Ancient Rock

As I stood centre stage at Chertsey Hall, in front of a capacity audience, many of whom were on the dance floor looking expectantly  at me, I looked across at Tony and nodded. The band launched into the intro for the  Creedence Clearwater Revival classic, Proud Mary. I was sweating. I had rehearsed this moment for weeks and was terrified in case I should miss my cue, or worse still, forget the words. 

Creedence Clearwater Revival

I needn’t have worried. I counted the bars of the intro and launched into the first line exactly at the right moment and virtually in tune. The crowd went wild (well, they started dancing), and didn’t stop until the final drum-roll, signalling the end of the number.

Yes that really is me

So what was I doing on stage singing rock and roll? I’ve never been renowned for my singing ability. Once at a White Lodge charity event I sang Maggie May to the backing of a karaoke machine. It was a disaster. Even I had known I was off key so it must have been bad. But as I had started, I felt I had to carry on to the end, however mortifying it was. So what on earth was I doing singing in public again? Had I gone mad?

White Lodge Centre

To answer that question I have to take you back to last July, when I ascended into the post of President of the Rotary Club of Shepperton Aurora. One of the privileges of being president of the Rotary Club is that you get to select a couple of charities which the Club will support during your year of office. These are called ‘The President’s Charities’. One of my charities this year is CAMEO, a Shepperton-based charity which provides respite care for families of people suffering from dementia.

They do this by looking after the (usually elderly) relative for a day, stimulating them with activities, providing lunch and perhaps most importantly giving them company for the day in a safe environment. Our support was timely, as Annette, CAMEO’s manager had told me earlier this year that they have lost much of their Local Authority funding, so were looking for new ways of funding their work.

Annette from CAMEO at one of our meetings 

Not long after I had announced that CAMEO were to be one of my Charities this year Doreen Pipe said that her husband Tony’s band would like to do a charity gig this year for the benefit of CAMEO. I was thrilled at this idea. Tony plays in a rock and roll band called Ancient Rock. I have seen them play a few times and think they are terrific, in fact they played at my 50^th birthday party a few years ago. The guys have mostly known each other since their school days, but are now dispersed across the country and come together only occasionally to play. I felt honoured, then, that they had offered to support one of my charities.

Ancient Rock

However, there was one catch. Part of the deal was that I had to come up on stage and sing a song with Ancient Rock backing me. I could choose any number I wanted (within reason). They would help me through it but whether or not I got up on stage to do it was not negotiable. ‘What if I mime it and you sing?’ I asked, desperately. ‘No’ came the reply. ‘How about if I just sing the chorus?’. ‘No’. There was no way out, I had to sing. Being a Creedence fan, I chose Proud Mary as I thought I could cope with the lyrics and the key. Tony gave me a lot of confidence when he said ‘Just start singing and we will play whatever key you are in!’ We decided to keep my performance  a secret, so nobody but us would know I was going to get up on stage to sing.

Our venue

A date in November was duly fixed and tickets printed. The evening would cost £15 a head, which included a fish and chip supper. All proceeds were to go to CAMEO, so it was important to sell as many tickets as possible. I had arranged with my former employers, Barclays, that they would match anything we raised in the raffle, up to a maximum of £750. A number of my Rotary colleagues offered to assist on the night, and many good quality raffle prizes were donated. We were told that the Hall had a maximum seated capacity of 120 so our intention was to fill all seats.

CAMEO themselves sold over 50 tickets, Doreen and Tony sold around 40 to existing Ancient Rock fans (apparently they have groupies too), and the rest were snapped up by Rotarians. In fact I think we sold over 140 altogether, but managed to fit everybody in somewhere. I was at a Civic Reception being hosted by the Mayor that afternoon, so hastened over to Chertsey in time to help set things up. The PDG stationed herself on the front door to make sure no-one got in without a ticket. I was hoping to get some rehearsal time on stage with the band, but this proved to be impossible.

So, by 7.30 the hall was full of expectant people, many of whom had never seen Ancient Rock play and had no idea what to expect. The band started off fairly low key, with more laid back rock music such as the Shadows and Beatles. Later they would get a bit heavier with the likes of The Troggs and Rolling Stones. In fact during the first half they did a brilliant rendition of the Shadows’ Wonderful Land, with Tony giving a virtuoso performance in the Hank Marvin role.

