Last run of the decade maybe

In the beginning there was no Year 0. So the first decade AD began on 1 Jan 1, and that first decade ended on 31st Dec 10. Logically then, the 202nd decade should end on 31st December 2020. Does anyone care? And are we bored yet? Let's just go with the hoi polloi and say that on Wednesday we begin a new and much better decade - one in which Samford Hash will be celebrating its 30th birthday (12th February 2021)....

What a lot we elderly folk have to look back on over the last 10 years! Check the archives to help your reminiscences. There you'll find (among lots and lots of other things):

2010
Interhash in Borneo. (More pics here, here and here)

2011
An evening of elegance

2012
Our 21st Birthday Run

2013
A trip to Tenterfield
Some runs in Tuscany
A classy Christmas in July do

2014
A boat trip on the Tweed

2015
A memorable Oktoberfest celebration
Floods in Chennai

2016
Our Silver Jubilee run

2017
The Red Dress Run at which Mile High won the Best Dressed Award

2018
Interhash in Fiji

and then in 2019...
Ozday 2019
Mothers' Day Run
Brisbane Valley Rail Trail weekend
Jimbour Opera weekend
Fathers' Day 2019
Hash Christmas 2019

Escargot was our solo hare this last Sunday since Dingo was suffering a bad case of man flu. She also had to deal with the fact that a large part of the national park has been closed because of fire danger. So we enjoyed a short post-Christmas recovery route around a circuit that was still open, and then settled in to enjoy the view and some excellent tucker. Many thanks to our hare!

A coolish breeze caused some of the ladies to don some rather elegant SPADEwerx costumes that Culture just happened to have in the car:

Budgie enjoyed his meal in the company of all of his friends:

One giant leap for mankind:

It was a good occasion to bestow Hash names on a couple of people who have honouring us with their presence a bit lately. Congratulations, Overpass and Oztrek! And happy birthday, Footsie! We celebrated all three of them with our usual quaint bit of ceremonial:

Elsewhere in the world, Superhacker and Hopalong joined B-Flat and Malpractice (and some other hangers-on) for Christmas dinner after a soggy Christmas morning Park Run in Cambridge....How many others of us ran on Christmas Day, eh? Shame on us!

Next run details
When: Sunday 5th January, 5 pm
Where: Keating Park, Burton Lane, Samford (aka Burton Lane Park 3). A map!
Hares: Underpass and Overpass

BRING A CHAIR!

On, on!

We wish you a sodden Christmas!

Here's hoping - predictions are that we might get a little water falling from the sky this week and, golly, don't we need it! Who knows? Perhaps the PM's prayers are starting to work? They didn't seem to work all that well from Hawaii....

Le W*nk and Lax took us on a jaunt around Ferny Grove and it was quite restful on the eyes to go past gardens that are being maintained using town water. In fact a particular garden along the route was looking in really good nick, with some beautiful Lagerstroemias in full flower. Well done, Cadbury and Shaggy!

Back in the park we were regaled with some gourmet Christmas snags and a classy salad. Thank you, Christmassy hares....

So please do your best to have a wonderful WET Christmas. As Tiny Tim said, "God bless us, every one!" (I'm sure Scotty from Marketing would concur.)

And thanks to Banger for producing this excellent e-card!




Next run details 
When: Sunday 29th December, 5 pm. Last run of the year!
Where: Jolly's Lookout. A map!
Hares: Escargot and Dingo

 On, on!

Hash Christmas 2019

We'd set the date for this year's Hash Christmas party before receiving notice that the Brisbane Red Dress Run had been rescheduled from a Monday to a Friday. So many of us decided to frock up anyway - and we took up a collection for the Salvos to make up for our absence.

There's no need to say much...if each picture is worth a thousand words, then this would work out to be a very long post already. But we must say many, many thanks to our hosts for the evening, Make an Offer and Banger! What a great job they did! What a great venue! And what a great party altogether!

And we must also offer many, many congratulations to Flaps Down and Eweshggr, who chose the occasion to announce their engagement! Here they are with (as Superhacker dubbed him) "Rudolph the red-nosed photo-bomber":

The photos that follow come courtesy of multiple sources:

Thanks to Miss Behavin' for taking on the role of a green Santa!

And thanks to Escargot, Shockjock and Miss Demeanour for offering a dancing lesson to some less than brilliant students:



Our recovery run on Sunday was attended by a surprising number who had recovered....

Next run details
When: Sunday 22nd December, 5 pm
Where: Bob Cassimaty Park, Ferny Grove. A map!
Hares: Le W*nk, Lax and Co.

On, on!

Mists from the Himalayas

When the Hash group landed in Delhi a few years ago an obliging local explained that what we could see in the air was "mists from the Himalayas". Those darned Himalayan mists have traveled as far south as Australia over the last couple of months and were pretty thick in Ferny Grove on Sunday. Is it wise to take exercise when you're sucking smoke particles into your lungs with every breath? Dunno - perhaps we should ask someone from Marlboro country for an unbiased opinion?

Scratchit and Floater took the walkers on a simple circuit of the Kings Park part of Keperra. At least, it should have been simple - but a number of hashers made it less so by wandering off up into the Keperra bushland, while three ended up at Bunnings (which is not a bad place to visit on a Sunday afternoon, but was not on the trail). The runners also took in the Tramway Museum and circled the dump (OK, recycling centre).

And speaking of dumps, Eweshggr ran into this lady going through the garbage at Mt Nebo this last week:

It was good to see Cadbury and Shaggy, who turned up just in time for her to do her permitted 200 metre walk to get to the pasta, salad, snags and cookies. Many thanks, hares!

It's Hash Christmas this Friday in Dayboro, with a recovery run to follow on Sunday.

