I was held up and only got to the meeting moments before kick off at 1 o'clock. Just in time to grab a glass of red having discovered we were being treated to a very nice roast.

 

What a fabulous meeting! I don't know whether we rearranged the tables deliberately or whether they were just set up like that by the establishment, but it was a nice change and seemed to work well. More collegiate, and helped by a terrific turn up, although our guest Speaker Paul Watson was so fascinating that we didn't get as far as Nooka’s attendance report. By the look of it we had 40+ in attendance, including Lea from France where the temperature in her home village of Buzet-sur-Baise continues in the mid to high 20s. Janick’s home town of Logstor in the north of Denmark is experiencing temperatures between 20 and 12° as we cross seasons with the northern hemisphere.

 

Great to enjoy Nic Bolden’s company. Wednesday lunches are difficult for a travel agent but Nic will go along when he can. And he was probably there, in large part, because of his corner of Lava & Fairy Street connection with our guest speaker Paul Watson (ex-Monahans pharmacy), and our own Les McGrath who I gather arranged for Paul to come and speak. 50 minutes of rapidfire, very entertaining presentation by an enthusiastic and driven individual, happily identifying himself as an ex-nerd. For those that missed it, Paul bailed out of pharmacy some 10 years ago and has done a variety of things since then. Included in his achievements are becoming fit and pursuing some pretty amazing outdoor adventures including mountaineering, jungle trekking and the adventure which he spoke to us about, the "Arctic Ultra". I didn't get all the details in terms of distance and exact location, but the show basically involved trekking solo for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres in the north of Alaska until you ran out of land when you hit the Arctic Sea. 23 starters from all around the world, of whom 5 finished. That was pretty consistent with the race organisers predictions, and from memory Paul was finally forced to pull out when he was 1 of only 7 remaining on the road. An incredible effort, and one would think enough for a lifetime! Not so. He's gained marital leave to enter the event again next year.

 

Interestingly Paul explained that in the extreme cold ones IQ drops about 40 points after 3 or 4 days. Obviously, this impacts decision-making in an environment where mistakes could be fatal, certainly to toes and fingers, no matter how well supported the competitors are. But looking around our club I couldn't help feeling that a drop of 40 points might leave a large number of us brain dead? So it's unlikely Paul is going to enjoy any of us as companions next year's event. Paul had a couple of his own friends along for the presentation as well, and it was thoroughly entertaining. Thank you Les for organising it.

 

The only other matter of note arising out of the meeting was Paul Blain being part of a syndicate owning "Gold Medals" which recently won Australian Jumps Racing Course of the Year. The heavy silver severed horse head which Paul received sits proudly at the end of his and Allison's bed.

 

Finally, increasingly popular (judging by the roll-up) President Lewis has taken the art of delegation to new levels, having Tim Goodall act as stand-in Pres, while Lew was actually at the meeting as well. He's a genius!