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Welcome to The Rotary Club of Northbridge Bulletin
Northbridge
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM
Northbridge Golf Club
296C Sailors Bay Road,
Northbridge, NSW 2063
Australia
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Please send apologies to Don Landers before 10:30am each Monday at don@cascadence.com 
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Upcoming Events
Book Stall at Northbridge Plaza
Oct 16, 2022
 
Zone 8 Rotary & Rotaract Conference - Canberra
Oct 28, 2022 – Oct 30, 2022
 
Golf Day - Northbridge Golf Club
Nov 19, 2022
 
View entire list
Speakers
Sep 20, 2022
The Shareholders' Association
Oct 04, 2022
Rotary & Lighting of the Suspension Bridge - PARTNERS' NIGHT
View entire list
Executives & Directors
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The Rotary Club of Northbridge gratefully acknowledges the generous sponsorship of Northbridge Plaza
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
David Robertson
August 7
 
John Garrett
August 8
 
Peter Russell
August 14
 
Anniversaries
Joe Campisi
Katy Campisi
August 8
 
Jon Gidney
Gail Giles-Gidney
August 17
 
Join Date
John Bolton
August 9, 2011
11 years
 
David Hyde
August 25, 1998
24 years
 
Fay Petrou
August 26, 2008
14 years
 
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Club Meeting News - 13 September 2022
 
Welcome
 
President Rob Coote welcomed members and guests Brett Parker, GM of Northbridge Gold Club, NRC PP Rob Shore now from Parkes RC and Rotarians Bill Dobson and Peter Jervis.
 
Toast
Joe Campisi proposed a toast to the RC of Alabama. Chartered in 1913, the club has 500 members, meets at lunchtime and one of its major projects is a Rotary Trail along a disused railway line.
 
Announcements
 
David Perabo announced a Bookstall is to be held on 18 Sept at the Plaza.
 
John Garrett has requested if any members have copies of past Australian Geographic magazines he is collecting them as they can be used a educational tools for indigenous children.
 
Brett Parker introduced himself as the new GM of the Golf Club and spoke briefly of the club’s aim to run the golf club as a hub of community activity such as Rotary, football club, etc.
 
Rotarian Peter Jervis is from the RC of Berry, SA and is a Shelterbox Ambassador. The Berry club has 10 members and their major project is Vocational Awards which are funded by companies to the tune of $50k.
 
Bill Dobbins is from the RC of Launceston. Chartered in 1924 their major activity is the Launceston Doors Open – a fundraiser which takes people through the back end of interesting businesses in Launceston.
 
PP Rob Shore is a past president of Northbridge Rotary. He is an avid Twitcher and Photographer and after a 10 year hiatus from Rotary after leaving Northbridge, he joined the RC of Parkes.  Parkes Rotary’s projects include speaker program on a YouTube Channel and Fundraising through $5 donation page for targeted projects each fortnight on social media which raised $30k during covid.
Club Forum Reports
 
Brief reports were given by Club directors:
 
Fundraising, Fireworks & Bookstall - David Perabo
 
David updated the meeting on the current Fireworks preparation, plans for a Trivia Night, Comedy for a Cause and a proposed Breakfast for International Women’s Day. There was also discussion about a possible Rotary Golf Day to be held next year.
 
Community – Eleanor Chevor
 
Eleanor spoke about the planned First Aid Training course starting on 14 October. There will be 2 training days per month to December.
 
The D-Café at Crows Next Centre is happening once a month with involvement of members from our club and the Tree of Joy will go ahead again this year.
 
International – Luke Keighery
 
Luke updated the meeting on Shelterbox and the smaller projects that are currently being undertaken by our club in Fiji, PNG and Timor L’Este as well as support for Interplast and Nusa Tengarra. He spoke about an upcoming donors trip to Timor L’Este. Another possible project is one in Vanuatu working with the RC of Woodend.
 
The International Committee is searching for the next big project that our club can take on. Any ideas from members are welcome.
 
The RC of Kathmandu is looking at fitting out an operating theatre in a hospital in Nepal and perhaps we could work on this with another Rotary Club. This project is still in its infancy.
 
Youth & Vocation – Peter Antaw
 
RYLA – Rotary Youth Leadership Awards - is scheduled for 15-21 January at Knox School. RYLA is a Leadership program for 18-30 year olds and this is the first one since covid.
 
RYPEN – Rotary Youth Program of ENrichment –is for year 9 & 10 students and Willoughby GHS has nominated two girls to attend the next camp.
 
