Goodbye Mr President (Part 1)

My year as President of the Rotary Club of Shepperton Aurora has now finished. To be honest I found the year to be a constant struggle for recognition of my elevated status by other Rotarians, and the general public at large. For instance at the District Conference in Eastbourne last October I had been looking forward to the Friday night club dinner, where we were joining our friends from Shepperton & Sunbury club. I understood that before the dinner there was to be a reception in honour of the club President at the Hotel. How nice to be appreciated, I thought.

Aurora at the Conference Gala Dinner

It was only when I arrived that I was told it is the custom for the President to buy drinks for all his or her club members at the Reception.  This can be expensive for the President, particularly when we have lots of members attending, 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. As it happened, everybody else wanted white wine, so I ended up with the bottle of red to myself. I didn’t think this impaired my judgement in any way as we walked to the Restaurant later, although the PDG claimed we had walked twice the distance as everybody else.

Enjoying the Conference

I had been particularly looking forward to day 3 of the Conference, on Sunday, when there was to be the Parade of the Presidents, reinstated after being dropped the year before. At last, I would get my moment in the limelight as I strutted on to the stage being cheered to the rafters by my adoring club members. I had prepared a short speech of just a few minutes duration in which I intended thanking everybody who had come along and outline some of my plans to develop the role of Rotary Club president, more on the lines of the US president, who gets a four year term of office before they have to look for another one.

The Parade of the Presidents

However things didn’t go quite as I had expected. The Parade of Presidents was rather a hurried affair to say the least. Firstly we had to sacrifice our coffee break whilst we were corralled backstage in roughly alphabetical order. Then we were called on to the stage in groups of six, as our names were announced. A quick shake of the District Governor’s hand, a group photograph and we were led off the stage. I tried valiantly to explain my plans to the District Governor, but he was already looking over my shoulder, probably wondering how many more hands he would have to shake that morning.

I meet the District Governor

A week later we had our Rotary club walk through Roman London, guided by our own Pauline Hedges. I almost suggested that if this was really Roman London, the President would be carried in a sedan chair on the shoulders of his slaves, but looking at my companions that morning, I thought better of it. Even though I had to walk the whole route, it was fascinating strolling through parts of London that I was not entirely unfamiliar with, but saw in a very different light with Pauline’s excellent descriptions. The walk finished with lunch on the Southbank at an excellent Restaurant called the Archduke.

Parts of the Roman wall are still visible in London

Early in November, twenty of us went on a tour of Shepperton Studios. We had been waiting years for this opportunity. Even though we held our meetings at the Studios for a couple of years, we could never find a way of getting a tour of the site.

Our guide looks exasperated

However thanks to an introduction from Richard Edgar, we finally got our tour and it was fascinating. The studios site is like a mini city, with hundreds of people busily constructing film sets, filming scenes and all the other jobs that go with film making. Several times we were almost run down by delivery vans, fork lift trucks or limousines delivering important people (none of whom I recognised). At the time there were two major films being made at the Studios, a Mary Poppins remake, and a Sherlock Holmes film. We had a coffee in the Old House before leaving. I thought there would be an executive lounge for me, but it must have been closed that day.

With my Bafta

There were two big highlights in November to tell you about. The first of these was the amazing concert in Chertsey which raised over £2,700 for CAMEO, one of my President’s charities this year, and for which I am so grateful to Doreen and Tony. I was looking forward to my first rock gig as lead singer, and just hoped my backing group would be up to the task. My plan was that the supporting act, Ancient Rock would play the first half of the show, and then I would do the second half, dazzling the audience with my vocal range.

Ancient Rock

You can imagine my disappointment when I found that Ancient Rock hogged the stage until well into the second half of the show. Eventually they allowed me on stage and backed me for the first number in my set, Proud Mary. I could tell that the audience loved this and I prepared myself for my next number, which was designed to raise the tempo. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but before I could launch into my legendary rendition of Maggie May, I was being ushered off the stage, being patted on the back, despite the ecstatic audience calling for me to sing ‘Get Off’. Unfortunately it isn’t a song I am familiar with, so I couldn’t oblige. Under the circumstances I decided to leave the stage with my dignity intact, thinking I’ll have to arrange my own concert next time and dispense with the backing group.

I take centre stage

The club held another very successful Youth Speaks competition in November. Being President, of course I got to look after the Mayor and his charming wife for the evening. I stayed just outside the Council Chamber with the mayoral party until everybody was seated, then heard David, our excellent MC announce ‘Please stand for the mayor’. This was the Mayor’s cue to enter the Chamber and take his seat as everybody else looked on. I stayed outside the Chamber waiting to be announced for my ceremonial entry, but for some reason the MC forgot to announce me, so I ended up shuffling in whilst the fire exits were being pointed out. I tried my best to make it look as though that was when I was supposed to enter.

