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
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