BBQ Stakes 28 th April 2010

Today the winner was Gary Bowen.

His second win in 38 runs.
He always gives his all.

26 runs since his previous win, has a PB of 26:04. Second was loyal runner, Leah Afiabo and third placed Kevin Chapman following.

Roger Braid did the time keeping and Kerrie Tanner looked after the results and announcements, wearing her Red Clogs after suffering a recent stress fracture, that will suspend her running for several weeks, but she'll get some different kind of exercise until she recovers sufficiently for running.

Hugh Moore goes from strength to strength, and came in first today, looking like he has got his running back on track.

Hugh spent several hours the day previously, doing some mapping work for Orienteering.

Adrian Plunkett and Marc Wilson ran together, having left a little before the clock started, Adrian recorded the finishers, as did Brian Crowe.

In The Poo

From "Two Fruits" Blog




I do hope Brian towing the portaloo is Ok after his accident on the way to the handicap. Apparently his 4WD and the portaloo ended up overturned.

Also glad it wasn't after the event, or he would have really been in the poo.

Hope some quick replacement was found, so nobody was caught short.

The sort of occasion when Diggers should have been around.

No Jogalong for May 2010 due to Canberra running Festival

From Jogalong Jottings


The Jogalong is not being held in May so no
roster for this month’s Jottings.


If you can assist at June and subsequent
Jogalongs please put your name down on the
roster board for the following tasks:
 Registration at 8.30 am
 Fruit cutting at 8.30 am or
 Recording at 9.30 am
The 2010 Roster Board is now on display at
Jogalong. If you are a regular Jogalong participant
you should put your name on the roster at
least once during the year. The ongoing success
of the event relies on volunteers.

BBQ Stakes 21 April 2010

A field of 59 today, that kept on growing.

Initially, 55 signed the book in sheet.

At the end they kept on coming in, by an extra four.

59 was the last total I heard, Damian McCauley did the timing, having won again , after four* weeks from his previous win.

He arrived in time to carry out most of the duties, we think the clock may have been started a little early today.

Three or more new starters today, were told the system and method, and a couple of them finished in the front of the field.

It takes a while to establish a "handicap" and then the handicap is adjusted according to a well defined set of rules.

Today we saw Geoff Monro and alo Geoff Hawke running. Geoff Monro was timed at 29:10 net.

Today the placegetters were Roger Braid in first eligible, Geoff King taking second place and Caroline Campbell in third eligible, although having slightly sore legs from the Black Mountain Run Up the day before.

Progressive points in this year's pointscore total for the following are noted, Terry Levings 889, Raymong Chao 795 points and Damian MacCauley with 743 points.

Anyone can check their own points on the weekly sheets prepared by Terry Dixon, and available at the run each week.

Doug Fry handed out the place cards, and Brian Crowe and Caroline Campbell did the recording of finishers.

Kerry Tanner had a run this week, seemingly getting over her aches and pains following her six foot participation.

Rose Coloured Glasses

Well, yesterday, I went to OPSM in Woden and received the best treatment one could have expected, following the making of an appointment.

When we got there, they could not find me on their computer system, possibly because they hadn’t seen me in their Woden store for something in excess of seven or more years.

But when they got past that, they treated me to extensive eye tests, and concluded with an eye pressure test.

All sorts of other tests were conducted.

That is reading of various cards with rows of numbers and letters.

Then rows of lines to detect which was the darkest line, etc..

Eventually with all the tests concluded, they then handed me over to a couple of young ladies to show me some likely spectacles, of their recommendation.

After making a selection, they took me through the ordering process, including medibank refund processes.

I will collect the new spectacles probably in two weeks time.

Here’s hoping that they fulfil my expectations,and make me look more stylish to go with my executive status.

Oops, I have retired, so if there is an executive retiree status, I’ll accept the improvement in looks, if any.

