EASTERN SUBURBS REPORT
We held our planning meeting in February.
In March Heather Hawkins was our guest speaker. Heather gave a really inspiring talk about
her marathon running. She started running after having been diagnosed with with Stage 1
Ovarian Cancer in 2007. Her cancer journey was the catalyst for her to get stronger, fitter
and re‐connect with her sense of adventure. She has certainly achieved her aims having
completed a number of marathons including the World Marathon Challenge which involved
running 7 marathons, on 7 continents, in 7 days.
Our April meeting involved members talking about what they had done during the last
month as well as reading a favourite poem and sharing that with the group.
In between meetings, one of our members organised a boat trip along the Hawkesbury
River and a 1.8km walk called the Hermitage Foreshore Walk which runs between Vaucluse
and Nielson Park.
At our May meeting members brought along items of memorabilia and shared some
interesting stories associated with those items. A very unusual item that one member
showed was a sewing basket which had belonged to her grandmother and it was made
from, of all things, the skin of an armadillo. No‐one had seen anything like that before.
Our June meeting was held at a member’s home which made a cosy setting in which to talk
about books that we had enjoyed (or not enjoyed) reading. The book reviews covered a mix
of fiction and non‐fiction. The oldest book brought along by one member had been given to
her grandmother in 1906 when she was 11 years old. The book was titled “The House We
Live In” or “The Making of the Body”. The aim of the book was to “Assist Mothers in
Teaching their Children How to care for their Bodies, and the Evil Effects of Narcotics and
Stimulants”. It was quite fascinating.
In July we opted for an outing rather than an evening meeting. For a donation of $5, Friends
of the Town Hall provided a wonderful guided tour of the Sydney Town Hall. We were
joined by Barbara Howse from the Guildford NWR group in the UK. Everyone enjoyed seeing
behind the scenes of this magnificent building, and for several members who have
performed in concerts and eisteddfods over the years it was even more significant. We were
all impressed by some beautiful stained glass windows, intricate floor mosaics and inlaid
timber flooring. The lady Mayoress’ suite had a wonderful artwork depicting a portrait of
Clover Moore which from a distance looked like a painting. In fact it was a woven carpet.
The tour concluded with a viewing of a street model of the Sydney City Council area.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service was the topic of our August Meeting. We were fortunate to
have Catherine Smith, who is an ambassador for the service, as our guest speaker. She made
her presentation really interesting, adding to the basic knowledge which most of us had.
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