Virtuoso - Tony Pipe

This was actually the first record I had ever bought, in the early 60’s. At the time I didn’t even have a record player, so I bought it as a Christmas present for my elder brother who did have one, thinking that he’d be thrilled to listen to Wonderful Land all day long. What I hadn’t foreseen was that he was into the likes of Elvis Presley and Bobby Vee, and thought the Shadows to be rather un-cool. Needless to say, I struggled to get the new record played at all.

Sally enjoys the show

Anyway back to the concert, which progressed very well. Tony and the band had nearly everyone dancing and singing along to classics of the 60’s and 70’s. The plan was that after the interval, the band would play 5 numbers, then I would appear on stage to say a few words, before making to leave. Tony would stop me leaving the stage and tell me the band wanted me to sing a number with them. I was to protest that unfortunately I don’t sing and try again to leave. At this point Tony would ask the audience if they wanted to hear me sing. He was confident they would reply in the affirmative, and that would be it.

                                                                                     I say a few words

As the interval came and went, and the raffle was held (we also auctioned a few items which raised a lot of money thanks to Richard Edgar’s brilliant work as an auctioneer) I was becoming more and more nervous. By the time fish and chips had arrived and been consumed I tried to keep my mind off my coming ordeal by making myself busy clearing up the rubbish. Des and Moira said they would need to go shortly after the interval, but I said I would be making a speech shortly and they should at least stay for that.

Dance floor looks busy

Finally my big moment arrived. I was waiting backstage when Tony announced that I would be saying a few words, and on I came. After thanking everybody as usual I explained about President’s charities, and why CAMEO was one of them (they used to look after my late mother), I thanked everyone for coming and expressed the hope that they would enjoy the rest of the evening. Tony and I then acted out our little charade, which ended up with me launching into Proud Mary. The PDG recorded the whole thing on her iPad, but neither of us has the foggiest idea how to send the video anywhere, so it can only be viewed on her gadget.

The audience are putty in my hands

The evening was an outstanding success. The raffle alone raised over £800, and Barclays topped this up by a further £750. Altogether the evening made over £2800 for Cameo, and I was delighted to attend Christmas lunch at the Greeno Centre in Shepperton (where CAMEO are based) to hand it all over to Annette. I’m trying to persuade Tony to make this an annual event.

Tony joins me to make presentation to Annette

Roman London

22nd  October. You wouldn’t think there was much evidence of Roman London today, (or Londinium, as it would have been called then) some 1800 years after the Romans left Britain. Today Pauline Hedges took us on a guided tour to demonstrate that there is actually quite a lot of it to be seen, just by wandering around the City. This tour was arranged a year ago, following a tour of the Financial areas of the City of London, also guided by Pauline. We had such a good time last year that we  decided there and then to do another trip a year later, when we would visit Roman London.

Londinium circa 200 A.D.

As usual, we gathered at Shepperton station for the 9.45 a.m. train to Waterloo. We were 17 in number, and most of us elected to obtain a group ticket, which meant an all zones day ticket to London cost us just £9.10 each.  A few of us made other arrangements. Mark Steptoe is a season ticket holder, and was able to obtain a ticket for himself and Jenny free of charge. Des and Moira were heading to the West End after the walk, so used their senior Railcards for a discounted fare to Waterloo.  So none of us paid the full price for a rail ticket, which pleased us immensely.

All aboard the train at Shepperton

The guided tour started earlier than I had expected. As we passed through Fulwell station, Doreen pointed out that this is where she went to school. I tried to get a photograph of this historic site but the train was moving too fast. A little later, somewhere near New Malden, Mark pointed out the very building where he used to work. Yes, the very building!

