We were invited by Dell Corporation (large American company that makes computers) to give a presentation at their Wellness Day. This was a great opportunity to reach out to some younger men and tell them what a wonderful thing a Men’s Shed is, and ours in particular!
The talk went well and I think that they appreciated it. The things is, even if only one man took our card or a fridge magnet, or if one man went to get a check-up from his doctor, then it was worth while.
They also had a presentation given by the Women’s Shed Canberra. The ladies present, Sunita, Rachel and Pauline, gave an interesting overview of their Sheds history, its aims and dreams and how it affects the lives of many, many women in Canberra. Their shed has a very different business model to the traditional Me’s Shed. They have instituted many formal classes, both hands on and eLearning and attract many members, of all ages. It is a very active and enervated group of women! They also have a full time instructor, a man who used to work at Thors Hammer, who oversees the workshop activity and gives both one-on-one and group instruction.
Our workshop men have been busy building the first of a series of Mud Kitchens. A mud kitchen is a toy / play kitchen for young persons to use while they pretend to cook just like dad, well at least the mud will be familiar.
This project was sponsored by the IMB Bank from their Communities fund, and we express our sincere thanks for their involvement. Torrens pre-school were the first to express an interest in the project and so they have received the prototype. We have requests for quite a few more and hope to be able to source, build and deliver, at no cost, at least eight to the various pre-schools and daycare centres in our area.
John Webster, Alex Zvargulis and John Jenkins delivering the first of the mud kitchens.
Members of the Shed visited the Tram depot at Mitchell for a tour. Tony Burns gives this report:
We had the royal dozen of us but I have to admit that list of attendees has got lost. We arrived at 10.15 and got into hi-vis vests. Had 2 guides who took us through – even into main viewing room. Cameras everywhere, all over the system and at all stations. We left about 11.45 but decided to have lunch at Raiders Club in Weston. Finished up back at the Shed around 2.45. All had a great day, even Mr Anti-rail himself, Lindsey. He complained the whole time but finally admitted that he thought it was a good outing! So we finally got through to him and hope to see him on one of the trains going from Woden to Civic, when completed.
Report : Tony Burn
We also received this follow up email from ACT Transport
Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting the Weston Creek Men’s Shed for a special depot tour in Mitchell. The group had a behind-the-scenes look in our maintenance hall, Operations Control Centre and some of the vehicles and equipment we use to keep our services running smoothly. It was rewarding for our staff to showcase their workspace with such an enthusiastic group. To read more visit: https://bit.ly/3zG7eE3
Our Shed hired that great 12 seater bus again and with John Webster at the wheel, a gang of 9 sailed off to visit the Bredbo Shed boys, who we had met at Cooma a month or two ago. A visit to their cavernous farm shed, lunch at the pub and a personalised guided tour of the American Firefighting Pilot memorial. How good is that?
John wrote a few words and provided a few snaps:
At the Bredbo Pub, the publican, who is by the way the President of the Bredbo Mens Shed, has put together a Memorial to the three American firefighters who were killed when their plane crashed while fighting a severe blaze during the devastating fires just 20 km from Bredbo four years ago. He has dedicated a room on the side of the hotel to the memorial which contains paintings of the three airmen, their plane and several items of memorabilia, including a large part of the wing from the plane. They have a dinner once a year in memory, and this year they have extended an invitation to the current US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy.
Members who travelled to Bredbo included John Webster, Terry Hourigan, Peter Rowell, Duncan Souter, Robin Brinton, Selby Brown, Graeme Harmer, Rob Honeybone and Gery Koetzle.
Inside the Bredbo Men’s Shed, now that’s what I call room to move.Poor boy, hasn’t been fed for a week…
Men from Weston Creek Men’s Shed visiting the Bredbo Shed. This photo is taken inside the Memorial setup to remember the three American pilots who lost their lives fighting our bushfires in 2020. Bredbo Hotel, NSW
Our local member David Smith came to visit the shed today. He has been here a few times over the years and remarked that he could see quite a few changes that we have made since hist last visit. Naturally we took the opportunity to thank him for his ongoing support and that all the changes he could see were made possible by government grants, such as his.
We adjourned to the meeting room for lunch, which was a pile of pizza organised by Lino, and they were delicious too!
David invited questions and we ran the full gamut of nuclear power stations, submarine, oil wells, football stadiums, bus services, trams and a whole raft of other things. A very interesting session.
Thanks to David for coming along and being the good sport that he is.
Bit of a spur of the moment thing, but we organised for three members , Graeme Harmer, Lino Rovera and myself (well, Mrs President actually) to make some soup dishes for lunch. We had Pea ‘n Ham, Chicken ‘n Vegetable, Minestrone and Pumpkin. Something for everyone. Well also had toast and bread and croutons and crackers and, and and….
Given that there wasn’t much of any soup left, and the happy contented full faces around the table, Id have to say it was a great success.
SouperCars
A bit of FUN. Yes, it’s a bit hard to come by these days, but a blast from all our childhoods as some of the men had a go at the slot cars set up by Mr President. Fortunately the Freddo on offer for the winner of a race wasn’t in any danger as most blokes seemed to be torn between playing cars Report and Image: Brian Blackand feeding their faces. Guess which option won?
