Here are some Sydney sporting events for you to take part in this summer.

Horsley Park Mud Run

Saturday 3 December 2011, Horsley Park

The Horsley Park Mud Run describes itself as an obstacle-jumping, mud-crawling, hill-climbing gallop around the Sydney Equestrian Cross Country Course! You can follow in the hoof-steps of the equestrian Olympians on this unusual cross-country course.

They say “you will get muddy, you will occasionally neigh or grunt like a horse but you will definitely earn your sugar cube at the finish”.

The Bondi to Bronte Ocean Swim

Sunday 4 December 2011

The Bondi to Bronte Ocean Swim has become one of the classics on the Sydney Ocean Swim calendar. The swim runs between the first two surf life saving clubs in the world.

The course starts in front of Bondi Surf Club, runs out from Bondi, around McKenzies Point and down the coast into Bronte Beach, a distance of 2.2-2.5 kilometres (depending on the positioning of the buoy).

Starting and finishing at two different beaches is one of the unique aspects of this event. Afterwards there is a celebration at Bronte Park with live music, food and entertainment for the kids.

Hawkesbury International Sand Sculpting Championships

11 January 2012 Howe Park Windsor

The Hawkesbury International Sand Sculpting Championships will be held on the banks of the Hawkesbury River at Windsor. For four days sand sculptors from Australia and around the world will compete in this inaugural event. The winner will be announced on 11 January and the exhibition will continue until 29 January.

Australian Open of Surfing

11 to 19 February 2012

The Australian Open of Surfing will take place at Sydney’s iconic Manly Beach, the spiritual home and birthplace of Australian surfing. It runs for nine days and is a celebration of surf and youth culture in Australia. It will attract the world’s elite surf and skateboard athletes, and showcase music, fashion and art.

The Wild Women on Top Sydney Coastrek

Friday 2 March 2012 to Sat 3 March 2012

The Wild Women On Top Sydney Coastrek is a 50-100 kilometre team trek along the Sydney coastline, including ocean and harbour beaches, headlands, cliff tops and bush tracks from Palm Beach to Coogee.

It is an endurance challenge, to promote health and fitness, teamwork, mental and emotional toughness and fun! The event raises money for the work of The Fred Hollows Foundation.

Wild Women On Top Sydney Coastrek is open to both men and women, but at least half the team must be women!

Mardi Gras Drag Races

Friday 2 March 2012

To win the Mardi Gras Drag Races you are going to have to get out of the lycra shorts and into a frock, paint on a moustache and spend an afternoon camping in the sun. Sydney’s drag kings and queens emerge from the nightclubs to compete at Bondi Beach in a range of competitions and games, including the Dainty Dune Dash and Handbag Discus.

Sydney Harbour Regatta

Friday 9 March to Sunday 12 March 2012

The Sydney Harbour Regatta is a major sailing event in Sydney. Over 300 yachts and 2,500 crew members compete inshore and offshore, over two days, on eight course areas and in over twenty-four divisions. It attracts the most prestigious racing yachts and the most popular international yacht racing classes.

There are also on shore activities taking place in and around the Middle Harbour Yacht Club over the weekend of the regatta.

1.    Queens Birthday

Whether you are a monarchist or republican you can’t ignore the public’s attraction to the royals, especially after a wedding (and lets not forget her Gracious Majesty grants us a public holiday). This year the Queen’s Birthday weekend is on the 13 June (the second Monday of June) except in Western Australia.

Traditionally, many public fireworks displays were organized for the Queen’s Birthday but these are now mostly saved for the New Year’s Eve displays.

It is also unofficially the opening weekend of the ski season, although the snow has a bigger say in this than the tourism industry.

2.    National Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week (this year held 27 May to 3 June) celebrates the rich culture and history of the First Australians. It is the ideal time for everyone to think about reconciliation and about how we can help turn around the disadvantage experienced by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

3.    Refugee Week

Refugee Week (this year held 19 June to June 25) is Australia’s annual event for humanitarian organizations to inform the public about refugees and to celebrate positive contributions made by refugees to Australian society. It coincides with World Refugee Day (June 20).

4.    Independence Day (US)

Many Australians mark 4 July by holding small events to acknowledge the importance of this day to the people of the United States of America.

Retailers use the day as a great time to promote American products or products associated with the US (eg doughnuts, hotdogs).

5.    Bastille Day

The 14 July is Bastille Day. It is the French national day. It is a good day to celebrate if you have anything to do with France. Patisseries and bakeries selling croissants and baguettes are obvious businesses that promote themselves and their products on the 14 July.

