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Our Gal

July 6, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

Veva MacCullagh

How long have you lived in Forbes and what do you like about living here?
I’ve lived in Forbes since I was a toddler and have enjoyed a good life among good friends and a supportive family.

Where do you work and what do you enjoy most about your work?
I’m retired and love volunteering at Jemalong Residential Village, teaching Tai Chi and helping with Friday’s Happy Hour. I’m on the Forbes Riding for the Disabled (RDA) committee, and organise the roster and volunteers. I am on oxygen 24/7 but I help as best I can.

What do you do to unwind after work and on weekends?
I love country music musters and festivals and go when I’m able. Along with volunteering, I play croquet twice a week and attend Tai Chi at the Hospital with Master Trainer Libby Godden. I guess I’m a people person and love to help. I crochet to relax.

What are you really good at?
I’m good at keeping busy. I don’t have time to be bored in retirement.

If you could have a super power, what would it be?
I would get more retired people out to participate and enjoy life in the great outdoors, perhaps volunteering at RDA, or having a friendly game of croquet.

What is your pet hate?
It’s not being able to do what I once could, but now I have my oxygen sorted I’m thankful I’m not housebound.

What was your best holiday ever?
My best holiday was travelling Australia in our caravan seeing all the wonders Australia offers.

Our Bloke

June 29, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

Peter Bright

How long have you lived in Forbes and what do you like about living here?
Elaine and I moved to Forbes from Canberra in 2005 and haven’t had a dull moment since. We especially love the locals who have welcomed us.

Where do you work and what do you enjoy most about your work?
I’m heav- ily involved with the Lions Club and CWA. Managing the Lions Club disaster response team and helping over 50 local farmers during the recent floods was incredibly rewarding.

What do you do to unwind after work and on weekends?
I enjoy watching Elaine master her latest crafty project; caravanning; and helping friends with their computer and “Smart” phone problems.

What are you really good at?
I’m a bit of a nerd. These days, mastering new versions of whatever Microsoft, Apple, or Android has thrust upon us is a suitable challenge.

What was your best holiday ever?
Elaine and I once took a job on a half a million acre cattle station in the Kimberley region during the wet season. We enjoyed a lot of new experiences and hard work while looking after around 15,000 head of cattle.

Question of the Week

June 29, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

It’s our 100th issue! What do you like about the Forbes Phoenix?

Rachael and Laurie Norris, with pup, Ernie: It’s available everywhere, at no cost, and it has interesting stories about local people and activities.

Karyn Glennan: It’s part of the community, and it’s about the community and our people. I like being able to read the articles on Facebook, and I love the What’s On pages.

Wendy Burns: I really enjoy the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down section, and I like that it’s a free paper.

Question of the Week

June 22, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

What are your best tips for recycling?

Dulcie Lavers: I recycle my clothes and remake things to change the way they look, or re-use buttons. You can also use old margarine containers to keep portions of soup in the freezer, or re-use birthday cards and make bookmarks out of them.

Sharney Sentence: I re-use plastic cups from little steam puddings and put other things in them.

Bev Chandler: I saw some old shoes that had been spray-painted, filled and covered, and made into pin cushions.

Our Gal

June 22, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

Kelly Bowden

How long have you lived in Forbes and what do you like about living here?
I grew up in Forbes, but I’m originally from Condo. We moved away to Griffith for a few years and been back here in Forbes for about eight years. I love living in Forbes because it’s home, it’s a nice little town.

Where do you work and what do you enjoy most about your work?
I work at Binaal Billa Family Violence Prevention Legal Service and I’m a Community Support Worker. In my line of work, it has its ups and downs, it can be challenging, stressful and also rewarding.

What do you do to unwind after work and on weekends?
When I come home from work I don’t get the chance to unwind until later, then I’ll get ready for Home & Away, or my daughter will put a movie on and we’ll watch it together. I love spending time with my family and friends, doing something or just chillin’.

What are you really good at?
I’m deadly at a lot of things! Nah, I’m good at art, dancing and just being my deadly self.

If you could have a super power, what would it be?
A healing power. So I can help people to heal within themselves from pain and trauma.

What is your pet hate?
I hate it when someone is eating with their mouth open, that just really annoys me.

What was your best holiday ever?
A few years back we went on our first real holiday up to Gerroa and we had the deadliest time. We really do live in a beautiful country.

Our Bloke

June 15, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

Ian Bartholomaeus

How long have you lived in Forbes and what do you like about living here?
Originally from Adelaide, I moved to Forbes in 1980. Being the “Centre of the Universe” why would you bother to live anywhere else? Great people and there’s not much we go without in this great community. Life is what you desire wherever you choose to live.

Where do you work and what do you enjoy most about your work?
I’m the Managing Director of Midpro Engineering. I love my place in the business doing engineering designing and 3D solid modelling using Solidworks (CAD) as well as general business affairs, which select few really get to experience.

What do you do to unwind after work and on weekends?
I love to cook, which is quite dissimilar to my occupation, and also it takes a lot of beer and wine to put together a masterchef creation! It winds me down after a long hard-working week.

