Outside The Square
On a wet and cool Thursday Rotarians were cooking and helping out with NAIDOC festivities at the Narooma Sports and Leis
ure Centre. Bob, Merinda, John and I got cooking at two locations on the Old Highway (Antill’s and O’Connor’s) with Sandra, Lyn and Ang helping to receive and serve the goodies. Given by the quantities of food consumed the effort was appreciated by those present at the festivities.
That night we had our first meeting of 2016/17 and had a great talk by Alicia Smith on her dedication to her sport of water polo and the effort it takes to be an Olympian.
Peter Harley then told us about his niece going to compete in Rio in the sport of BMX. We wish her all the best in her endeavours.
Stan Gorton of the Narooma News was honoured as a Paul Harris Fellow in recognition of his incredible contribution to the great community we call home. Bob Antill did the honours and the acclamation from all was testimony to how we all feel about the great work that Stan does in our community.
Last Thursday’s meeting was the last for our exchange student, Radar, who returned home on 9th July. Radar clearly expressed his appreciation of his hosts, Bob and Merinda, Peter and Karen and Lynn and all in the Club who gave him an unforgettable experience. We do hope he will come back someday to say hello. He is a fine young man and we all wished him well for his journey home and for his future.
This year is our Foundation’s 100th year and I hope that by putting a $2 coin on a regular basis into the money boxes handed out at the meeting we will be Centurians by June 2017.
MARK YOUR DIARY
31st July 1.30pm 153 Old Highway CHRISTMAS IN JULY
IF PLAN ‘A’ DOES NOT WORK REMEMBER THERE ARE 25 MORE LETTERS IN THE ALPHABET.
Michael
The Week that Was
Guests included our speaker, Alicia Smith, Merinda Antill, Iris Domeier, Stan Gorton from the Narooma News, Nikki from National Parks and for the last time, our exchange student, Radar Lin.
As Michael indicated in ‘Outside the Square’ the meeting was ‘full on’.
First off Past President Bob, presented a Paul Harris recognition to The Narooma News Editor, Stan Gorton, for service to the community. Stan was honoured and greatly humbled by the award. He indicated that our Club’s recognition meant a great deal to him, especially during a time when the local paper was undergoing significant change.
Our guest speaker was Alicia Smith. Alicia was a former goal keeper for the Australian Water Polo team. She represented at numerous elite events including 2 Olympic games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships. Alicia proudly passed around her two Olympic Bronze Medals (Beijing and London) as well as her World Championship, Silver Medal. Alicia spoke about how she got into water polo; the physical, emotional and financial costs of competing; the difficulty in juggling work, study and training in a lesser known sport; the intense competition for a spot in the team as well as the drama of waiting to hear if she made it onto the Olympic team.
Alicia is a delightful young person and a great ambassador for Australian sport.
Merinda reminded us that the meeting was Radar’s last as he was due to fly home on the weekend. Merinda spoke about how much she and Bob enjoyed having Radar in their home as well as the changes they had observed in him during his time in Narooma, Bob told us that Radar had received an outstanding report from Narooma High School, coming first in many of his subjects. Radar thanked the Club for hosting him as well as host parents Bob and Merinda, Peter and Karen and Lynn for looking after him. Radar assured us that he will keep in contact with us and encouraged us to visit Taiwan to get a real sense of Asian culture.
Happy moments included Bob Antill telling us that the lawn mowing business had been sold and that the house would be finally delivered next week; Chris O’Brien also told us that she had sold South Coast Lighting; Frank revelled in the fact that he no longer was the Beacon Editor; Lynda Ord told us of the wonderful life and times of a mother in law who had passed away at the ripe old age of 101 and Peter Hartley proudly informed us that his niece had made the BMX Olympic team.
And the raffle winners!
The port
Radar!!
Eggs
Bob Aston (Thanks Merinda, they were great for breakfast on the weekend)
Wine
President Michael
Birds Seed?
Frank Eden
Favourites Chocolates
Our Guest Speaker – Alicia Smith
The week ahead
This week is our first Club Assembly/Board meeting for the 2016/17 year. In his email on 9 July 2016, President Michael asked us to come to the meeting to discuss and to give a view on:
- Purchasing plastic ducks for the annual duck race or continuing with the current arrangements
- Using a law firm to draft a new constitution or to do it ourselves.
If you have other items for discussion at the assembly, please let Michael know well before the meeting.
Michael has also asked us to ‘Think Outside the Square’ for ideas for Narooma Rotary for 2016/17.
Want to know more about Rotary?
Have a read of the Rotary Leader, click http://www.rotaryleader-en.org/rotaryleader-en/en201607?pg=1#pg1 to find out more.
Some Humour
A Perfect Marriage?
A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other, except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.
For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day, the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.
In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside.
She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totalling $95,000.
He asked her about the contents. “When we were to be married,” she said, “my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.”
The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.
“Honey,” he said, “that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?”
“Oh,” she said. “That’s the money I made from selling the dolls.”
