30 October. It is usual for
District Governors to invite friends amongst their DG peers to their
conference as guests. The DG invited Les Wilson, Governor of
District 1180 to her Conference last month, and he reciprocated by inviting her
(and, of course, her Consort) to his Conference on the weekend 31st
October to 2nd November. District 1180 covers the area of North
Wales and Lancashire, and their Conference this year was in Southport, on the
North West Lancashire coast.
Southport
We thought we would go there a day early, to give us some
time to look around Southport, which is somewhere we have never been before. We
have also added a couple of days at the end for a visit to Blackpool, a bit
further up the coast, to see the world famous Illuminations. We reckoned the
journey would take about 5 hours, allowing for stops en route, so we left at
about 10 a.m. after dropping Daisy off at Linda’s, where she would be boarding
until next Wednesday. What a good friend
Linda has been to us since I became Consort, always happy to have Daisy over to
stay, and Daisy certainly enjoys herself there, playing with her boyfriend
Charlie.
Daisy (lying down) and Charlie
The journey was fairly straightforward and uneventful, and
included an inevitable shopping opportunity for the DG at a Service Station on
the M6, where, among others, a Cotton Traders store with a Sale on was
discovered. She was in the act of buying a top, when I suggested it would be
sensible to try it on before buying it, to which she replied that she was sure
it would fit. We found our way to the Ramada Plaza Hotel at Southport with
ease, thanks to excellent directions from the DG’ s friend Ken Billington, who
had worked in the town for a few years. Ken was due to be attending the Conference
with his Trade Aid stall, and would also be speaking, as he did in Bristol.
The Ramada Plaza and Marine Lake
On arrival at the Hotel I went off to find a concierge/
porter to sort out our luggage. Reception was actually on the 1st
Floor, and there was nobody around apart from the Receptionists. So I grabbed one of their trolleys, unloaded
the car myself and brought everything up to our room on the 4th
Floor, before going back down to park the car in the underground car park. It
comes to something when the Consort to the DG has to unload his own luggage.
Fortunately there weren’t many people around to see me struggling with the
large trolley, which had a mind of its own with regard to direction. Also I
discovered that you should ensure the lift is empty before pushing the trolley
in, otherwise somebody could get crushed. I think the lady accepted my apology,
but I spent the rest of the weekend trying to avoid her.
Hotel trolley
We had a good room with pleasant views out to sea. Although
the road it is situated in is called The Promenade, the Hotel was not exactly
on the sea front, as there was a lake, called Marine Lake between us and the
sea. I thought at first that the lake may contain sea water, but then I saw
coots swimming on it, which I’m pretty sure are fresh water birds. We also had a view down the street,
which showed some grand looking Victorian edifices.
View from our bedroom
Just before going out, the DG announced that we needed to find a Cotton Traders store as the top she bought earlier didn't fit! I refrained from trying to make capital out of this, as I knew it wouldn't go down well. We came down to the bar for a drink before dinner, and made
telephone contact with Les, who was on his way home from a lunchtime Inner Wheel meeting, and wouldn’t be at the Hotel until later. We were relieved to
hear that Pat was recovering well from the illness that prevented her from
attending our Conference, and told them we might catch up later.
The bar at the Ramada
At about this time I noticed a group of business people
meeting at the bar. They obviously came from different occupations, judging by
the way they were dressed, and after I spotted a couple of lapel badges, I came
to the conclusion that this was a BNI meeting. BNI is a networking organisation
for businesses, and I belonged to the Weybridge group (called a ‘Chapter’) for
several years during my banking days (and re-joined later during my Brooklands
College days). The only thing that puzzled me was that BNI is a
breakfast-meeting organisation, so I couldn’t work out why they appeared to be
meeting in the evening. I came to the conclusion that it was probably a social
meeting.
To get some dinner we walked about 10 minutes from the
Hotel, to Lord Street, which seems to be the main shopping street in Southport,
and found an Indian Restaurant which served good curries. Unusually, it seemed
to be staffed entirely by local white people, whereas normally in my experience
Indian Restaurants are run by Bangladeshis. The food, however was quite
authentic. On our way back to the Hotel, we walked along part of the Promenade,
and passed The Lakeside Inn, which claims to be the Smallest Pub in Britain. It certainly was small, but I
suspect there are probably others making similar claims.
The Smallest Pub in Britain?
We went up to our room for an early night when we got back,
and missed Les and Pat, who were in the bar by this time.
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