Goodness, how time flies!

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you managed to get a decent break over the summer holidays, notwithstanding border uncertainty and everything going on around us.

Fingers crossed for a more engaged and event-full (as opposed to eventful) 2022. We have already kicked off with the January TK&C meets, and in addition to the usual suspects, we had the slightly unusual phenomenon of rain, in January!

Oh well, things can only get better, as the song says.

February will, as is normal, be relatively quiet as we all get back into the swing of things, kids go back to school, those of us working go back to school too, and those of you lucky enough not to be working can kick back and laugh at the rest of us.

So we have the two Tyre Kicks, at Carss Park on 13th Feb (the day before all you romantics need to be on best behaviour), and the following weekend possibly back to Rhodes (if the new owners have got their timing right), otherwise still at Gough Whitlam Park – we’ll let you know that week by email, so keep an eye on the inbox.

February will also see the committee coming back together for the first time since the AGM. If you have anything you would like to raise to us, or you would like to come along, please do get in touch. It will be a hybrid event, with in-person Chez Roskill in St Peters, and a zoom link for those less willing to travel or be in close proximity with others (perfectly understood!) Drop us a line to [email protected] and we will organise accordingly!

There are several events we need to get our skates on to organise, not least the Tour of Tassie, slated for early October. We’d also like (if there is interest) to organise a run out round country NSW, as much to support the local economy as to get a view of the wonderful lush green countryside that La Nina has blessed us with!

Beyond our borders, life continues to be both different and challenging – the threat of Russia marching into the Ukraine is a blot on the landscape to say the very least, increased seismic activity in the Pacific has kept my employer occupied trying to restore the sub-sea cable connection to the Pacific islands, Joe Biden appears to be the president that everyone forgot (which I’m not going to get drawn on!) and that clown Boris continues to be almost as much of a laughing stock as our own political “elite”. Plus ca change.

So I hope you have got your resolutions clearly mapped out for the year?

I had a good clear view of my priorities and had even started building the shed in the garden to house my wood-working, when a (now ex-) friend pointed me to a barn-and paddock-find of not one, but four 2-door series 1 Range Rovers. So of course I had to put a deposit down.

And then work out how the hell to get two partly mobile cars and two cars on blocks off the property in double quick time. The reason they were cheap was because the owner has sold the property, and the new owner wants all his stuff gone before settlement.

Luckily, I have a long suffering friend (a different one to the ex-friend who pointed them out to me – yes, amazing, I have two (now one) friend) with a property near Galston which can house them and he’s even able to help with the metal work required to get one of them going quick-smart.

So if anyone wants a Subaru Forester and/or a Series 2 ex-Army Land Rover, they will both have to go to make room! I hope for your sakes your better halves are as accomodating as Mrs R.

And with that, I will wish you all a wonderful 2022, and I look forward to catching up face to face very soon.

In the meantime, keep safe, upright and (mostly) on the blackstuff.

Pip pip,
Ashton