Convenor’s Run and BBQ

28 May 2014 / Words by Bob Judd; Photos by Tony McDonald

Once a year, you, our honoured Chapter members, surrender to us, your honoured Convenors, an entire hard earned day of leisure.  Our job is to, hopefully, entertain you and to send you home after a satisfying lunch.  We learnt that the best way to entertain you was to keep you busy by getting you to solve some puzzles and answer some questions. 

Bricet started you off at Lennox Gardens near the City and I was to meet you at an otherwise unknown location with lunch – sounds easy, but we tried to make it complicated to bring out the competitive nature in you all.   Thirty questions needed to be answered along the way and I hope you now know more about John Curtin, and the suburb that carries his name, than you did beforehand. 

If you followed the instructions, you would end up at the Cotter Reserve where I and the “Onion King” Ray Horne would meet you with lunch prepared.  Fortunately, there was no time limit as some came early and some came late, but eventually all 32 members and two guests made it.

The usual BBQ fare of gourmet sausages, hot roasted potatoes, home-made salads and coleslaw were quickly consumed, as were Bricet’s home cooked muffins.  The pre-arranged Coffee van arrived just in time to finish off the meal with a good brew.

Only one couple could win the quiz, and only one couple could win the wooden spoon.  Norm and Roz Barker had a perfect score, so they rightly won the bottle of Aussie sparkling white wine that pretended to be Champagne.  Dave and Liz Burr, who completely missed the suburb of Curtin and the associated questions, are now the proud holders of the wooden spoon, at least until this time next year when the whole thing is done again.

After a great day, on a delightfully warm Canberra autumn day, everybody was home safely by late afternoon.