You should all be proud of your attendance at a totally COVID-safe Grand Final party.  Thank you to all who participated and were able to enjoy the setting provided by our new sponsor ... Zoom.
Some great footy themes from the intrepid Swannies (Adrian/Janet), Steph declaring ACT coverage for the Cats, Mel in her typical red/white/black and the dapper Tiger supporters in Allan/Adam (supported by Doug G).  

On the 20th Anniversary of our Tipping Competition you gathered to reflect on the value of our community from the depths of metro Melbourne to the wet grounds of rural Gisborne, Shepparton and Chilton, the mask free territory of ACT and the recently relocated Sandy Point residents.

Our celebration was heralded by the arrival of the trophy.  In the tradition of the trophy being delivered by parachutist or someone using a flying fox into the arena, we took a more modern approach and strung it under a drone.  
Editor comment:  Thanks Jilly for the idea, but I am not sure the rotor blades would thank you!

To help us reflect on some of our history ... check out the photo gallery and just a snippet of the articles accumulated over the years of newsletters.

24th October 2020 turned into a very special day in a very unusual year.  We celebrated our 20th Anniversary of ITSMORETHANAGAME in fine style.
To cap it off the Tigers did a threepeat but even more impressive was Jill and Bruce celebrated their 45th Wedding Anniversary on the same day.  

Seeing the snow in Sunbury recently reminded me of the travels many years ago as we took the Bernina Express from the shores of Lake Como Italy, up into the Alps and over some of Europe's most beautiful scenery towards St Moritz and Zurich.
​A one day journey to be recommended when travel resumes.

In these unprecedented times it should not be surprising when something unusual happens like it did this week in Sunbury.  In fact I could reflect that, given we cannot travel to our favourite places, it is nice to think that Victorian snowfields or perhaps Antarctic conditions have been brought to us.

The lockdown battle seems just a bit more difficult when we look outside at grey skies, wind and rain.  Luckily we have not had much bad winter weather yet but then is almost as assured as another few hundred COVID case each day.
So I have chosen our memories of a couple of weeks in Fiji in 2016 when we visited Steph who was assisting in the recovery effort after cyclone Winston.  Fiji is a lovely place with beautiful welcoming people and our visit was memorable despite the evidence of the struggle that these gentle people are still facing after such a devastating weather event.
I hope you enjoy the memories.
​

You might recall that Tony sent an article about his son Ben flying ARH Tigers off the HMAS Canberra.  Here is the latest update on the exercises with Japan and the US​.  Over the past week Australia, Japan and the US have been conducting a trilateral passage in the Philippine Sea on the way to participate in Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) in Hawaii. An Australian Defence Force (ADF) Joint Task Group has joined the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group, which includes the United States Navy’s guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam and guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Akizuki-class destroyer JS Teruzuki.
Here are some impressive photos

You can see more pictures and content here
https://news.defence.gov.au/media/media-releases/australia-japan-and-us-exercise-philippine-sea

Another memory of 5 years ago was the days spent in Venice.  This was one of our favourite world locations ... very vibrant, hot, humid and special sights around every corner or in every canal.
​One of the highlights was the art on display in the Institute of Art Sciences.  
...and what has 2020 brought to this global city?
Enjoy.​

As we face another 40 days of lockdown here in Victoria and a prospect of restricted travel outside the state for some period of time I believe that the travel bug might be slightly satisfied by reminiscing over past travel.  While doing this I am gradually learning my new skills in making short videos.
I hope you enjoy Episode 1 as much as we enjoyed when we initially experienced it in July 2015. 
​How the world has changed since then!

In these COVID times any outing is a privilege.  One of the very appreciated events for me was a reunion with Mel & Steph at the Tooboorak pub just near Heathcote.  In a sensible socially distanced manner, fully signed in and in our own room in front of the warming fire we had one of their famous Beef&Shiraz pies and a pint of beer.  I would recommend this pub as an outing to anyone.  Then we went to a surprising bushwalk location at Heathcote to do a little geocaching.
If you do not know what geocaching is then you are officially a Muggle, according the worldwide fraternity of Geocachers.  Check it out https://geocaching.com.au/ for further interest.
Meanwhile you may be interested in the other beautiful scenery in this very unique location.
​

It is time to start sharing your post-COVID adventure. I suspect that we will get to see lots of Australia over the next few months so please share your pictures and perhaps a few brief comments.
The attached video shows the glorious views while socially distanced.

[Editor comment:  Maybe when this episode has passed Tony may have included figurines of people out enjoying the great outdoors to depict what it used to be like...exercising proper social distancing of course]