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Canberra Today 13°/17° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Canberra Confidential: A success, over all

AUTHOR Nichole Overall launched her glossy history of Queanbeyan “City of Champions” at a glittering, celebrity soiree at the Airport International Hotel and during her bright speech said the book had been five years in the making, thanked her two boys and husband mayor Tim Overall for their patience and support, and finished with the flourish: “Behind every successful woman,

Nichole Overall
Nichole Overall

there’s a man wondering what’s for dinner”. Ouch!

Happiness is C69

THE folks at the Mindscapes Festival are fizzing with excitement about being assigned “C69”, one of the limited 100 fundraising Centenary numberplates.

They even jumped into capital letters, bewilderingly  screaming: “WE GOT THE BEST ONE!!!”, whatever that means.

Proceeds from auctioning it, like the other 99 plates allocated to charities around the town, will be shared between its annual Mental Health Arts Festival and the Centenary charity Dollars for Dili.

The online auction closes at 2pm, Friday, October 11, and bids to picklesplus.com.au

 

Shop, slop, shut!

 

AFTER about 20 years in retail, the Cancer Council ACT Shop is stemming its losses and closing with a month-long sale from its foundering outlet, obliquely located in Fairbairn.

“Of course it’s losing money,” wrote one cranky reader who was loyally there last week. “What a stupid location, who would know it was there?”

But while deteriorating retail conditions contributed, local Cancer Council CEO Joan Bartlett points to the unpredictable summers and availability of the council’s products online for her board’s “responsible decision”.

“Of course we are not without some sadness in saying farewell to the shop, but the decision is a sound one,” she laments.

 

Mama mia!

 

THEY don’t come any bigger than the Mamas, it seems. The ticket booking form for the second annual MusicACT Annual Music Awards at the Albert Hall on November 23, lists the event running from 6pm on the Saturday night to 11.30pm the following day! That’s almost Woodstock proportions for the “salute to local music of all genres, a hearty slap on the back of our unique industry and, let’s be honest, one hell of a party!” Indeed.

 

As Omar slept…

 

BILL Stephens, “CityNews” arts critic and living legend was overwhelmed at being among the inaugural inductees to the Queanbeyan Cultural Honours Gallery, telling CC it was “very special to be honoured by your community while you’re still alive to enjoy it”.

Bill, wife Pat and son Tim were the stalwarts who ran the much-loved School of Music Arts Cafe, which closed at the end of 2000.

“We couldn’t resist the opportunity to remind one of the other recipients, Omar Musa, that as a six-year-old, he used to fall asleep under the tables when his mother brought him along to some of the cafe shows.”

Mother being Helen Musa, the celebrated (though not on this night) “CityNews” arts editor.

 

Bob a job

 

AND while we’re blowing our bags, “CityNews” columnist and distinguished author Robert Macklin has been on a lecture tour to China where he secured a deal for his latest book on Norfolk Island’s sordid colonial history, “Dark Paradise”, to be translated for a Chinese edition by the Si’an International Studies University.

“The Chinese really go for an attack on British colonial policies – they suffered at their hands even more than the poor beggars on Norfolk Island,” he says.

 

Donna is enchanted 

Donna Penny, right
Donna Penny, right

ONE of our most popular stories last week featured Donna Penny, a mother of five who has terminal breast cancer. After her interview with “CityNews”, Donna tells us she was dress shopping at the bridal and formal gown store Enchante in DFO for an upcoming fundraiser.

After hearing her story, the staff at Enchante gave her the dress – worth $350.

“It was just the nicest thing ever… I can’t believe the generosity of Canberrans,” says Donna.

 

Mow and mown

 

SPRING always brings out the lawnmowers and to keep the chore of buzzing the backyard in perspective, TAMS tells us it has the job of mowing 5200 hectares (equivalent to more than 5000 football fields) of grass in urban open space and at the urban edge. It has a base mowing fleet of 102 mowers, comprising 66 internal and 36 contract mowers. Additional contract mowers are also employed throughout the mowing season. But they’re not coming down your street anytime soon because, says TAMS, it is “accepted practice” homeowners mow the nature strips “as an extension of their garden”.

 

Eggstra! eggstra! Read all about it

 

WHATEVER the fine intentions of the Greens, who pushed through the egg classifications before being smashed at the last Assembly election, the public clearly prefers cheaper eggs from caged birds if this reader picture from the Garran supermarket is any guide. The empty caged-egg shelf is sandwiched between the full shelves of free-range and barn eggs.eggs

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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