The SouperCars were the Holden Commodores of Ginsberg and Lowndes but were withdrawn due to a rear axle failure on the 99 car. Over to Plan B. A borrowed set of Digital Scalextric complete with six cars of various sports types. Technology at its finest. All just taken for granted that you could run six cars on the track at the same time, and that you could be on any lane, and that you could click a button and change lanes…..
Anyhow, we had a bit of fun as you can see from this snap.
As President, I was invited by the Weston Creek Branch of the Rotary Club of Canberra to attend a Club Dinner Meeting to accept a Rotary Community Service Award on behalf of the Weston Creek Men’s Shed.
You may be aware that the existence of the WCMS is attributed to the initiative and forethought of Mal Ferguson and Graham Giles from Rotary, who could see that there was a need for a Shed in ur community and set about to make it happen. As I have reported earlier, we were invited last November to give a presentation on the Shed’s achievements and this award to night is confirmation that the Rotary Club’s initiative was well founded and that they heartily approve of the work that we do.
In a nutshell, and i’ll quote from the Award:
“This Award to the Weston Creek men’s Shed recognises the Shed’s outstanding service to the community since its launch in 2014”
So, on behalf of the Shed and of our community I offered them our sincere thanks and accepted the award with pride and pleasure.
Brian receiving Rotary Club Community Service Award on behalf of the Shed
Thanks to Mal and Graham, and to Rotary, for the great work that themselves do for all communities everywhere.
We had a very interesting chat today with Paul Mascors and James Stuart from Transport Canberra. Paul is the one in charge of all the fleet, and it’s huge!
No-one had ever thought much about what lies behind that big blue bus as trundles along the road; but there are hundred of people and zillions of dollars involved in purchasing, maintaining, running and planning for the future.
Naturally the question of electric busses vam up and its not as straight forward a proposition as an electric car. A bus, to be able to run all day and half the night, needs a huge number of batteries, which are ultra expensive, large, heavy and take a considerable length of time to charge. They also have a finite financially viable life of seven years. TC have had to have special new high-voltage feeds put in from the electricity sub-stations to the depots just to accolade the 106 buses they have now. One interesting fact was that if they covered the entire depot with solar panels, they would have enough power to charge three buses – and of course the bus would have to be in the shed during the day, not out on the road! So that’s a non-starter.
Unlike all other business, the boss doesn’t get a car to drive around in, they have to take the bus, and in this case they brought one of the new electric ones to the shed for a bit of show-and-tell.
Fellows from Transport Canberra chatting about busses: Paul Mascors and James Stuart. They two heads are our two bus-boys, Bill and Lindsay.
A very entertaining session and everyone appreciated them taking the time to come and chat. So thanks to all for coming.
Bunch of happy smiling blokes doing what we do best – and that’s not feeding our faces!
Thanks again to Bunnings and the public, we were once again able to run a very successful BBQ and make a nice contribution to the finances of the Shed – Thank you everyone.
Our first outing for a while and eagerly anticipated by those who chose to take the day off and get out and about.
We hired a great 12 seater bus and with Dennis steering the ship, had a pleasant and relaxing run down to Cooma. “Some” decided a BMW X5 might be more comfortable, better sound system at least…. Either way, great day out.
The Cooma blokes have moved house since we were there last (2017 for those that can’t remember back that far!) These days they are in their own reasonably new premises just out of town on the Numerella Road. They lucked into a large grant from the then Member for Monaro John Barilaro. This has been followed up by generous support from their community and they have an excellent shed and facility, but, they are now making plans to expand. So well done them!
We arrived just about lunch time and were quickly served steak sandwiches, tea and coffee. After a good look round and chats with the many blokes there from Cooma, Bredbo and other sheds, we made our way up to the Cooma Car Club Museum, who had agreed to stay open to accommodate us. Apart from the tea and lamingtons, there were also a bunch of really nicely presented cars of varying vintages.
Shed blokes sharing a yarn, John, Gery and Dennis. Fellow on the right is Chris from the museum, blokes on the left are from Bredbo Men’s Shed
They say that you can take the lad out of England, but you’ll never take England out of the Lad. Johnno getting all excited about the Morrie.
Just wandering around, I kept hearing snippets like, “I had one of these…”, “I learnt to drive in one like that…”. “I rolled one of them at 60mph…” Old cars are one of those things that truly evoke memories of the past, everyone has a connection to some particular make and model. For me, I really don’t have a favourite, I just love any old cars that have been preserved enough to still be around, and for the record my first (car that is!) was a Morris Minor 1000 MK II Four door saloon, circa 1956, just like the one Johnno is next to.
For the record, I really like the look of this snappy number below. My mate in Queensland has one that they bought in America when they did the whole Route 66 thing, and shipped it home, back when you could bring almost anything in….
1960 Chevrolet Corvette. Get your kicks, on Route 66.
All in all a really great day out, seeing the country, meeting some great blokes, sharing a yarn, perving at old cars. Just great!
And of course a special round of thanks to the men of the Cooma Men’s Shed for hosting us, and the men of the Cooma Car Club for keeping the doors open to their wonderful museum. Cheers to all.
