Unfortunately the designated guest speaker for the meeting has had to cancel, COVID again strikes!
But we had two matters that were on the agenda.
One of a Rotary President's most enjoyable tasks is to induct new members, like a blood transfusion for the body to replenish and add extra vitality. So on Thursday night I had the great pleasure to induct Stephen Ahrens to the Club as a fully fledged member. Steve has been an important honorary member for some time since his introduction of the Barossa Airshow to the Club. His decision to become a fully fledged member shows that Steve has great confidence in the Club’s future. After Steve’s acceptance speech, I might appoint him as my “speech writer”! A most inspirational and stirring speech which I am sure impressed all Rotarians at Thursday’s meeting.
Welcome Steve Ahrens, our newest member. As most of you know Steve is the General Manager of Lyndoch Motors.
We were also able to slot a discussion and vote on the Rotary Regionalisation project within the normal meeting time. Whilst we have not received all Club member votes at this stage, (there are about nine members yet to register a vote), the voting intentions of members after Thursday night’s meeting are firmly in the YES column. Prior to representing the Club at a meeting where all clubs will vote on 15th September 2022, we should have all or majority of members’ votes received and I shall advise you of the final vote.
We have two fellowship events in September to look forward to.
On Thursday night 22nd September about 20 club members and some partners will venture to the Kapunda Bowling Club for the Club’s Darts Night. Prior to the suspension of normal club activities caused by the dreaded COVID pandemic, the Darts Night was held at Stockwell Hotel. The new venue at the spectacular Kapunda Bowling Club promises to host another enjoyable evening. However, how the bowling club members will cope with holes in the wall caused by wayward darts is another matter! Sharpen your darts in anticipation of a keen contest!
On Sunday 25th September, members of the Rotary Club of Morialta are visiting the Barossa Valley and about a dozen Club members will welcome Morialta club.
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The one minute informers
1. RYDA. John Semmler handed out the rosters for the three days of the upcoming Rotary Youth Driver Awareness event, on September 20th, 21st and 22nd.
2. Prue Maitland informed members that Adam Robinson aged 25 years has been chosen to attend the RYLA course. (Rotary Youth leadership Award). Adam is a very busy young man, and is employed by Barossa Fresh, Nuriootpa. He is in charge of the bakery and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetables and has the responsibility of managing a staff of fifty. On his one day a week off, he spends some of that time putting the Leader Newspaper together.
3. Patrick Haydon gave a short interesting talk on his friendship with his late friend and well liked Rotarian Graeme Lawrie. Patrick said that Graeme attended the North Broken Hill Primary School in his early days. During the time that Pat and Val were living in Broken Hill, Val was Graeme and Anne's Accountant. Members present signed a card to be sent to Anne in memory of Graeme.
4.The International Convention is being held in Melbourne from May 28th to the 31st 2023. Registrations are now open and the current cost is USA475 per person. This rate is available until December 15th 2022. Last night at the club meeting Mark Graetz informed the gathering that he had been in touch with David Egan (Adelaide Club) who advised him that an accommodation/rail package is being finalised and will be forwarded to all registrants as soon as possible.
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Gavin and Lifen - Thanks for driving all the way from Canberra to visit us and address the club meeting on the 25th of August. No doubt we will see more of you as time goes by.
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Viva la France -
-A must read.
As most of you know Roxane and Peter are living it up in France for about three months, which included house sitting for a month or so. The many stories that have arrived regularly on our Facebook page telling us where they are, where they are going and what they’ve been up to, has given us an interesting read of how much they are enjoying each day, including the history, the architecture, the restaurants, the friendliness of the people and so on. However, the following story turned up a few days ago with the usual heading ‘Viva la France’ from Roxane. I asked for her permission to print it into the next bulletin. She came back and said, “By all means ‘Bobby”. I don’t know him (haha), however read on and you’ll laugh, perhaps an emotional tear as they faced the upsets that this travelling day caused.
Roxane wrote: “I truly don’t have the words to explain how I feel about what happened to us today so just going to say literally what happened. One hour out of Chateauneuf du Pape our almost new, only 14,000 kms on the clock, Renault shat itself. Just stopped dead, lights warning of electric motor malfunction and possible brake malfunction. We called the Hertz line and after waiting for about 40 minutes were told that a mechanic would be there in an hour. Nothing to do but wait. Ironically, we’d stopped beside a vineyard, so I grabbed any food we had, and water and we had a picnic. Still feeling upbeat at this stage. The mechanic came. Took about half an hour to announce it was cactus and he'd let Hertz know. They rang, a taxi would be there in 40 minutes to take us to Nimes Airport Hertz for a new car. Not happy about losing that much territory and being back where we started but what can you do? At this stage we’d been on the side of the road for about 4 hours. Taxi came, still up-beat, we’d be on our way in no time, they had a car. Arrived at Hertz, they have a car, but we must return it to Nimes, here. I say, no, we have a contract which we paid an extra $220 Australian dollars for to return to Paris Airport. Too bad, the only car she has, has to be brought back to Nimes. I explain we are going North through South West France to Confolens, a four hour drive from Paris. She says, bring it back then, we’ll give you a ‘Paris car’ and you can drive to Paris. A FOURTEEN HOUR ROUND JOURNEY WHICH WOULD SEE US MISS OUR PLANE. I’m tired, close to tears, Peter has been standing outside the airport in the sun minding our baggage for almost an hour. They say, we’ll send you via taxi to hotel and tomorrow – we’ve found a ‘Paris Car’ in Aix de Provence – we’ll taxi you there (1.5 hrs in the wrong direction for us) and get you on your way. Nothing else we can do. We arrive at Ibis Budget 2 Star wonder. I will cop to being a little spoiled, but I can take the knocks with the best of them – It’s a f***ing fleapit. These rooms usually hired out by the hour. There are no restaurants nearby. We’ve barely eaten all day. We have oodles of booze, but the bloody French only use corks and guess what – not a corkscrew to be seen in reception. The room is something to behold. The calvados - only thing that doesn’t need a corkscrew – we are drinking out of paper cups. No glass in these rooms. The shower only goes for 30 seconds before switching off, so you need to constantly push the button. No restaurants – even McDonalds – anywhere but reception had sent a microwaved pizza - which wasn’t too bad but hey, both of us had eaten a few slices of ham, cheese and a few tomatoes all day. We now received a message that they will taxi us to Aix de Provence where we can pick up the car at 5.30 p.m. Which means we have to drive until almost midnight to catch up our trip. I’m not happy, I think mostly I roll with the punches, but this has just about beaten me. On top of that, I hit a photo image on my computer thinking it might be our Hertz agreement and it was a picture of Bille and Remy, our gorgeous pups. That was my undoing.
Waiting!
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