Josh Smith and Reece McPherson flew to England on Monday to join a tour around Europe

Anne Reeves was sticking around home on Saturday waiting on updates from New Zealand where Rhianon and Brendo were racing.

Passing clouds winery had their annual shindig to release their new vintage. They always have excellent food . They seem to be lucky enough to have wine makers who are also excellent cooks. Some 200 people enjoyed the food wine and Derek Giels band The Ugly Uncles. The guest star was Jill McFarlane who was home for the weekend.and recovering well .

Snaff Andrews had a heavy schedule at the weekend Janine Mark Ian and dawn daughters Rebecca and Brigette stayed for the weekend. He went to the football and saw Wedderburn fix Charlton up ,had dinner at the Wychitella pub, wine tasting at Passing Clouds and rounded it off with a bonfire.

Jane Edwards of the Moligul pub has had a very extensive knee operation . She is tied and hobbled at her parents place in Geelong but did kid her father to bring her home for the weekend to see Chris Wilson ,a harmonica player perform at the pub. She doesn’t have to worry about any inappropriate behavior at the pub as she has had T shirts printed with “security’ for Ronnie and Arthur who are both in their 80s

Glender and Fizzy absolutely enjoyed the reunion of the 1974 interleague premiership . Most players attended. Wedderburns representatives were Keith Raynor Allan Wills and John Foster. Glender said it was a marvelous team with quite a few going onto play in the AFL Ones she could think of were Jim Jess who was 18 at the time and went toRichmond /Kev Sait (Footscray), Maurie Wood (Nth Melb).Hugh Delahunty (Essendon). The flag has been missing since then and it was assumed that Des Darcy and Darkie Dunstan had left it in Warnambool. Recently it turned up in Dunstans woolshed ,just in time to be washed darned and proudly unfurled.

Sarah gave Wig and I a trip to Darwin(and Adelaide ,as it happened) for his 50th .so we enjoyed that last week . Enjoyed the wild life park at Berry Springs . The rangers said the cane toads are starting to cause problems ,killing the small marsupials . It isn’t uncommon to see a snake and a toad dead beside one another. They have one night a week where they invite people to catch toads . They offer prizes etc and usually net around 400 then freeze them to death. Even the locals will tell you N.T stands for Northern territory but also,”not today ,not tomorrow,not Tuesday and not Thursday”. Considering things happen in their own good time ,about ten years behind we were surprised by a futuristic high tech public toilet. It was a stainless steel building inside and out with an automatic door like a lift( the sort that slams shut and tries to nip your face off) I was completely alarmed by a mans voice in there giving instructions about the button that will dispense paper and the hand spray that will also flush the toilet. Then just to make you completely edgy he said ,after a designated time the door will fly open !!! The flight from Darwin to Melbourne took thirteen and a half hours. We tried twice to land in Melbourne then were diverted to Adelaide for seven hours due to fog. Killing time in Adelaide , had a long talk to some nuns of the Sacred heart missions who had all worked in the territory for 40 years before retirement.. They had returned to Darwin to unveil a plaque on the spot where 100 years ago 5 nuns rowed in to start service.

Chris Chalmers