Big ol' Holiday Weekend (Part 1)

   There was so much fun over the weekend that I've decided to split it into more than one post.  Monday was Canberra day so we had a 3 day weekend (actually, Anthea had a 3-day weekend - I'm still on my weekend-of-indeterminate-length pending acquisition of a visa that will allow me to work).
   Saturday we had a little too much excitement to choose from - The Queanbeyan Regatta was to take place in the afternoon and it would overlap the evening festivities at the Queanbeyan rodeo by a little bit.  We chose to head to the river for the regatta.
   Although there were a few production boats in attendance, the regatta was mostly made up of homebuilt boats.

A partial lineup on the beach

   Some of the entrants looked a little bouyancy-challenged but the majority did just fine (and a few, like the Platypus express, were quite speedy).

The Platypus Express even had a color coordinated crew

An early lead with a mad dash from the start

   Back in Durham I was an original member of TechShop http://www.techshoprdu.com/ - I joined before they even opened and I helped build the original facilities, so I was intrigued by the regatta entry for the "Queanbeyan Men's Shed" - The name sounded to me like the Australian translation of "TechShop".  After the regatta I looked them up and I saw an article in the local paper that was intriguing - The article was just an announcement that the Men's Shed was changing locations, but the following sentence invites further investigation... "The organisation, which helps men with issues of isolation, loneliness and depression, had outgrown its location, causing occupational health and safety issues and noise complaints from neighbours due to the operation of power tools."

   If it's more power tools than isolation issues it might just be my kind of place - The flotation in the QMS boat seemed to be 100% beer kegs, so I guess it could be either way...

Queanbeyan Men's Shed (precision paddling team)

   In the background of the above photo you'll see one of the safety boats run by the Queanbeyan branch of the New South Wales State Emergency Serices (http://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/) which is a volunteer organization that assists the public in the event of emergencies (or regattas, apparently).  Anthea and I have been talking about joining as soon as possible, but the SES folks that we talked to at the regatta said we missed the training cycle by two weeks and we'll have to wait until the next recruitment period in six months.  We'll find something else to do with our Monday evenings until then.