And remember that tickets to the next SPADEwerx production would make great Christmas presents!

Next run details
When: Sunday 15th December, 5 pm
Where: John Scott Park, Samford Village
Hares: M. Promptu will set the trail; Potluck will cater (please bring something to share)

On, on!

Potluck potter

According to the BOM, we've just experienced the driest Spring (Sep - Nov) in 120 years. So it was heartening to get a bit of rain on Sunday afternoon, and many of us would have been ecstatic to have received a drenching while out on the trail. Alas, though, this was not to be. Those who ended up soaked were merely soaked in perspiration (or glow in the case of the ladies) and it looks as though there are more dry times ahead....

At least 8 regulars were away - in New Zealand and New South Wales and up the coast and on the toilet preparing for a colonoscopy - but we still numbered some 20 runners and walkers. Thanks to all who contributed to our potluck dinner!

If you're planning some water play next week it might be worth turning up early: water in the splash park is supposed to be turned off at 5 pm.

Next run details
When: Sunday 8th December, 5 pm
Where: Ferny Grove Splash Park and Picnic Ground, corner Samford Road and Upper Kedron Road. A map!
Hares: Floater and Scratchit

On, on!

Ideal for Noah?

Hare Le W*nk took us past some recently-released building blocks on a Kedron Brook floodplain, and there was some discussion about whether an Ark would be the appropriate house design for the area. For anyone who is thinking of buying one of these blocks, however, the Brisbane flood map should be reassuring:

This shows that the annual likelihood of flooding where they are is less than 0.2% - or in other words, that you could expect fewer than 2 floods every 1000 years. Given modern building methods, several generations of houses would crack and fall down before any of them got flooded. And who knows? Perhaps this drought will go on for the next 1000 years anyway....

It was a familiar area, which tempted some of the walkers to shortcut on the way back. They missed out on some of the other real estate developments along the way, but had another opportunity to appreciate just how dry Teralba Park is. Snags, salads, and a classy selection of desserts (?) followed. Many thanks to our hares!

Leave Pass treated us to another rendition of his tuneful contribution to the Finnish tourist industry. You'll find the original here (along with a pirate video.)

And we awarded some down, downs for various spurious reasons:

Culture distributed flyers advertising the first SPADEwerx production for 2020:

M. Promptu and Potluck are hosting next week.

Next run details
When: Sunday 1st December, 5 pm
Where: John Scott Park, Samford Village
Hares: M. Promptu will set the route; Potluck will cater (please bring something to share)

On, on!

Ow, ow, ow, ow!

Back in 2012 we featured a gallery of hash injuries (don't we look young?) And over the years we've shared images (avoid these if you're squeamish) of Culture's wrist (broken during a Wednesday run), Strine's African spider bite, Superhacker's broken knee, Haughty's broken elbow, and other gruesomes I'm sure you'd find if you trolled through the archives. In 2014 we took a group shot of ouches for the benefit of posterity:

And we could certainly have done something of the sort again this last Sunday if we'd remembered a camera and if the MBRC picnic shelter lights had been working. Apart from Cadbury (still recovering in ICU) we had

• Payback sporting a badly grazed and infected knee after being pulled to the ground by Fizza's enormous dog;
• Budgie suffering the effects of some extreme dentistry;
• Shaggy having to be rescued midway through the run when something snapped in his foot (he ended up in hospital);
• Haughty behaving like a real girl after straining his calf; and
• Le W*nk suffering from a bad attack of bone-laziness.

Payback took us on a well-marked and pleasant circuit of the Eatons Hill area, laying on a memorable carpet of jacaranda flowers at about the half-way mark. And Cashconverta excelled herself in the culinary department, producing more than enough rib-filling tucker for the 30 or so of us who were there. Many thanks, hares!

Plans are well underway for Hash Christmas on 13th December. We'd set the date before we found out that the 2019 Red Dress Run had been shifted from the 9th to the 13th - so Samford won't be frocking up in public this year. But we will hold a bit of a collection for the Salvos at our party, and you're encouraged to wear red.

Next run details
When: Sunday 24th November, 5 pm
Where: Teralba Park, Mitchelton - at the Scout Hut on Pullen Road. A map!
Hares: Le W*nk and Lax

On, on!

Home run

We've had a great time recently exploring trails in far-flung places - but it was also good to make this last Sunday's run a bit of a Homecoming event in the valley. Thirty of us turned up at Undambi Reserve to set off on a shady circuit along the South Pine...which we found still held the odd pool of water in its drought-affected bed.

Those coming home included Hugandkiss and Mile High, who'd arrived back from their Iceland/Ireland trip just 2 hours before. Now that's keen! And they arrived bearing gifts from both places too - many thanks!

Sartorial snap:

It was high time for us to confer a Hash name on someone who has been coming along for a while now...and to subject her to our usual quaint ceremonial quirks. We had a range of names to choose from - since she's a nurse, and a truck driver, and also a pilot. It was the latter that came to the fore - so welcome, Flaps Down! and many happy hash (not crash, get it?) landings!  Incidentally, The Urban Dictionary also offers the following definition: "Flaps down: Down time or relaxing. Person 1: My life is stressful. Person 2: Well maybe you should just kick back, relax, and let your flaps down!" Not a bad hash motto, come to think of it....

Shaggy and Satchmo made it to the run, having taken Cadbury to the hospital to prepare for her major surgery on the Monday morning. It's great to hear that the procedure went well and that she's loving the on-demand opioids! (Could get to be a habit...) We're looking forward to seeing her as a new woman out on trail in the nearish future. So get well soon, Cadbury!

Next run details
When: Sunday 17th November, 5 pm
Where: H.T. Ireland Reserve, Saraband Drive, Eatons Hill. A map!
Hares: Payback and Cash Converta

On, on!