The Australia Day Run, a very significant run on our calendar – it brings us together to celebrate everything that unites us as nation and makes us the best country on earth.
33 of us turned up thinking we were going to be entertained by the dynamic duo and they would put on a Laurel and Hardy Show but we learnt that Dickie was in hospital with pneumonia and was quite ill. Dickie and Marlene had recently returned from an ocean voyage along the Queensland coast and had to endure a cyclone and then he catches a bug – a word of advice Dickie, stay on the land for future holidays.
Budgie had to make alternative arrangements for the run and the food and he did well. He set half of the run and then got Mastitis to do a live hare run for the second half and the runners said it was successful. I am told the run comprised 13 runners and was 6 km in length and the runners came in within the hour – all except Pitt who got a bit lost and took a bit longer. The walkers were again led by the master and went through parts of Star Lake.
The On Sec had Elbows up for as a returnee and for a birthday, Pig Trap for being Pig Trap (couldn’t understand what the offense was) and then he talked about celebrating Robbie Burns Day on 25 January – an important day in the life of the Scotties and has been going on for over 250 years. Rimmer recited a Robbie Burns poem, half in Scottish and which no one could understand and the other half in English. The Scotties – Rimmer, Haggis, Ramrod and Sirtomarse were called up for a down down.
Pembo was the stand in RA and called for a toast to our country to celebrate Australia Day. He then got Stewie up to critique the run and Stewie talked about foxes and Quendas and wildlife at Star Swamp and gave the run a 1.9. Pot Hole critiqued the run and gave it a well earned 8.5. Under Pembos complicated run scoring system he extrapolated this to 5.2 – quite an easy calculation, combine the run and walk scores 10.4 and divide by 2 = 5.2. I think I prefer Dickies scoring system using the black box. He finished with a story about a cowboy and a chilli meal.
Budgie put on pizzas which were devoured in no time flat. We all missed Dickies meal which is one of our culinary highlights of the year.
Well done to Budgie who had to improvise at short notice. Organising a run is always stressful and losing your cohare at short notice really puts you to the test. It turned out to be a great night and we thank him for his efforts. And our thanks to Polly and Xmas for attending to wagon duties.