Gordon's OM Presidential Year

Thursday 30th January We flew in from Melbourne on Tuesday, and spent Wednesday with an old friend of Angela's., visiting Balmoral and seeing some of the north side residential areas. During our first couple of days in Sydney we experienced very pleasant summer weather, continuing to miss the great heat. However, the temperature was rising for the weekend. Thursday was the Sydney OM luncheon. On a hot day (by my standards – just 29C) Mike Hailey and Guy Pollock arranged for us to meet and lunch at the Sydney Flying Squadron yacht club which is situated in Kirribilli on the north side of the Sydney Harbour bridge. This was a lovely setting in one of many little bays overlooking the harbour bay. Present were: Mike (62-67) and Linda Hailey, Guy (82-85) and Annette Pollock, Alan (59-64) and Dawn Mills, Steve Rudlin (64-69), Michael Bishop (Lord Glendonbrook) (55-57), Grahame Elliot (52-57), Gordon (65-69)and Angela Mizner. I was delighted that Steve Rudlin managed to attend as

We arrived in Melbourne Thursday 23rd. We have been so lucky with the weather, avoiding tbe really scorching temperatures thzt seem to have circulated around us. On tbe road journey from Adelaide we had some rain but nothing to spoil our enjoyment or the spectacular scenary. Melbourne is tennis city at the moment. We decided to chance it and went to the tennis centre which was a short tram ride from our hotel. We got a day pass into the event and the  queued up to get on one of the main courts where we saw a couple of great matches. The otber days saw us visit much of what Melbourne has to offer, whuch is a lot. Full of construction and amazing pace of development since i last visited. Monday 27th January Australia Day falling on a Sunday this was a public holiday. The Melbourne OM gathering was held at the RAC Victoria on Bourke Street.  Justin Wernham had organised for us to dine at the Bistro which turned out to be perfect for our gathering.  We were a party o

Friday 17th January Breakfast at The Playford Hotel which is very central and just opposite the railway station. The hotel has been built in an old Art Deco style on the site of Rupert Murdoch's SA office, and is excellent whilst offering something slightly different from the standard modern hotel. Roger Tagg (54-59) kindly offered to show us something of the Barossa Valley. Roger met us at our hotel and drove us out of the city. Our first stop was Chateau Barrosa. Note the different spelling. It is thought that this was the original version. We had a light lunch and a glass of wine of course......not Roger who was driving. We then Stopped at Jacob's Creek a well known brand and had a look around. Very much a tourist set up. It was then off to Menglers look out where we had a great view over the Valley plain...as that is really what it is. We then stopped for a short walk at the Kaiserstahl conservation park and did a couple of km loop. Saw two kangaroos and several bi

A Happy New Year Not an event. Just a happy new year to anyone who happens across this blog. I cant believe that we are already into the 20’s. It just seems yesterday that we were celebrating the millennium (and yes I know that those of a strict interpretation state that the new millennium and decade don’t start until there is a ‘1’), and worrying about the millennium ‘bug’. At that time I was living overseas and running a company and we had to develop all sorts of contingency plans just in case….what a waste of money and effort and a great deal for all those consultants we used. Anyhow, wishing everyone in the OM firmament a happy new year. I am enjoying my term of office thus far. Angela and I are getting ready to set off on our first overseas trip which will take in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland (and North Island), and finally Hong Kong. We are watching closely the awful fires in Australia and especially NSW and Victoria – here’s hoping that it cools do