14 October. Today we are off to the annual Conference of
Rotary District 1145, which is this year being held in Eastbourne. Being President of Shepperton Aurora Rotary
Club, I was looking forward to having VIP status at the event, something that
has always eluded me up till now. It would make a nice change from the
treatment I sometimes receive at such events.
Eastbourne in summer
The car was loaded up to the gunnels, as we were taking the
electric wheelchair as well as the manual one. We took both because whilst the
electric one is useful in large places like Conference centres, enabling the
PDG to nip around on her own without any help, it is not so good in confined
spaces, like shops and restaurants. The electric chair, with its heavy duty
batteries, is exceedingly heavy, but we have had a hoist fitted to the car,
which makes loading it quite easy now. We gave the new hoist a trial run on our
holiday at the Manoir du Hilguy in Brittany the previous week, and it worked
well, although having two chairs didn’t leave much room for luggage.
Le Manoir du Hilguy
We made an early start, as Daisy was being looked after this
weekend by Sandra, a new minder we have found. She lives in Addlestone, and
Daisy is very fond of her, having met
her a few days ago. With Daisy safely deposited we headed off for Eastbourne. We
needed to get there before 11 a.m. as
the PDG was stewarding at the Conference, and needed to be at a briefing
session beforehand. Having dodged a few
hold ups on the way, and being stuck in traffic in East Grinstead for 30
minutes, we arrived with perfect timing at 10.45.
East Grinstead without traffic
After I’d unloaded
the PDG at the Conference venue, the Congress Theatre, I had an hour or so to
spare, so I left the car outside the theatre and strolled over to our Hotel,
The Cavendish, situated on the seafront a few minutes’ walk away. Car parking
in Eastbourne is a bit tricky, with little free parking anywhere near the
seafront. However The Cavendish has its own small car park, with a couple of
disabled spaces, and I hoped to acquire one of them. It was far too early to
check into our room, but they did offer me a parking space for the weekend, so
I fetched the car and left it there.
The Cavendish Hotel
With the time left I wandered in to the town, and found it
surprisingly bustling and prosperous-looking, which isn’t always the case with
seaside towns out of season. I was quite
interested to come across a Museum of Shops, which apparently had various shop
fronts on display, going back in history. However I didn’t go in, as it cost £6
and I only had about 15 minutes to spare, and the way I look at museum
exhibits, studying every label and every display board, I wouldn’t have got
through the first room in that time. I wouldn’t mind going back there when I’ve
got a bit more time on my hands. It put me in mind of my visit to the Black
Country Living Museum a couple of years ago, where they had old shops on
display, and I remember buying a piece of bread pudding, just like mum used to
make.
The Museum of Shops
I went back to the Conference centre, and met up with the
PDG. I also registered for the weekend, and picked up my Conference pack. It
was slightly disappointing to queue up with all the other Conference attendees,
as there didn’t seem to be a fast lane for presidents as there should have been. It was now about 12.30 and the Conference was
due to start at 2.10, so we had time to head off into town for lunch. I was
sure we would find better value here than if we had stayed near the sea front,
and I was proved right. All-day breakfast and a cup of tea brought to your
table for £5.50. It was possibly the best meal we had all weekend.
All Day Breakfast
Suitably refreshed, we headed back to the Congress Theatre
for the start of the Conference. Sergeant at Arms Neil Rorie, resplendent as
ever in his kilt, started off with some safety announcements, then it was over
to DG Frank West to formally start proceedings. He introduced the Mayor of Eastbourne, who
welcomed us all to the town, then we had presentations from the Chairman of
Inner Wheel, and the RIBI representative Len Smith. There was no RI
representative this year, maybe they’ve done away with that procedure. It’s a
pity if they have, because I’ve met some very interesting characters over the
years coming from abroad to represent the RI President.
