Thursday dawned bright and sunny, and we decided to earn our
breakfast by going for an early swim. Even at 7 o’clock there were people in
the pool, but still plenty of room to swim.
I also had a short session in the Jacuzzi, which was probably the
fiercest I have been in. We decided it was a little dangerous for the DG to
negotiate. It wouldn’t do for her to
slip and break a limb on the eve of the Conference. If that had happened, I
suppose I would have to step in to her shoes, as the next most senior person in
the District. Obviously I had given this some thought beforehand, and had a
half-hour speech prepared about how I intended to develop the role of Consort
to the DG, but unfortunately happily I was not called upon.
A jacuzzi
I was looking forward to breakfast, which we were to take in
the executive dining room. As we had the
executive suite, our room key gave us access to this sanctuary for important
people, and I intended to make the most of it. Imagine the disappointment,
then, when our key failed to open the door to the Executive Dining Room.
Luckily, a nice man (probably a CEO of a blue-chip Company) took pity on us and
allowed us to enter the Holy of Holies with him. Here, all was calm and serene,
with some breakfast items laid out buffet-style, but also a waitress who could
fetch you any breakfast item your heart desired. The DG took the chance to
order fried eggs on toast, but I contented myself with the buffet fare. Immediately after breakfast, we went to
Reception to ensure our room keys worked another time.
Executive Dining Room & Lounge
We then had a meeting with Holly, the Events Organiser
looking after our Conference. The DG had a number of gift bags for her
Conference team, and Holly kindly agreed to get them put into the rooms of the
team members so they would have a pleasant surprise when they arrived. I
assumed one of the bags was for me, and looked forward to getting back to our
room later to see what I had been given. The DG also brought up the thorny issue of WIFI access, and Holly confirmed that it was included in the price of our room, and there would be no extra to pay
Gift bags
A number of delegates were expected to arrive at the Hotel
today, including several of the Conference team. More importantly, however, was
the anticipated arrival of the Rotary International (RI) President’s
Representative, Jens Erik Rasmussen, who is Danish, with his partner Cornelia.
Rotary International always have a representative at every Conference around
the world, to deputise for the RI President, who cannot be expected to attend
the 500 or so District Conferences held around the world each year. Jens Erik was to be our representative, and
he had already been in touch with the DG, having had a Skype call with her a
few weeks ago. Besides delivering messages from the RI Director, the
Representative sends a report to Rotary Head Office on his impressions of the
Conference, and of the DG, so you need to make sure he is happy. I was looking
forward to having some high level discussions with him on matters pertaining to
my role, particularly my idea that all Conferences should have a visiting
Consort to assess how effective the host Consort is. I have kept some weekends
clear next year, in case I am called upon.
Jens Erik Rasmussen
The DG was anxious to be there to meet Jens Erik when he
arrived at the Hotel, so she could welcome him to Bristol. We understood that
he was to be met at Heathrow Airport by Ron and Helena Daniels, who would then
be driving him to Bristol. We should therefore get plenty of notice of his
arrival, so that we can be in place to greet him, but just in case he was early
for any reason, we thought it best to stay close to the Hotel today.
Heathrow
Needless to say, the DG thought there would be some time for
shopping before Jens Erik’s arrival. There is a huge shopping centre within a
couple of hundred yards from the Hotel, which incorporates Cabot Circus,
Broadmead and The Galleries malls, which are all side by side. Our plan was
that I would run a shuttle service back to the Hotel for the DG’s shopping, so
that I can check up on Jens Erik’s progress. I actually had a Debenham’s
voucher to spend, a retirement present from my colleagues at work, and I was
looking for a dress shirt for the gala dinner on Saturday night. Having found and purchased a shirt, I had £10
left on the card, so I bought a pair of trousers costing £18. Thus, my
retirement gift actually cost me £8. The DG meanwhile bought a handbag and various
items of clothing. We then went looking for party cannons. These are long tubes
that explode when you twist the ends, and propel streamers into the air. These
would be good for the finale of the Conference.
Cabot Circus Shopping Mall
Whilst walking through the Shopping Centre, we came across a
Big Issue seller, who had a German Shepherd dog, and the DG naturally went over
to say Hello to the dog. At this point the Big Issue seller came over to speak
to us. He had noticed the DG’s wheels, which have Rotary inserts. ‘Are you from
the Rotary?’ he asked, to which we answered in the affirmative. ‘Rotary helped
me last Christmas,’ he said. ‘I was homeless and had nowhere to go. Then the
Rotary Christmas sleigh came down the road, and when they found out my
situation, they arranged for me to spend 6 nights in a night shelter.’ It went to show that Rotary Moments can come
at the least expected times. The man
went on to explain that he now lives in the back of a van. He told us there was
a park near Bath where there were 150 people living in vehicles, as they have
nowhere else to go. He then apologised for holding us up and wished us a good
day. He hadn’t even tried to sell us a Big Issue.
