At the Cowra Mens Probus meeting Doug Staines was the member behind the badge.
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Doug told us that he was born in Canowindra and his first job was panel beating. He also worked on a dairy and various truck driving jobs during his working career.
Doug was interested in trotting and eventually he was given a trotter called "Fleetwood Snip" which he trained. "Fleetwood Snip" was driven by Owen Glendenning and won a lot of races including the cup at Dubbo, Parkes and other little shows.
The highlight of its career was winning at Harold Park.
Doug's last job was working at the Cowra wool scouring plant until his retirement. He keeps himself occupied in his retirement by still attending trotting meetings, ballroom dancing and touring.
Our Guest speaker was Anthony Smith who spoke about the world cruise that he and his wife Judy had done.
It was for 106 nights, had 39 destinations in 32 different countries and the chance to visit 15 world UNESCO sites.
They visited Komodo Island and saw the Komodo Dragons, their visit to Colombo Sri Lanka was cancelled due to the unrest that was occurring.
They sailed into the following ports of Singapore, Dubai and Jordan where they visited Petra, Suez Canal where they went thru as a convoy escorted by naval ships. Sailed onto Valletta at Malta, their next country was Spain for Barcelona and Seville.
The next port was Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the Baltic Sea ports of (Warnemunde) Berlin, Germany; Riga, Latvia; Tallinn, Estonia; Helsinki, Finland; St Petersburg, Russia; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; then onto Great Britain for the ports of Dover for London, Portland (for Stonehenge & Weymouth), Cork, Ireland (Cobh for Blarney Castle); Reykjavik, Iceland; St John's Canada; New York, USA and Charleston, USA.
While sailing to Curacao their ship had to turn back, to rescue three crew members from a vessel that had sunk in the Caribbean Sea, which they did successfully during the middle of the night.
Anthony described what happens when ships transit the Panama Canal.
They visited Costa Rica; Ecuador; Peru; unable to land at Easter Island; then onto Pitcairn Island, Tahiti; Bora Bora; New Zealand and then back to Sydney. Thank you, Anthony for your talk.
A mystery tour was held on Wednesday, October 9.
We were given a tour of Benedict Cowra Quartz Pebble and Sand by the manager Mark Morris who told us that eight people are employed there.
The quarry has been operating for 100 years and the operators are a family owned company. They produce white and coloured stone in various sizes.
Demand is mainly dictated by what is shown on television. They sell to the public and local retailers. We saw them washing and grading the stones. They sell the product by the tonne.
We then went to Gooloogong and had morning tea followed by a tour of the log cabin given by Annemarie Noble which has just been finished being restored.
From here we went to Forbes and had a tour of the Aussie Biscuits factory and a sample given to us to try one of their biscuits. They employ disabled people who take great pride in their work.
Lunch was at the Forbes Services and Memorial Club. After lunch we watched a movie called Camino Skies which was about a story about life, love, and loss on the Camino De Santiago, highlighting the inspirational journey of six pilgrims from New Zealand and Australia who embark on the historic 800 kilometre Spanish pilgrimage.
An enjoyable time was had by all.
Our Christmas Party is being held on December 10 at the Cowra Services Club at 12pm for 12.30pm. Cost $25 per head. Names to be in by the December meeting.
For those people going on the Tasmania cruise meet at 9am for a 9.30am sharp departure at the bus stop in Macquarie Street on Saturday, November 2.
Cowra Mens Probus Club meet on the first Tuesday of each month. The next meeting is on Tuesday, November 5 at the Cowra Services Club at 10am.
Would you like to come along and listen to an interesting guest speaker while meeting people and having an enjoyable outing, then consider coming along to one of our meetings.
Any retirees are most welcome to attend.