For Phil and Eve Harrison of Narrawallee, May 28 should be a day of celebration with their family - it's their 60th (Diamond) wedding anniversary.
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Instead, with the COVID 19 restrictions still largely in place and their children, grandchildren and great-grand-daughter all in Canberra, they expect to be spending it at home.
"It's a real disappointment," 82-year-old Eve said.
"We a met and married in Hong Kong and had our 50th (Golden) wedding celebrations at a Chinese restaurant in Canberra with all the family.
Even one of my bridesmaids came over from Perth for it."
However, there was at least one consolation - they recently received a signed congratulations card from Queen Elizabeth.
"We were not expecting it," says Eve.
"The Buckingham Palace website said that all congratulatory messages had been delayed till the COVID 19 crisis was over. Our request must have just got there in time."
Ironically, their marriage was given short shrift after they celebrated their engagement at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong, the setting for many scenes in the movie Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Eve's favourite film.
Phil was on a four-year contract as a reporter on the South China Morning Post and had never assumed that getting married would be a problem.
However, the newspaper's directors thought otherwise.
"They fired me," the 81-year-old Phil said.
"One of the reasons they gave was that they did not think Eve and I could 'live up to the standard required of a European in Hong Kong'. Ridiculous. Eve worked for the British Colonial Office and I had a good salary.
"I went to a lawyer and he said that under my contract, getting married without permission was the only event which merited instant dismissal. The wife of one of the executives even said she would give our marriage only six months."
Eve said he gave up his job for the woman he loved.
They sailed to the UK, where Phil worked as a journalist in the ABC's London office and the Sydney Morning Herald office.
Their first son, Mark, was born there.
"I was a Brisbane boy and the UK winter weather really got me down," Phil said.
"So I got a job in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on a daily newspaper called The Friend, which was once edited by Rudyard Kipling. Our second son, Stephen, was born there."
Two years later it was back to the UK, where Phil worked on Fleet Street papers, but Australia was calling and they sailed back to begin the next part of their lives.
After a stint with the Sydney Morning Herald, Phil decided he had had enough of night work and got a job with TV Times (now defunct) and stayed there seven years.
" I hadn't seen too much of the children because I was away at work when they got home from school and was asleep when they went off in the morning," he said.
Their third son, Paul, was born in Sydney.
"When I went to hospital for the delivery the admissions nurse asked for details of my other children," Eve said.
"When I told her where they had been born, she said, 'this isn't a family, it's a United Nations'."
Phil was recruited to the foreign service in 1975, which meant moving the family to Canberra.
"We spent a total of 10 years on overseas postings," Phil said.
"We were lucky -- we got Stockholm, Washington and London."
Phil was the press attache at the Australian embassy in Stockholm and a highlight of the family's 31/2 year stay there was farewelling pop group ABBA in 1977 on their Australian tour.
"I will always treasure the photos we have of that occasion," Eve said.
"I spent much of the time chatting to Agnetha, who was really upset about having to leave her young daughter behind.
"ABBA were pop royalty, and royalty seems to have been part of many highlights of our life.
During our London posting we attended many royal occasions as we were there in 1988, the bicentennial year.
"We went to Royal Ascot but the best event was dinner and a ball at Buckingham Palace.
"It was like a fairytale. The ambassadors and senior diplomats from many embassies lined up around the picture gallery and the whole royal family came in and went around chatting to people. The then High Commissioner, Doug McClelland, asked Princess Diana: "When are we going to see you in Australia again?" She snapped to attention, gave a flamboyant salute, and said 'when I get my orders'."
The UK posting had an added bonus for Eve.
"We got a house in my home village, Cobham, in Surrey," she said. "I caught up with many of my old school friends."
The royal coincidence continued when, after Phil retired, they went on a two-week Mediterranean cruise on the QE2.
Phil and Eve had been holidaying at a friend's house in Narrawallee for several years and after Phil retired, it was always going to be Narrawallee.
"We bought here in 1992 and moved in three years later," Eve said. "My birth name was Yvonne but when we moved here there were four Yvonnes in the road. In Hong Kong my friends called me Evy so I decided I would be Eve and have been ever since."
And the secret to a long and happy marriage?
"A sense of humour," Phil said. "As long as you can have a good laugh together, you won't go wrong."
Eve's formula is enjoying doing things together.