short notes by bob ant
Hopefully the power will stay on long enough to send this out. It’s been a wild and woolly few days and as we sit high and dry on a hill, the creeks and causeway have cut us off. All going well, we will be mobile again this afternoon.
Thursday evening Radar, our exchange student, stepped into the breech and became our guest speaker. Our advertised speaker, Charmaine, caught a nasty bug and was not able to be with us.
In the 11 months that Radar has been with us, he has grown in confidence and the ‘Australianising’ of his English is almost complete. Slides of his fantastic ‘Reef to Rock 2016’ trip; a short history of Taiwan; and brilliant Q&A session made this a great evening.
Saturday afternoon some very brave souls made it to my place for a joint meeting of the Board, both incoming and out going members. Part of this meeting was to finalise some of the outgoing expenditure for the changeover and most of the money is allocated, however, if you feel there is a good cause that might have been left out, then please give me a call…. quickly.
The board was also updated on the Renewable’s Expo which has now been moved to November, as the October date clashed with a similar Expo being hosted in Canberra. Frank and his team are progressing well on this project and should have a web site up soon. It is all looking really good.
Lynda also updated us on MUNA and our NYSF student application. The Board also agreed to funding, towards the NHS Junior and Senior Debating Team who are competing in the Regional Premier’s Debating Challenge on the 10th of June. A lot of work is going on with Youth and I’m very grateful to Sandra who has come on board to help Lynda.
Thank you to all and I’m looking forward to this Thursday night and finding out about how the Council is facing the challengers of change with renewable and cost saving technologies.
Yours shortly,
bob ant
Bowel Care
The Bowel care program finished on Tuesday the 31st of May. 330 bowel kits were distributed to the four pharmacies, Cobargo, Bermagui, Narooma pharmacy and Narooma Plaza. Sales were down this year, with only 204 kits being sold. Lynn, our Treasurer has sent a cheque of $3029 to BowelCare.
– John Rungen
Hah hah
It should be easy to write an article about the inside of the trombone player’s head–there’s so much room there! And if you understand that, you understand the essence of the trombone player’s personality. Supremely confident, superhero, the perfection of the human race–these terms don’t come close to describing the trombonist’s opinion of himself, and yet they greatly exceed the opinion that others hold of him.
What accounts for this remarkable self-image? Perhaps it is the awesome responsibility involved in playing the trombone. You see, most brass instruments have 3 valves, which can be open or closed, yielding 8 possible combinations. However, playing valves 1 and 2 is the same as valve 3, so there are effectively 7 valve combinations from which to produce notes. The trombone, with its slide, has an infinite number of positions, and while only 7 are recommended, the trombonist feels responsible for all of them, and in fact, plays many positions that are totally uncalled for. It’s an awesome responsibility.
And why did Meredith Willson write “76 Trombones”? I believe it was because he knew what trombone players know: that more is better. In addition trombonists save conductors a lot of rehearsal time. They never have to be told to play louder.
Think about it. If you were playing a gig and your band was attacked, and you had to use your instrument as a weapon, would you rather have a clarinet, a trumpet, or a trombone with its variable length poker? Trombone players carry this same weapon mentality right into the rehearsal room. Be thankful for them.