Speaker's view of the Council Chamber

The winning Intermediate team, with Mayor

December, as usual, was the busiest time of year for the Rotary Club. As members will know, it was the Christmas collections that prompted me to join Rotary in the first place. I can remember, as a child in Staines, seeing the Christmas float coming down our road, with Santa riding inside (that was in the days before Health & Safety was invented) and with carols playing. It was a magical time, which I looked forward to every year. Although I didn’t know at the time it was organised by the local Rotary Club, I subsequently learnt that up and down the country, Rotary Clubs were organising similar activities.

Our sleigh (the elf is taller than Santa)

40-odd years later, when I was thinking about putting something back into the local community, I was invited to join Shepperton Aurora Rotary. I jumped at the chance, knowing that I could be part of the Christmas magic. Seventeen years later, it is still the thing I enjoy most as a Rotarian, particularly when I get the privilege of assisting Santa. The looks of awe on children’s faces as they see Santa walking up to their house are priceless, especially when they realise he knows their names! 

Touring the streets of Shepperton

We are blessed with a good supply of Santa’s assistants among our Members and Friends, which meant I only had one outing in that role this year, for the Studios Estate area of Shepperton. It is difficult to describe the excitement that is generated by Santa’s appearance in the neighbourhood. Children come running out into the street, parents want to take photos, and teenagers want selfies with Santa (a sign of the times). Santa even had a few hugs from middle-aged women. Who said Christmas is only for children? At one point I had 6 or 7 women posing for pictures with Santa, with each one wanting a photo on her own camera. It does hold up our progress when this sort of thing happens, but it’s all part of the magic and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Counting up at the end of the evening

After the excitement of Christmas, and now into the second half of my year as President, it was time to get into another area I thoroughly enjoy, that of Youth activities. Early in January I was invited to Bishop Wand School, to be an adjudicator for an inter-house Youth Speaks competition. The event  was run on exactly the same lines as our competition. There were 8 teams in the competition, and the standard was so good, that the adjudicators, Vivienne Leighton, Debbie Lockhart and myself  had a very difficult job finding winners. We were given 15 minutes for our deliberations, but argued for so long it took 45 minutes for us to decide that the Best Speaker award should be shared between two speakers. This caused a problem for the school as they only had one medal in this category. Never again will I think the Youth speaks judges have an easy job.

Bishop's Building, Bishop Wand School, scene of the competition

It hasn’t all been work, of course. Early in January we had Norma’s cheese and wine party at the parish centre, an opportunity for members to meet their President in less formal circumstances. Members were asked to bring contributions towards the food and drink that evening. Even I was asked to bring something, which I was a bit surprised about, to be honest. After all, I was the guest of honour.  I know it’s an extreme example, but if you get invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace, you wouldn’t expect the Queen to bring a plate of vol-au-vents with her, would you? Of course I was much too dignified to complain about my treatment, and behaved as if this was quite normal, which sadly it is.

St Nicholas Parish hall

Later in the month a group of us attended the annual Burns Night Dinner organised by Shepperton & Sunbury Rotary. What a fine evening it was; I was resplendent in my Gicquel tartan tie, which a man down the pub who I bought it from, assured me was a little known Scottish clan. The room at Sunbury Arts Centre was beautifully decorated, as were all the tables. The haggis was piped in with great ceremony, followed by President Geoff Williams and his party. It was a pity that Lyn was unable to attend having booked previously, but she will be relieved to know that Mark Steptoe and I ensured her meal wasn’t wasted. Speeches were mercifully short, before the highland dancing began, with a caller making sure everyone knew what to do. I had heard that in the past there has been an award for ‘worst dancer’, so I stayed off the dance floor to ensure I didn’t suffer this ignominy.

Burns Night - how typical that I've been left out of the photo

For the last couple of years the Rotary Club has kept its’ stores of equipment in an empty office block across the road from the Bridge Hotel, where we meet. We knew our tenure would be temporary, as the block was scheduled  for demolition and re-building as flats, but we knew we would receive plenty of notice of our eviction. Well that notice came earlier this year, and we had to look around for suitable accommodation for our equipment, of which we seem to have a lot. We have 2 or 3 marquees of varying sizes which are used at the Shepperton Fair and other occasions which take up a lot of space, as do our various games like the Penalty Shoot Out, the Golf Game and Tombola. Then there is the generator for the sleigh and all the other stuff that goes with it.

So it was a bit of a headache trying to find somewhere big enough to keep all this stuff. However, before I started to worry too much, one of our members, the lovely Norma, offered us the use of her garage. Not only that, but she turfed out somebody else who had been using her garage, and paying rent for it. She wouldn’t accept a penny of rent from us. Once again I am amazed by the generosity of Rotarians. A day was fixed to move everything to Norma’s garage, and my next door neighbour Paul offered us the use of his white van to help. Most things fitted into either the van or one of our cars, but we had some problems with our Elf, who drives the sleigh at Christmas. He is over 6 feet tall (we weren’t overwhelmed with choice) and we struggled to get him in to the van, until we finally found a solution to the problem.

