Liverpool Reunion Day 1 - Cavern

20^th May 2016. It is almost a year since I stepped down from my office of Consort to the District Governor, but I have remained exceptionally busy with Rotary work. Besides being Consort to the Immediate Past District Governor, I am occasionally Consort to the current president of Shepperton Aurora Rotary Club, and have also been preparing to be the President of Shepperton Aurora myself from July this year. As Chair of the Admin Committee, I am responsible for most of our social events. So far this year I have arranged London walks, visits to Stately Homes, Skittles evenings, lunches in prison, even a climb over the O2 building in London.

At the summit of the O2 in London

It was nice therefore to get away from all that for a weekend to join the first reunion of all the DGs of 2014 – 15 (and their Consorts) in Liverpool.  It was organised by our good friend Les Wilson, whose District includes Liverpool as well as North Wales. There will be a reunion every year, and the DGs from that year will take turns to arrange it in their own Districts.  Only 3 or 4 of the 29 DGs were unable to attend, so it was a good turnout, and Les had organised a busy weekend for us.

                                                                               Liverpool Waterfront (picture from web)

The IPDG and I left about 9 a.m. for the drive up to Liverpool, after dropping Daisy off at Linda’s, who was looking after her for the weekend. I bribed her with rhubarb from the garden, which she loves (Linda, that is).  We like to set off early, particularly on Fridays, to avoid the worst of the traffic, and our first stop was at the Little Chef at Bicester, where I had my usual, the Olympic breakfast.

Home-grown rhubarb

Traffic on the M6 was horrendous, but the Sat Nav lady found an alternative route via the Birkenhead tunnel which she claimed would save us an hour. Our  hotel , the Jury’s Inn was in the Albert Dock area of the city, where we had spent some time last year, and was familiar to us. However with no parking at the Hotel, I had to drop off the IPDG and drive a quarter of a mile back to the nearest car Park, where the car remained for the rest of the weekend. It was good to meet up  in the Hotel foyer with friends from around the country, including the IPRIBIP (I’ll let you work that one out, answers on a postcard please) Peter King and his lovely wife Di.

Jury's Inn Liverpool

Meeting up with old friends

Les had organised a full programme of events for us all, and this afternoon we walked to the Cavern Club. It is not the original Cavern, which was demolished many years ago, but is a faithful reconstruction on the same site of the original. It was terrific, full of old posters and memorabilia from the Beatles days, and there were even bands playing live in two areas.  I think there was some kind of music festival going on in the Cavern, and when we  arrived,  a Brazilian band was playing on the main stage. In the next room a young man giving a very passable impersonation of John Lennon, was singing Beatles songs from the sixties.

Band from Brazil on stage at The Cavern Club

What amazed me was that entry was free. I have become used to paying rip off prices as a tourist, and it was a pleasure to learn that museums (which is how the Cavern Club is classified)  in Liverpool are all free.  We had a couple of drinks at the bar (normal pub prices), savouring the atmosphere, before moving on.

Beatles memorabilia on display

On the way back to the Hotel we stopped in the Liverpool One Shopping centre. I had thought that it must be named after its Post Code, but its name apparently comes from the fact that it cost one million pounds to build. I noticed that Everton FC still have their shop there, called EvertonTwo (postal address: Everton Two, Liverpool One, get it?).

Everton Two, Liverpool One

That evening, we had a very convivial dinner in the Hotel, which was full of reminiscing about  our year in the firing line as District Governors and Consorts. I think it fair to say that most people enjoyed their years, although just about everybody had difficult issues to deal with at some point during their year. The IPDG normally likes to be last to leave the bar on these occasions, but it had been a long day for us and we retired to bed before midnight.

Sheila, Rosemary, Doug and the IPDG

The Queen's 90th Birthday

I was delighted to receive an invitation to attend an event at TS Black Swan, home of the Sunbury and Walton Sea Cadets to mark the 90th birthday of Her Majesty the Queen.  Although I have seen the Queen on a number of occasions, I have never been introduced to her before, so I was looking forward to being able to have a chat with her, and wish her a Happy Birthday. I did actually speak to her once, many years ago, but I don’t think she heard me, as she was being driven past me in a car at the time.

