Maggi Barnard

Maggi Barnard has been with the Parkes Phoenix since it was established in March 2016 and loves writing about her community.

Siz Ways to Throw the Best Wedding Ever!

July 27, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

Ultimately, your wedding day is about celebrating the love between you and the person you’re about to marry. But there’s another goal at hand: throwing one seriously epic party that your guests will talk about for years to come. But how do you make your big day stand out amongst the throngs of weddings your family and friends have attended in the past? While there are many ways to upgrade the standard nuptials, we made a list of easy ways you can get the party started right.

To start, think about the wedding experience as a whole. Sure, your nearest and dearest are elated to watch you marry your longtime love, but sitting for an hour-long ceremony is not their idea of a celebration. Remember that many of your guests have travelled to spend time with you, not watching you, so ensure the evening is interactive. This way they’ll feel like an important part of the proceedings.

And while the night should certainly cater towards your preferences, think about the total experience for your guests, too. You may love soft jazz music, but that won’t fill your dance floor, so consider those tunes for cocktail hour and have your DJ amp up the playlist after dinner.

1. Keep Your Ceremony Brief
Don’t get us wrong, your friends and family are present at your big day to see you get married — but no one wants to watch a drawn out ceremony. Keep the actual proceedings (not including
entrances and exits) around 20 minutes so you won’t lose anyone’s attention.
2. Choose a Personalised Program
While we’re on the topic of the ceremony, don’t forget about creating a wedding program. By personalising this piece of stationery with interesting details about you and your partner, a breakdown of the ceremony’s proceedings, and any important information they should know (like a translation of traditional vows or that you’d prefer photos aren’t taken) you’ll capture their attention and get all of those key details across. Plus, it will keep them busy if the event runs a little late.
3. Use a Wedding App or Hashtag
There are many great wedding apps to choose from for your big day. Some interactive apps allow guests to upload wedding photos into one curated place, while others keep your friends and family up on any wedding-related news. Want something even easier? Create a clever hashtag and ask guests to tag all of their photos using it.
4. Give Out-of-Town Guests a Welcome Basket
Whether you’re hosting a destination wedding or a hometown bash, some of your guests had to travel to be a part of your big day. To show your appreciation, give welcome bags for guests staying at hotels. Include a few snacks, bottles of water, and a list of local resources, like the nearest pharmacy, restaurants and coffee shops, plus any nearby attractions. If you’re able to splurge, throw in a bottle of wine, tasty local treats like an artisan cheese or chocolate,
and a guidebook.
5. Greet Each Guest
It may sound obvious, but it’s important to personally greet each and every guest at your wedding. Once the celebration is underway do your best to spend time with each person — whether that means chatting over a cocktail, visiting their table at dinner, or letting loose on the dance floor.
6. Create a Well-Planned Seating Chart
It doesn’t matter if your reception dinner will be a buffet, plated meal, or family-style servings: A smart seating chart is vital to ensuring your guests have a good time. Try to group people together with similar backgrounds and interests, so they’ll have something to talk about even if they’ve never met before.

Our Bloke

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

Luke Williams

How long have you lived in Parkes? I moved here in 1991 from Gilgandra – that is 25 years.

Where do you work? I’ve been working at Leading Edge Computers as an IT Technician for just over ten years.

What do you enjoy most about your job? Providing a solution that does what someone needs and seeing new technology coming out is always amazing.

What do you do in your spare time?
I play a lot of squash and enjoy reading anything. I also run a youth group with my wife on Friday nights at the Parkes Baptist Church.

How do you like your coffee? Strong – I grew up in an Italian household so I’ve been on coffee for a long time. The stronger the better.

What makes your day? Going home, cooking good food and relaxing after I’ve done something.

If you could go on holiday anywhere in the world, where would you go? To Italy where I am going in about two months’ time to visit my mother’s family.

Spacecats Prevent Macquarie From Scoring

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

The Spacecats outplayed Dubbo Macquarie in round 10 last Saturday at the Pioneer Oval with a final score of 42 – 0.
All four grades of the Parkes Spacemen/ Spacecats wore black armbands for the passing of Toni Day. The Spacecats played without captain, Hannah Kelly, goal kicker, Claire Barber, and winger Shannealle Wyrzynski. Parkes made great ground in the opening minutes after Macquarie kicked to start the game.