Doreen's old school - Thames Valley Grammar

I wasn’t going to be left out of this, and when we arrived at Vauxhall station I made sure everyone was aware that this is where I got off the train during my commuting years. Mark, a fountain of knowledge on many subjects told us that in the early days of railways, a delegation of Russians came to learn about this new  transport  system. Members of Parliament took them to the nearest station which was Vauxhall. When the Russians asked what it was called, meaning the type of building, they were misunderstood, and were told it was called Vauxhall. Thus it came about that the Russian word for station is ‘vauxhall’.  Strange but true

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Vauxhall Station

Upon arrival at Waterloo, we went our separate ways for 10 minutes for a ‘comfort break’, arranging to meet in the usual Waterloo meeting place, under the clock. From there it didn’t take long to go down the escalators to the London-City line, and a few minutes later we emerged from Bank station  and crossed the road to the Royal Exchange.  Here we met up with our tour guide Pauline, and off we went on our quest for Roman London. Most of it lies 7 yards under our feet, but parts of it can still be seen, as we were to discover.

On the steps of the Royal Exchange

Pauline tells us about the Bank of England, behind us

The City is divided into numerous wards, which were established in Medieval Times, and it wasn’t long before we were walking through the ward of Cheap. The word in old English means ‘Market’. An interesting aspect to this part of the walk was the large number of livery halls we passed, including the Mercers, Goldsmiths and Saddlers.  The most famous of all is the 15^th Century Guildhall itself, a magnificent building which I was fortunate to visit many years ago. Inside it has two giant statues, called Gog and Magog.

The Guildhall

Pauline showed us a number of public gardens in the City. Apparently there are dozens of them within the square mile, mostly very small, but they provide a tranquil place to sit or stroll for City workers. We had a walk around one of them ourselves, I can’t remember which one. There was a board in the garden showing a map of all the green spaces in the City of London. You could easily spend a relaxing day just strolling around these gardens.

A City garden

We passed the Barbican, the 20^th Century walled City, on our way to London Wall, a street which gives a useful clue to what might be found there. This is where the PDG and I met up with the Lord Mayor’s procession a couple of years ago. Today however we were here to view the remains of the actual Roman wall, which can clearly be seen. There has been some restoration work, but if you look closely it is still possible to see Roman workmanship in the wall. The Museum of London is also here, and Pauline suggested that we come back and spend some time in this Museum, which has amazing displays on the subject of Roman London.

A piece of the actual wall which surrounded Londinium

 Narrow medieval streets

Walking past the famous bells of St Mary-le -Bow, the time was just after 12 noon and we heard the bell rather strangely chime 4 times. Shortly afterwards it chimed another 4 times. I assumed it was striking 12 but taking its time over it. Pauline explained how the prevailing wind is from the west, which explains why only East Londoners can claim to be born within the sound of Bow, and are therefore true Cockneys. Mark Steptoe, born in West London, sadly cannot make this claim, even if he wanted to. The bells are also credited with persuading Dick Whittington to return to London, and of course are mentioned in the Nursery Rhyme ‘Oranges and Lemons’

The clock tower - St Mary-Le-Bow

A plaque nearby

As our walk continued it was interesting to come across fascinating road names which clearly indicated the activities which went on there, for instance Milk Street, Poultry, and Pudding Lane. If you were looking for a brothel in medieval times, you would go to Love Lane or Cock Street (it's true, believe it or not). Wardrobe Place really was the place monarchs kept their state clothing, and Mincing Lane was actually named after nuns from a nearby Church who lived there. The Medieval word for a nun was mynchen, from which Mincing Lane derives.

Fancy gate post at a City garden

All too soon we were back at our starting point. Des and Moira left us to go shopping in the West End whilst the rest of us headed off to Waterloo, from where we walked down to the South bank for lunch. Ken suggested a Restaurant called The Archduke, which he had been in before and found to be good.  So in we went, and were very impressed. The Restaurant sits among railway arches, but the upstairs area we sat in had a super view to the London Wheel and the Thames beyond. If I ever I feel like coming to London for the New Years Eve celebrations, I will book this very table. Despite a large number of us turning up at no notice, the staff couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful. The food was good quality and unusually for London, reasonably priced. I had a home made burger with stilton, which was quite delicious.

Archduke Restaurant

It had been another excellent guided tour in London, and Pauline have already planned next year’s tour, which will be Chaucer and Shakespeare’s London, including the Globe Theatre. I can’t wait.