It did seem rather remarkable, that given all the invitations she must have received, she would choose to come to Shepperton to spend a few hours on her birthday.  So remarkable, in fact, that it wasn’t true. I had misunderstood – her birthday was being celebrated at the Black Swan in her absence.  Nevertheless, there was a busy programme of events this evening,  including the raising of the colours, the lighting of a beacon in honour of the Queen’s birthday, and a demonstration of some drills. I was accompanied by a small group from the Rotary club, including Gill, Ken, Doreen, Tony, Janet and Peter  Matthews as we arrived  at the clubhouse, which is hidden down the end of Penny Lane, near Walton Bridge.

Unit HQ

It was a chilly evening and we were glad of the chance for a drink inside the clubhouse (which I think is correctly called the Unit HQ), where I met Gail Cramp, chairman of the Sea Cadets.  What I hadn’t realised until now, was just how much the Sea Cadets appreciate the support we have given them over recent years. On a wall was a ladder showing the progress the Unit has made towards their ultimate goal of rebuilding their HQ.  Shepperton Aurora Rotary is included in the list of major donors.

Boat on the river

Soon it was time to go outside, where the Unit has a Parade Ground alongside the river. Here various dignitaries gathered ( e.g. The High Sheriff of Surrey, Mayor of Spelthorne, local councillors, me) to witness the raising of the colours and lighting of the beacon. Unfortunately I had forgotten to bring my gong, which made me feel a bit left out, as all the other dignitaries, resplendent in their chains of office, were shown to the front seats, whereas I had to sit a couple of rows behind.

The front row - where I should have been

The lighting of the beacon wasn’t quite what I had expected. Before the event I had in my mind a vision of a beacon being lit on top of a hill, forming part of a chain across the country, each within sight of the next one. What a grand spectacle that would have been.  The reality, however, was a little less dramatic, although no less public-spirited.  Whilst there were indeed hundreds of beacons lit that evening, they tended to be in the middle of communities, outside churches, schools and such public places; in fact anyone who wanted to light a beacon could apply for permission to do so.

The mayor's hair seems to be on fire

In this case the beacon was gas lit, so lighting it was very easy, and was accompanied by a rendition of Happy Birthday from the 100 or so people present.  Following  speeches from the High Sheriff of Surrey Elizabeth Kennedy, and Spelthorne mayor Mark Francis, we were treated to a demonstration of marching from the cadets as they performed intricate drills without appearing to put a foot wrong. The drills had a naval sound to them, as cadets were instructed to turn ‘inboard’, ‘outboard’, ‘fore’ and ‘aft’. We learned that the Unit has had great success with drilling, having won National competitions. On the face of it, they just appeared to be marching back and forth, but in fact they were following very precise orders and I didn’t see them put a foot wrong.

The High Sheriff addresses the throng

It was an enjoyable evening, and I think we were all impressed with the Ship’s Company. All the adult organisers were unpaid volunteers, and the young people were certainly trained in Naval disciplines to a very high standard. It was also nice to hear that they were planning to change the name of their Unit soon to incorporate ‘Shepperton’ into the title.

Marching hither...

....and marching thither

Birthday celebrations

Skittles

10^th March.  I have decided to re-introduce a former tradition in our Rotary Club. We used to have an annual Skittles evening which everybody enjoyed, but for some reason this lapsed a few years ago. So I thought it was time we started up again, and persuaded our Admin Committee (of which I am chairman) to organise a skittles evening. The IPDG checked out the venue we used to go to, The Greyhound pub in Eton Wick, and found the skittles alley was still there, so a date was decided upon, the alley was booked and buffet food ordered.

Skittles

To make things a little more interesting we invited local clubs to join us, and we ended up with David and Geoff from Chertsey club with their wives, and Kevin and Charles from Staines. It’s a bit of a drive to Eton Wick, particularly on a dark evening at rush hour, but everyone seems to have Sat Nav these days, and I didn’t need to create a map for anyone. The pub is actually hidden down a side street, not immediately visible from the main road.

The Greyhound

As it was several years since we were last there, I didn’t really know what to expect. The first thing I noticed, that hadn’t been there before, was a smoking area just outside the entrance to the skittles alley. Accompanying a few smokers sitting there was rather a large Rottweiler dog, which we had to get past in order to reach the relative safety of the bar. Not only that, he was staring at me in a way that seemed aggressive. However, he turned out to be one of the soppiest dogs I have met and only wanted to be patted.