Although errors were prevalent in both teams in the first quarter, the Spacecats shook it off before Macquarie could overcome the pressure that Parkes were applying. Sarah McAneney made good metres down the sideline, Ella J Harris ran through Macquarie’s defence to off load to Sally Dwyer who started the Spacecats’ tally. Ella was successful with the conversion. The second try came from Sarah close to the posts and Ella made it two from two.

A third try and conversion increased the score to 18 – 0 for Parkes at half time. Spacecats started the second half with determination to leave Macquarie scoreless with Sarah over the line for her second. Next up it was winger Emeline who went over in the corner. She did it again for her second after good hands on the far side from Katie to Sam Cox to her: Parkes 30 Macquarie 0.

The next score came from Demi after Macquarie could not get out of their half with a kick on the last with Demi running 50m to score under the uprights. Ella added another two. In the last minutes Parkes had the ball
with Coach Mick Dumesny wanting another. They did not disappoint and with quick hands and controlled passes, a great run came from Shayna who offloaded to Sami Afele to run it in. Ella’s successful conversion took the final score to 42 – 0. After round 10, one point separates first and second place with Cyms on 19 and Spacecats on 18. The Spacecats have scored 388 points with 48 scored against them so far. Cyms have not played 2 rounds and have scored 256 and have 42 scored against them.

The Parkes Spacemen executive and the league tag team would like to thank their major guernsey sponsor Parkes Services Club and Sleeve sponsors: 1. Simply Bellissima by Kim, 2. Cunninghams IGA Parkes, 3. Nicko’s Bricklaying, 4. Parkes GP, 5. Bunnamagoo Wines, 6. BMJC (The Moran boy’s), 7. La Bella, 8. Dippin Dots, 9. Parkes Mensland, 10. THD studio, 11. Parkes Railway Bowling Club, 12. Parkes Services Club, 13. Nangar Gems.

Snippets…

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

Shop + Win competition winner announced:
Thousands of entries were received for the Parkes Shop + Win promotion. The prize draw took place at We Know
Travel last Saturday and the lucky winner is Zarin Barber of Baldry who placed his entry at Worklocker Parkes. The prize was donated by We Know Travel Parkes and includes an eight-night cruise for two people sailing the Coral Sea to New Caledonia, Mystery Island and Lifou in February 2017. Parkes Shire Council launched the Shop + Win promotion in June to drive visitation and increased spend to local businesses and increase the profile of Parkes as a destination to stay, shop and eat. The Parkes of Chamber of Commerce supported the campaign with 30 businesses participating.

Western NSW schools on board with a healthy lunch: Primary schools in western NSW are helping the next generation of parents pack healthy lunches for their children to provide students with lifelong cancer prevention benefits. Cancer Council NSW nutrition program Eat It To Beat It delivered 75 Healthy Lunch Box sessions during the Western NSW kindergarten orientation period last year. Schools are encouraged to get on board for this year’s kindergarten orientation period. The free 25-minute sessions show parents how easy it can be to pack a healthy lunch box every day. Each family gets a free show bag filled with great resources, including a hands-on Healthy Lunch Box Kit. Western NSW Community Programs Coordinator, Fiona Markwick said including fruit and vegetables in the lunch box was an easy step towards eating the recommended two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables every day. “Schools tell us that many lunch boxes still contain a lot of packaged foods,” Fiona said. To find out more or to register interest for a Healthy Lunch Box session, go to eatittobeatit.com.au or contact Fiona Markwick on 02 6392 0803 or email fionam@nswcc.org.au

Pokémon Go And Catch A Creature

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

Charmander, Rhydon, Snorlax, Gastly, Jynx, Pidgeot, Ponyta, Golem… Pikachu! There is a new language in the streets and parks where people roam and congregate while staring intently at mobile phones. It is the language of Pokémon Go, the hottest game on the app store right now with millions of people playing it all over the world, including Parkes.

Released earlier this month, Pokémon creatures are popping up everywhere in the real world and the idea is that you catch them. Players go to PokeStops to collect balls and other rewards, such as eggs, and Gyms where they can battle for a team against other teams.

One avid player from Forbes, Mitch Watson very soon realised the value of getting players together and started the Forbes and Parkes Pokémon Go Community on Facebook. In just over a week the group already has 230 members. “It is a good community of people and fun to get to know each other and go for walks.” Mitch has already clocked 100km in search of Pokémon.