The Globe Theatre

District Conference 2016 Eastbourne - Day 3 - Parade

We were up early today for another fine breakfast at the Cavendish. We also had to pack, as we needed to check out before heading off to the Conference Theatre for the final morning session of the Conference. Fortunately the Hotel allowed us to keep the car in their car park until lunch time. The car park at the Cavendish Hotel is quite unique. The Hotel is on the seafront, and is part of a  block of buildings, with mostly hotels on each side. In the centre of this block is a private car park owned exclusively by the Hotel. You have to access it from the rear of the Hotel and there are not very many spaces, but if you book early enough (as I did last Friday) your parking space is allocated to you for the duration of your stay by means of a traffic cone with your name on it. This is very useful given the difficulty in parking cars in Eastbourne generally.

Cavendish Hotel

We were joined this morning by Pauline, Doreen and Tony who had just come for the day. The session started with two terrific presentations. The first of these was Mike Goody. Whilst serving with the RAF in Afghanistan in 2008 he lost a leg when he stepped on a landmine. He also suffered brain trauma, and was wheelchair bound for 3 years. However, his determination and competitive spirit enabled him to overcome these terrible injuries.  He swam the Channel in 2009, and won 4 gold medals at the Invicta Games of 2014, a feat he repeated in 2016. He spends much of his time visiting schools promoting the value of swimming, not only  as a leisure activity but as a valuable life skill.

Mike Goody

He was followed by Patricia Parker, an extraordinary woman whose charity Kids for Kids provides goats to help families with milk and food in war-torn Sudan. The charity supports 78 villages in the province of Darfur. The UN reports that there are malnourished children in every village in Darfur, apart from these 78. The Charity plans to include more villages in coming months and years. It must take unbelievable courage to operate a charity in such highly dangerous conditions, but she has been doing this for many years and aims to continue doing so.

Patricia Parker

After a coffee break, it was time for my big moment, the Parade of the Presidents! The president of each club in the District is introduced on stage, and he or she then walks on to raucous applause from their club members. I had been looking forward to this for some time, and had been practising my triumphant wave as my adoring public cheered me to the rafters. I wasn’t sure if there would be time, but just in case, I had prepared a short 20 minute speech about my plans to develop the role of Rotary Club President, once the applause had died down.

I get a hurried shake of the DG's hand

Things  didn’t quite turn out that way. Having sacrificed my coffee to be corralled back-stage with all the other presidents, we were then called out six at a time to shake the DG’s hand. It was all over in a couple of minutes. At least we were called up in alphabetical order, so the three Spelthorne Presidents present, representing Shepperton Aurora, Shepperton & Sunbury and Staines all followed each other on to the stage (me first of course). I think I heard some noise from the audience, but it was all a bit low key compared to previous years.

Spelthorne Presidents. From left Kevin Bridge, Geoff Williams, me.

The keynote speaker for the morning was Nicholas Owen, former newsreader and Royal correspondent for ITV. He was very entertaining, giving lots of anecdotes about the different jobs he has done in his career, including times he met The Queen. He said he must be the first Republican ever to get a job as a Royal Correspondent, although he admitted that he has a lot of admiration for the Queen. Nicholas played a major role in reporting the death and funeral  of Princess Diana, and has written a book on her life. He also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, a programme I have never watched, but said that he didn’t last long. He was speaking today on behalf of The Children’s Trust, the UK’s leading Charity for children with brain injury.

Aurora members in audience ; Brian, me, Tony, Pauline, Doreen and Lyn

After Nicholas Owen had finished, all that remained was for DG Frank West to bring proceedings to a close, and wish us all a safe journey home. Our group from Shepperton Aurora decided to stay in Eastbourne for lunch, and settled on fish & chips at Harry Ramsdens, which we had seen earlier near the pier. However, for some reason, as we passed one of the seafront hotels, The Cumberland,  we were irresistibly tempted by a carvery Sunday lunch, so in we went.  The PDG and I had to go on a circuitous route through non-public areas of the Hotel to avoid the staircase at the front, but arrived safely in the Restaurant.  We enjoyed an  excellent  lunch here, and were laughing rather a lot, to such an extent that the PDG went over to one of the other tables to apologise for the noise. ‘They’re Rotarians, you know,’ she said.

