President’s Message
The month of September saw us celebrating 2000 combined years of club members birthdays and wedding anniversaries. What an honour to be presiding over a club that has such richness of life and contributes so much to our local community.
A very special 70th Wedding Anniversary to Ailsa & Ron Simpson (10th September 1955).
Our monthly lunch was well attended by our 30 or so members. We dined at the Cellar Room of the stylish and newish Oran Park Hotel. The bistro menu was extensive, and I must say that their Prawn Linguine was one of the best that I have ever tasted. We thanked the staff for their attentive service and hospitality.
At the monthly FliP (Flicks and Pizza) event, we watched "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale". It is the third and final film of the Downton Abbey franchise. "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale" continues the story of the Crawley family and their staff as they navigate the challenges of the 1930s. This film follows the events of the previous films, "Downton Abbey" (2019) and "Downton Abbey: A New Era" (2022). It is a fitting conclusion to the beloved series that originally aired from 2010 to 2015. Several of us who attended were hard core Downton Abbey followers. Those of us who are not, were given a lot of education on Downton Abbey. Following this, Enzo Cucina (Macarthur Square) cooked up the best Prawn Pizza and Vegetarian Pizza for us!
A special thank you to our tour guru Peter Duggan, (and his offsider Julian) and the many gentlemen coffee servers at our morning tea at Coffee in the Park in Dolls Point. The water was glistening on the horizon; the weather was beautiful weather and there were whispers where the Mystery Trip would be taking us? Kiama, Wollongong, Bondi, Cronulla and Darling Harbour were some of our guesses. None were correct. We went to Vaucluse House! Vaucluse House is one of Sydney’s most treasured historic estates—a rare surviving example of a 19th-century harbourside villa surrounded by lush gardens and bushland. Built between 1803 -1805, Vaucluse House was built for the Irish knight and convict Sir Henry Browne Hayes. In 1827, the property was purchased by William Charles Wentworth, a key figure in Australian history and one of the authors of the country's first constitution. William Wentworth and his wife Sarah raised their ten children in Vaucluse House. It sits on 11 hectares (28 acres) of formal gardens and grounds, offering a glimpse into colonial life.
Our admiration to our coach driver John, who expertly manouvered the narrow and winding roads of Vaucluse. Lunch was a Buffet at the Ashfield RSL Club. The bus was slow and sluggish after lunch as we make way to our next stop at the Darrell Lea chocolate factory. Most of the ladies’ purses and Peter Taggart’s superannuation were almost exhausted by the time we left the factory.
Reminder, our October meeting will be at the Botanical Garden.
Shirley Toull
President
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