The April Jabberfest was held on Monday April 9 with Bruce Carle in the chair due to the absence overseas of president David Thompson. Bruce began proceedings with a few brain teasers, followed by the usual roundup of the various groups, by Alysan Pender. Brian Carter then presented two short stories, one on the gathering of information by a Roman historian, ‘Josephus’, for the then emperor, concerning the spread of the new religion of Christianity some fifty years on and the second was of a father with a son born profoundly disabled who could only communicate by pressing a button on his wheelchair with his head, to give his message. The boy at one time wished that he could run, which led his father to actually run with him, pushing him in the wheelchair. Not just running, but engaging in Marathons, notching up over 49 of these gruelling events with his best time being only 30 minutes behind the world record that has been set for a marathon, by a fully fit and able athlete. After morning tea Bruce introduced Peter who was representing Fulton Hogan (the company building the new Grafton Bridge), and who was standing in for the scheduled speaker who was not available. Peter gave us a comprehensive overview of the bridge building, highlighting some of the difficulties they experience, for instance , having to pour concrete in the night time and early mornings when conditions are cooler, as the mixing of concrete generates considerable heat, which gives them problems. Peter also had a small model of a bridge pylon which allowed us to see how the component parts became a whole. Sometime in May there will be an opportunity to join a conducted tour led by one of the builder’s staff. Altogether a most interesting and informative talk. Peter was presented with a memento of his visit, again a Mens Shed creation and was asked to nominate a number for the lucky door prize, this being won by Dorothy Hillis. Our May Jabberfest will be held on Monday May 14 at the New Life Church in Arthur Street commencing at 10am, when due to the non availability of the expected speaker we will be entertained by our own members with Kevin Dixon presenting a video show of the Sydney Light Festival (that occurred earlier this year) with other contributions from various members that should provide an interesting and varied programme. Brian Carter