Bugger

The other week I ventured north to Southern Queensland, doing the rounds of the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sunshine Coast seeing DeckHardware customers, again both old and new.

Where does the ‘Bugger’ come in to it? I was parked in a service road nearby a retail outlet talking to Robyn on the phone prior to going inside. A fellow pulled up behind me with a trailer to drop off a couple of things to another shop. As he drove off he neglected to shut the gate on the trailer adequately and it hit the real tail light and corner panel above, causing the gate to fall off the trailer as well. After speaking with the shop employees, I held on to the gate and left them my card if he wanted the gate back. he rang later in the day and we met up at the spot, swapping his details for the gate concerned. Just the hassle of it all, the local Police couldn’t do anything as there were no injuries or damage to public property. Like I said just a ‘bugger’.

Doing the rounds of the various outlets is always good, many of these have become friends over the years, those you see out on the water as well. Like Tony Hannan, who I’ve known for over 35 years and sailed with and against at Middle Harbour Yacht Club. Tony until recently ran his sail loft at Brookvale near us and decided on a ‘Sea Change’. He’s moved everything up to Redcliffe in the north of Brisbane. It was good to catch up with him again, spending a little time going through the DeckHardware new products and reminiscing as well. It was good to see him place an order shortly after – thanks Tony.

I had the chance to catch up with several friends who had moved north. One who I caught up with was Mark Grey at Surfers Paradise, good timing as he and Jules have made the decision to move north to Brisbane’s southern suburbs and be closer to work avoiding the driving time.  The house they’ve found has plenty of room, so hopefully next time I’m in Brisbane there’s a bed too. Another was Katie Evans a lovely American girl who I first came across on Sailing Anarchy. She ended up marrying another Aussie anarchist Simon Evans, who unfortunately passed away due to illness last year. Katie was offered a job on the Sunshine Coast recently and she’s loving the change, ‘the weather is  like Florida’ she said. She’s another who I’ll keep in touch with when up on the Sunshine Coast. I do apologise to those who I didn’t have the chance to catch up with..next time. Another I had the chance to catch up with late one afternoon was Bev Yeomans. Bev’s husband’s father was a brother to my grandfather, if that makes sense. I’ve tried to stay in touch since my father passed away several years ago. They grew up nearby each other in Vaucluse and I can remember growing up with her daughters in our younger years. Like many she has a collection of my fathers maritime art works and I took the opportunity to take photos of them. Dad ‘paid’ his way in later years by giving many friends and relatives original art works when visiting and staying away from home. Bev is just one of many like Robyn and I who like his art works.

Whilst at Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club, Paul Blundell the clubs sailing manager mentioned that the local TV station [Win] was coming shortly to interview him on his sailing program for school children from country Queensland. It was fantastic to see a group of kids learning to sail, surf and fish on the coast and taking those life experiences home to the bush. Many of them only took a couple of hours to pick it up, Paul and his team do a fantastic job here – well done PB. I too was interviewed, however my piece didn’t make that evenings news.

Coming home for the October long weekend, it was the first time for as long as I can remember that I wasn’t involved in either competing in an event or running one. So instead I spent Saturday morning and Monday afternoon at the NSW Youth Sailing Championships on Botany Bay. Monday afternoon becoming the traffic cop directing traffic as the competitors came out of the water and crossed the road to the rigging area.

Needless to say, I wasn’t home for too long. Next up, Victoria.