The Big Issue
On one of my shuttle runs back to the hotel with the DG’s
shopping bags, I met up with Joe Delahunty, who had just arrived. I was pleased
to see he had brought his two crates of Conference bags with him. Joe is the
Chief Steward for the Conference, so came a day early to make sure all
arrangements are OK. I agreed to look after his car, which was parked on double
yellow lines outside, whilst he checked in and sorted out his luggage. I had just been standing there for a couple of
minutes when an air hostess came out of the hotel and started getting into the
front seat. ‘Have you come for me?’ she said. ‘No’ I replied ‘This isn’t a taxi’.
At this point I noticed a taxi driver waving frantically and sent her over to
him. I wasn’t sure if Joe would be angry or happy to come out and find an air
hostess in his car.
Air Stewardess dressed like the one in Joe's car
Joe asked me if there
was anywhere he could get a cup of tea, and I said that the DG and I would be
stopping for some tea shortly, and would he like to join us? He said yes, so we
arranged that when we found a suitable café, I would call him on his mobile
phone and tell him where we were. I went back to Cabot Circus and found the DG
where I had left her. We found a Costa Coffee shop, and I called Joe. No answer. I tried again in 5 minutes. No
answer. This time I left a message and waited for him to return it. He didn’t.
The DG then tried to call him with the same result. So we assumed he had made
other arrangements and carried on shopping. Later it transpired that he had
recently bought a new phone and had the wrong one with him.
Not wishing to miss Jens Erik’s arrival, we got back to the
hotel in the early afternoon. There was still no sign of him, but we did meet
up with some other Rotarians who had just arrived, including Peter and Sue Meldrum.
Peter is Deputy Host for the Conference, and one of his duties is to look after
the DG and Consort, ensuring we are happy and our needs met. We invited them up to our suite for a drink,
and we spent a very pleasant couple of hours in their company. They showed us
pictures from their holiday in Namibia, which looked wonderful. They certainly had some adventures, including
getting their vehicle stuck in the sand on the coast with the tide coming
in. It happened twice in the same day
and each time the same people rescued them.
One of the hotels they stayed at was designed to blend in with the
desert landscape, and looked almost invisible from a distance.
Namibia
During our time with Peter and Sue, the DG took a phone call
from Mike Thorn, the Conference Chairman, who was on the M4 heading for
Bristol. He thought Ron and Helena, who were bringing Jens Erik, were right
behind him. In that case they may be here soon, so the DG wanted to go down to
the Hotel foyer to welcome them. I accompanied her, but I was constantly called
away as Rotarians were now arriving in large numbers, and I was helping them
with their bags and coats. At one point I had an errand which took me into the
executive dining room. I was pleased that my room key worked this time.
Realisation dawned on me that the executive dining room and lounge was open all
day to us VIPs, and there were free drinks and snacks available all day long. I wondered why we had entertained Peter and
Sue in our room, when we could have been enjoying drinks and snacks at the
Hotel’s expense in here.
The M4 at Bristol
I was slightly delayed in the executive lounge, drinking in
the atmosphere, and suddenly remembered that Jens Erik was due to arrive any
time now. In the foyer, I came across the DG talking to Ron and Helena. ‘Where
is Jens Erik?’ I demanded. It seems he
arrived 10 minutes ago and had gone up to his room. At least the DG had been
there to meet him, even if I hadn’t.
In the evening, a group of us, Mike Thorn, Peter and Sue
Meldrum, Andrew Ford, the DG and myself, and John Miles, from District 1250,
who was attending as an exhibitor with the Guildford Eye project, went out to
find a Restaurant, and settled on Zizzi’s, which was a short walk away in Cabot
Circus. It was a fun evening, with lots of jocularity. John, in particular, was
a very funny man. Sue had an interesting
starter, which was flat bread with caramelised onion spread on it. The
surprising thing about it was that it was huge. It looked like a sharing platter for 3 people.
In fact Sue did share it, and several of us had a piece. On the way back we
bumped into Mike Burton, president of Richmond, and his wife, who we had met at
the 90 years celebration a couple of weeks ago.
It was nearly midnight when we got to bed. This was the
earliest we would get to bed that weekend. Incidentally, there was no gift bag
waiting in our room for me. I decided to keep a dignified silence on the matter
rather than embarrass the DG.
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