Page 1

By email to all members of Swindon Phoenix Rotary Club, and some members of Foothill Highlands Rotary

Club USA, Tappahannock Rotary Club USA, also Rotary Club Members in Australia, Indore and Bhopal

India and special supporters elsewhere

The comments expressed in this newsletter, if not credited to someone else, are the thoughts & opinions of the Editor and

therefore may not be the opinions of all the members of the Rotary Club of Swindon Phoenix.

Secretary; P.P.

John Flanagan

District Governor

P.P. Tony Horn PHF

The Rotary Club of Swindon Phoenix District 1100 England

The weekly bulletin (aptly named)

’The Birdy’ President

Geoff Beale

Issue number 204

Volume number 4

Number 39of this Rotary Year (excluding special issues)

Next weeks host is

PP Peter Newson

Editor; P P Peter Editor; P P Peter Editor; P P Peter

Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy.

P.H.F. Sapphire P.H.F. Sapphire P.H.F. Sapphire

Sub Editor 2; PP Peter

(Grumpy) Newson PHF

Past President John Flanagan has been the

Swindon Phoenix Club Secretary from our

inception has decided to step down from

the position and to retire his rotary mem-

bership. John thank you for all you have

done we hope you will enjoy even more

holidays (if that is possible!) we look forward

to having you join in our future events any-

way. I have greatly enjoyed sharing over 30 years of Rotary with you & your

humour and will miss you greatly (well I will miss your good days anyway!) Golds!

Thank you John, from all your friends in Swindon Phoenix

President Elect

Nicole Price

President Nominee

Nigel Causton

Immediate

Past President &

Club Treasurer

David Coe

Sub Editor; PP Paul

(Scoop) Parfrey PHF

Swindon Phoenix Rotary Club

Honoured Recipient;

2016 Pride of Swindon Team Award

Sub editor 3; Rtn Chris

(Super Scribe) Sims

Page 2

and were dropped off outside Namdemum Market. This is a thriving place with numerous stalls and many places to eat local food. We duly tried one of the stalls and the two dishes cost us the equivalent of £6. We tried valiantly to use chop sticks and a spoon much to the delight of the locals but the owner soon showed me it was quite all right to use the spoon by trying to feed me like a baby.

Namdemum Market We also spent an afternoon at the Gyeongbokgung Palace, where we met our first Rotarian also in Seoul for the Rotary Convention. Both Tony and Jacqui are pictured with the Guards who change twice a day similar to Buckingham Palace.

The first Rotary event we attended was the RIBI or-ganised river trip on the Han river on Friday 27th May where 150 Rotarians from around the world came together to enjoy fellowship but also joined a world greatest meal and raised funds for End Polio Now. The evening was a great success and the raffle raised in excess of £3000 for End Polio Now. Guests includ-ed RI Past President Frank Devlyn from Mexico and current RI Director Jennifer Jones from Canada, and it was good to meet up with the other five GB District Governors who were attending the Convention. On the Saturday there was a Welcome Festival held at the Jamsil Arena, next door to the Olympic stadium organised by the local Korean Rotarians. This includ-ed demonstrations of both Taekwondo and tradition-

aClub Meeting 08/06/16

Host missing in action(?)

Speaker our very own District Governor PP Tony Horn

The meeting opened with Andrew Whit-ing saying grace as he was the last Rotari-an to arrive. The meal was then pate , fol-lowed by shepherds pie, salad and vege-tables including “squeaky beans”!

We were without a speaker on Wednesday, so DG Tony stepped in and gave a brief summary of his trip with Jacqui to the RI Convention in Seoul.

Seoul is a massive city, with the core population being 10 million, but the Greater Seoul Area is about 40 million. The maps of the city give no idea of the actual size as what appears to be around the corner is 5 kilometres away.

As a modern city the road network has been devel-oped to cope with the volume of traffic with most roads being eight lanes wide. The bus network was immense (Hyundai buses of course) and there is a metro system with about fifteen lines.

Jacqui had done a great deal of research and our hotel was situated within a ten-minute taxi ride from the Convention Centre at Kintex in Goyang City (a suburb of Seoul). Rotarians staying in the Rotary approved hotels had an hour and a quarter bus ride each morning to the Convention Centre. The locals considered where we were staying in Gimpo as rural, as the area had been developed with groups of high-rise apartments with areas of market gardening and agriculture in between.

The people were very friendly, although very few spoke English. We were recognised wherever we went and one day the local developer said good morning to me and invited me in to have a coffee. He had been educated in England and wanted to try his English again. He told me that they were devel-oping the area into a “Little Venice” and there was already a picturesque canal walk behind the row of shops. They were investing in having a light railway system to be in place by 2018 to line with the metro at Gimpo Airport (the older of the two airports in Seoul). The shopkeepers were all keen to do busi-ness and it was noticeable that if we went any-where for a second time they always gave us a little gift. We had been in one restaurant twice and the owner gave us gifts of smoked hard-boiled eggs when we left.