6.    NAIDOC Week

Celebrate Indigenous culture

NAIDOC celebrations are held each year (from 3 to 10 July) to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Although we advocate helping to celebrate NAIDOC week you must avoid “ambush marketing” by representing your business as part of the event. For instance the NAIDOC logo cannot be used for commercial purposes such as including it on your promotional material.

7.    Sydney Film Festival

Each year Sydney Film Festival showcases new films in Sydney cinemas and theatres (this year 8-19 June). It screens brand new features from over 40 countries, short films, Australian films, documentaries and archive titles. The festival also hosts several filmmaking awards including the Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films, the FOXTEL Australian Documentary Awards and the Official Competition, which celebrates ‘courageous and audacious filmmaking.

8.    Henry Lawson Festival of Arts, Grenfell

Henry Lawson is an Australian icon. The Henry Lawson Festival gives businesses the opportunity to focus on Australiana.

The 53rd Annual Henry Lawson Festival of Arts, at Grenfell in rural NSW, is also held on the Queen’s birthday weekend to honour Henry Lawson as one of Australia’s greatest poets and writers. The Festival celebrates Grenfell’s significance as Henry Lawson’s birthplace and seeks to present young and aspiring writers to the world.

There are other events to entertain visitors—one that I just have to include is the Where Pigs Fly event, the Pinnacle Guinea Pig Races.

9.    City to Surf

The City to Surf is held every year and attracts tens of thousands of participants. This year it is to be held on the 14 August. Promoters are suggesting the 2010 will be the biggest in the race’s history with more than 80,000 people expected to enter.

The City to Surf attracts a lot of attention and is a great way to promote your business by forming a team, getting dressed up in a distinctive costume and collecting money for charity. Get your customers or client to join you in the race or help support you with their donations. It creates a good public relations opportunity for your business.

10.World Environment Day

World Environment Day (WED) on the 5 June is an annual event that aims to be the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. WED activities take place all year round but climax on 5 June every year. Everyone is welcome to participate in the day.

Use World Environment Day to promote and advertise your business’ green and sustainability actions or your products or services that are good for the environment. Get your customers involved in a neighbourhood clean-up or tree planting, write a short media release, take pictures and give it to your local newspaper.

11.Christmas in July

Australians are moving Christmas back to being a mid-winter feast. Some colder places, especially the Blue Mountains have created Christmas in July or Yuletide Festival events.

This is an opportunity for restaurant businesses to offer meals of roast turkey, steamed puddings and mulled wine in the cold weather that it was designed for. It is a second-Christmas and people are in the mood for giving gifts and eating comfort meals. As Christmas in July takes off think about ways that you can sell your product to these consumers.

12.Red Nose Day

The Wiggles support Red Nose Day

Red Nose Day,  held annually on the last Friday in June (24 June 2011) is the major fundraiser for SIDS and Kids. Funds raised through Red Nose Day activities assist SIDS and Kids in providing vital services and programs to the Australian community.

SIDS and Kids is dedicated to saving the lives of babies and children during pregnancy, birth, infancy and childhood and to supporting bereaved families. Getting your staff to wear red noses and to collect money for SIDS and Kids will help them and at the same time promote your business.

13.State of Origin Game 2

Get your customers involved in a tipping competition. Will the Blues win it this year? Don’t offend any customers from Queensland as they are likely to have the last laugh. The second State of Origin game is scheduled for Wednesday 15 June 2011 in Sydney.

14.Jeans for Genes

Jeans for Genes is a major fundraising event for the Children’s Medical Research Institute. It’s held every year on the first Friday of August (5 August 2011). Each year more than two million Australians wear their favourite jeans and donate funds to support genetic research to advance the prevention and treatment of disease, leading to healthier generations of children.

Things you can do include wearing your jeans on Jeans for Genes Day and making a donation, volunteering your time and taking part in or organising fundraising events.

15.Australian Engineering Week

Australian Engineering Week is held in the first week of August 2011. Hosted by Engineers Australia, Australian Engineering Week has been established to raise awareness of the role engineers play both locally and globally – and to encourage more young people to study engineering.

If you operate in the infrastructure or construction sectors Engineering Week offers an opportunity for your business to showcase itself by hosting or participating in events.

16.School holidays

Saturday 2 July to Sunday 17 July is the NSW School Holidays. This is a time when the state’s children are home from school and parents often take leave to be with their children. Parents want activities for their children and child-friendly holidays.

17.Fathers Day

Fathers Day is not strictly in the winter but it is the first Sunday in September. Get ready for it!

Modern books (ebooks aside) are made from pages or leaves of paper stitched or glued together between card that are printed with a permanent message meant for continued public circulation.

