Attendance: Nooka, a trained accountant, was ‘back from the dead’ after having a 90 minute procedure to place a heart pacemaker. Nooka noted that two electrodes had been placed in his heart, so somewhere between one and six electrodes then. Nooka is now banned from driving both a car and a golf ball for two weeks. He reported 24 members turned up before Dr Irvine left. Then Father Scott appeared, to give us a grand total of 23. We had three guests; Rachel and Jenny Waterhouse, an accountant, and Bailey Else.
Meal: Crumbed fish, salad and chips.
Jon introduced our President, who studied accounting at University, and who proceeded to address the 23 or possibly 24, or possibly even 22 members in attendance. With only about six trained accountant’s present, it was difficult to tell. Your correspondent took a photo and counted the number of people in the photo, but no doubt this technique is frowned upon by professional accountants.
Matt reminded board members we have a board meeting at his office next Tuesday at 7.00pm. The event will be fully catered.
In reports;
· Gerald filled members in on all the details of next Wednesday’s visit to the dairy at Cooramook. Members will meet at the bowls club at 10.30 and ten car pool to the dairy. Gerald recommended against wearing your dancing pumps to the dairy, but dancing pumps should be acceptable at the Woolsthorpe Hotel. Members wanting to go direnctly to the dairy should go to 87 Maes-y-Porth Road and arrive no later than 11.30. (Your correspondent's great grandfather spoke fluent Welsh and not a single word of English. I believe maes-y-porth translates as the field with the gate, or something similar.)
· Boré has returned and is organising the progressive dinner for the 26th of October. Please rsvp in the stack app right now if you wish to be involved.
· Hutto informed us that the film night had been a great success, with 110 attendees and $1350 raised from the event. There may be a further screening for those who missed out. Members are also advised to note the November 29th date for the Jericho Cup luncheon. Stay tuned for details.
· Hutto also gave us an update on our can collection project. With the first anniversary of the scheme fast approaching (November 1st), we have collected and recycled 71,124 container so far. Of the 1,325 charities and community groups registered with TOMRA across Western Melbourne and Western Regional Victoria (TOMRA’s areas of operation), we have collected the second most number of containers, with only the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal having collected more. Congratulations to all those involved.
· Sam advised members they can pick up his daughter’s excellent calendars for just $25. Talk to Sam to secure your copy.
Greg then interviewed Rachael and Bailey about their upcoming NYSF experiences and their interest in science. Rachael is interested in psychology and will be going to the NYSF in Canberra. She has been to the alpine school and works in a cafe on the weekend. Bailey is interested in medicine and will be going to Brisbane for the NYSF. He works in IGA, plays cricket for Port Fairy, and is on the Moyne and Warrnambool Youth Strategy Board. We thank Greg, Rachael and Bailey and wish them well for NYSF in January.
The barrel was drawn and Brendan took home the coveted free meal voucher. With Jon noting that ‘Bono finally found what he was looking for.’ Yes, it certainly wasn’t a dirty day for Bono; he won the raffle for the first time, so I guess some days are better than others. As Bono headed for the exit, he felt pride and could rejoice with a shout and, even though he may not be able to spend his one voucher tomorrow, he should still be able to use it in October. No doubt Bono was thinking, please make it fish and chips with a slice of lemon. As Bono left, other decided to stay, feeling numb, bad, a desire to win the raffle, and asking ‘is that all?’ However, in seconds Bono was gone, with or without you, like it was the last night on earth. That's 21 U2 song titles, in case you were wondering.
Rotten Returns
I've just had another birthday! It falls on the same date every year - the anniversary of the Bali Bombings - that's how I can remember it. As an extra precaution I always carry my driver's license because it has my name, address and date of birth on it.
Listening to Robbo's golfing adventures at the last meeting got me thinking. There's a large number of sports I am not good at, and golf is right up near the top of the list. I was introduced to golf when we moved to Penang by a member of the Rotary club I joined, a Pom who was desperate to beat an Aussie at something. I was then in my early sixties but probably should have started a lot younger to be any good. We would catch the ferry before dawn and travel north on the mainland for nearly an hour towards the Thai border where there was a choice of great golf courses, hitting off at daybreak to avoid the heat. The best part of the day was stopping for a nasi kandar lunch and a Tiger beer on the way home.
Another sport I was not great at was footy, even though I was part of the 1962 under sixteen premiership team with the Robe Roosters. I was 6ft tall at fifteen years old so found myself in the ruck, resting in the forward pocket. These were the days before interchange so they couldn't take me off. I was known for my raking left foot dropkicks which sometimes went as far as 30 yards (27.43 metres). My best scoring effort from the forward pocket was one goal two behinds. This was on the same hallowed turf where current Crows AFL captain, Jordan Dawson, learnt his craft. My claim to fame is I went to school with his grandmother.