The Congress Theatre
Two excellent speakers followed, Hugh Pike and Aziz Hafiz
who spoke about Rotary’s Water Survival box, which can be sent out to disaster
zones worldwide. We had a demonstration of how you can pour dirty water into
the filter, which cleans it and produces perfectly drinkable water in seconds.
What an amazing piece of equipment, and because the whole process is handled by
Rotarians, we can be confident that the water Survival Boxes get to where they
are needed without any of them disappearing on the way.
Water Survival Box
We then had an extraordinary presentation from Maureen
Mwagale, who is trying to rescue young children from the streets of Uganda,
where they are used to provide an income for their families through begging.
Her Charity, Kaana provides them with parties, toys and clothes, education
bursaries to lift them out of poverty, and training for their mothers to set up
small businesses. She really is an amazing character and finished off the
afternoon in great style.
Maureen does a tandem skydive for her charity
The session finished about 5.15, after which we were in a
bit of a rush. The PDG had stewarding duties until 5.30, so I hurried back to
the hotel and checked in, unloading all of our luggage. I never cease to be
amazed at how much luggage we can bring
for a two-night stay. I was surprised to be asked by the Receptionist for
payment up front, and explained I was used to paying when we check out. She
said that the Hotel had recently been taken over by Britannia Hotels, and this
was their Company policy. I was about to insist that she should be able to
trust the president of the Rotary Club, but thought better of it. My only
previous experience of Britannia Hotels was that they were very downmarket,
and maybe they had experience of guests who left without paying.
We didn’t have much time to get changed, as we had to walk
down the road to the View Hotel, where I was hosting a drinks reception for my
fellow club members at 6.30. The View is
the main Conference Hotel, and we have stayed there before. It has probably the
best wheelchair accessible rooms we have ever stayed at. Unfortunately, when we
tried to book the Hotel earlier this year, the accessible rooms had all gone,
so we had to go to the Cavendish. This wasn’t a great hardship, as we have an
excellent room there, with superb sea views.
The View Hotel
It is traditional for Aurora Presidents to host a drinks
reception on the Friday evening, and I wanted to keep up the tradition. It can
be expensive for the President, particularly when we have lots of attendees, as
we have had on occasion. Fortunately for me our club only had 5 attendees this
weekend, so I just bought a bottle of house red
and house white and that was it. Everybody
wanted white wine, so I ended up with the bottle of red to myself. We were
joined by David and Yvonne Thompson from Chertsey club, and by Shepperton & Sunbury club. Their
President, Geoff Williams had a more costly time as he had 20 club members with
him.
At 7.30, our group of 3 clubs ( 27 of us) had booked an
Italian Restaurant about 5 minutes walk away. Geoff and I had come to
Eastbourne to reconnoitre earlier this year and checked out local Restaurants. We decided that La Locanda
Del Duca seemed most welcoming, had a good menu, and importantly was very
familiar with large groups. In fact they told us that there were already two
other Rotary groups booked for that night. They didn’t want a deposit, and we
weren’t restricted to a set menu, but we could order whatever we wanted from
the menu when we arrived.
La Locanda del Duca
Fortunately this evening, Geoff remembered the way, as I wasn’t thinking too clearly after my bottle
of wine. I was a little put off to find the Restaurant surrounded in
scaffolding when we arrived, but any concerns were allayed when we
entered. The Restaurant was already full
of Rotarians from across the District, but tables for us had been reserved in
one corner. We had a bit of fun getting the wheelchair to our table, but after
lots of ‘Excuse me’s and ‘sorry’s, and people having to stand up to let us
through, we got there. The Restaurant was true to its word and we had a very
convivial evening. The food was excellent and in good quantities (important for
me) and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Enjoying the evening - Ken, Lyn, Richard and Cathy
It was gone 11 o’clock before we staggered back to our Hotel
and off to bed. It was quite warm in our room, so we opened the windows wide and
went to sleep to the pleasant sound of waves gently breaking on the shore below us.
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