Minutes.

Attendance: To quote Sam’s report in its entirety ‘36’. 

Meal:  Perhaps the worst insult you can direct at a French chef is to say he cooks like an Englishman.  This begs the question, what would a French chef cooking like an Englishman actually cook?  Coq au bière?  Pois haché?  No, Jason had the answer this week; shepherd’s pie vol-au-vents with haricots décongelés, chou-fleur au fromage and purée de potiron avec pâtes et fromage.  As the renown French chef Elizabeth David once said.

‘There are people who take the heart out of you, and there are people who put it back.’

The genius of Jason's cooking is that he manages to do both at the same time.

Robbo stepped in at short notice as Sarg this week and delivered an excellent Tonto/Lone Ranger joke.  Robbo introduced our illustrious President who discovered we had no visiting Rotarians and no guests.  In reports;

·       Brendan is organising a working bee at the Merri School to plant trees.  Stay tuned.

·       Bob is continuing to work on the ROMP project.  All the hats are gone, but is seems we will be able to get some more if you are interested.

·       Garry started his report still looking for a RYLA participant, but had found one courtesy of Boré by the end of his report.

·       Garry is still looking for L2P volunteers.

·       Garry reported that Glendon is still in front in the footy tipping with KY sliding into second.

·       Our Charter President gave us a report on this upcoming treatment for myeloma.  The prognosis does appear good but Bruce is facing some fairly arduous treatment.  We wish Bruce all the best and will be thinking of him over these upcoming months.

Brendan then gave us a very interesting presentation on Bega’s acquisition of Lion Nathan’s dairy division.  Bega now own a large number of well-known consumer brands and have the largest cold chain distribution network in Australia.  They are now the largest Australian-owned food company.  The Koroit facility processes about 1.5million liters of milk each day, which is about 25% of the company’s total capacity.  Brendan recommends you buy Bega shares.  We thank Brendan for this very interesting insight into this great local company.

Robbo and Gerard closed the meeting and members spilled out into a cold and windy day, some no doubt contemplating hooking up the caravan and going as far North as authorities will allow.

Robbo took the reigns, Lone Ranger style, at short notice.

Brendan delivered an excellent presentation, although your editor only remembered to take a photograph as Brendan was packing up at the end.

Ten years ago.

Nooka is retired now, but some members will recall that Nooka was a genius when it came to the business of retailing, marketing and product placement.  Ten years ago we published this example of Nooka’s business acumen.

Chris Lilley’s third series ‘Angry Boys’ has begun on the ABC.  For those who haven’t been watching, one of Chris’ new characters is a washed up surfy named Blake Oakfield.   Blake lost his cruets after suffering a Herman Goering style gunshot wound.  Blake’s party trick is to allow his mates to repeatedly kick him in the crotch, as it no longer causes him pain. 

Episode three of ‘Angry Boys’ includes a scene of Chris Lilley (playing Blake) repeatedly taking kicks to the groin from the actors playing Blake’s friends.  For most of us this is a scene of questionable taste which brings tears to the eyes.  For a shrewd businessman however, it presents a perfect marketing opportunity.  Was this Nooka’s last business masterstroke before he handed over the keys to Max?  We let you be the judge;

Rotary Horse Racing Update.

The Homeric epic saga that is the life of Vassa Blue continued again last week, as you feared it might.  Last week Vassa continued his quest to conquer Queensland country racing by attempting to capture the golden fleece of first prize in the Happy 91^st Ray Hines handicap at Gatton on Sunday.  I am sure it was a dream come true for Ray to watch Vassa compete in a race named in his honour on the occasion of his 91^st Birthday. 

Prior to the race there was no jockey nominated to ride Vassa.  Nozi Tomizawa had secured a ride aboard another horse in the race called Our Rocky, and there was no way in hell he was going to ride Vassa Blue.  For quite a period leading up to the race it appeared as if there was not a professional jockey in anywhere South Eastern Queensland who was prepared to ride Vassa.

Fortunately, at the last minute Our Rocky was scratched and Nozi Tomizawa was once again forced to ride our equine ocean liner.  Vassa looked a million dollars in the mounting yard, Nozi looked as keen as mustard, and your correspondent had very high hopes leading into the race.  Excitement peaked as the Saddle Samurai climbed on top of our beloved gelding and steered him out towards the starting gates.

Vassa leapt well and came out of the gates in fourth place.  Nozi and Vassa looked to have set the perfect platform to launch their assault on the race.  I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Half way down the main straight I was starting to think that Nozi and Vassa (far right) might have left their run a bit late.

Vasa hit the line strongly.  I would like to say that the rest of the field is just out of screen-shot, but that is not really true.

Vassa will be better for the run and Tomizawa could not have ridden a better race.  Hopefully Nozi treated himself to a dagwood dog from the servo on the way home.

More exciting Vassa Blue news as it comes to hand.