Club Plate Inspection Day

I was pleased to see a fine day when I woke on Club Plate Inspection Day. With last year being close to a washout I was concerned that with choosing the same venue we may end up with the same luck!  Whilst a cloudy day, it wasn’t raining!!  Unfortunately the Council no longer permits reservations or any vehicles entering the park, which made securing a picnic area and setup no easy feat.  On the up side, the carrying of eskies, bags and food from the car to the picnic area gave my abs a good workout!  It was only a small turnout of EH’s, and the boys were pleased to have a couple of new EH’s to check out too.  The kids (and a few big kids too) had a great time riding their bikes and scooters on the bike tracks and playing on the equipment. 

Lunch was at 12.30pm, where cold meats, salads and breads were on offer.  Afterwards we snacked on tarts, slices and muffins with a coffee whilst the kids were treated with shortbread men. 

With the wind picking up mid afternoon, we started to pack up and call it a day.  And a relaxing day it was. 

Kathy Bracken

BYO Picnic

With a big August looming, it was a low key July run to Lake Parramatta.  This month it was BYO with the club supplying afternoon tea.  Wes, Andrew and I arrived around 11.20am and I was really surprised to see that every picnic table area was already taken with each area looking like they had been setup for hours!!  Robbo has arrived a little earlier and parked the EH right up the top of the park towards the main road where there is a big grassed area – perfect for the picnic blankets and the kids to play.  People were happy to just relax and chat and I have to say it was a nice to be able to just sit and not prepare lunch. 

But what is a run without some excitement or drama?  Just before lunch a lovely red rod appeared to be having some trouble and stopped on James Ruse Drive right next to where we were set up.  Of course, the large majority of us go up to either look at the car, see what the issue was or jump the fence to give them a hand.  Julian, Scott and Wes jumped the fence to see if they could help out the boys, with Wes putting his body on the line by stopping the traffic (onya Russ!!) No sooner did the boys jump the fence and the rod started up and was on its way again.  Even though we didn’t help in any way, it was a nice gesture.  Bryce was disappointed to hear that he missed the opportunity to have a bit of fun and pretend to run Wes down, arriving shortly after the incident!

We seemed to graze from not long after we arrived until we decided to head off home. It was like a big community lunch with people sharing nibbles, Scott’s mayo and afternoon tea plus we had enough mandarins to feed a third world country.  Thanks Michelle for bringing these along for everyone to take home (They are nice and sweet too!!) Robbo and Michelle brought some bottled wine along for people to take home which was a lovely surprise. Thanks Mary for making the rock cakes too. I made some orange cake, chocolate crackles, caramel slice and brought the leftover cinnamon sugar crusted macadamias from last month to finish off.  Very little came back home! 

Kathy Bracken