Saturday, November 29, 2008

Saturday 29th November 2008




































































































































































































































































































































































I said to watch this space for more good news and here it is. The intruder has been caught, arrested and charged with eleven counts which will hopefully put him out of society for many years to come. Some more good news is that my spine x-ray report included some very friendly, comforting words like: "mild", "moderate", "minor", "marginal", "normal limits", "minimal" and "reasonably well preserved" so I declare myself 'on the mend' and in a very short amount of time I hope.
This week has been basically recovery mode. The Tuesday/Thursday Ladies golf closing days were on this week with the girls dressing up in their Christmas gear. You can check the photos on www.gosfordgolfersblog.blogspot.com
We also had our end of year "F-Troop" dinner on Friday night which was very successful with a good attendance of F-Troopers. We had a DVD presentation of photos of the F-Troop at work & all the achievements over the last 12 months. Photo attached of my award presentation.
Saturday the club had a wedding booked in the wedding garden with a big marque for weather protection (just as well). I scrambed around my garden on Saturday morning after all the wild weather of the last few days to get some rose petals to scatter on the table settings at the wedding venue.
We had a big night at the Andre Reiu Concert at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney. I have been looking forward to this concert for a year so there was no way I was going to miss it. We were unlucky enough to have rain at the vital moment, however the rain held off for the first half after a couple of really heavy downpours before the start of the show.
We all donned our ponchos & weathered it out. Andre made a good decision in not having an intermission because the show had started late & there was more rain on the way. We sat in the rain for a good bit of the last half but still thoroughly enjoyed the show. We may have done more dancing in the aisles if the weather had been better - but the"Blue Danube" got a lot of people up. The Music and singing were fantastic & it was certainly worth the effort of getting there.
We left home early and got an easy park. That meant waiting in queue for a while but we were one of the first into the cocktail lounge where we found a nice comfortable lounge with a good selection of food & drinks so we were all happy and could relax while waiting for the show to start. From the cocktail lounge we had a great view of the back of the huge stage setting showing all the amazing scaffolding etc that it took to produce this setting. Our seats were good in the stadium & we were quite close to the ice skaters.
We all received a little merchandise package that included a poncho, pen, binoculars and a programme. The ponchos proved very handy.
Images attached: The front of the ANZ Stadium where the Andre Reiu concert was held; With Graham and Tosca in the cocktail lounge; some back views of the stage setting showing all the amazing scaffolding etc that it took to make up the stage; Anne struggling with her poncho when the rain started to tumble; various photos of our group waiting for the rain to stop; George in full rain protection; A couple of close up photos of Andre on stage at the beginning of the show; various photos of the staging throughout the show; Graham & Anne enjoying a waltz to the "Blue Danube"; a little girl dancing with her grandfather near us at the show; various photos of the "ponchoed" crowd during and at the end of the show; just some of the beautiful flowers that I received this week (amazing!) and again my thanks for all the wonderful support; receiving my award at the F-Troop Dinner on Friday night.









Friday, November 21, 2008

Saturday 22nd November 2008






















As most of you are aware this has not been the best week of my life - suffering through break and enter, home invasion & assault. However, this, being the "Good News" blog, I am only reporting on the positive outlook and there is plenty of that. The best news is that I am still here and my injuries are minor - recovery is imminent.
Some more good news received this week is that the refunds are commencing to arrive for the group of us that had our China trip cancelled at the last minute. That now will lead me to arranging another trip for next year which will be a good healing process for me.
There has been a lot of F-Troop activity at the golf club in the last couple of weeks with Monday been quite a huge day with all the family on deck. Rod was in charge of laying a concrete path at the Golf Club & Shane was "First Hand" & they both did a great job with Peter in getting the path laid at the club (photos attached). We also had a big burn off of timber and rubbish that has been building up at the club carefully watched by the Fire Brigade and a big clean up of overgrown gardens. So it was a very busy few days at the club.
Sunday we played golf and our playing partners were George & Vicki Foster & we had a lovely day.
Tuesday I played golf and my playing partner was Margaret Mackie (Presidents side) and our opposition was Jan Fitzgerald & Lynn Puiatti (Captains side) & we won on the 18th which was a good match.
The rest of this week has been recovery mode & police interviews etc in view of solving the crime & taking the intruder to justice.
My sincere thanks to all my family and friends for their incredible support during this tough time. Life will go on and so will the blog. So stayed tuned for more exciting postings in the future.
Images attached: With my playing partner Margaret Mackie and opposition Lynn Puiatti and Jan Fitzgerald at Tuesday's President Vs Captains day; photos of "F-Troop" Monday; With our playing partners George & Vicki Foster at golf on Sunday.

Saturday 15th November 2008 - Christmas Party

























































































































































On Saturday 15th November 2008 we had a great night at our Annual Christmas get together of the "old" Gosford Townies Rugby League players of the sixties. The event was held at George and Tosca Brand's lovely home at Terrigal.
We hold bi-annual get togethers, but the end of year is usually has the most attendees and this year was no exception with about 28 in all. It is good to catch up with everyone that we do not see all that often & the boys love to re-live those old footy games.
This year we had a photo of some of them in their youth (photo attached) - "owl" (Phil) Hodge won a prize for the best preserved of them.