Last Week's Meeting

Induction of Greg Adams

• The Club members were very happy to witness Greg Adams’s induction into our Club. Greg has been a member of the Diamond Creek RC for many years so is already an active Rotarian. Greg’s mentor will be Russ Nielsen and he will serve on the International Committee.

• Peter Behm – D9810 Conference 2022 – The Family of Rotary Conference

• Has 2 themes: “Healthy World – Healthy People”
• Book this month as there are a limited number of places
• It’s a chance to catch up with friends for the first time in 3 years
• It’s great value @ $140pp
• Includes the wider family of Rotary: Rotaractors, Interactors & Earlyactors whose tx cost $45, and with Club sponsorship would be $20.
• Continue the Friday night Club Dinner tradition; we could plan to have our Club Dinner for immediately after the online part of the Conference

• Dr. Norman Swan
• Professor who is internationally recognised for the production of green materials at the Uni. of NSW (UNSW).

• Jillian Riseley, CEO of Metro Waste and Resource Recovery Group
• Pat McCafferty, Managing Director of Yarra Valley Water
• Celeste Mergens, Founder and CEO of “Days For Girls”
• Victor Perton, inspirational speaker, Founder and Chief Optimism Officer (COO) of the Centre for Optimism
• Keynote Speaker is Samuel Johnson from the “Love Your Sister” Charity Samuel will stay during the lunchbreak to chat informally
• Focussed Breakout Sessions organised by Pat Armstrong and AG Mark Balla
• . Conclusion of presentations
• . Gala Dinner with fun theme of “Famous Families”. Dress up or dress to impress. Cost is $100 and register on the DG’s Website
• Our own Ken Miller DGE will be part of the Conference

• Has ample parking
• Is adjacent to all forms of public transport

Twinning Speakers:

Susi Wilson is an identical twin and did a PowerPoint Presentation of wonderful family photos. Her twin sister is Anne.

• Mother didn’t know she was having twins
• The daughters have the same interests e.g. they both love running
• Were in different running clubs and sponsored by Nike
• Growing up they tricked teachers and boyfriends
• It is awesome being a twin. They helped each other at school and Uni.
• They both married teachers, Susi married an Australian and thus emigrated, and Anne a German with an interest in cycling
• Their children were born three weeks apart at the same hospital, much to the confusion of the midwives
• Anne has her own pharmacy in Berlin, and sometimes Susi works there and the customers can’t tell the difference
• Susi has long hair and is the summer twin, Anne has short hair and is the winter twin
• It is difficult being so far away esp. with Covid when she can’t visit annually
• Sometimes Susi feels like half of her is missing

PP PHF John Shaw is the fraternal twin of Brian.

• They were born in June 1947, 5 minutes apart. John is the elder
• They spent the first 3-4 years living upstairs in their maternal grandparents’ huge housein Auburn
• They used the fire-escape to escape
• They had a pedal car with a tray on the back, which they fought over although they were meant to take turns
• In fact they fought for 20 years or more
• Growing up, twins can get into twice as much trouble: by standing on shoulders,they discovered they could reach the latch of the gate and ended up on Glenferrie Road. They pedalled down the middle of the tram tracks with the tram driver following furiously ringing his bell. Fortunately there was little traffic in 1950, and the adventure was ended when someone recognised them
• John and Brian were rivals unlike Susi and Anne. They don’t think or do things alike
• In Grade 2 or 3, they were separated, developing different interests and groups of friends
• As a teenager, John was interested in trains and travelling in steam trains. In his mid-teens, he went all over the country including Queensland
• Brian was a stop-at-home who went nowhere. His interest was motor cars and motor bikes. He raced his car at Winton
• Conscription and National Service: Brian had joined what was then called the CMF, so when their birth date was chosen, he could stay in the CMF for 5 years rather than the army for 2 years. Not having that option, John did “Nasho’” for 2 years and then stayed for 30 years in the army
• At age 22 or 23, Brian was doing a compositor apprenticeship, to be a letterpress printing machine operator. In the 70’s, computers began taking over, so he packed up and went to Africa by ship, to Southern Rhodesia which is now Zimbabwe
• Then to Europe, back home, to the U.S., then Guatemala where he married a Guatemalan
• The twins became good friends
• Milestone birthdays:

• These days, John and Brian are quite close

Don Borg – Where I was Born

• Is a Maltese Purebred, but his daughters are “mongrel”
• He is the 6^th child of 9
• Parents Emmanuel and Georgia got married at 20 and 18 years of age respectively
• A very Catholic family, his mother had 9 children before turning 30. She was 4’10” tall
• After the war during which Malta was the most bombed country in Europe, there was nothing left
• In 1953, Dad, a market gardener, emigrated to Australia by himself
• In 1954, the family followed. They came by plane, a DC9 which took9 days.
• Mum couldn’t speak any English at that stage
• Every night they stopped overnight. In the Middle East, the four girls were told they were in danger because of the White Slave Trade, so the pilot stayed outside the girls’ roomwith a gun all night, and flew the plane by day
• The family settled in Moe where Dad was a labourer
• The last child was born
• The parents wanted the kids to be Australian so they didn’t speak Maltese at home. Mum learnt English by listening to rock ’n roll songs
• When Don was 14, his dad developed schizophrenia and thought he was going to die, so returned to Malta
• Mum took over providing for the family and so attended Night School to become a chef
• Don’s sister had a child out of wedlock, and Don’s mum wouldn’t hear of its being adopted, so the child became one of the family
• From his mother, Don learnt that if you worked hard, you’d get somewhere
• All the children are alive and reasonably healthy today
• Don is very proud of his mother – she is the strongest woman he has ever met

Committee Reports:

Youth – PP PHF Tina

• Emerald Secondary College wants to recommence Breakfast Club this coming Friday. Tina to assist with either Lyn or Lorna.
• A Zoom meeting with the School will be held shortly to discuss its garden project. ESC is very excited and the Committee is applying for a grant.

T2T Market

President Shalini’s Closing Remarks:

• Congratulated Greg on becoming a member of our Club.
• Thanked Susi, John and Don for their really interesting talks. ( I second that – Editor)
• The venue for the “Sunshine of Your Love” Concert has been changed from Croydon to the Rochford Winery, Coldstream. It will be held on either the 5^th or 12^th of December – TBC.
• Food Handling Certificates – if you haven’t done the online course please do it if you can.
• Covid-19 Digital Certificates – send the number and date of vaccination to Secretary John for his records please.
• First meeting back at the Pub will hopefully be Tuesday 9^th of November – TBC. It will be a hybrid meeting.

Newsflash!!

 

 

 

Conference 2022 - Key Speaker - Samuel Johnson