1st June 2010
First working bee at Lookout park – Sunday 5th June 0900
Bill Walton calls us all to this first effort in one of the most significant projects this club has undertaken. Here is our opportunity to show the residents of the reserve, that we mean business! Bring gloves, mattocks, rakes, shovels, hoes, clippers, wheelbarrows and any other useful tools.
This Day Tonight
· Samm, Daughter of Bill & Joan Steains, thanked our club for the part we played in the Epilepsy Foundation benefiting by more than $56,000 in a recent fundraiser.
· Secy Vic reminded us that bowel scan month has passed, [excuse the pun], but committee reports are the thing of the [near]future – required within two weeks.
· Alison seeks contributions for the DIK collections, which will be conducted soon. Tools, kitchen stuff, etc, but no clothes. Talk to your neighbors. This is a very worthwhile project.
· Applications for the Semens summer school close 1st July. Enquiries to Judy Greer.
· Geoff Brentnall still has fruit cakes for sale at $20, and seeks nominations for membership of the district Group Study Outward Exchange team – 25-40yo, applications closing 2nd July.
· Fluro globe collection kits for delivery to a Geelong collection point are available from Home Hardware or Mitre 10. Foxy will deliver collections to Geelong
· Mick Cummins, recently appointed Market OC, has unavoidable work commitments, and seeks a temporary replacement.
· Our contribution to the Portarlington Supersprint event raised $1,089 for our charities account.
The Westgate Bridge
Neither my vocational background nor my literary skills are up to the challenge of reporting adequately Alan Platt’s excellent address to the club tonight. So I won’t even try. It is an immense project, aimed at increasing its present 8 lanes to 10. Alan is the project manager of a task costing about $300m.
Three fascinating, but otherwise quite useless pieces of information.
· An oyster can be male one year and female the next.
· A rhinoceros’s horn is not a true horn – it’s made of matted hair.
· Whales have bee found with circular scars on their skin – marks from the suckers of giant squid.
Our Footy Tipping Competition [weekly report from Gary Golding]
President Rod took the prize this week, leaving Bill Walton still in the lead with 56 tips in 10 rounds, followed by Fordie on 55, followed by Gary G and Rob E on 54, then the rest.
Christ Church Kitchen Meals Program, Geelong
The organisers are looking for Volunteers to assist with the meals program and would love to have some Rotarians involved. If you are interested, there is a meeting tomorrow night, 2nd June at 7.00pm in the Christ Church Hall, Geelong. Further information from Rotary President John Spiteri at e-mail address js6839889@bigpond.net.au
A fishy tail
A woman goes into a Discount Fishing Supplies shop to buy a rod and reel for her grandsons birthday. She doesn’t know which one to get so she just picks one out and goes over to the counter. The salesman is standing there, wearing dark glasses.
She says, “Excuse me, but can you tell me anything about this rod and reel?”
He says, “Madam, I am completely blind, but if you drop it on the counter, I can tell you everything you need to know about it from the sound it makes.”
She doesn’t believe him but drops it on the counter anyway.
He says, ”That’s a two metre Shakespeare graphite rod with a Zebco 404 reel and 5 kilo test line. It’s a good all around combination, and because it’s a sale item, I can let you have it for $44.
She says, “It’s amazing that you can tell me all that, just by the sound of it dropping on the counter. I’ll take it!” As she opens her purse, her credit card drops to the floor.
“Oh, that sounds like a Visa card,” he says.
As the lady bends down to pick up the card, she accidentally breaks wind. At first, she is really embarrassed, but then realises there is no way the blind salesman could identify the culprit.
The man rings up the sale and says,” That’ll be $58.50 please.”
The woman is totally confused by this and asks, “Didn’t you tell me it was on sale for $44? How did you get to $58.50?”
“The duck caller is $11, and the fish bait is $3.50.”
I must confess that my proof reader did not approve of this, but I thought, ‘Bugger it, the District bulletin judging committee is in recess, so let’s be a devil.’
Rotary Anns – the origin of women in Rotary?
In 1914, Californian Rotarians chartered a train to the international convention in Houston, Texas. It had not yet become customary for wives to accompany their husbands to Rotary conventions, and among the large contingent of Rotarians from 13 West Coast clubs, there was but one woman: the wife of the San Fransisco club president, Henry J ‘Bru’ Brunnier.
As the train left the station and the Rotarians – used to greeting each other by their first names, met her on board, one of them said, “ I don’t want to call you Mrs Brunnier: What is your first name?”
She replied, “Ann” and she became so popular during the long train journey that ‘Bru’ joked that he never had to buy her a meal because she was always a guest at another table.
Rotary publicised that special West Coast train in advance, so when it arrived in Houston, a large crowd was waiting to welcome it.
Some passengers had passed the time by composing a song about “Rotary Ann”. Guy Gundaker from Philadelphia mentioned that his wife was also named Ann, and the name for wives and daughters of Rotarians became, from that day, ‘Rotary Anns’.
Notice for the meeting at Lombardys restaurant, 38 Hesse St, Queenscliff , Tues, 8th June, 6.00 for 6.30
Sorry, but I got just about everything wrong about this meeting in last weeks bully, but my proof reader and I have ‘cased the joint’, and John Eyles has e-mailed me a synopsis of events. Cost is the usual $20.
Lombardys is on the left hand side of Hesse St, just beyond the View Grand Hotel, as you head down towards the ferry. There is a full bar service available, at prices perhaps slightly higher than Collendina, so it is not necessary to take anything other than what you would normally take to the Hotel.
Subject A pasta or pizza feast [4 varieties], starting with a selection of crusty breads, in an exclusive room. . Orders for food & drinks will be taken table by table, and kitchen excursions to see your order being prepared will be a feature of the night. Proprietor Scott Newey will be our host. Sweets & coffee available.
Apologies, as usual by noon Monday, to Hans!
Chairman John Eyles Assist Cashier & Thanker John Wynn Greeter & Assis.Serg. Alison George
Birthdays 11th Wilma Andrews 14th Marion Walton
It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
Notice for the meeting at the Ocean Grove Hotel, Tuesday 15th June, 6.00 for 6.30
Speaker Anita Roper Subject Sustainability Victoria Chairman Ian Downing
Assistant Cashier & Thanker Alex Magee Greeter & Assistant Sergeant Bill Walton
Birthdays 16th Geoff Ford, Jan Brentnall
How to arrange an evening meal on a cold Saturday night
Jan & I had the perfect solution; Accept an invitation from a good and generous friend to a corporate box in the Premiers stand at Skilled Stadium last Saturday, for lunch, afternoon tea and the footy!. They feed you so well, no evening meal is necessary!
John Fox, 2125, 01/06/2010
