ERMERGARD, CERTS.
CERTS IN HERTS.
HERPSTER CERTS.
We sure do love our cats. More people have more of an understanding of cat memes than they do the current political climate.
So, for Anita Loughran, it made sense to tap into that market.
During her honeymoon in Japan, Anita stumbled across something remarkable (as one does every cubic metre in Japan). There, right before her eyes, stood a cat cafe – a place where you cannot only enjoy a coffee (and perhaps a cheeky scone) but can also snuggle up with a furry, four-legged friend.
Anita and her partner returned home to their 9-to-5 grind but couldn’t help but dream of their futures. Few are lucky enough to find their true calling but they were lucky. They threw sensibility to the wind, chucked a complete #yolo, and opened Melbourne’s first cat cafe in July of 2014.
Lending to their amazingness, Anita and her bae sourced the cats from nearby shelters – five from the Geelong Animal Welfare Society and nine from North Melbourne’s Lost Dogs’ Home.
Each kitty was picked for their personality and social skills with other cats/humans.
The shelters gave her instructions on how to best care for them and the business took shape around those ideals. The cat’s welfare was always the first and foremost priority for Anita.
“Every single session is unique; the cats will react completely differently. Sometimes Sherlock will get smitten with someone and will climb all over them and start smooching and drool quite heavily as well.”
Oh Sherlock, you bloody rascal, you.
It’s pretty self-explanatory why Anita’s CommBank’s Australian of the Day #187.
Anne Moffat, CommBank’s Australian of the Day documenter/photographer, has been hard at it to to bring y’all the stories of these true-blue Aussies. www.australianoftheday.com.au is packed to the rafters with astonishing tales of good people doing good things – if you’ve got a minute, go check it out. Before you do though, read about the peeps below.
CAPITALISING ON 2015: MEET THE BRO’S MAKING FAT-STACKS FROM FB
Some people make their mark on the world by writing books, creating scientific theories or getting into politics. Others, like Cam and Jason Segal, make mad-decent Facebook pages.
Capitalising on the nature of 2015, they’re responsible for FB pages like: Goat lyf, Riding your goat majestically off into the sunset and I’m on a goat. Not sure about you guys but we’re really feeling the general goat hilarity.
“We had minimum twenty of these ridiculous pages; all of them had 60,000-100,000 likes.”
But alas, all kids must become full-fledged goats. They cashed in and sold off most of the sites.
Their biggest venture yet is titled Greatest Sporting Moments – you’ve probably heard of it. People have shown overwhelming support for this relatively simple concept. The page has a backlog of historically ~significant~ sporting moments, as well as the usual v. lol, v. funny vids.
Cam and Jason are collecting quite a few dollarydoos from Greatest Sporting Moments with brands wanting to use it as a platform to amplify its reach.
“We have a global audience – our biggest are from Australia, Germany, USA, UK and the Netherlands – which means we have to post around the clock.”
“If it weren’t earning money we would still be doing it. I don’t know if I would do seven posts a night but we’d still be doing it for sure.”
There entrepreneurial nose and interesting story are the reason they’re Australian of the Day #221.
Both recognise how beneficial owning and operating this page is for their futures, not to mention it’s a great way for them to have bro-time.
“It’s awesome for networking and getting a feel for running a business. For people wanting to pursue something in any field, we would say persistence and quality are important.”
IAN CALLEN MAKES BATS SO DECENT THEY’RE ENDORSED BY THE POPE
“I just love the game of cricket,” says Ian Callen.
“My father used to play it, my mother was a scorer – I’ve been involved in the game all my life.”
Say hi to Ian Callen, everybody. One of Ian’s several accolades is being counted as a former Australian test cricketer, but that only the beginning. He’s also the driving force behind our nation’s cricket bat industry.
You’d imagine that cricket bats are something that are pumped out by a machine, but Ian’s keeping the traditional method alive by handcrafting all of his products in his Tarrawarra workshop. Onya’, Ian.
His products are made from trees called Willow Blue which, in their birthplace of England, are referred to as Blue Willow or England Willow. When Ian started growing the little bubs, he was told they’d never grow in Australia’s climate. As a bit of a ‘HAH! Suck it,’ he switched the name from Blue Willow to Willow Blue to reflect the flipped nature of growing the stock in the Southern Hemisphere.
The quality of the bats speak for themselves. His team were quite impressed when he showed off his first one, noting that “it sounded like a shot-gun went off.”
In addition to sounding like a firearm, Ian’s bats managed to attract the attention of a ~holy power~?; The Vatican.
He sent a batch of his bats (that alliteration doe) to The Vatican where they were, just casually, used the pope’s team, The St Peter’s XI. Ian flew over to watch them in action during an exhibition match again The Church of England.
“The St Peter’s XI were beaten last year and I suggested it was because they weren’t using Australian Willow. A week later I received a letter from the Pope himself.”
Praise be.
In order to keep batmaking alive and well in Australia, Ian founded the Willow Blue Project. From April to August this year, Ian offered 8 courses – all of which filled up. 50 people in total are now trained in the skill, and Ian hopes that through this, the batmaking industry will be sustained.
The students have since returned home and are equipped to make products for their community members.
“They can get a bat personally made for them, they can stand there while it’s being made, they can pick it up and feel it – make sure that it’s the right weight. If something goes wrong with it they can go back to them and get the repairs done.”
Ian’s bats are a testament to what Australia’s all about – hundreds of novices and professionals have used them over the years, including Phillip Hughes who hit his first 100 with one.
“I’m sure Phillip would want to be out there still making runs, I’m sure his parents and fans would want that too.”
Ian gets our country. He’s keeping a worthwhile tradition alive, and for that, he’s CommBank’s Australian of the Day #186.
Do yo’self a favour and go hit up www.australianoftheday.com.au for more stories of amazeballs people.