Rottweiler

Once into the Skittles alley, I was pleasantly surprised to find it very well appointed and tidy, in fact smarter than I remembered it. Ken, as usual, had got there first, and the rest of us arrived gradually afterwards. I was pleased to see Karen had managed to come along, even though we hadn’t expected her.

Skittle Alley at The Greyhound

At this point, the IPDG demonstrated her weakness at mental arithmetic, which cost us a few quid. There was no charge for hiring the venue, we just had to pay for the buffet food. As we numbered 19 altogether, the IPDG sent me into the bar to pay for the food. At £12 per head the total cost was £228 which I duly paid. Only later did she say that it was a pity we didn’t have one more person, as the cost was just £10 per head if there were 20 or more.  If I’d known that before, I would have paid for 20 people, which would have cost only £200!

Skittles is an ancient game, probably the forerunner to the ten pin bowling played today. The big difference, of course, is that ten pin bowling is fully automated, so the skittles are re-erected mechanically and scores are worked out in an instant. I never really covered myself in glory playing 10 pin bowling. In fact someone once commented, after yet another ball had failed to hit a pin, ‘I always knew you would end up in the gutter’.

10  pin bowling

With skittles, the work is all done manually, although at least there is no gutter. To make things more interesting, the skittles are wooden, and not exactly uniform. Sometimes they are difficult to erect as they wobble, or lean to one side. Furthermore the ‘ball’ is also made of wood, and isn’t exactly spherical, so it dances around a bit as it rolls toward the skittles. All this means that great skill, or a lot of luck, is required to regularly achieve good scores.

The bar at The Greyhound

Seventeen of us were actually playing the game tonight, with Ken being ‘ball-boy’ and the IPDG doing scoring (well, no-one else offered). All players had a practice round and then 3 scoring rounds. Everyone gets to bowl 3 balls when it’s their turn. Therefore the skittles would have to be reset 68 times during the evening, and more often than that if somebody knocks them all down after 1 or 2 balls, as I did regularly of course. When organising the event I did ask if anybody could bring along a teenager to do all the picking up and re-setting of the skittles, but my request fell on deaf ears. Instead the task of setting them up after each turn was shared between Chris, Ron, Brian, Tony, Doreen and myself, as we were the only ones able to bend over, reach the floor, and get up again.

Mid-way through the evening we stopped to enjoy the buffet, which was excellent, and good value, even at £12 per head. When we came here in the past, the food was always a highlight, and I had been concerned whether tonight’s offering would live up to those memories, but it did.

Welcome refreshments

As far as the competition went, we divided ourselves into two teams. I tried to keep it competitive by setting husbands and wives against each other on opposite teams. This seemed to work well, as my team ran out the narrow winners, despite Karen scoring two strikes with two balls for our opponents in her last round. I didn’t consider it necessary to check the scoring, which I’m sure was accurate.

Now pick them up

Looking back on the evening, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and it was good to socialise with members of two other local clubs. I think I will try and make this an annual event once again, but to try and enlist a couple of youngsters to undertake the picking up and setting down of the skittles.

End of a successful evening (for my team)

O2 Climb 2016

The 23^rd February every year is Rotary Day, when Rotarians around the world celebrate the founding of the Rotary movement in 1905 (I think). Various activities take place on this day to raise the profile of Rotary and inevitably raise some money for Charity whilst doing so. Last year my regular reader may recall that I scaled the O2 building in London to raise money for Rotary’s campaign to end Polio in the world, and also for Roll Out The Barrel Trust. The second of these sounds like a pub song, but is actually a great charity which gets fresh water to remote communities around the world.

The O2

The IPDG accompanied me on that visit last year, and we were told that if we came again the following year, she could also get up there. Apparently they have special equipment (a couple of burly blokes, I assumed), to get wheelchair users up and over the building, and the organisers would book her in to the climb next year. So, as the 2016 climb drew near, I was in contact with Adrian Brewer, organiser extraordinaire of this event to remind him that the IPDG wanted to accompany me this time. I also persuaded some other members of my Rotary Club to join us on the climb. The cost was £30 each, which was discounted from the usual price of £45 to climb the dome.