Cumberland Hotel - good carvery

District Conference 2016 Eastbourne - Day 2 - Sheik's Pier

 After sleeping like logs, we woke to a beautiful sunrise over Eastbourne, and went down to a sumptuous breakfast in the Cavendish Hotel Dining room. I always look for kippers on hotel menus at breakfast time, as the PDG hates the smell of them at home. Today I was torn, as I could have either kippers or the buffet, so I followed my usual instinct of quantity over quality and opted for the buffet. Well you can have kippers any time, can’t you?

Sun rise seen from our hotel room

We had to get to the Congress Theatre early, because the PDG was stewarding, so I filled the time before kick off by wandering around the stands in the House of Friendship. I was delighted to find that Canine Partners had a stand, and I fell in love with a Golden Retriever pup called Winnie. She was 15 months old and her handler said that she was now ready to be placed with a disabled person. The woman I spoke to had looked after Winnie from 12 weeks old, and I sympathised with her as it must be awful handing the dog over after she had become part of the family. The woman said she was trying not to think about it.

Canine partners can do your shopping

I also stopped by The Phillippine Community Fund stall, and spoke to its founder, Jane Walker. She is a remarkable woman, who has rescued hundreds of children from a lifetime of living on rubbish tips in the Phillippines. One way she achieves this is by giving them an opportunity to earn money through making handbags and other items from ring pulls out of drinks cans. The PDG and I already act as a collection point for anyone in the District who wishes to donate ring pulls taken from drinks cans. Today I couldn’t resist buying a wallet made from ring pulls.

Handbags made from ring pulls

Soon it was time to take our seats for the Conference, and I sat with my club colleagues Lyn, Ken and Brian. There were several highlights this morning. First up was Chris Connors of Coco’s Foundation, who never fails to impress. This is the fourth time I have heard him speak about the work he does in South Africa for children suffering from Aids. He is now taking groups from USA to work on his project, which is growing year by year.

Chris Connors

He was followed by Ann Dieckmann of  Brighton and Hove soiree, who has set up the Zanzibar Schools Project to help children learn English, which is essential for a decent education in that country. She introduced us to an extraordinary young man called Gasica. He had founded a school teaching English to 300 children a year in Zanzibar with absolutely no resources at all. His energy and enthusiasm was boundless. He had even adopted one of the children who he had found living on the street. Lyn was so enthused she is trying to arrange for him to come and speak to our fledgling Interact club at Sunbury Manor school.

The amazing Gasica on stage

Next up was Tom Yendell, who I had met a couple of years ago at the Farnborough Donkey Derby. Tom, a Rotarian himself, has no arms, a result of his mother being given the drug thalidomide during pregnancy. He has carved out a career as an artist, painting with his feet, and sometimes his mouth. Several examples of his work, and that of other mouth and foot artists were on display at his stand. He was talking today about his latest venture, called Flat Spaces, which is a Company creating holiday homes specially adapted for severely handicapped people. They are equipped to a very high standard with lifts and hoists, enabling people confined to wheel chairs to get around the house comfortably. His suggestion was that Rotary clubs consider sponsoring disabled people to stay in this accommodation, with ‘Access Assured’. What a great idea.

Tom Yendell talks about Flat Spaces

Two more outstanding presentations followed, firstly Gordon Moulds CEO of Kids Out, a terrific charity formed by Rotarians to give disabled and disadvantaged children an opportunity of a day out at various locations across the UK. I myself attended a Kids Out day at the Army rugby ground at Aldershot a couple of years ago and was most impressed. Then followed a moving presentation from Richard Brown, a member of Walton on Thames Rotary Club. He described how he was a high flying IFA until one day he was knocked down by an impatient motorist when crossing a road, and his life changed forever. He spoke about the support he received (and is still receiving) from the Silverlining Charity, which helps rehabilitate brain injury victims. Richard was the only speaker all weekend to receive a standing ovation.