Other youth projects are Rostrum and the Santos Science Experience.
 
The first Mock Interviews since covid with the Y10 girls from WGHS will be held on 25 November. A number of members have already volunteered to take part.
 
The SEEs project has helped out a large number of young people through StreetWork and Taldumande.
 
Membership – Fay Petrou
 
Membership is aware of the need to make the community aware of what Rotary is all about and the work that it does. They are looking at producing short promotional videos to be uploaded to social media and other outlets.
Helen Gulson
 
This week's little bit of humour is long but entertaining and worth reading ....
 

AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIANS

The following has been written by the late Douglas Adams of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" fame.

"Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a large amount of the bottom half of the planet.

It is recognizable from orbit because of its many unusual features, including what at first looks like an enormous bite taken out of its southern edge; a wall of sheer cliffs which plunge into the girting sea.

Geologists assure us that this is simply an accident of geomorphology, but they still call it the "Great Australian Bight", proving that not only are they covering up a more frightening theory but they can't spell either.

The first of the confusing things about Australia is the status of the place. Where other landmasses and sovereign lands are classified as continent, island or country, Australia is considered all three. Typically, it is unique in this.

The second confusing thing about Australia is the animals. They can be divided into three categories: Poisonous, Odd and Sheep.

It is true that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9 of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them.

Any visitors should be careful to check inside boots (before putting them on), under toilet seats (before sitting down) and generally everywhere else.

A stick is very useful for this task.

The last confusing thing about Australia is its inhabitants.

A short history: Sometime around 40,000 years ago some people arrived in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and a lot of them died.

The ones who survived learned respect for the balance of nature, man's proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders.

They settled in and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange stories. They also discovered a stick that kept coming back.

Then, around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north. More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged people in charge.

They tried to plant their crops in autumn (failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons), ate all their food, and a lot of them died.

About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since.

It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since they can lie, cheat, steal and litigate (marks of a civilized culture they say), whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert - equipped with a stick.

Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on 'extended holiday' and became Australians.

The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside their boots every morning for fatal surprises.

They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned.

There is also the matter of the beaches. Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the world, although anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back that will kill just from the pain) and surfboarders.

However, watching a beach sunset is worth the risk.

As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a sour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly, cheerful and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger. Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile disarmingly and look for a stick.

Major engineering feats have been performed with sheets of corrugated iron, string and mud.

Alone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the 'Grass is greener on the other side of the fence' syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence.

They call the land "Oz" or "Godzone" (a verbal contraction of "God's Own Country"). The irritating thing about this is... they may be right.

Tips to Surviving in Australia

  • Don't ever put your hand down a hole for any reason - EVER.
  • The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.
  • Always carry a stick.
  • Air-conditioning is imperative.
  • Do not attempt to use Australian slang unless you are a trained linguist and extremely good in a fist fight.
  • Wear thick socks.
  • Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are people nearby.
  • If you leave the urban areas, carry several litres of water with you at all times, or you will die. And don't forget a stick.
  • Even in the most embellished stories told by Australians, there is always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.

How to Identify Australians

  • They pronounce Melbourne as "Mel-bin".
  • They think it makes perfect sense to decorate highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.
  • They think "Woolloomooloo" is a perfectly reasonable name for a place, that "Wagga Wagga" can be abbreviated to "Wagga", but "Woy Woy" can't be called "Woy".
  • Their hamburgers will contain beetroot.  Apparently it's a must-have. How else do you get a stain on your shirt?
  • They don't think it's summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle.
  • They believe that all train timetables are works of fiction.
  • And they all carry a stick."

 

 
If anyone has any jokes or funny stories for the humour section of the Bulletin, please email helen.gulson@ozemail.com.au
 
Stories
Monthly Rotary Bookstall Sales Keep Growing
 
 
Thanks to Northbridge Plaza management, the Northbridge Rotary Club bookstall continues at Northbridge Plaza on the third Sunday of every month from 9am to 5pm.
 
Our next bookstall is on Sunday 21st August 2022
 
The Club is selling a range of adult fiction at $4 each plus childrens’ books at $2 each; all in mint condition and sales continue grow each month.
 
Books can be purchased with cash or via credit card. As always, all of the money raised from these sales goes to a range of worthy causes. 
 
 
 
THE 4 - WAY TEST of the things we say or do

1). Is it the TRUTH?

2). Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3). Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4). Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?