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Canberra Today 16°/18° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Have fin, go ‘mermaiding’

Kazzie Mahina, third from left, with a bevy of young mermaids.
“CC”, always at the cutting edge of social change, pronounces  “mermaiding” as this summer’s Big Craze.

To engage in mermaiding, you’ll (probably) be female, preferably near water and attired in a Merfin, a one-piece flipper (promised to “enable swimmers to look and feel like a mermaid”) designed over seven years by Kazzie Mahina, herself a professional mermaid from Batemans Bay.

Kazzie developed the Merfins from the handmade tails she has used for years swimming and working all over the globe, including in films.

Living in Style, in Manuka, sold out of its first shipment but fear not, mermaidions, more Merfins are on their way, with guaranteed delivery for Christmas.

Music to their ears

THE much-heralded “Voices in the Forest” concert was blessed with wondrous talent, a rock-solid sponsor and perfect weather for its four hours of stirring and soaring music deep in a hillside that is the National Arboretum amphitheatre.

Patron Bob Winnel and his Village Building Company deserve every praise for sponsoring and organising it (the show and probably the weather), for the talent was peerless: soprano Amelia Farrugia sang like an angel and big tenor Stuart Skelton was as affable as Farnsy.

But the star of the night was Korean soprano Sumi Jo, whose extraordinary performance was preceded by a stern request from gushy compere Alex Sloan that parents restrain the small posse of oblivious kids shouting, rolling and running down the irresistible turfed hillock either side of the stage. Music to their ears, this drew a spontaneous ovation of approval from the thousands of off-duty and over it grandparents.

G’day mate

AT an intimate Red Hill tummyrub, after presenting his credentials to the Governor-General, the returning Indonesian ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema told his new diplomatic besties, over a slap-up, celebratory Indonesian feast, that he was glad to be back after 10 years, affably confessed to having missed people calling him “mate” and rejoiced at the sight of Vegemite on the supermarket shelves.

Go Mo-rici girls!

GO the girls at Merici College, Braddon, who supported Movember with a fundraising day in support of two big health issues men face – prostate cancer and male mental health.

Each year students take part by dressing up as men for a gold-coin donation. The best-looking  “bloke” was judged Miss Mo-rici. Acting principal Ann Cleary, praised the initiative saying: “I am delighted at the enthusiasm of the girls in an all-girls school to raise awareness for significant men’s health issues. It’s a real example of our ongoing commitment to community engagement”.

Makes you go, hmmm

1. WHILE “CC” agrees there is no place for violence against women in our society, our black sense of humour was tickled by this paragraph in a White Ribbon Day missive from the media team at the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations:
“Around 80 staff joined the around 57,000 other Australians who have already taken the White Ribbon pledge, swearing never to commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women at a morning tea.”

Nor lunch, dinner, breakfast and everything in between one hopes!

2. HERE’S something that got a gasp from the thick hides at “CityNews”  – pet photos with Santa! No, true, but all part of a fun day for dogs and a fundraiser for The Orangutan Project and the Riverina and District Animal Rescue at Oatley Court, Belconnen, 10am-4pm on December 8. There’ll be a sausage sizzle, wildlife merchandise stalls, a reptile display, a dog hydrobath display, activities for dogs, paw paintings and the toughest, bravest Santa in town.

A kiwi toilet? 

BEEN too long since we’ve had a decent silly sign. To be getting on with, here’s a typo (not that we can throw rocks in that department) on a development notice for a Watson property, clearly proofread by a New Zealander.

Fete worse than…

PR laugh of the week: “Branding expert Paul Everest has weighed in on the fete of the Rabbitohs claiming the team’s lack of success relates to little more than its logo.” This howler is the work of Nicole Madigan, of Stella Communications, who reissued the release with a straight face and not a whisper of gratitude after “CC” wrote and suggested her client looked a goose.

Dry argument

NAUGHTY “CityNews” snapper Silas Brown was banged to rights (well, almost) at the recent announcement of the “Christmas Carnival in the City” beside the fountain in Civic Square.

The absence of camels and the presence of suits left the lensman aiming at a couple of decorative lifesavers attending the media moment. Looking for a bit of action, he inveigled them into the fountain (lifesavers, water, geddit?) only to be undone by promoter CBD’s business liaison manager Alicia Doherty, who declared their presence in the water illegal and rescued them back to dry land.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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