Base Camp - The climb starts here

Several months of preparation for the event ensued, during which the IPDG and I did some altitude training in Rome and Barcelona, which have some steep streets, and we also tackled the highest peak to be found locally, St Ann’s Hill in Chertsey. It wasn’t too strenuous, in fact there is a car park at the top, but it is a nice place for a picnic  anyway. By the end of January the IPDG felt ready to face the challenge.

St Ann's Hill summit

It was about this time that we received the devastating news that she could not go up the O2 after all. Apparently, if she were to be allowed to climb, she would need a two-hour slot whilst special equipment was deployed, and this would mean that some 90 other people would be prevented from climbing. She magnanimously agreed to step down from the climb (a little too quickly I thought), because the main purpose of the event is of course to raise money. Although she had raised some via JustGiving.com, 90 other people would between them collect far more.

Our intrepid band

So it was, that a group of us, comprising myself, the IPDG, Sally Dick and Janet Matthews met at Shepperton Station early on the morning of 23^rd Feb to catch our train to London. We were to meet Pauline Hedges, Doreen and Tony Pipe and Karen Sutton at the O2.  The climbers among us were me, Pauline, Tony, Sally and Karen, with the rest travelling as supporters. We made good use of the Group Discounts available on South West Trains, which made the cost of an all zones Travelcard for the day just £11 each. At the station we chanced upon a former member of the Rotary Club, Melody Chick. She is a keen ballroom dancer, and was off to attend a competition somewhere.

Shepperton Station

Ramps on to the train were organised for the IPDG, and the ever helpful chap in the ticket office at Shepperton Station telephoned ahead for a ramp to be available when we arrived. All this worked like clockwork, and when we got to Waterloo, the 2 lifts needed to take us down to the Jubilee Line were thankfully working. Trains on the Jubilee line are fully accessible without ramps at Waterloo and at North Greenwich, and we arrived almost without incident.

Sally, I regret to say, did cause a bit of a stir when the train pulled away from one station a bit sharply, and she was propelled into the lap of a man sitting nearby. It took rather a long time to extricate herself much to her, and his, embarrassment, but as an icebreaker it was terrific. Everyone else in the carriage thought it was hilarious, and at least it got the usually reticent London commuters talking to each other. What they didn't know was this is fairly standard behaviour for Sally.

A last hot chocolate before we set off

The others were waiting for us at the O2, just a short walk from North Greenwich station. Doreen, who hosts a show on Brooklands Radio once a week called ‘Just Women’, had brought recording equipment with her, and wanted to create a piece for broadcasting at a later date, talking to organisers, climbers, and anyone else she could find connected with the event. Her recording got off to an inauspicious start. She was interviewing one of the organisers outside Base Camp (where anyone climbing the dome starts off) when she was approached by O2 Security personnel who told her she had no permission to make a recording at the venue, and warned her off. We think that there was a heightened state of alert due to the Brit Awards taking place there the following day. This setback did not deter Doreen for long, as once she was safely inside Base Camp she carried on interviewing anyone else who would speak to her.

The climbers - Pauline, Karen, me, Sally and Tony

Karen had come along with a friend, Ingrid Weel, who was to join us on the climb. It turned out that she was part-Scandinavian in ancestry, and she recognised Viking runes in the sweater I was wearing. I had bought it in Orkney several years ago, and is the warmest jumper I have, so ideal for this cold day. Vikings of course colonised the Orkneys 2,000 years ago, and runes were their means of writing. In fact, just to digress for a moment, I remember visiting Maes Howe, which is an ancient burial chamber on Orkney Mainland, and seeing Viking graffiti there. The strange, stick-like runes were scratched into the upper wall of this tomb, and our guide explained that the message said ‘There is no treasure here’ (probably because the writer had just taken it!). I asked Ingrid if she could translate my sweater, but she failed this test.

Note the runes on my sweater

Maes Howe, Orkney

Our climb time was 12 noon, and so the 5 of us reported to Base Camp as instructed, at 11.30. We were given a very amusing safety talk (which I recognised from last year) and then went to get kitted up. First of all we had to put on a waterproof jacket covering our other clothes. This jacket had just one small pocket, big enough for a mobile phone or a small camera. We were not allowed to take anything else with us, for fear we might drop things onto the unsuspecting public below us. Over the top of this we had to put a harness with a heavy dangling thing on the front of it, which attached to the safety rope when we commenced climbing. Unsurprisingly, several people had trouble getting into their harnesses the right way round.

