We arrived here on Norfolk Island last Saturday for a week of fun and education with our PMC members. On Saturday night many of us got together to renew old friendships and make new ones over dinner and a few wines. This turned out to be a fantastic evening with Andrew Portelli taking over the mic to sing a few songs for everyone!

Sunday after breakfast we all went down to the beautiful Emily Bay for a fun filled, sun drenched ‘bonding’ session with interactive activities to build on our relationships with old friends and new friends alike. Sharyn Bojczenko then put on a lunch feast under the trees washed down with copious amounts of suitable liquids. We endured a small sun shower but this didn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm.

We had a very lazy Sunday afternoon that didn’t prepare us for the surprise on Sunday night, where we descended on a local restaurant, the Jolly Roger complete with skull and crossbones and staffed with bandanna wearing “pirates”. The food was superb and the owner performed all night non stop, thanks to the enthusiastic applause from the Club. He was well supplied with the liquid refreshments. From the crowd a woman from Melbourne got up and sang a couple of songs (fantastic)! Then club investor Andrew Portelli took to the stage and what a fantastic Elvis impersonation he put on. It bought the house down. He too couldn’t get off the stage! A brief walk home for me!

On Monday all the hard work started. The PMC team of Wendy Zirins, Phil Byrnes and Carol Worboys did an amazing job with the prepping and the compiling of the worksheets. This kept attendees face down and working hard all day and with great spirits. As the sun was setting Sharyn turned on beautiful canapes and drinks before dinner. Our thanks to Geoff Masters who gave the musician and two local highland dancers a break with stories of his rise through the ranks of international tennis to winning the Wimbledon doubles. It was interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes and the struggles these young rising tennis stars had to go through to get there. Geoff matched the qualities to succeed in tennis with those you need to succeed in property – persistence, positive attitude and above all, put the time in.

Some of the more foolish club members (myself included) tried to imitate the wonderful highland dancers with varying degrees of failure before our resident Rock n Roll singer was talked into taking over the microphone again which meant everyone was up on the floor dancing again for the ending of a great night.

Kevin Young