What are you really good at?
Everyone would probably say annoying people but I reckon I’m just good at being happy.

If you could have a super power, what would it be?
First thing I thought of is mind reading, but I think mystery is sometimes intriguing so I’d have to say being invisible.

What is your pet hate?
People doing 50 in a 100 zone, and that equates to anything in life.

What was your best holiday ever?
I’ve forgotten what a holiday feels like, but I love the coast and one of my favourite locations would have to be Noosa.

Question of the Week:

June 15, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

Do you think it’s still important to celebrate the Queen’s birthday?

Sisters Marlene Burton from Forbes and Joyce Nash from Eugowra:
Joyce: Yes, of course it’s important. She deserves it. I’m amazed she can get to this age and do so well.

Geoff Suttie and Brian Collits
Brian: Yes, it is. And I can tell you the story of driv- ing my horse and sulky down the main street on the day of her coronation!
Geoff: I don’t think about the Queen’s birthday until that time of year comes around. It was good to see Colin Hodges get the Order of Australia. He’s a good bloke.

Michael Rush and Jeremy Markwort:
Michael: No. I don’t really see the point. What do the royals do for us as a country?
Jeremy: It’s not as relevant as it used to be. And if they’re looking at changing Australia Day, why celebrate the Queen’s birthday? I think we should just combine them all into Anzac Day and have one celebration.

Our Gal

June 8, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

Maree Yapp

How long have you lived in Forbes and what do you like about living here?
I have lived in Forbes most of my life and love the country life, wide open spaces and friendly people.

Where do you work and what do you enjoy most about your work?
I work at the SaCC – a Schools as Community Centres at Forbes North. I get to do fun things like playgroups, mums groups, Birth to Kinder, real food tasting (for little people), and at the moment I am loving our FoodREDi course because the mums are awesome cooks!

What do you do to unwind after work and on weekends?
I enjoy a good stomp on the treadmill at the gym to unwind and spend my weekends following my kids at sport and music.

What are you really good at?
I’m really good at “having a go” because I am not really good at anything.

If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Sometimes I would like to be at two places at once, that would be super!

What is your pet hate?
I hate to see waste, food, clothes, anything that can be re-used.

Tell us about your best holiday ever.
Beach front holiday house at Kiama with nowhere to be, with a good book, wine and my hubby looking after the kids.

Question of the Week

June 8, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

What is important to you about events during Reconciliation Week?

Fiona Blyth and Kerrianne Mundy:
Fiona: It’s a beautiful culture and we can learn so much from each other. Hopefully days like this can make a difference.
Kerrianne: All the coming together of community

Patrick Bowden and son William: Days like this make a big difference. It’s great so see so many people here.

Melody Ruhrmund: Being part of breaking down barriers and celebration of community.

Meet the Team: Raen Fraser

June 8, 2017 by Maggi Barnard

How long have you worked with the Phoenix?
I started working with the Phoenix in August last year, so that’s about 10 months now.

What is your role?
I’m a reporter.

What does your usual day look like?
My work days vary depending on what is happening. Some days I’m interviewing or attending events and taking photos. Other times I’m sat at my desk writing up my stories. I’m pretty adaptable and enjoy having a varied routine.

Where are you based?
I’m based in Parkes, but I have been known to wander over to Forbes from time to time.

Best thing about your job?
This job has been great for getting to know the town and meet people. I was fairly new to the region when I started with the Phoenix, so it’s been fantastic to get out and talk to so many different people and see what happens in Parkes. I’ve been impressed by so many of the people I’ve interviewed, it’s great to see the real diversity of talent and triumphs within our community. Everyone has a story, and it’s great to be able to share some of them with our readers.

Future ambitions.
I’ve got a few screenplays at various stages of development – but my big passion project at the moment is a young reader’s novel. The challenge is to balance my time against my responsibilities and make some decent progress on my narrative work this year.

Best Holiday.
I just spent a week training a brumby out near Cobar. It sounds like a very rugged cowboy kind of activity, but the method is more like “How to train your Dragon”. It’s all about establishing trust, it was incredibly gentle and unbelievably easy. My brumby was following me around by the end of the first day, and under saddle by the end of the week. If that wasn’t magic enough, the stars out there were incredible!

Favourite place?
Mon Repos; it’s a sea turtle rookery just near Bundaberg in Queensland. I spent quite a bit of time there in my youth, and we took the kids up a couple of years ago. It’s magical to watch the turtles come up the beach to nest, and to see the tiny little hatchlings dig themselves out of the sand and skitter into the surf. Sometimes there’s luminescent algae in the ocean, and the waves twinkle like blue fairy lights. It’s spectacular.

Favourite food?
Home-cooked meals shared with friends.

How do you spend your weekends?
Sometimes I have to wear my reporter hat, but mostly I kick about with the kids and animals and reluctantly do a bit of housework. My favorite weekends are out with the kids and pony, making pizza, and watching a movie.

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