St Leonards Men’s Shed Newsletter 
December
What a great year its been. The Shed keeps going from strength to strength and as I perceive it, we are getting a very good reputation around town. As well as enjoying ourselves doing our own projects we do a lot for the Community and there are many items in this newsletter that demonstrates this work. Lots of funnies to keep everyone amused. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year, be safe, be merry and be smart. (Standard Political Announcement. I am an Australian and still celebrate Christmas, anyone who has any issues, please see our Cultural Ambassador).
Ollie
As mentioned in a previous newsletter, Ollie (who suffers from autism) comes to the shed for around an hour each Monday, one of the only times he ventures out of the house. When he first arrived he wanted to make a wooden box for a computer. We started making a frame, thinking Ollie had the computer bits to mount inside, but no, he had nothing. Luckily, Clive came to the rescue with an old working computer he gave to Ollie, Then, it was I don't want to make this anymore I just want to take the computer home. Wrong, if you want the computer, you need to make it. Well after several weeks, of careful overseeing by Mick and John, the computer, with its perspex sides was completed and Clive came to see if it was going to work. After one or two minor issues all was good.
Our Cultural Ambassador
Old Chris has had a tough year, and has recently been spending time between his house on the lower bluff and his daughters house in Sunshine. He now uses a walker to assist himself and used that as an excuse to purchase a new car, only because the walker could not be carried on what he really wanted.
We were fortunate in receiving a grant to help us improve our digital skills. We used the grant to run a session, facilitated by Clive, to do exactly that. Many subjects were covered, things like saving to the cloud, advantages and disadvantages, saving to other devices, memory sticks external drives, etc. Introduced several people to the wonders of Excel, learning how to logon to Wifi sites when caravanning, drag and drop to the desktop, using google applications like the calendar, Blogger etc. All in all it was a great session, everyone took away something new and we finished off the afternoon with some coffee and snacks.
Primary School
Each and every year as you know, we have 8 school children visit the Shed over 4 weeks and take away a project the helped put together. Its proving so popular, this year, as there were so many who wanted to come to the Shed, Jenny (the school principle) asked them all to write the reasons demonstrating why they should be chosen. She gave us some examples to read at the Shed, and there was some great laughs had by all. The 8 chosen turned out to be very well behaved and a pleasure to have visit, here are a collection of photos for you enjoyment.
While we're on education issues, the next time some says to you, " you don't know Jack Shit" you can say, " You're wrong, I not only know Jack, I know his whole family."
I'm sure you'll agree, they have done a great job with their gardening work. I can still remember what this area looked like before we started the Ga Ga pit. How much better is this very well used space now. Jenny said the current grade sixers have done the painting below, each student completed their own figure. Very colourful and a tradition that Jenny said will continue for a few more years.
A couple more for your education.
St Leonards Progress Association
Our association with the SLPA goes back to the Safe Plate Day when we were asked by Phil Walters if we would like to assist them in that endeavour. Then they allowed us to use some of their shed for our storage requirements, Mick became a member and started doing some of the floor repairs.
Over time, for various reasons, their member numbers have diminished and at the last AGM most of the Committee were standing down (two moving away from St Leonards) and there was no-one to replace them. If they could not find a group to take over the Management and Maintenance of the SLPA, then their only option was ask the Council to take over.
In steps the Mens Shed, we signed up over a dozen of our members to join SLPA, asked Phil Walters to call an extraordinary general meeting and now the office bearers of the SLPA are, president - Mick Morris, vice president - yours truly, secretary - Phil Walters and treasurer - Geoff Blum with a lot of others as committee members (Kevin Venville, John Stevens, Dave Chadwick, Jim Chadwick).
The current mission statement of the SLPA is to manage and maintain the Memorial Hall. Our initial plans were to get on and fix a few things up that had been discussed for a long while but not started. Since we commenced the following have been completed or quotes received and work scheduled to be done by the end of the year. All the plastering issues fixed, repainting as required and new painting in the toilets to brighten them up, dishwasher plumbed in so it can be used, new carpet behind the stage, cupboards under the stage fitted with new hinges and handles so the can be used, water pump replaced so the tank water can be used.
Things will only get better. Lucky for us, we had access to this great facility for our Christmas Dinner.
Bird Boxes
We have made another three boxes for private orders, and the last time I was speaking to Sophie, I got the impression some more orders may be coming after Christmas. When out walking around the Lower Bluff on the large grassed area opposite the Yacht Club, if you look at the sign posts the entrances to the wooded area where the bird boxes have been installed you will see the following.
Arcare
We were asked to assist some of the guys at Arcare Portarlington put together a street library kit they had purchased. Mick and I fronted up to a room they intend to make the Mens activity room and four guys sitting around two tables pushed together. After carefully reading what was required, (as all men do) we put together the library while the gents had cups of tea and biscuits. Tammy, the co-ordinator said they wanted to get some wood working tools for the guys to use and one of the other gents who was not there that day was a home brewer and was going to start brews at Arcare.
We said they are free to visit and inspect our brewhouse, speak to some master brewers and have a look around at what they might want in the way of tools.
While we are in a medical mood.
November BBQ
We had a small amount of money left over from a BCH grant we received and we used it for the November BBQ, inviting the BCH CEO to attend as a thankyou. He was not available but sent the Chief Operating Officer in his stead. Peter Barton was his name, nice bloke and sent us an email to see if we were interested in making the BCH a boardroom table for their Drysdale Office. While it would have been a real challenge, we had to decline as the bigger challenge would have been finding the room in the Shed. Peter will be a good contact for us to have, he enjoyed his meat and a cold beer, but did not have a glass of the Wine of the Day.