Biblio-

Bible—the Devil's Codex

The common word for a book in Ancient Greece was biblion. It was derived from Byblos, the Phoenician port (modern Jebeil in Lebanon) from which Egyptian papyrus was imported. The Bible gets its name from a shortening of the Ancient Greek ta biblia to hagia meaning the holy books. English retains biblio- in bibliography, the list of books referenced in an academic work, and in bibliophile, for a book-lover.

Paper, card and chart

Most everyone would know that the word for paper comes from papyrus. The Egyptians made the original paper by gluing strips of the papyrus reed together in vertical and horizontal layers. This created a rectangular page.

The word for page comes originally from the Latin pagina for the strip of rectangular papyrus fastened to the others. Pagina was derived from pangere meaning to fasten, referring to the gluing together of the sheets. The word card comes from the Greek word khartes for a layer of papyrus. Chart is a 16^th century French adaption that was used for map.

Scroll and volumes

The rectangles of papyrus (up to about thirty) were glued together to form a long roll known as a scroll. This was the earliest form of book and the Romans called it a volumen, from the verb volvere, to roll. English gets volume from this. However, the English word scroll is 13^th century from scrowe (with a slight change to sound like roll) originally from Frankish skroda meaning scrap or shred.

Tome

There was no limit to the length of a scroll. But the longer they were the heavier they became. Accordingly, the scholars who had to read them, cut up the longest rolls into shorter lengths called tomes. Tome, in Latin, means to cut. Tome in English has, ironically, come to connote a large and scholarly book.

Album

At the same time as scrolls were being used by academic Romans, wax tablets were used by the working Romans as notebooks (or jotters). A notebook was called an album and consisted of a thin sheet of white wood (albus being the Latin for white) covered with a film of dark wax, which was written on using a metal or bone stylus to score the wax thus creating white writing.

Codex and codicil

When several albums were combined they were held together by a cord running through a corner. Such a stack of albums was known as a codex, meaning a block of wood. A codex was sometimes used to write a book of laws, this meaning has come directly to English. A small codex took on the Latin diminutive codicilli—a little codex, which, as codicil in English, refers to a supplement to a will or document.

Schedule

A schedule originally referred to the slips of paper attached to a document in an appendix. This came to English from Old French, cedule, from Latin schida for a strip from a papyrus sheet; originally from Greek, skhida for splinter.

Parchment

A German parchment maker from 1568

In Europe in the 5^th and 6^th centuries parchment started to significantly replace papyrus for writing. Parchment is made from stretched animal skins treated with lime (in a process quite different to curing leather). The word, parchment, has had a slow evolution—lately from French, perchemin; from Latin pergamenum; and originally from Greek pergamenon, which meant of Pergamon, the modern city of Bergama in Turkey. It was from Pergamon that Europe sourced all its early parchments.

Vellum

Vellum was a superior parchment; it was thinner and smoother because it was made from calfskins (or sometimes lambskin or kidskin). The word, vellum, is directly related to our word for calfmeat, veal, and comes to English from the Norman French velin, for parchment made of calfskin. The Old French word for calf was veel (modern French veau).

Palimpsest

Parchment was sometimes re-used by cleaning the original writing off. Such a manuscript was called a palimpsest from the Greek palimpsestos meaning scraped again.

The shift to parchment and vellum, which were smoother than papyrus, caused changes in writing. The use of uncial script (from Latin uncialis meaning of an inch, inch-high), an upper-case script using rounded, simple, pen strokes is a direct result.

Folio

Parchment sheets were not cut before they were sold but creased and folded and made into a folio. The size of the folio was dictated by the size of the skin. Thus the terms quarto, octavo, duodecimo relate to folios created from folding the parchment, respectively, four, eight, or twelve times. Folio is from the Latin word folium for leaf (directly related to foliage).

Book

Vindolanda wooden writing tablet with a party invitation written in ink, in two hands, from Claudia Severa to Lepidina.

So far our little history shows the dominance of Latin, Greek and French language on our book words. The medieval church and Latin scholarship obviously dominated the vocabulary of book production for the last two thousand years. But, yet, there is the word book itself, which has a completely different history. Not from the academic world but from the vernacular of “low” Anglo-Saxon.

Book comes into English from the Germanic languages where it is still bok in the Scandinavian languages (bog in Danish), boek in Dutch and buch in German. Buch is originally derived from the Old German word buche for beech.

Why beech? It is probably from the early use of beech-wood split into tablets to write on. When the Romans left Britain and Western Europe the locals continued to write their notes not on parchment or papyrus and probably not on what the Romans had called albums. The album tablets were made from woods that were not native to Britain.

