Event Reports

It must have been the rain in Sydney.  It took us 45 min to get through the LCT to the city.  I still don't know where the hold-up was.  Still tonight was a great night with seven people and our baby, Grace, turning up.  Grace was all decked out in her club t-shirt.

Sadly only one person made the effort of dressing in green, so this makes an easy winner.

Support the club by making your presence felt and do it in person.  See you next month.

After a brief trip to the sub continent, I thought I should share my favourite Indian restaurant with the rest of the Club.  Maya da Dhaba is known for it’s great goat and vegetarian curries, and this night was no exception. We had a great turn out and everyone enjoyed an authentic Indian experience. The set banquet menu provided a taste of everything and plenty of food. I was a bit nervous hosting for the first time, but I managed to meet some great club members as well as eat some great food.  Thank you to all who turned out to make this such a successful event!
Kathleen

It was another beautiful, sunny, Sydney morning when 15 pancake hungry CAC members and friends headed to the Pancake On The Rocks for a lovely brunch.  Who knew there were so many different choices - banana pancakes, chocolate pancakes, pancake pizza, the list goes on and on....  We all, of course, ordered pancakes!  They were light, fluffy and smothered in butter and maple syrup - yummy!! 

After a lovely brunch we headed to the historical markets in the Rocks and toured the stalls.  It was one of the hottest days in Sydney, but that did not deter us, or fellow shoppers :-)  Our dear friend Frank Yong joined us for the day before heading back to Toronto and he found some great gifts to take home with him.   To cap off the day we enjoyed some cold drinks at a local pub.  Another lovely get together!

Sarah

A few more highlights from the day! Thanks to all for a fabulous experience.
And here's a link to the photos used in the slideshow http://www.flickr.com/photos/28441501@N08/
 

Yesterday about 30 club members had a fabulous day sailing on the beautiful Pittwater. leaving from Gibson Marina around 9:30am, sailing to Refuge Bay for lunch and a swim, before returning back to the marina around 6:00pm.

Extra special thanks should go to Captain Chris W and all his helpers for organising this excellent day! 

Here's a short video of what we did... if it's ever offered again, don't miss out!

Spreading the Magic of Christmas

Once upon a time there was a club, a social club that ran events for
Canadians and Australians alike.

The calendar page turned to December. Sadly, those used to frigid temperatures, snow and ice to indicate that the festive season was just around the corner were without their requisite Christmas spirit. Instead, the weather was warm and sunny and felt more like summer holidays and nothing like the Christmases of their childhood.

What to do?

The Aussies and the Canucks banded together with a mission to create Christmas spirit. They came up with  a plan to bring Christmas cheer to members, friends and some other well deserving folks, children mostly. A small group of very industrious elves set out to plan the Christmas party of all Christmas parties – they wrapped and shopped, plotted and planned and created an evening full of food, drink, fun, laughter, presents and most of all, a night focused on giving – for it's in giving that we get the Christmas spirit, wherever we live.

Thank you to our elves Kathleen Ryan, Bonnie Lovelace, Ami Seymour, Sarah Hatfield, Barbara Glover, Frank Yong, Chris Warrick and Linda Johannesson for all their "elf-ly" efforts in making the 2009 Christmas Party a HUGE success.

We had 55 people sign up and nearly everybody attended. We all left with a belly full of home baked tasty treats, big smiles, a little Christmas present and the a bit of Christmas magic in our hearts.

Through donations and silent auctions we raised over $600 combined to be shared with our four charities of choice:
•       Make-a-Wish Canada
•       Make-A-Wish Foundation of Australia
•       Sydney Children's Hospital Foundation
•       Toronto Hospital for Sick Children
And we even collected a few bags of non-perishable food to be shared
with local charities.

I think we can safely say we did our part in sharing the joy of Christmas with our Canadian and Australian compatriots and some very deserving children in both Canada and right here in Australia, through our charitable efforts.

Thank you for your ideas, hard work, your generosity and for stepping up and doing your part to make a difference.

Merry Christmas to the elves, to all our members and to the growing group of friends of the Canadian Australian Club. May the joys of the season be plentiful and last throughout the coming year.

It was a beautiful and hot Sydney Saturday night, where 15 people, who had trained all day, arrived starving and ready to partake in an all you can eat Brazilian BBQ Restaurant Night.  We enjoyed over 23 different courses (including chicken heart!) and had some very lovely wine personally selected by club member Jim.  Overall it was another fantastic CAC event, where smiling faces gathered for some great food and company.  Everyone left with very full bellies and we all look forward to our next gathering.

This was yet another great turn out for the club's key end-of-year event.  The committee had put in a lot of effort in to wrapping many presents, thanks.  We held a silent auction and support four charities, two in Australia and two in Canada.  Some members also donated non-perishable food which is to be donated to a local charity.

It was pleasing to see how many club members dressed up in traditional Christmas colours.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone and may everyone have safe return from their holiday's.

The turn out was enough for the AGM to be held, but that said all positions were filled with the exception of PR.  We had 26 people attend this years AGM, we even had Arun Nagratha of Trowbridge Accounting, one of our Canada based sponsors attend.

The new constitution was approved, and an increase in membership fees were also passed.

As with the conclusion of each AGM, we held our normal monthly mixer, having some great conversations.

On to the Christmas Party.

This was our best event of the year.  There were almost 100 people attending... we filled the room!  Food was great, atmosphere perfect.
The kids had fun with many games, events & prizes such as "pin the tail on the turkey".

The trivia quiz was very hard, but of course I'm kiwi... what do I know?  As always the pumpkin pies went down a treat and were fabulously cooked.

We were all reminded that the next meeting will be AGM, November 6 2009.  Such an important event as we need a great committee to run events such as Thanksgiving.

Well done to Brenda and her team!