I was recently reading (with great interest, I might add) some old HG newsletters compiled by our previous editor, Michael Gale. It prompted me to contact him and find out what he was up to these days. He’s certainly not bored.

Yes, he still reads our blog and newsletters, though he doesn’t know most of our current HG members. Ironically, we met Ron Blicq (whom we both know) within days of each other last month, he in Grant Park mall and me on a flight from Winnipeg to my home in Vancouver. Small world!

Still in Winnipeg, Michael keeps in touch with fellows in his old department through a newsletter called The Chatterbox, put together by Rob Clairmont.

Michael and his wife have remained quite physically active. They do lots of walking (in the malls if it’s below -10C), and memberships at the zoo make that a favourite destination when the weather is nice. They hit the Pan Am pool three times a week for aquacises, and enjoy lawn bowling on most summer weekdays, even after the pool. On their last trip to the UK they visited the oldest bowling green in the world in their home town of Southampton. The Southampton Old Bowling Green (SOBG) was started c.1299 and is still very much in use.

Michael has also just finished a story book that has taken him about 12 years to write. Aimed at children 10 year-old and up, it is very loosely based on his scouting days at a camp at Lulworth Cove on the South coast of England. All he needs now is for someone to show an interest in reading and reviewing it.

Thank you, Michael. It was great to hear how you are enjoying retirement.

And since Canada’s largest lawn bowling club happens to be in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, just minutes from my door, I might just give that a shot too.