Evidence from Vindolanda, a fort near Hadrians Wall, in England shows that the local Romans were also using thin leaves of wood less than 1 mm thick and about 20 cm long and 9 cm wide to write notes on with ink. The tablets were cut from sapwood of young trees; the writing was made using a pen with ink made from carbon, gum arabic and water; and once completed they were folded over so that the writing on the inner faces was protected.

When the Romans had gone the locals wrote not in Latin or Greek but in adapted letter symbols such as the runes of Scandinavia and the ogham of Britain. The Celts associated their religion or magic with the folklore of trees and their writing was also associated with trees. The 25 characters of the ogham alphabet were given the names of sacred trees and plants. But there are no surviving wooden tablets with runes or ogham script so how do we know that they existed? We don’t, however there is one piece of evidence. That piece of evidence is that most of the Germanic languages that were spoken in Britain and Northern Europe managed to keep a word for books that refers not to papyrus or parchment but to wood.

So when we speak of books we do not associate with the religious or academic writing on papyrus or parchment but with the beech tree tablets on which our ancestors wrote their magical characters.

Who is Tavi Gevinson? Gevinson is the 14-year-old author of the StyleRookie blog. Gevinson started her blog at the age of 11 and has built a huge following in the blogosphere:

Guess who is going to be all fancy n stuff and talk at L2’s Generation Y conference this Friday? Me, that’s who! And I’m going to be talking about the Unpredictability of Gen Y …

And not surprisingly, as reported by the Economist, she stole the show that had been put together to focus on “tomorrow’s affluent consumer”. Representatives of luxury-goods businesses, hung on Gevinson’s every word.

The lesson for today’s businesses is that those of Generation Y (people born between 1980 and 2000) know more than us about how to make the most out of social-networking technologies.

Some of us are Baby Boomers (born after 1945 until about 1960) who didn’t own a computer until we were well into adulthood. We possibly had to program our computers to perform our calculations and may even remember having to feed paper cards into a mainframe. Computers were calculating machines.

Most of us are X Generation (born between 1961 and 1981) we experienced the growth of personal computers and witnessed the birth of the Internet. Internet 1.0 was about sharing information and we played space invaders by putting lots of coins in arcade machines.

But those of Generation Y have grown up with computers and treat them as an essential part of their everyday lives – technology is social and about entertainment. They have participated in the growth of Web 2.0 as a means of participating in online communities, for sharing gossip and for on-line collaboration. They are also known as the Net Generation!

Do you know how to use Web 2.0 to connect and engage with Generation Y? Madrigal Communications can help you put together a do-it-yourself social media marketing campaign for as little as $250! Our consultant will sit down with you and show you how you can use a combination of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare and your website to connect your business with the Net Generation. Contact us to find out more!

Fool first meant a mentally deficient person, an idiot. Then it was used to describe a member of a royal or noble household who provided entertainment by joke telling or peculiar antics. It was not always clear whether the fool was a professional entertainer (otherwise known as a jester) or an amusing idiot.

So what is the modern fool? The negative definitions are someone who:

• is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding
• acts unwisely on an occasion
• has been tricked, duped or made to appear ridiculous

But to be called a fool is not always a bad thing. Nowadays a fool can be a person:

• with a talent or enthusiasm for a certain activity (eg a dancing fool)
• who subverts convention or varies from social conformity in order to reveal a spiritual or moral truth

In Tarot, The Fool card can stand for a new start. When it turns up you could be ready to make a move – it can be renewal and a brand new beginning.

So today? While everyone is being an April Fool telling people that their flies are undone or that their shoelaces are untied I encourage you to be a networking fool. Don’t waste your time on pranks. Make a brand new beginning to your networking efforts. How?

Treat the day as a day for enthusiastic networking activity. Get excited! Use the day to change the way you talk to people. If you are shy or just getting a bit jaded I want you to challenge yourself. Your homework today is to do at least three of the following:

• Ring a friend that you haven’t spoken to for a year
• Ring an old customer that you haven’t spoken to for a year
• Talk to a complete stranger on the bus, train or in a café (but not in a park in the middle of the night)
• Engage in a conversation with someone that you only ever say hello to – ask the waiter or waitress at the café if they are having a good day
• Sign up to join a new club, Rotary, Lions, or a sporting club to meet people in the community – join the Chamber of Commerce
• Is there a business referral that needs to be chased up? Do it today

What is the worst thing that can happen? You might look like a networking fool!