We spent the early days sight seeing and getting to know our way into the city. They have a T card that is equivalent of an Oyster Card in London. These cards were useable on the buses, metros and with some taxis. We went on the open topped bus trip

Page 3

al Korean dancing as well as performances by the Korean equivalents of One Direction, Girls Aloud and Little Mix. This was an opportunity to connect with Rotarians from around the world and we were in a sec-tion with Rotarians from Argentina and Egypt.

New Argentinian friends

The Convention opened on the Sunday with an address from RI President Ravi, together with the parade of flags by Rotoractors representing all the countries where Rotary is represented. It was quite amazing that over 46,000 Rotarians had come together to celebrate Rotary. Clearly there were a great number of Asian attendees, with the Japanese being in large numbers on day one but mainly disappearing for the next three days of the Convention. The Asians were very keen in attend-ing in Districts/Clubs and in many cases seemed to be wearing uniforms.

The Secretary General of the United Nations Ban-ki-Moon praised Rotary for their work worldwide.

Clearly the message for the Convention was the fight against Polio as a key objective for Rotary this year and speakers highlighting the issues of Child Slavery. The good news on Polio is that the Pakistani Government is now fully behind the im-munisation programme and that in Pakistan and Afghanistan there have only been sixteen new cas-

es of wild polio this year. We are so close to ful-filling our promise, but we will still need to ensure there are no outbreaks of polio for three years post the last case being announced.

The speakers also spoke about the examples of child slavery worldwide and how to tackle the is-sues. In some instances the examples were horrify-ing and we do need to challenge practices in some parts of the world. A particular success has been that thanks to Hope and Homes for Children, the practice of keeping orphans in cots has virtually been eliminated. The current CEO Mark Wadding-ton was a compelling speaker.

Another lasting memory of the Convention was the number of young Rotarians there are in the world from both Asia and Africa. The Europeans, Ameri-cans and Japanese are noticeably of an older gen-eration.

We were also able to meet friends from the Rotary E Club of Francophone who although based around Marseilles were sponsored by a New Zea-land District. I have had the experience of joining two of their meetings on line, when they were ad-dressed by RI Director Jennifer Jones from Wind-sor, Ontario, Canada and when t. They use Zoom technology and the Jennifer Jones meeting brought together 65 Rotarians worldwide. You are able to see everyone on screen. The club also broadcast daily from the Convention and I include a picture of Past RI President Gary Huang speaking to a meeting on line from the Convention.

The E Club also had a great party on the Monday evening when all the people we recognised came together. They carry out joint projects worldwide and certainly are not virtual and carry out a great deal of good in the world. This E Club celebrated it’s fifth birthday at the convention where Rotari-ans including seven District Governors enjoyed a night of fellowship, fun and singing!

Gary Huang speaking online to Rotarians in France nd also in Seoul.

Page 4

7 DGs at E Club Party: (Del from Hawaii, Tony, Karen from South Island New Zealand, Jennie from Auckland & Pacific Islands, Chaivai from Thailand, Juan from Spain and Hondo from Japan)

Kiwis trying to do the “Haka”

The experience has been terrific and I would en-courage all Rotarians if they have the opportunity to go to a RI Convention. The next one to be held in Europe will be Hamburg in 2019. Next year’s Con-vention is in Atlanta 10th – 14th June 2017. The Con-vention Chairman is Robert Hall who was the RI Representative at the Warwick District Conference in 2015. He sends his regards to the Swindon Phoe-nix Rotarians he met and he hopes that we will make the effort to go to Atlanta. Jacqui and I are

already booked. Come and join the party!

Paul updated on the Dragon Boat logistics and re-minded members to advise Anne of their availability.

Tony brought back gifts of speciality tea and local Korean Vodka from the Convention and the Wain-wright’s brought back gifts from Swanage, a crabbing bucket, tea towel and RNLI bear.

Phil Pett won the raffle and the “Bealey Bonus” was won by Andrew Whiting.

President Geoff finally thanked John Flanagan for his five years as Club Secretary as this was his last Rota-ry meeting. We wished him well for the future and look forward to seeing him at the Dragon Boat Race and the Past President’s Dinner

Tony H

Page 5

Page 6

Thursday 9 June; Today this exciting email from

DB Team supremo Elliott…

Good afternoon Fellow Rotarians,

It gives me great pleasure to announce that we have reach 20 boat teams for this year dragon boat event, this is a huge milestone and proof that our Dragon Boat event is growing year on year.

We still have just over 2 weeks until the event so

please continue to push for boat entries, let’s go for

25 teams!!!

We also now have around or over 27 stalls—a

dog show as well as our major sponsors stand

with 5 cars at lakeside and don’t forget the

Champagne draw on the hour and every hour

so it should be a brill day!

Don’t forget the leaflet drop next Tues-

day 6.30at the Sun Inn Coate, to pro-

mote the event personally to loadsa

houses .. See you there !

"The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be re-filled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of offi-cialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome will become bankrupt.

