It's been another frantic week of news - from shockwaves of a tragic, premature death of a young man to the closure of what was seen as a lynch-pin in Wollongong's academic future.
Still the community is coming to terms with the accidental death of 13-year-old Gervis Wililo and the feelings of loss will resurface before every remaining game of the local footy season.
Today Ben Langford confirmed what we had known for months, that the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute Is no more.
One of the University of Wollongong's favoured research centres, it was launched with great fanfare - and a new $30 million building - as a partnership between UOW and the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District.
Its funding was pulled a year ago, board members resigned en masse and now the death knell has been given by none other than its former CEO and director, Professor David Adams.
"A sad day and major loss to the Illawarra community after 14 years contribution to health and medical research in the region," Professor Adams wrote.
At the other end of the spectrum, there's Wollongong runner Mark Upton and his 71-year-old dad Brian.
Come Monday they'll be hitting the ground running on Monday - literally.
They'll be running seven marathons in seven days in support of Bravehearts, a charity set up to support children affected by child abuse. We wish them only tailwinds!
And if we want to end the week on a ridiculous note - where else would we turn other than social media gazillionaires?
As utterly ridiculous as this may be in the 21st century, the world's most powerful tech men, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, have agreed to a cage fight.
In possibly the most perfect of fairyland locations, Las Vegas has been pencilled in as a potential host city to the man-child fight of the century.
Thankfully the absurd slugfest, however imaginary or otherwise, falls snugly into the "only in America" category of news.
And no, Clocking Off does not condone violence. Nor greed.
We do condone keeping up with the latest news over the weekend on the Illawarra Mercury though.
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Janine Graham
Onetime sports reporter, chief-of-staff, editor and national digital news editor. Email me: janine.graham@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Onetime sports reporter, chief-of-staff, editor and national digital news editor. Email me: janine.graham@austcommunitymedia.com.au