Poor L’Oreal was given a Shonky for claiming that Nutrileum, a substance said to be in its conditioner, actually does any good. When I went to L’Oreal’s website to investigate I came to a very graphical section named the Magic of Research which really gave the game away don’t you think?

But perhaps it is a little unfair to single them out. There are quite a few shampoos out there using imaginative copy to persuade prospective customers to trust their hair to a particular chemical treatment.

Bio Ionic Super Hydrator Intensive Moisturizing Shampoo

How many tautologies can you get onto one label?

Marc Anthony Aroma Organics Smoothing Shampoo

One website suggested:

The word “organics” in the title will annoy true organic lovers since many of the ingredients on the label are three and four syllables long — a good indication that they’re not entirely organic.

No it indicates nothing of the sort – organic chemical names can be wonderfully long!

John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Lustrous Touch Smoothing Shampoo

Say no more…

Resistance Bain Volumactive Volumising Shampoo For Fine And Vulnerable Hair

Only to be used by vulgar, vulcanologists in Venezuala with vasectomies vying to be venereal with voluptuous virgins in the vicinity of the vestry on Valentine’s Day.

1. The cat delivers a unique service – it shows clear differentiation: it purrs – it doesn’t bark; it lounges – it doesn’t require walks.

2. The cat manages expectations – I get affection for providing food, accommodation, entertainment and free health cover!

3. It is consistent – I get the same product/service every day – a few purrs and a bit of affection.

4. The cat has clear communications – it purrs when it is happy and meows when it wants something – easy to understand.

5. It constantly reminds me that it’s there – persistent advertising ensures it gets fed and therefore survives.

6. But best of all if it makes a mess it covers it up (that’s not marketing, thats PR!).

The news was announced today that the London Olympics has proposed two new sports: women’s boxing and Rugby sevens. Now although I am impartial to boxing I am very pleased to see the rugby included, it is a great sport with a potential champion from Fiji.

However, as an Anglophile I am disappointed that the opportunity has not been taken to include some real British sports, some with wide international appeal.

1.    Morris dancing – ageing men dance around in silly costumes with bells on their ankles and silly smiles – essentially the terrestrial version of synchronised swimming but with a greater participation rate.

2.    Welly wanging – is a soft rubber version of discus throwing using a wellington boot (gumboot). It requires less space than discus and relies more on technique than strength.

3.    Caber tossing – is one for the ladymen but requires strength and manliness. Wearing a kilt while tossing the caber makes it a post-modern sport.

4.    Darts – this is the indoor version of javelin. It offers the advantage that a keen eye and a firm resolve will win over brawn and healthy lifestyle.

5.    Ferret legging – an indoor sport similar to the equestrian jumping; a ferret is required to negotiate barriers between the belt and the end of the trouser leg in the longest amount of time. No penalties are given for bites.

6.    Queuing – this is a team sport at which the English are certain gold medallists. The English have been known to queue for blocks simply to undertake minor transactions. There will no doubt be large queues at many of the London venues in tribute to this tradition.

7.    Gurning – its loss to these games is perhaps the most keenly felt. When are we ever going to have a greater opportunity to showcase the Northern English sport of gurning, or face-pulling.

8.    Boat-racing – this is a companion sport to rugby and does not involve water but beer – it is a beer drinking relay.

9.    Cheese-rolling – this Gloucestershire tradition may seem like a very eccentric sport but it attracts international competitors in a cross between downhill skiing and stair-diving (another less common companion sport to rugby) while controlling a giant cheese ball.

10. Pheasant shooting – clay pigeons tend to have predictable trajectories and are inedible.

11. Fox-hunting – politically incorrect but now that the foxes are becoming more annoying time for reconsideration. Alternatively combine the event with the steeplechase.

12. Sheep-dogging – the equestrian sports involve a rider persuading a horse to jump fences or to walk around an arena in figure-eights. Sheep dogging, where a handler persuades a dog to bring sheep through a series of obstacles using a whistle, is real beauty.

13. Cricket – based on the performance of the English team at Headingly last week this is no longer an English sport but has been included for politeness.

The ten funniest clips on Youtube. My selection with a little help from my friends on Facebook. Rude, politically incorrect but all very funny in their unique ways. Any others for next month?

1.  Rowan Atkinson The Devil

2. Monty Python What have the Romans ever done for us

3. Blue Collar Comedy Big Deck

4. David Armand Torn

5. Dead Ringers Maximus (Russel Crowe Skit)

6. Potter Puppet Pals The Mysterious Ticking Noise

7. Badgers

8. Spitting Image I’ve never met a nice South African

9. Ronnie Johns half hour - Chopper Reid Heimlich Manoeuvre

10. Peter Sellers Does your dog bite?