Christmas Dinner
A great year was capped off with a great night held at the St Leonards Memorial Hall. Thanks to everyone who helped out on the night and the ladies for a fabulous feast. Before the main course, there was plenty of nibbles to go around (well apart from the lack of sausage rolls, there was only 3 - 4 dozen, that fed John and Dave) and as can be seen in the photos, our front of house team kept the team fed and happy.
Chris had a great night, only spilling three drinks, Thanks to Harvey for making sure he was able to come to the dinner.
But the real work was done out the back, and a big thanks to Kevin who worked tirelessly in the kitchen all night, when he wasn't eating and drinking.
Of course we had to have our supervisors ensuring that all health and safety rules were adhered to.
Unfortunately there are no photos of the lucky door prize draw. But the lucky winners were as follows,
winner of the bottle of red, who else but - Kevin,
taking home the chocolates was our former treasurer Bob, and
the luckiest of all, winner of the collectors edition Christmas Pen - Taras. We had delayed to the time when the press were supposed to arrive, but the were a no show. Fortunately, there was someone kind enough to send in some photos of President John doing a great speech and keeping everyone entertained.
Melbourne Cup
Our resident Bookie, Geoff "SP" Blum ran the Melbourne Cup Sweep again this year. $10/ticket with $100 first prize and prizes for 2nd ($70), 3rd ($50) and 4th ($20). All but four tickets had sold and Geoff was just about to pack up when we said the Brew Crew would buy the last four tickets. As we were handing over the $40, Bergs came in and said, I'll have one, then so did Alain. The Brew Crew stumped up $20, but who were the winners?
1st - Bergs, 2nd - Alain, 3rd - Sybil (friend of Geoff, not Faulty) and 4th - Kathleen (Geoff's partner). What could have been? Berg's collected his winnings and shouted everyone at the Debating Club a beer, what a good fella.
Forget Mont Blanc or Scheaffer there's a new man in town, that's Swain, Bruce Swain. For fine quality pens for the discerning scribe, check out the latest in style. Bruce has now taken over the small lathe, so for any bookings please see Bruce.
With Bruce's permission Lee, his mentor, took over the lathe one morning and took everyone to Pen School.
1st - Bergs, 2nd - Alain, 3rd - Sybil (friend of Geoff, not Faulty) and 4th - Kathleen (Geoff's partner). What could have been? Berg's collected his winnings and shouted everyone at the Debating Club a beer, what a good fella.
Pens
With Bruce's permission Lee, his mentor, took over the lathe one morning and took everyone to Pen School.
Leave me Alone
The question around the Shed for the last couple of weeks, has been what the hell is this ? Several people tried searching on the internet, some called in a tree surgeon, others shook their head in in dis-be-leaf.
But not our treasurer, he knew straight away that this particular item was the famous "Spotted Gum".
Member Profile
As you know, each newsletter we introduce one of our members and complete a profile. Last newsletter you met Denis “The Phantom” Minogue, now its Alain "Mango Man" Gilette who has done a great job sending in his profile. Didn't need another photo still looks the same as he does in the photos below.
The
language was quite challenging to say the least. You had to be a Philadelphia lawyer to work
out that “pie die” was in fact “pay day”. I could never work out why the road signs did
not read “No Parking” like I had always been used to seeing up to then. While waiting under the clocks of Flinders
Street station, I noticed that the Policeman across the road seemed to be taking
a particular interest in me although I had done nothing wrong - that I knew of.
When
I spied a sign which read “No Standing Anytime” I figured out this was the reason
for all this unwarranted attention from the constabulary. I
quickly rectified the situation by pacing up and down so I could not be accused
of breaking the law.
The
day after landing in the country I landed a job with the then Victorian
Railways which 10 years later was to become V/Line. My
working career has been a most interesting one. If I
did not find myself employed by the Railways, it was by some organisation
working on Rail projects.
In
early 1976 I was swept off my feet by a very nice young lady named Marilyn. We
were married in April 1977 and by February 1982 we had 3 children (Deborah, Stephen
and Andrew). At a work Christmas picnic my boss told me
that I should spend more time in the garden because every time he saw my wife
she was pregnant. So I have been
spending a lot of time in the garden ever since.
Our
Children are all married now and so far have given us 4 lovely grand-children.
I
had all through my working career conditioned myself to retire at 55 and move
to Queensland (You can take the boy out of the tropics but you cannot take the
tropics out of the boy.) The
moment we retired, Marilyn and I wasted no time in moving to Agnes Water QLD
where we already owned a house on 5 acres of land. The next 10 years saw us busy planting
approximately 100 tropical fruit trees amongst which 23 mango trees which
serviced our year round needs.
Fishing
at the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef was very rewarding as you never took
anything home that weighed less than 2 kilos.
Towards
the end of 2014, the lure of the grand- children proved too strong for my wife
and I allowed myself to be persuaded to move back to Victoria. I did gain two concessions though:
We
would live near the water and;
I
would not spend a single winter in Victoria.
So
in November 2014 we moved to St Leonards and we have ever since spent the 3
winter months in the warmer climes of either QLD or W.A or the NT.
Retirement
life has been good to Marilyn and I. We both love travelling and in the last 18
years have had the privilege to enjoy some excellent holidays in Africa, Europe
and North America. Closer to home we have also visited New Caledonia
and New Zealand.
When
I am not working extremely hard at the Men’s Shed, I can be seen paddling my
kayak on the bay or riding my bicycle along the bicycle path between St
Leonards and Port Arlington.