Cooke Park has been one of the popular PokeStops in Parkes where lure modules are set up regularly. A lure attracts multiple Pokémon to the area for 30 minutes. Other players can see it on their phones and go there to catch Pokémon. On Sunday all three PokeStops in Cooke Park were lit up with lures and more than 80 people turned up to take advantage of it. On Monday about 30 people came and went while the lure was on in Cooke Park. “I have never seen so many people on a weekday in the park,” remarked one of the players.

Some Pokémoners were very excited when they managed to catch a rare Pokémon called Hitmonchan. Other rare Pokémon caught by players so far include a Dragonair and an Aerodactyl. Some of the players in Cooke Park on
Monday had over 300 Pokémon on the tally. It is apparently harder to play Pokémon Go in rural areas as you have to walk a lot more to find Pokémon. The more people there are, like in cities, the more Pokémon are around.

There have been many reports of people putting themselves in danger when playing. Mitch cautioned players to always be alert and stay safe while playing.

By Maggi Barnard

Pick A Shower Screen For Your Taste

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

At the traditional end of the market we have fully framed shower screens with either pivoting or sliding doors. Pivot shower doors are easily adjustable and need very little maintenance. With the latest design innovations they can fit in almost any bathroom. Sliding doors suit very restricted spaces, but do need maintenance.

Framed showers use 6.38mm laminated safety glass. Semi-frameless shower screens are becoming the most popular in our range. They are easier to clean and evoke a feeling of more open space in your bathroom. The aluminium frame is limited to the perimeter of the shower screen with no vertical frame components on the glass panels. Again, the pivot door option can be designed to fit most bathroom layouts and uses 6mm toughened safety glass.

At the designer end of the shower screen market are frameless shower screens, which use 10mm toughened safety glass. They are fitted directly to the wall and floor of a tiled shower area with chrome plated brass fittings. Available with either sliding door, pivot door or a door-less walk in design, frameless shower screens are generally fitted to larger bathrooms.

We also stock a range of glass shower shelves to match any shower. Come and see our large range at Glassplace in Clarke Street, Parkes or call Kath on 6862 2346 for a quote.

ET Comes To Parkes

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

The Parkes Radio Telescope’s involvement in the $100 million program in search of intelligent life beyond Earth will start in October. Dr Pete Worden, Chairman, Breakthrough Prize Foundation, delivered the John Bolton Lecture at the AstroFest in Parkes on Saturday to about 120 people detailing this initiative. The Breakthrough Initiative with Yuri Milner, internet investor and science philanthropist, and Stephen Hawking, physicist, announced the most comprehensive, intensive and sensitive search ever undertaken for artificial radio and optical signals in July last year.

The 10-year, multi-disciplinary search effort will complete a survey of the nearest million stars, it will scan the centre of our galaxy and the entire galactic plane, and beyond the Milky Way it will listen for messages from the 100 nearest galaxies using the world’s largest telescopes. This means the Parkes Radio Telescope would be used 25% of the time for observations in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, USA will be used 20% of the time for the Northern Hemisphere.

Both Dr Worden and Yuri Milner have visited the Parkes Radio Telescope in the past year to discuss details of the program with local CSIRO staff. John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, said it was a very exciting project. “If there is anything to be found, this project will find it.” In addition to this program, Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking announced the Breakthrough Starshot project on 12th April to develop a 100 million mile per hour mission to Earth’s nearest stars.

The idea is to develop light-propelled nanocrafts that could fly at 20% of light speed and capture images of possible planets and other scientific data in our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, just over 20 years after their launch. As leader of the program, Dr Worden said the Alpha Centauri star system is 25 trillion miles (4.37 light years) away. “With today’s fastest spacecraft, it would take about 30, 000 years to get there, so we had to look at something else. We ended up using very old technology – the sail.” Breakthrough Starshot aims to establish whether a gram-scale nanocraft with a 4m sail pushed by a 50 gigawatt laser light beam, can fly over a thousand times faster.

The nanocraft is a gram-scale robotic spacecraft consisting of a starchip and a ligthsail. With the dramatic decrease in the size of microelectronic components, the starchip weighing only a few milligrams could carry cameras, photon thrusters, power supply, and navigation and communication equipment to constitute a fully functioning space probe.

It is expected the Starshot would be launched in about 35 year’s time. The announcement on 12th April was made on the 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering space flight. Dr Worden, a former director of NASA AMES Research Center, will be advised by a committee of world-class scientists and engineers. The board will consist of Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg.

