Hi mates, how are you all? I miss you guys a lot!! I have contact with a few of you on Facebook, but not with everyone. And since some of you don't even have Facebook - right Pip? -, here is (a not so) quick 😂 update on my life since I left Australia:

I returned to my parents apartment in Belo Horizonte Brazil in 2016, finished my high school and Computer Tech course on the same year. In 2017 I was divided by going back to Australia (yes, I loved it so much that I would go back in just 6 months) and joining college. With my parents support I decided that first I should focus on my studies and then started my Veterinary course on college in Poços de Caldas (a very beautifull an touristic city with a population of about 150 thousand people).

I had barely moved and got a dog, which I've always wanted, but because I lived with my parents in an apartment I couldn't have. My best friend's name is Capone, a mix between Fila Brasileiro and Weimaraner, he weights 60kg and is in good form. Anyway, between some friends and the nice college I was in, I decided that in the future I would like to work with big animals, not pets. At that time I was more into beef cattle, and the region I was in was not so good at it (coffee was their main agribusiness area). So I decided to move into another college which was in a good region for beef cattle production (city of Montes Claros). Despite getting a very good internship and learning a lot about cattle reproduction, I lost a couple of year of progress because of some difference between the two colleges, so I am not so sure if it was worth it, but I hope the future tells me so.

- For geographic matters just so you know, the city I was living with my parents (Belo Horizonte) is the capital of my state and is located on it's center while Poços de Caldas is 500km south and Montes Claros 500km north of the capital, all the three in the same state. - Also in Montes Claros I met my girlfriend Sara, 22, and we are now dating for more than three years. My brother Rodrigo , 22, also started living with me as he had returned from his Rotary exchange in Germany and started law school.

Back to my girlfriend, she is also studying to be a Vet and we are going to graduate together. This semester because of the confusion of studying on two colleges, I am doing just one subject (the last one) and I am taking advantage of the free time to develop some other skills, get fit and trying internships in other areas such as sales representative to get experience.

As I am about to graduate and begin another stage of my life, I have been thinking a lot about what to do. My parents moved to a small city and are farming, mainly wood and corn sillage, but also few chickens and pigs. Dad was thinking about buying a small farm which I would run for him and would be focused on beef cattle. But I'm not so sure about this idea for now because of the Brazilian politics. Our last election was pretty bad and a left-wing government was elected, so a big investment might not be a very good idea now. In the other hand I am getting my Italian citizenship which is almost done, and that opens a few doors for me as well. But one thing that I've been wanting to do for a long time is going back to Australia, and I get very excited about it when I think of it. I've been reading a lot about the visas on the government website, checking some jobs on The Standard website and Sara is also excited about the idea. Only God knows what the future holds, but in anyway I will go back there even if it's just on vacation, and I will have a wednesday lunch with all of you guys again.

 

I've asked Tony to send me the weekly Central Spoke and I'm reading all of them, loving it especially all the photos. I don't know if it was just random but I remember the attendance was better when I was there than the of the 04/03 spoke. I wonder if it's because of me 😂. Also Boré is a great cartoonist. I would love to hear about you all as well, miss you guys a lot. For those who doesn't have Facebook, my email is: ricardovieirapimenta@gmail.com. Tony also have it. Cheers mates! 🍻

Attendance: Nooka declared that he was ‘absolutely stuffed’ and ‘Melbourne are in big trouble’ before declaring ‘I reckon we have 23’.  Who knows, maybe we did.  Then Rowan showed up.  Bob from the Netherlands and Garry Druitt from Antarctica were our guests. 

Meal: Fish and chips this week.  Excellent.

 

Sarg Dillo introduced President-elect The Compass and we were underway again.  In reports;

·       John Vertigan turned 50 the following day.  Happy birthday Jon.

·       Matt asked all members to consider accepting a role next year to support the club.  Please let Matt know if you would consider serving on the board, serving as a future president, or serving in some other role (such as becoming our next Central Spoke editor).

·       Jon reminded members that they can purchase a copy of his fantom race call for the very reasonable price of $10.  Talk to Nooka if you wish to secure your copy.

·       Nooka reported that all this talk of Melbourne players taking drugs around the time of the District Conference reminded him of the time Boré drove everyone to the District Conference. 

·       Nooka advised that Rotten, The Voice and The Compass were leading the footy tipping with 18.

Boré introduced our guest speaker Garry Druitt.  Garry spoke about his sailing adventure to Antarctica in the ‘Jonathon’, a small sailing ship.  The ship was crewed by five people; the boat's owners, two weapons instructors with the U.S. Army and Garry.  The Jonathon had all the mod cons to travel to Antarctica; a working toilet, a working engine, and a self-steering mechanism.  Boré and Rowan were jealous.  The crew headed to Antarctica deliberately too, as opposed to just drifting in that general direction because your mast has broken and your engine doesn’t work, Bandicoot style. 

Garry showed us some amazing photographs of Antarctica and the nearby islands.  His pictures of barren shores, birds, penguins, seals, debris from the whaling industry, glaciers and icebergs were exceptional.  Even in January there was so much snow.  There was more white powder in Garry’s photographs than at a Melbourne Football Club team meeting. 

Garry described getting water in his boots several times and returning with badly frost-bitten toes and fingers.  He also described suffering terrible sea sickness while passing through a category 9 storm with thirty-foot waves and 100kph winds.

Robbo looked at these amazing photographs of one of the worlds last true wilderness frontiers and asked Garry the key question that was on everyone’s mind; what legal documentation had Garry completed prior to embarking on the trip?  Garry eloquently described suffering the triple horrors of sea sickness, frost bite, and inadequate legal representation. 

We thank Garry for his wonderful presentation.

Pip rounded out the meeting with an excellent Easter based fines session.

Pinky returns.

Robbo reports that past member Pinky occasionally returns to Warrnambool to visit and ensure that various local endangered species remain that way.  Apparently, Pinky will be back in Warrnambool during race week.  Hopefully he will drop in and see us, but if you do bump into him say hello.

Ten years ago, we held a social lawn bowls night.  Members enjoyed a meal afterwards.

 

A big thank you to the club member who passed this snippet to me.  Sorry, the brain fog has kicked in and I can't remember who.