Greetings from North Star NSW where it is very very cold! ["Where is North Star??" I hear you ask. It's half way between Goondiwindi and Moree, way off the highway. "And where is Goondiwindi??" I hear you ask... ☺ Ed.]
I trust the Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Zoom Drinks went well and great fellowship was had - I look forward to hearing about it.
Great news from the Wheelchair Project this week with the news the Rotary Club of Honiara (Solomon Islands) would be very excited to receive a 20 foot container of Wheelchairs in the next few months. A special thanks to Col Laurenson who through his connections and expertise in logistics has made this happen. Thank you of course also to Des La Rance and his great team at the shed for all their hard work. Everyone in our club and at the shed should be very proud that this container will include the 10,000th Wheelchair to be shipped to disadvantaged people around the world - something we are going to have a BIG CELEBRATION for later in the year!
It was great to catch up with many of you at our social meeting last week. This Wednesday I look forward to updating you on ‘My Vision for 2020/2021’ at our formal meeting at the Surf Club. I look forward to seeing you there.
This coming Wednesday 8th July, we'll have our first post COVID physical 'formal' meeting at the Surfers Paradise Surf Club. President 2020/21 Charles Thomasson will outline his vision for the coming year. Be there! Starting at the usual time: order your breakfast at 07:00 am and take it upstairs to enjoy some fellowship prior to the meeting commencing at 07:30 am. NOTE: There is no buffet option on the menu, so allow some time to order a la carte. See menu on the Download Section on the right.
A great social event was held on the weekend with our 'Guess who is coming to Dinner?', organised by Angus and Virginia Miller with their usual competence. We started off with a first by having an On-Line cocktail party via Zoom, then Angus texted the host destination to all the 'guests', and off we went. Your Editor had a great time at Mario Fairlie's place. Mario roped in his friends Jackie and George, originally from Macedonia, who cooked us a Macedonian Chicken Soup, followed by an original Macedonian Gulash. Yummy! Needless to say, the atmosphere was delightfully jovial, lots of laughter and, of course, we all solved the problems of the world...
Many thanks also to Graeme & Anne Isaacson and Gus & Virginia Miller who hosted the other parties. Picture - from front in clockwise direction: our chefs Jackie and George, Adrian and Beverley Crowe, Catherine Huber, Mario Fairlie, Paul and Peggy Seymour, Carmel and John Chirio.
John Hall is one of the 'Old Timers' at the Project Shed; he's been very active there for some 15 years! He lives at Southport, now on his own; his wife Rhonda, with whom he enjoyed 48 years of marriage, passed away 2 years ago.
In his youth, he travelled Europe and the Middle East for some 5 years, back packing. "Perhaps there is still another trip to my favorite destination Italy in it, even though I'll be 79 this year" he said. Still very much loves a good laugh and a beer, but what makes him most happy is to see his two grand children. And like most grand parents, his major worry is the future for the next generation. He loves classical music and the Broncos[didn't know the two were compatible... ☺ Ed.] and has a soft spot for movies such as Paddington Bear. And he is an art connoisseur: his favorite artist is Hugh Sawrey (click here for some samples of his pictures).
John's main job at the Project Shed is retrieving all the aluminum from the bike before they are cut up, which is then sold for recycling. "I love working at the shed, both for the good company as well as for the good work we do" he said, "it is a pleasure to work with people like Des La Rance who not only works tirelessly hands on but is also continuously coming up with the designs".
Like many Gold Coasters, he migrated from down south: he was born in Chatswood, a lower North Shore suburb of Sydney. Not sure in what order, but he was with the Police Force for 2 years, he was a publican at the Jandowae Hotel on the Darling Downs. "That was my most enjoyable job", John declared, "I increased the beer flow from 4 to 15 kegs a week! One of my best memories was when I ejected a patron from the pub, when he started to cut up the bar stools with a chain saw. He then came back with a sugar bag full of snakes and emptied them on the bar floor. That cleared the patrons out of the pub alright! I grabbed the till on my way out and left the bloke to help himself to the bar till he had enough and fell asleep..."
Our resident Logistics Guru Col Laurenson interrupted 47th Wedding Anniversary celebrations [isn't Carolyn a wonderfully understanding wife! ☺] to organise the unloading of a large truckload of hospital beds, which arrived on Monday afternoon at our Project Shed. The consignment of 32 beds originated at Brisbane Private Hospital. 29 of them were stacked into a 20 foot container, ultimately destined for Kirimati (also known as Christmas Island), a coral island in the Republic of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean. More in next week's bulletin. Photo shows the men from Dean Roche Transport unloading, with Col Laurenson, Angus Miller, Geoff Croad, Larry Murray in the background.
Duty Roster - note: subject to change - please check every week. Note: Fellowship duty also is expected to be at the Project Shed on the Saturday following the meeting
What chance do we have if the word phonetically doesn't even start with an F?
Neil's post of the week:
Met a guy who said he was a famous singer back in the 80's. I thought he was lying, but he said he was Adamant.(If you were born after the 80's, you are forgiven...)
“The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there. The greater the number of complaints being aired, the better protected are human rights in that country.” Daniel Patrick Moynihan, US diplomat
I dusted once. The dust came back. I'm not falling for that again!
Diesel Services Queensland and AB Crane Hire recently provided a truck and a huge mobile crane at no charge to lift a 40' container into our Project Shed area at Arundel. Thank you! Click on the links to go to their website.
This coming Wednesday 8th July, we'll have our first post COVID physical 'formal' meeting at the Surfers Paradise Surf Club. President 2020/21 Charles Thomasson will outline his vision for the coming year. Be there! Starting at the usual time: order your breakfast at 07:00 am and take it upstairs to enjoy some fellowship prior to the meeting commencing at 07:30 am. NOTE: There is no buffet option on the menu, so allow some time to order a la carte. See menu on the Download Section on the right.
A great social event was held on the weekend with our 'Guess who is coming to Dinner?', organised by Angus and Virginia Miller with their usual competence. We started off with a first by having an On-Line cocktail party via Zoom, then Angus texted the host destination to all the 'guests', and off we went. Your Editor had a great time at Mario Fairlie's place. Mario roped in his friends Jackie and George, originally from Macedonia, who cooked us a Macedonian Chicken Soup, followed by an original Macedonian Gulash. Yummy! Needless to say, the atmosphere was delightfully jovial, lots of laughter and, of course, we all solved the problems of the world... 
John Hall is one of the 'Old Timers' at the Project Shed; he's been very active there for some 15 years! He lives at Southport, now on his own; his wife Rhonda, with whom he enjoyed 48 years of marriage, passed away 2 years ago. 