Cheruiyot smashes Boston record with 2:05:52 sizzler

Cheruiyot smashes Boston record with 2:05:52 sizzler - Boston Marathon report

Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot smashes the Boston Marathon record in 2:05:52 (Getty Images)
relnews

Boston, USA - Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot ran 2:05:52 to demolish the course record at the venerable B.A.A. Boston Marathon in that event's 114th running on Monday (19). Cheruiyot took a staggering minute and twenty-two seconds off the previous record of 2:07:14 set by Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (no relation) in 2006.Teyba Erkesso followed the pattern of 2008 women's champion Dire Tune by winning in Boston after setting a course record in Houston. Erkesso ran 2:26:11, holding off charging Russian Tatyana Pushkareva in the closing steps.

The housing market in Duffy

9 Jemalong St Duffy was listed for auction today.

Wonder what the report in The Canberra times will say.

The opening bid was $700,000, while the next bid was $ 875,000, which was the Auctioneer's bid. This was under/below reserve.

Despite a largish crowd, and the auction being conducted inside and upstairs, where the view could be enjoyed, and after negotiations with the owners, there was no sale, and the auction was concluded.

I have no illusions that our house , if submitted for auction would attract any bid which would exceed those figures, but in any case, we are not interested in going down that trail.

We do however peruse the real estate section of the Canberra Times.

Big is good for tourism

The big Gumboot in Tully Queensland

The Big Orange in Gayndah Queensland

The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour

There was a story on the TV about the Big Gumboot

It told about the locals and their troubles in getting the project built

Tully is a nice little country town, not much to it though. The biggest attraction would be the big gumboot which represents the rainfall up here in North Queensland, which floods every year. It is considered one of the wettest parts of the southern hemisphere actually, damn tropical weather. I'm into Australia's 'big things' so I thought it was worth the mention. You can walk up inside the boot to a viewing platform. It is situated on the Bruce Highway between Townsville and Cairns.


FIVE years after the tiny far north Queensland sugar town of Tully unveiled the world's biggest gumboot, it has become the subject of a documentary.
Tully, which has long battled its northern neighbour Babinda for the right to call itself the wettest place in Australia, made international headlines in 2003 when it erected a 7.9m fibreglass gumboot as a tribute to its record rainfall.But only now is the real story behind the quirky tourist attraction being told in the hilarious documentary Big Dreamers, which screens on the ABC on Thursday.Sydney filmmaker Camille Hardman spent nine months living in Tully following the gumboot saga, observing cost blowouts, personality clashes and even an unfortunate paint incident that turned the golden gumboot brown.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Related Coverage
Teen given lifelong pub ban Herald Sun, 24 Mar 2010
Tully Sugar plans IPO The Australian, 9 Mar 2010
Massive redevelopment of army site rejected Courier Mail, 11 Nov 2009
Bull's bum toilets built for tourists Courier Mail, 10 Aug 2009
World's best throwing festivals NEWS.com.au,
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.While the documentary was quintessentially Australian, she said its themes had resonated with audiences around the world."People were saying the same thing had happened to their small town because of globalisation and a lot of agriculture (moving offshore)," Hardman said."These towns have to come up with new ways of either attracting people through tourism or coming up with new forms of industry."Ron Hunt, a lifetime Tully resident and one of the stars of the film, said the town originally intended to build a smaller gumboot to mark its claim as the country's rain capital. But when Babinda overtook Tully as the soggiest settlement, the gloves really came off."We then built it to commemorate the highest annual rainfall in town as recorded, which was 7.93m (in 1950), and they (Babinda) couldn't beat that and that really ticked them off," Mr Hunt said.Babinda even threatened to build a giant umbrella to steal Tully's thunder but the project never eventuated."We offered to build it for them," Mr Hunt laughed."And then we offered to put a brolly on top of our gumboot, but they didn't like that either. It's all tongue in cheek, although some people get real serious about it."Mr Hunt said the gumboot had given local tourism a big kick, with almost 4000 people climbing the boot's internal staircase in a two-month period."It did what we wanted it to do - get the passing traffic just to come in and visit," he said.Big Dreamers has screened at several international film festivals and is now seen on Qantas flights, opening the region to key tourist markets.As for who will win this year's wettest town competition, the Bureau of Meteorology said rainfall recorded to the end of last month showed Babinda had a 173mm lead over Tully.

BBQ Stakes 14 th April 2010

57 Runners today including a fair flock of the Speedy Geese. and Speedy Geoff.

Being the school holidays brought a few of the children who are enjoying the holidays, some ran, one read.

