Narooma Rotary Beacon 7 December 2017

Bob’s Blog

John Doyle thanks our speakers Carmel Mackin and Alexander Macdonald who spoke about their fascination with Italy

Hello Everyone

What a great night we had last Thursday. Our theme was Italian with lots of red, white and green streamers, flags and outfits! Our speakers Carmel and Alexander gave an informative presentation on parts of Italy less travelled and the food was excellent, especially the dessert. I think we will plan more theme nights before the end of the Rotary year.

The Club’s Annual General Meeting will be held on 14 December. President Elect Rod is looking for members to serve on the Board; please consider putting your name forward because we need active Board members to keep the Club vibrant and relevant to our community.

Although we won’t meet over the holiday period, the Club will be active with lots of events on the agenda. Activities include Carols by Candlelight on 17 December, Christmas at the Races on 24 December, Rotary Markets on Thursday 28 December, the annual Rotary Duck Race on Australia Day on Friday 26 January, the Narooma Motors event on 27 January, followed by Markets on 28 January. Throughout January we will also be selling tickets in the Duck Race. Please help out where you can, especially by volunteering to sell Duck Race tickets. Ticket should be available this Thursday.

This Thursday we will begin our meeting at the Men’s Shed, where Peter Hartley and some members of the Men’s Shed will give an overview of the operation of this important and much needed facility. Please be at the Shed by 6:00pm; following the presentation we will move to the Golf Club for dinner.

Finally a reminder that our Christmas Party will be on 21 December at Casey’s. Final numbers are needed by 14 December. The cost is $30 for three courses; the Club will provide beer and wine.

Have a great week everyone.

The Week that Was

An Italian love affair

Members and guests really embraced the spirit of the Italian night last week when we heard from Carmel Mackin and partner Alexander Macdonald’s about their love affair with Italy. Pasta, lasagne and tiramisu set the scene last Thursday night at the Golf Club for them to take Rotarians and their guests on a journey which started on the island of Sicily. Sicily is famous for not only the Mafia and the volatile Mt Etna, but also for fantastic ancient ruins and stunning buildings. Sicily is also famous for puppetry. Puppets used in the shows are up to 1.5m high and are controlled with skill perfected over thousands of years.

Lynn Hastings and Lynda Ord  in the Italian spirit

Carmel studied Italian for one year at university then gave up until much later when she revisited the language at the University of the Third Age. She fell in love again with the language, the romance and the style of Italy. Their travels took them through the Italian Riviera into the mountains to Modena, the home of Enzo Ferrari and a wonderful museum which celebrates him and his Ferrari creations, then on to Florence.

From staying in an Old Church airbnb built in the early 1500s where the bells rang out every 15 minutes through the night, to one where the climb up ancient stairs to the apartment was their aerobic work-out for the week. Italians are not only passionate about their wine and food but how they present and serve it. At one delicatessen, the ham Carmel and Alexander purchased was wrapped in floral paper tied off with ribbon, good enough for a birthday present.

John Doyle thanked them for their talk and whetting the appetite of those present to check out deals for trips to Italy in the New Year.                                             Bob Antill

Into the Italian spirit: Sandra Doyle, Judy Grey and Merinda Antill

Our Rotary Tertiary Scholarship

Lynda Ord is delighted the Club has received 13 applications for this year’s Rotary Tertiary Scholarship. A panel of President Bob, Peter, Sandra and Lynda will interview all applicants on Saturday 16 December. The Scholarship is made possible thanks to a bequest by Alexander Birch. This next scholarship winner will be the 28th student from Narooma High the Club has helped pursue their studies and achieve their dreams. That assistance now totals about $240,000. Part of the proceeds from the next Duck Race will top up the scholarship fund which is rapidly being depleted.

This is the final year of the Rotary scholarship for two of our students  – Connor Ross (2014 Bachelor of Arts (Music Industry), RMIT) and Carl McEvoy (2015 – Bachelor of Media and Communications – Media Production at UTS). The scholarships continue for our other two scholars Melanie Miller (2016 – Bachelor of Clinical Exercise Physiology UNE) and Sabine Kildea (2017 – Arts degree at ANU). Hopefully we will catch up with some of them at our Youth night in 2018, as well as our new Scholarship winner.

Some Expo postscripts

The major prizes for the Expo’s poster competition for Narooma Public School students on improved garbage bin lid designs for the school playground were presented by Member for Eden Monaro Dr Mike Kelly at the Expo. Sandra Doyle, competition organiser, presented certificates to the other prize winners at Monday’s school assembly. A great success overall.

On electric cars: Hot on the Renewable Energy Expo and the interest in Vin Edward’s Tesla car, interesting new research shows pure electric cars are already cheaper to own and run than petrol or diesel cars in in all the markets they examined: UK, Japan, Texas and California. An article in Guardian Weekly this week says researchers at the University of Leeds analysed the total cost of ownership of cars over four years, including purchase price and depreciation, fuel, insurance, taxation and maintenance. This was the main reason for the rapid increase in sales in electric cars sales in these countries.

Lynn Hastings and Peter Bull navigate the scissor mop/broom during the Expo clean-up

More ‘groaners’, courtesy of Peter Bull

  • I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.
  • When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.
  • I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
  • Don’t worry about old age; it doesn’t last.