Mornin' All...
Thank You Lionel for our last post and for keeping me in-the-loop with the many text messages over the past weeks, much appreciated.
Thank you Terry for company and ear over recent weeks and especially the other weekend at Balranald, again much appreciated. And
Thank you Barry for getting John out n about in those early years, Those Snowy Rides.
I had been getting to know John for the best part of 18 years beginning with emails and discussions, of all things, ST1100 steering head bearings, the odd email which I still have and with one of the last topics I spoke with John about was his Cystic Fibrosis (CF). I had learnt of John suffering from CF a couple of years back when he and Gina spent some time here in Melbourne. It'd be fair to say that I gleamed my largest slice of understanding of what made John tick earlier this year when I spent a few days as his guest and during the course of an afternoon which evolved into an evening and continued into a the small hours of the next morning, during which the topic of CF came up. I won't go into the detail, but suffice to say John was well aware that CF had labelled him with a use-by date. Now, if I had to use just one word to sum up who John Nagle was, it would be without doubt or hesitation, John epitomised a
pragmatism.
I am in no doubt that John was fully aware that he was nearing his use-by date, he knew and evaluated the consequences of the rides he undertook, which included his last, which we spoke of at length in March this year.
SAAZ is a verity of hops, or perhaps as the Czech's (from which the name derives), would like us say, Saaz is a
noble variety of hops used in Lagers and Pilsner beers which by far John's favourite drop, though John was known to imbibe pretty much anything containing ethyl alcohol as the arse-burning post at the top of this page attests. But for the discerning of you people heading to the Northbridge Brewing Co, may wish bear this in mind when you point your finger at the lovely array of coloured labels on top of the handles that display their fine brewed drops and say, "
I'll have one of your fine Lagers please".
John and moi' a few months ago at my place imbibing on
mutual ground, Sharaz
Ciao, the can :-)