Bob Harlow again figured in the placings, he must be due for a win soon.

First was Damien ?? , second was Katie Forestier who won her age group in the Women's and Girls' Fun Run last sunday, third was Bob Harlow, who again cycled from Cook.

Rad had some entry forms for the Nail Can Hill Run, which clashes with the National Capital running Festival in early May.

However a contingent of Canberra Runners are travelling to Albury for the Nail Can Hill event.

ABS Fun Run 2010

This will be held on Thursday 19 th May 2010.
Start in John Knight Park 12:30 pm, Runners 7.3 km, Walkers 6.2km.

Proceeds to ACT Cancer Society. Refer to ABS Website for entry form and other details.

Lake Tuggeranong Stakes Tuesday 13 th April 2010

About 16 runners today, including, Peter Bourgaize 3 runs on return and Peter Roberts making a return today.

Lloyd Edwards led off with Rad, and the others were sent off by Doug Fry who both held the watch, and recorded the finishers.

There were some close finishes, the last little run being downhill and then a fast finish to the line.

Kelley Flood put in a good run, and Doug met her for the first time today.

Fly away Peter, Fly away Paul.

The birds come into our trees, pick at the fruit, and leave part of it, then do the same with the other fruit.

Today and yesterday we picked the fruit, but being high in the trees, we needed some steady nerves to get high enough to pick the fruit.

Even with a fruit picker, we still had to stretch really high to pick the fruit.

With our fruit picker, obtained from the Garden Centre at Weston, we picked the fruit piece by piece, and have some inside, in a special jar for ripening.

We put it in an earthenware jar, together with an apple, for a few days until it is ripe for eating.

The birds now have to find another garden to satisfy their appetites.

The neighbour has his tree covered in a mesh netting, so they will get no joy there.

Many years ago now, magpies used to nest in the gum tree at the front, and start their noisy calls at something like 3 o'clock in the morning.

Since the tree was severely pruned by the ACT Government a year or two ago, the magpies have not returned, fingers crossed that they are gone forever to somewhere far away.

BBQ Stakes Report 7 April 2010

Short of help at the Stakes today.

Rad saves the day, by turning out and helping.

54 runners today, with Helen Larmour doing the timekeeping.

Rad helped out with handing out place cards.

With the weather threatening rain and showers today, I stayed indoors, but the show went on anyway.

The 54 runners were not put off by the threat of showers though.

Kerrie Tanner, the organiser, ran her 100th Jogalong last Sunday, and will receive a running top, in recognition of that achievement.

Apostrophies gone walkabout

The Women's and Girls' Fun Run.

This sunday at 9 am. Stage 88 Commonwealth Park

There used to be an apostrophe after Women and an apostrophe after Girl.

Of late however in the official entry form and the circulating material, those apostrophes no longer appear.

Can someone find them and explain why they should, or should not be restored to their place as in days of yore.

Man-mauling wombat felled by axe

From ABC News Site

Man-mauling wombat felled by axe

April 6, 2010

A Black Saturday bushfire survivor is recovering in hospital after he was attacked by a wombat outside his caravan north-east of Melbourne today.
Bruce Kringle, 60, lay on top of the animal in a desperate bid to stop the attack in Flowerdale just before 7am.
A neighbour heard his cries for help and, after telling Mr Kringle to move off the animal, killed it with a blow from the back of an axe.
Mr Kringle, an animal lover who is living in a caravan while his new house to be built, has told family he feared for his life during the attack.
He was taken to The Northern Hospital in Epping with puncture wounds to his legs and arms.
A Rural Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said Mr Kringle told paramedics another person had complained about a rogue wombat in the area two days ago.
Geoff McClure, compliance team leader for the Department of Sustainability and Environment, said a wombat attack was extremely unusual.
He said wombats could feel threatened and rush at a person, especially if the animal was suffering from the skin condition mange, caused by parasitic mites.
‘‘In the advanced stages wombats become very irritable and anyone who approaches them, they usually view as a threat and may run towards them,’’ he said.
‘‘They appear aggressive but we have never had reports of wombats actually attacking people.’’