In November, Cheryl Cartwright presentation is titled “Antics at the Airport”.
For twenty years Cheryl taught Music in Secondary Schools, then, for the next twenty years, taught Christian Studies and Applied Psychology at St.
Catherine’s Anglican Girls School. Having a bus licence took her on on some great school ex- cursions, which inspired her to go into tourism on retirement,
but found working with “free range adults” too frustrating.
Meanwhile, her brother, an emergency worker with Anglicare, assisted in a mock disaster at the airport, working alongside Airport Ambassadors.
He thought their job at the Help Desks would just suit her. So in 2009, Cheryl began working two 4 hour shifts per week as a volunteer at both the
International Terminal and the Domestic Terminal 2.
The talk is entitled “Antics at the Airport” which is the theme running through a collection of verses and stories about the many funny incidents
that arise from the 100,000 travellers that pass through the Airport each day and the job satisfaction that comes from reuniting people with their possessions,
(particularly passports) and telling people where to go!
Our February guest speaker was John Ellerman, a microbiologist, who spoke about improving digestive health with beneficial bacteria and probiotics
Guest Speaker for April was James Rutherford, our Vice President, giving a 'Short History of Cobb and Co - A Transport Giant'.
He presented a talk on the origins and the expansion of the coaching company which dominated the transport industry in the eastern states
in the second half of the 19th Century and the role played by his namesake and great grandfather James Rutherford.
Our May speaker was David Rosenberg
the author of the book "Inside Pine Gap - The inside story of the NSA in Australia".
He was a high-tech spy who worked at Pine Gap for 18 years and will give a fascinating glimpse inside the top-secret world of military surveillance.
He will have his book for sale after his presentation.
In June we had Mickey Robertson talking about
Glenmore House.
Glenmore House is an idyllic garden and a pleasure to visit. It’s open occasionally, and Mickey also runs kitchen gardening and seasonal cooking workshops
In July Valentine Kirychenko talked about his book, “Lydia’s Child”,
a graphic portrayal of his Ukrainian family spanning the period from World War I, the Russian Revolution, Communist rule, through to WWII and ultimate resettlement in Australia.
The book was for sale and proceeds will go to the Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
to see response by Valentine to our fund raising.
Click here to see the response by Valentine to our fund raising.
In August we had Jane Cox, a Senior Assistant Superintendent with Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW).
Jane worked at the Long Bay Correctional Complex for 25 years and is now based at the Operations Scheduling Unit at Silverwater Complex
where her main function is to manage the approx. 1100 Casual Correctional Officers that work at all the CSNSW centres across the state.
Jane delivered a highly entertaining, and sometimes hilarious, insight into how things are run in our state prisons.
In September, Senior Constastable Lisa Latu, of Burwood Police Area Command, presented on crime prevention strategies
for the home, car and wallet. The tips provided will ensure seniors are aware of the current crime trends
and how to identify a scam and prevent becoming a victim of crime.
In October Mike Munro, the well known TV broadcaster and personality, discussed his latest book “The Last Bushrangers”.
We are all familiar with Mike Munro as a TV personality but his talk at the October meeting gave a different perspective of the man.
Mike’s talk included growing up as the only child of a single mother/housekeeper in a catholic monastery and the family’s struggles,
his career as a newspaper and television journalist, leading to the discovery that his name was not Munro -
changed illegally by his grandfather because of the shame of being related to “The Last Bushrangers” - the title of his latest book.
That in turn led to a 30 year odyssey researching his bushranging great-uncles, one of whom was hanged in 1903 in Boggo Road jail.
After the joy of a bell ringer to entertain us for our first meeting since last March, we had a variety of guest speakers to suit many tastes and interests.
We had a surprise musical guest after our AGM on 16 March. None other than Elvis!
In April we had a gardening specialist, Robyn Bible, who specializes in growing geraniums and pelargoniums. Robyn explained how to care for them and propagate them. These are perfect for small gardens and balconies. She set up a display for sale on the day.
In May a recently retired police woman Deborah Wallace, dubbed "the cop known as the gangbuster" gave an entertaining talk about her experience in the police force. She set a stall to promote her book.
In June we met a sound therapy specialist, who addressed tinnitus, dizziness, etc.
In November we had a return guest. Tina Hyman has been designing and making jewellery for 30+ years’. She talked about her journey, how she makes her jewellery. She set up a display selling her jewellery. Being close to Christmas, there were many keen buyers.
| Date | Speaker | Topic | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan | Raj Bajpai | Community Ambassador - NBN(tm) local NSW | Raj Bajpai spoke to explain the NBN Rollout and answer questions as it relates to us personally.
The presentation included:
· What is the nbn™? · How does it impact your phone and internet connections? · What do you need to do to get connected? · How to avoid scam calls related to NBN. |
| 18 Feb | Dominic Case | Australian Film History | Dominic shared insights into the Australian Film Industry, having worked at Atlab (now Deluxe) and at the National Film and Sound Archive; he was also a Board Member of the Australian Film Commission from 2003 to 2008. He currently works as a film technology and strategy consultant. |
| 17 Mar | AGM | No speaker was booked. |
| Date | Speaker | Topic | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Feb | Peter Nonnenmacher | Financial Planner | |
| 19 Mar | Charles Lindstrom | The Windjammer | The only windjammer left today in the world in sailable condition. |
| 16 Apr | Gillian Lewis | Maritime Museum | Story of the Maritime Museum and what they do there. |
| 21 May | Living with the Enemy | My mother and father both worked for the resistance. Their home was used to shelter allied servicemen and Jewish families. | |
| 18th Jun | Fergus Haynes | Official visitor to NSW prisons | Since stepping down from the role of Official Visitor Fergus has been advocating for the reform of sentencing, incarceration and rehabilitation. |
| 16th Jul | Pauline Keyvar | Huntington's NSW | What is Huntington's Disease /who is affected/what support is offered to families/how the organisation reaches out to support families. |
| 20th Aug | Jo-Anne Berthelsen | Authors Journey | Jo-Anne spoke about her journey as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. She grew up in Brisbane and worked as a high school teacher, editor and local church minister in Sydney before beginning her writing career around twelve years ago. |
| 17th Sep | Trevor Wood | Vietnam | After nine years as an aircraft technician/instructor in the R.A.N. Dr Trevor Wood then spent 40 years as an educator. Ten years ago he and his wife, Kay, went to Vietnam, initially for him to train teachers at a university in Hanoi. However, shortly after arrival he 'found' two Vietnamese ladies who wanted to build a K-12 school as a destination for the children moving on from their existing kindergartens |
| 15th Oct | Tina Hyman | Jewellery | Tina has been designing and making jewellery for 30+ years’. She will talk about her journey, how she makes her jewellery and will be displaying/selling her jewellery |
| 19th Nov | Kathryn Zerk | Kathryn talked about her musical journey and about the Drummoyne Community Choir. | Choral leader of Drummoyne Community Choir. Kathryn lives in Abbotsford with her partner and two children and may be known to a few of our members. |