The PDG at Kids Out 2 years ago

There was a surprise in store for Lou Moss, last year’s Chair of Rotaract in Great Britain & Ireland.  She is well known to the PDG and myself, having met up regularly during the past two or three years, Lou had just completed a joint presentation about Rotaract on the stage with James Millet, when she was surprised by Frank West, who presented her with a Paul Harris Award in recognition of all her hard work for Rotaract in recent years. A Paul Harris is the highest award a Rotarian can receive, and it was obviously a very proud, if unexpected, moment for her.

A Paul Harris Medal

As lunch time approached, the session came to an end for the day. We had the afternoon free before the dinner and dance tonight. The PDG and I went across the road with Ken and Lyn (for some reason Brian was absent), and had a cup of tea and a sandwich before going for a stroll along the promenade. It was a very fine day and a refreshing stroll was just what we all needed after a morning spent in the Conference hall. We met several other Rotarians along the way to stop and chat with, including the chap from Wallington who organises their annual boxing evening. The PDG and I went to it during my year in office as Consort to the District Governor. The boxing evening, we heard is still going strong, and continues to be a massive fundraiser.

Wallington Boxing evening

It was interesting to see that Eastbourne pier has been renovated recently. We heard that it was recently  bought by a Pakistani businessman, who has breathed new life into it. It has been re-named by locals ‘Sheik’s pier’. The owner is obviously happy with the new name, because as you leave the pier there is a sign which says ‘Thank you for visiting Sheik’s Pier’. We were about to walk out to the end of the pier when we saw the most enormous black rain cloud heading our way. A quick change of plan ensued, and the four of us went back to the Cavendish Hotel for afternoon tea. We just made it before the heavens opened.

Eastbourne Pier

I had to be back at the Floral Hall in the Winter Gardens by 6.00 p.m. for a special reception for Presidents. The PDG was also invited as my Consort. Fortunately it had just stopped raining as we made our way from the Hotel up to the Floral Hall. It must have been an incongruous sight, with me in Dinner Jacket and bow tie, pushing the PDG, also dressed to the nines, up the road to the Winter Gardens. Once there, we negotiated the complicated system of lifts and ramps to get to the Floral Room, with the assistance of some very helpful staff. The wine flowed freely, but I was determined to pace myself a bit better than the previous night and get back to the hotel with a clear head. 

Eastbourne Winter Garden

We met up with Geoff Williams, President of Shepperton & Sunbury club and his lovely wife Jenny. Geoff and I have got to know each other pretty well in the past year or so, in the lead up to our respective Presidential years. We have worked together on the Sunbury Manor garden Project, and visited each other’s club meetings. We also happen to be fellow Fulham supporters, the only difference being that he is a season ticket holder, and I haven’t actually been to watch them for about 5 years. Perhaps I should describe myself as a Fulham follower, rather than supporter, as I certainly follow their results in the newspaper.

Aurora members at the Gala Dinner

We moved straight on from the Reception to the Dinner and Dance next door. All Shepperton Aurora members were on the same table, as was David Thompson from Chertsey and his wife Yvonne. There were two empty places on our table, where Ron and Gwyneth would have sat if he hadn’t been taken ill on the eve of the Conference. I hope Ron will approve of the fact his starter wasn’t wasted, or his dessert. I couldn’t manage his main course, however, which was a rather overcooked piece of Rotary chicken with accompanying veg. The organisers had made the mistake of leaving a few screamer balloons on each table. The PDG cannot resist blowing these up and aiming them at various people around her. Whenever one landed near our table, she was quick to blow it up and send it off again. She actually managed to land one in somebody’s dinner. Of course I was far too dignified to join in this nonsense.

On the dance floor - the PDG with Lyn and Ken

After dinner we had entertainment in the form of Colin Roy and the Dream Girls, a brilliant singing group who were back by popular demand, having entertained us in Bournemouth last year.  Colin wandered around the room during some numbers, and even put the microphone in front of me, to my great surprise, as I was belting out the chorus to Delilah. The group were so good, even the PDG got onto the dance floor, I kid you not. The entertainment finished about 11.30, and the PDG and I wended our way back to our hotel. We were proud to have been amongst the last to leave.

Colin Roy and the Dream Girls