Your Association President Liz Thomas


Dear Inner Wheel Friends


The first six months of this Inner Wheel year have passed in a flash. I have attended fourteen District Rallies and some special Club celebrations and on all these occasions you have given me the warmest of welcomes and hospitality and the most wonderful encouragement and friendship.


I am wishing away the dark winter days – not forgetting celebrating World Inner Wheel Day on 10th January - and can’t wait for Spring as there is much to look forward to. I begin my visits again in February. Our 2018 Conference is in March in Bournemouth and Conference Chairman Margaret and her Committee are working hard to make sure that it will be a happy and memorable one. The IIW Convention in Melbourne in April is bound to be interesting and it is always enjoyable meeting Inner Wheel members from across the world.


Old friends and new, thank you one and all for supporting me this year and I wish you a happy, healthy 2018 and success in all you do in the name of Inner Wheel.


Sincerely and in friendship Association President Liz with Benji


A - WHAT?


“Who would pay £60,000 for a 450-foot hole in the ground?” Hugh Black, the speaker at Aberdeen St Fittick (D.1) has often been asked that because Rubislaw Quarry was an important piece of Aberdeen history. He and his friend, now sadly deceased, had bid for it in 2010. Like many of the locals, he had fond memories of the quarry and thought it was wrong that such an important part of Aberdeen’s history should simply be allowed to disappear. What followed was a most interesting talk on what is, at 142 metres deep, one of Europe’s biggest man-made holes.


News from Dublin


In the Inner Wheel Club of Dublin, one committee member has handed out small plastic bags - like the ones you get in a bank. We will now fill them with ‘brown' money and return them to her. She will then give members another bag and this will continue throughout the year for the Children’s Hospice.


We live in Euroland and have one cent, two cent, five cent, ten cent, twenty cent and fifty cent coins and they are ALL BROWN. Brussels is discontinuing the one and two cent coins but they are still around and the banks will accept them. Most of the menfolk hate the weight of these coins and when they empty their pockets, the brown coins are gathered up then placed into the little bag!


Dublin Club is also planning a coffee morning in the Spring for the hospice.


Helen Duffy – Editor - District 16 Page. 02


The quarry was opened in 1740 and continued production until 1971. The granite extracted from it went towards building seventy-five percent of Aberdeen’s buildings, bridges and monuments. It was exported and can be seen in the United States and Australia. Nearer home the granite was used in Waterloo Bridge in London and the terraces of the Houses of Parliament as well as the Forth Bridge. At present the quarry is inaccessible to the public and filled with water but one of the Aberdeen diving firms has been down there and we were shown video footage taken by the divers.


Hugh’s enthusiasm was very clear when he told of his plans to build a £6 million granite heritage centre and observation platform and turn Rubislaw Quarry into a major tourist attraction. Unfortunately, Aberdeen Council has not taken on board his ideas.


This was a particularly interesting talk as many of the club had visited the quarry in their youth and we wished him well in his endeavours.


Jennifer Logan – Inner Wheel Club of Aberdeen St Fittick (D1)


Innerwheel


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