The AstroFest endeavours to bring worldrenowned astronomers, to the Central West so they may share their enthusiasm and love of the heavens. “The festival has been absolutely fabulous,” said Eileen Newport, President of CWAS. “We have been honoured to have such a great speaker as Dr Worden. The Breakthrough project has really captured people’s imagination, as all of us are interested in or wondering about extraterrestrial life.”

The festival, attended by people from all the states and ACT, presented a series of lectures, as well as events at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory Visitors Centre including daytime astronomy and talks. (See more on page 9.)

Mayoral Notes…

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

This weekend I will travel to Echuca Moama for the 2016 Regional Tourism Awards. Council is delighted to be nominated in the Festival’s and Events category and also for Destination Marketing. Council is pleased to announce the winner of the ‘Shop + Win’ promotion. Zarin Barber of Baldry, who placed his entry at Worklocker Parkes, will be sailing the beautiful Coral Sea on an eight-night cruise for two people to New Caledonia, Mystery Island and Lifou next year. Thanks to We Know Travel Parkes who generously donated the prize.

This year’s AstroFest was an outstanding success with approximately 120 people attending the John Bolton Lecture. Hot-offthe-press is an astrophotography calendar featuring the finalists from this year’s David Malin Awards. You can purchase a copy from the Dish Discovery Centre. Parkes Shire Councillors are nearing the end of their four-year term having attended their last council meeting before entering caretaker mode before the Local Government Elections on Saturday, 10th September.

Those interested in becoming a Parkes Shire Councillor are invited to attend the information sessions held on Wednesday, 27th July and Wednesday, 3rd August at Parkes Shire Council’s Administration Centre from 5.30pm. Visit parkes.nsw.gov.au for all the details.

Enjoy your weekend.
Yours Faithfully,
Cr Ken Keith OAM
Mayor of Parkes Shire

Smilin Orion Declared Winner Of Heavenly Photography

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

Troy Casswell has won the 2016 Central West Astronomical Society (CWAS) Astrophotography competition for the second year in a row. The astrophotographer from Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland was declared the overall winner with his entry called Smilin Orion. The image covers the entire constellation of Orion, which is rich in stellar dust and bright nebulae. The red nebulae are hydrogen rich clouds. The giant red arc is Barnard’s Loop, and is 500 light years from Earth.

Troy, who uses a Canon 60 camera, 135mm lens and an astro track tripod, enjoys astrophotography as a hobby. He said he got his first telescope for Haley’s Comet in 1996, but it was the solar eclipse in 2012 in Cairns that opened the door for him to a new world.

The astrophotography competition, with a total prize money of $10,000 and open to all amateur astronomers in Australia, received 250 entries. Dr David Malin, the worldrenowned astrophotographer, judged the entries for the 13th time this year.

The 2016 CWAS David Malin Awards were presented at a special ceremony at the AstroFest held on Saturday for the first prize overall, eight category prizes and ten honourable mentions. Dr Malin said he judged several similar
competitions around the world, and the standard of the Australian astrophotographers’ work stood up internationally. “There are some splendid examples of modern astrophotography among the finalists.”

Dr Pete Woden, Chairman, Breakthrough Prize Foundation, said he was very impressed with the work of the photographers. “Their work has given me an idea to enlist their help in detecting optical signals.” He said photographers were able to pick up flashes of laser light on camera. “These flashes could be from aliens sending signals to us.”

An exhibition of the best photographs was opened at the Parkes Observatory Visitors Centre on Sunday as part of the 2016 Astro-Fest. Parkes Mayor, Ken Keith, said it was the best festival yet and he was happy to see it going from strength to strength. All the winning entries can be viewed on the David Malin Awards web page at http:// www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/astrofest/awards/

The CWAS AstroFest team has produced a 2017 astronomy calendar of images from the shortlisted and winning entries. The calendar is available at the Parkes Observatory Visitors Centre for $19.95.

By Maggi Barnard

Question of the Week?

July 21, 2016 By Maggi Barnard

Do you believe in extraterrestrial life?

Wilbur Harris, Mensland: I believe there are other life forms – not sure to what extent. I find it very intriguing, although I am not into astronomy.

Courtney James, Parkes Newsagency: I don’t really think about it. I don’t really want anything to be out there.

Paul Lowe, Reject Shop: I don’t believe in it as I only believe what I see, but there is probably something.

Maggi Barnard

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