Our climbing kit

Finally we had to change shoes into trainers provided by Base Camp. This was not negotiable, and everyone had to change their shoes. Some protested, not understanding why one pair of trainers should be exchanged for another. It’s not as if people were wearing high heels, which would obviously have the potential to damage the fabric. I presumed the organisers were concerned about dirt from people’s shoes getting on to the roof. Last year I liked the Ecco shoes I’d been given so much that I bought a pair a couple of weeks later. In fact I was wearing them today.  Ironically, I now had to take them off and change them for the ones they wanted us to wear, which this time were Trojan shoes. Once again, I found them so comfortable I wanted to take them home with me, although to date I have resisted the urge to buy some.

Kitted up and ready to go

We all decided to do the climb as a team, so we stayed in a group and were actually at the front of the line of 20 or so people going up at 12.00. A pause for official photos, some instruction on how to keep your dangling thing (I’m sure there’s a technical word for it, but I’ve no idea what it is) attached to the safety rope, and we were off. We could see the IPDG, Doreen and Janet down on the ground and waved as we set off. After that we had to concentrate on what we were doing, with eyes, and both hands, on the safety rope. It seemed that I, as leader, constantly had to stop and wait for Sally, who was in second place, to catch up. I think the reason for this was not that she was having particular difficulty with the climb, but she didn’t stop chatting the whole time. Due to the nature of dome-shaped buildings, the ascent was steepest at the start, and the gradient improved as we climbed towards the top. Here there is a level platform, where we spent 20 minutes, during which time we were able to walk around admiring the views across London.

Ingrid models the climbing gear

We were fortunate that it was a very clear day, and were able to see long distances, including the arch of Wembley stadium, some 20 miles away, we were told. Nearer to us, the Olympic Stadium was easily visible, and the strange sculpture that went up at the time of the 2012 Olympics. Looking East, I could see the Excel Centre, and beyond it the Thames Flood Barrier.  From my vantage point It was apparent that the River Thames really does follow a very meandering course through London. We were at the O2, on the South Bank of the river, and looking directly North, I could see a couple of miles away the London Eye, which is also on the South Bank.

 

 Pauline at the top - her brother has a flat in the white building behind her

Team Leader

All too soon, it was time to make our descent down the other side of the dome. The downward journey of course was a mirror image of the ascent, in that the slope got steeper and steeper as we went down. Just like last year, my main concern here was staying on my feet, as I didn’t want to take out the person (s) in front of me if I slipped. Immediately in front on the descent was actually Karen, who was having enough trouble with her hips going down, and the last thing she needed was me crashing into her.

Ready to descend

Fortunately, we all got down safely, and we all felt quite good about our achievement. The climb was enough of a challenge to make you feel you had achieved something, but not so tough that anyone was frightened by it. Between us, I think we raised about £2,000 towards the twin beneficiaries of End Polio now and Roll Out The Barrel, and this will be increased to £3,000 with the matched funding for polio eradication agreed between Rotary and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

When we got back to Base Camp, we were each given a photo of our climb, and a medal, neither of which I remember getting last year. The only slight disappointment for me was that the event didn’t appear to be very well attended by Rotarians, in fact there seemed less people around  than last year, which was a surprise. The problem appeared to be due to insufficient publicity beforehand, which must have been disappointing to Adrian Brewer and the ever supportive Mukesh Malhotra.

Proudly wearing our medals

After we had been reunited with our belongings, which had been  stored in lockers whilst we climbed, we headed off into the O2 Arena for lunch, where most of us tackled the salad bar at a Harvester’s with relish (literally) and were favourably impressed with the excellent friendly service we received there. It's funny how we change as we get older. A few years ago I would have been searching the menu for a T-bone steak, these days I am happy with a salad. We managed to get back to Waterloo before rush hour got going, so we were home relatively comfortably.  

Harvester at the O2

That evening I attended an excellent talk at Staines Rotary Club by Commander James “Blackers” Blackmore, Commanding Officer of the Fixed Wing Force based at Royal Navy Air Station, Culdrose. Besides getting a terrific insight into flying Sea Harriers, I managed to obtain more sponsorship for my climb earlier that day.

Sea Harrier