We had a great turnout at the meeting, welcoming three guests: Laurel David, Suren U Nathan, and Lisa des Vignes. Actually, we had a brief visit from another guest during the social break — who wasn’t a guest. Our club president, Vasu, thought he could escape us by running away to the West Coast, but that didn’t work out for him because we pursued him even in Vancouver. He joined us for a few minutes on Zoom, so that was a first for the club. It showed that remote attendance online is a viable concept for us when the need arises.

I wish I could detail some of the entertaining stories that we heard when we were going around the circle, but I want to keep this short. I did tell people, though, that I would help improve your word knowledge in this report. Al Brown was telling us about the many raspberry bushes that he’s planted over the years — sort’a by accident — during his neighbourhood walks. Did you know that the little balls on raspberries and blackberries actually have a name? They’re called “drupelets“. You can look it up! (I advise you to use the word at least three times in order to cement it in your vocabulary.)

Phil Nayman gave us a very informative presentation that he titled “The Silent Killer.” He told us that one in four Canadians lives with high blood pressure, and that for more than a million of us it goes uncontrolled — nor are there any warning symptoms before it does its damage. Well, those are alarming statistics. Please take the time to review his excellent slide deck. If you haven’t already, become aware of your own blood pressure numbers and talk to your doctor if need be.

Later in the meeting we were entertained and informed by another presentation put together by Patricia Abergel. She told us all about the trip that she made to Italy in the spring; touring around the country, gathering memories, and taking a lot of great photos. This was a real pilgrimage for her, and she even spent months studying the language in preparation for it. (Your Italian sounds great to me, Patricia!) Here’s the link to her slide show. If you’ve been to Italy yourself you’ll appreciate her great pics, and if you haven’t yet been there her photos will make you want to go.

Our next club meeting will be on Saturday, August 29th, again at the YRP station. We will look forward to having presentations from Nabil Danial and Samir Stasi. In the meantime, there are a number of club events scheduled for the month of August. Notable among them is a planned group trip to see the new blockbuster film, The Odyssey on IMAX — so if you haven’t yet seen the film, you may want to hold off and join our group on August 11th. Here’s a link to our new events calendar; I hope you’ll get in the habit of consulting it.