People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."

- Cicero , 55 BC

So, evidently we've learned b**ger all over the past 2,071 years. Thanks to OLD grumpy for this pearl of wisdom

Here is a free newspaper from Birmingham with ‘our’

logo which begs the big question .. What the hell was

the President doing in Birmingham!!?

Page 7

8 year old Mo-

hammad entered his classroom on the first day of

school. "What's your name?" asked the teach-

er. "Mohammad," he replied. "You're in Ireland now," replied the teacher, "So

from now on you will be known as Mike”. "Mohammad returned home after school. "How was your day Mohammad?" his mother asked. "My name is not Mohammad. I'm in Ireland and now my name is Mike”. "Are you ashamed of your name? Are you trying to dishonour your parents, your heritage, and your reli-gion? Shame on you!" And his mother beat the shit out of him. Then she called his father, who beat the shit out of him again. The next day Mohammad returned to school. The teacher saw all of his fresh bruises. "What happened to you? Mike?", she asked. He replied, "Well shortly after becoming an Irishman, I was attacked by two f***ing Muslims." Thanks to lapsed Rotary Past Presi-dent Fred Child for this! Well – There Are Blond Guys, Too I guess it just had to come to this sooner or later!

A blond man is in the bathroom and his wife shouts:

"Did you find the shampoo?" He answers, "Yes, but

I'm not sure what to do it's for dry hair and I've just

wet mine."

A blond man spies a letter lying on his doormat. It says on the envelope "DO NOT BEND."

He spends the next 2 hours trying to figure out how to pick it up.

A blond man shouts frantically into the phone, "My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!" "Is this her first child?" asks the Doc-tor. "No!" he shouts, "this is her husband!"

A blond man is in jail, the guard looks in his cell and sees him hanging by his feet. "Just WHAT are you doing?" he asks. "Hanging myself," the blond replies.

"The rope should be around your neck" says the guard. I tried that," he replies, "but then I couldn't breathe."

An Italian tourist asks a blond man: "Why do scuba divers always fall backwards off their boats?" To which the blond man replies: "If they fell forward, they'd still be in the boat."

A friend told the blond man: "Christmas is on a Fri-day this year." The blond man then said, "Let's hope

Jokes

‘on the B

irdy’s

win

g’ it's not the 13th."

Two blond men find three grenades, and they decide to take them to a police station. One asked: "What if one explodes before we get there?" The other says: "We'll lie and say we only found two."

A woman phoned her blond neighbor man and said: "Close your curtains the next time you and your wife are having sex. The whole street was watching and laughing at you yesterday."

To which the blond man replied: "Well the joke's on all of you because I wasn't even at home yesterday! It was a disastrous year for the farmers. The snow fell and fell until the government relief agency had to step in and lend a hand. "It must have been terrible," said the government man to a blond farmer. "All that snow." "Could have been worse," calmly answered the farmer. "My neighbor had more snow than me." "How's that?" asked the government man. The blond farmer replied: "More land." Two ol' boys from North Carolina, were sittin' on the front porch drinking' a beer when a large truck with rolls of sod went by. "I'm gonna do that when I hit the lottery," said the blond one. "Do what?" asked the brown haired fella. The blond retorted, "Send my grass out to be mowed." A blond deep-sea diver is twenty feet below sea level when he sees another guy with no scuba gear. He goes down another thirty feet, and the guy with no equipment stays with him. He takes out a waterproof chalkboard and writes, "How the hell can you stay down this deep without equipment?" The other guy takes the chalkboard and writes, "You as*hole, I'm drowning."

Thanks PP Billy Croxton in Tappahannock Rotary Club Virginia for these Little Johnny asks his blond father, "Where does the wind come from?" "I don't know." "Why is the earth round?" "I don't know." "Why do dogs bark?" "I don't know." Little Johnny pauses for a beat, "Does it disturb you that I ask so much?" His blond father replies: "Not at all son. How else are you gonna to learn?"

Page 8

Sunday 26th June

Our 4th Dragon Boat Race 2016

Coate Water

The

Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of ser-

vice as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to en-

courage and foster:

1)The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for

service;

2) High ethical standards in business and professions, the

recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and

the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity

to serve society;

3) The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s

personal, business, and community life;

4) The advancement of international understanding, goodwill,

and peace through a world fellowship of business and profes-

sional persons united in the ideal of service.

That’s all Folks !- but remember, we are a

Rotary Club of the 21st Century

Find more information on Swindon Phoenix Rotary on your pc;

Just control + click on these hyper links below

swindonphoenixrotary.org.uk

Previous bulletins thephoenixbulletin.weebly.com

Our Santa Run swindonsanta.org.uk

Dragon Boat Event www.dragonboatswindon.org.uk

Ffind us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SwindonPhoenixRotary?ref=hl

On twitter https://twitter.com

Fri 1st July 2016

President’s

End Of Year Ball

Please note ALL Details

of the programme for

the next Presidential

Year will be released

when embargo is lifted.