This is our bumper, year end edition packed with club news and plenty to entertain you over the holiday season.
Acting President Susanne has been busy!
I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas as we finish our Rotary Year. The past few weeks have been very eventful in both good and bad ways, after a different and very challenging year all round.
Pauline Annear’s Father who was to have celebrated his 101st birthday on Tues 22nd passed away peacefully on Sunday 20th December. Our condolences and best wishes to Pauline and Ken.
On a brighter note. Over the past few weeks there has been much happening.
One was a fun sparkling wine labelling at the home of David and Shelley Hogan. Many thanks to all involved with collecting wine, designing and printing our festive labels as well as placing them on the bottles.
It has turned out well and very few remain unsold so get in fast if you want some! We finished with an official tasting and it certainly passed the taste test!
I have attended a few functions, some as Deputy Governor Areas and some as Acting President.
One very interesting visit was to Lobethal where a section of Blaze Aid and the Rotary Club of Onkaparinga have been working closely together over the past twelve months and have been instrumental together in replacing hundreds of fences destroyed in the Cudlee Creek Fire Zone which covers a huge area. They have been working 3 days a week, every week, for the past year. There is still much to do.
I joined them at their Happy Hour on Thursday followed by a RAWCS committee meeting.
RC of Blakiston invited me as DGA to their Christmas breakup held at Pres John Rowley’s house in a beautiful setting near Woodside.
I also attended the Stirling Business Association Christmas Party as club rep and bumped in to CEO of Stirling Hospital Jennie Cameron as well as Simon Jones, the wonderful ladies of the Community Shop in Stirling and many others.
A BIG THANK YOU to Mark who took a large load to The Hut to go in Christmas parcels for those in need. Thank you all for all your donations.
A Particularly Festive Christmas Party
And last, but definitely not least, was the great Christmas Party for us at the home of Mark Higgins.
We welcomed our Area Gov Shiralee Judge from Mt Barker, Pres John Rowley from Blakiston and our Indigenous Health Scholar Lisa Hansen.
What a way to end the year on a high! The venue was magic (Thanks, Mark!), there was plenty of good food (Thanks, John and his intrepid band of elves who helped set up), the weather was spectacular (Thanks Gaia!) and the company was delightful (Thanks, all!)
A wonderful night of good fellowship to celebrate our having survived 2020! (We should get some T-Shirts made!)
Stay safe and well in this unusual Christmas season and I look forward to seeing you next year back on board on 11th January.
Regular Meeting of 8 December
Chris Sedunary gave us an insightful presentation about what the latest science tells us about fire mitigation and management and how we need to do our part to ensure our personal safety and that of our family and community. He explained the fire danger index, the new emergency alerts and warnings and how a building burns.
He was joined by Delene Weber, a bush fire Researcher from the University of South Australia who is developing and evaluating a public awareness Virtual Reality teaching tool for the CFS to efficiently scale up delivery to a wider audience.
Several useful publications were mentioned among the many useful resources on the CFS website but she provided direct links to particularly relevant material. Download copies and use them to develop a family personal fire plan NOW before it is too late!
Thanks to Dick for arranging this timely presentation and to Rob for chairing the session.
To While Away Your Time on Vacation...
Travel abroad is pretty much off the table right now. You can, though, satisfy your wanderlust by taking a virtual drive around 50 cities of the world while listening to local radio!
Click on Drive & Listento open an AMAZING gateway to the motoring world!
Choose your city from the dropdown box on the top right and while you are there, set the speedof your vehicle, select street noise, on/off and choose which local radio station you would like to listen to while exploring the sights!
This has got to be the next best thing to being there!
Creative Medical Practice
A woman went to the emergency room, where she was seen by a young new doctor. After about 3 minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant. She burst out of the room and ran down the corridor screaming.
An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was; after listening to her story, he calmed her down and sat her in another room. Then the doctor marched down the hallway to the first doctor's room.
"What's wrong with you?" he demanded. "This woman is 63 years old, she has two grown children and several grandchildren, and you told her she was pregnant!"
The new doctor continued to write on his clipboard and without looking up said: "Does she still have the hiccups?"
Try Not to Laugh!
When you think of riding the bus or subway, laughter and joy aren’t the first words that spring to mind.
They're cramped places full of grumpy people either coming home from a bad day at work or are just generally upset. Many are glued to their cell phones or “wired up” and have no time for anyone else.
Yet if you’re lucky enough, sometimes you can find happiness in this environment. One such moment was captured when a Belgian advertising agency working for Coca-Cola hired an actor to randomly start laughing on the train.
Click HERE to watch the US Air Force bandsmen and women surprising travelers with a Christmas Treat.
The year ended on a couple of high notes and there is much, overall, for those of us in Australia, to celebrate about surviving drought, fire, pestilence and political and economic upheaval as a nation and community! Good riddance to 2020 and Welcome to 2021!
