serious, but I think you all know this. But did you know that he is very good at singing ditties? My favourite is about pyjamas and goes like:
   ‘Pyjamas, pyjamas you wear them every night, if you do not wear pyjamas please turn out the lights!’
8. The eighth thing is that Dadoo is always very keen, perhaps too keen, to help me find a nice boy friend, in fact every time he sees a teenage boy he always gives me some helpful hints. It is rather hard for me to be out with my family in this respect, well Daddu and my aunt in particular but they are family so I must adored them for what they are.
9. The ninth thing is how kind Dadoo is, I will always remember him buying a swimming costume when he took me and Emma Claire to the local swimming pool in Cambridge and because we were so disappointed that we could not go in without an adult he bought himself a pair of bathers and sat watching us as we swam.
10. And last, but not least, is Dadoo and cricket. There I learnt that silence is golden and not to say a word when the cricket is on!