RIBI Conference Manchester 2017 Day 4

Sunday 9^th April. A few logistical issues this morning. We had to check out of the Hotel before going over the road to the Final Conference session. This meant my walking the 400 yards or so to the car park, paying the fee to get out (discounted 20% by the Hotel, but still about £12 per day), then driving it to the Hotel, loading it up with our luggage, plus yesterday’s shopping, then driving back to the car park. Even with the discount, parking in Central Manchester is seriously expensive, and I was in one of the cheaper car parks. I wondered what would have happened if I had just left it at the Conference Centre. The police would have towed it away, but releasing it from their pound might have been cheaper than the car park charge.

Bridgewater Hall car park, where I was 

Having finally achieved all of this, I rejoined the PDG at the Manchester Central Convention Centre for the final day of the Conference. As usual we started off meeting up with various friends from around the country. It was good catching up with the others from our DG group. Some have taken jobs with RIBI, others have been happy to take a back seat for a while, after the exertions of their year in office, and who can blame them.

Manchester Central Convention Centre

The final session got under way at 9.30 and I went to take my seat in the auditorium whilst the PDG headed off to the Guide Dogs stand. The morning commenced with a performance from the renowned Hallé Youth Choir.They were quite brilliant, with a varied repertoire of modern and classical songs. They were followed on stage by RI Vice President Jennifer Jones who gave her final address of the weekend, and once again I was impressed by her relaxed style of presentation.

Halle Youth Choir

After a coffee break, during which I sampled some ‘purple4Polio’ ice cream, a great idea from Huntley club in Aberdeenshire produced to support the End Polio Now campaign, it was back to the auditorium, to hear President Eve Conway give her final address, before introducing our next speaker, Eric Knowles. Eric, besides being a Rotarian himself, is a well known antiques expert and broadcaster, particularly well-known to viewers of Antiques  Roadshow. He had brought along a few old items himself, and gave an entertaining and often hilarious talk about them, and about life generally  in the world of antiques.

Rotarian Eric Knowles

Next up was probably the highlight of the morning, a presentation by Michael Angelo Caruso, a Rotarian from Michigan, USA and a teacher of Presentation skills. With a name like that, I knew he would be good, and he was indeed very entertaining, speaking about his experiences in the Corporate world, where he trains staff in Management and Sales skills. Some of his stories were superb, particularly one about a chance meeting on an aircraft, and they all helped to illustrate important points. There were several laugh-out-loud moments. He was the kind of speaker you could listen to all day, and wonder where the time went.

Rotarian Michael Angelo Caruso

He was followed by Martin Bell, former BBC War correspondent, who famously won the Parliamentary seat of Tatton from Neil Hamilton in 1997. He now spends most of his time as an ambassador for Unicef, and gave us an insightful talk about some of the troubled areas of the world, most of which he has visited at some time. He gave rather a downbeat view of the world’s immediate future, believing that some of the major areas of conflict are unlikely to be resolved soon.

Martin Bell

Well, I thought, thank goodness our final speaker this morning, Russell Grant, will provide some light relief and send us away smiling. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. We heard nothing about his varied media career as an astrologist, actor and star of ‘Strictly’. He was here today representing Dementia UK, of which he is patron, and Alzheimers Research, and told us the sad story of how his mother suffered from Alzheimers in her final years. He cared for her himself, until it was no longer possible, and now campaigns for funding of research into the causes and possible cures for those suffering from this awful disease. He spoke very movingly, and reminded me of similar experiences I have had myself. However I don’t want to sound churlish but I was hoping to be entertained this morning; I believe it’s possible to get serious messages across and still make the audience smile. Our two final speakers failed to achieve this, in my opinion.

Russell Grant

So that was the end of the Conference. It had been enjoyable in parts, uplifting in others, and I certainly enjoyed getting to know my way around Manchester. All that remained was to say our farewells to all our friends, many of whom we would be seeing again in a few weeks at our annual DG reunion, which this year will be in Essex. The motorways behaved themselves on the way home, and we were picking Daisy up from Sandra’s by 5.30.

RIBI Conference Manchester Day 3

Saturday April 8^th.  We were out of the Hotel early this morning, as the Conference was to be under way at 9.00. Of course we didn’t have to go if we didn’t want to, but as we had come so far, it seemed daft not to get involved. Actually, the PDG was less interested than me in attending the plenary sessions in the main hall. She spent much of this morning in the Community Showcase, which is where exhibitors set up stalls to promote their particular activity. As usual, she was drawn to the Guide Dogs stall, which had a couple of working guide dogs and a puppy in training with them. If I ever needed to find her that morning, I just had to head for the Guide Dogs stand.

There were plenty of other stands, over 70 of them, and over the course of the weekend I found time to wander among them, catching up with some I knew already, and getting to know others. For instance, Jane Walker from the Purple Community Fund (formerly called the Philippine Community Fund) had a stall, still selling bags, handbags and wallets made from the ring pulls from drinks cans. Between us, the PDG and I must have an example of everything they make. AW Matthews, from whom I bought Interact lapel pins last year were there again, selling badges and pins of all shapes and sizes. It would be easy to spend most of the morning in the Showcase, but to be honest my priority was to attend the plenary session, so I took my seat just as Eve Conway got things started.

Jane Walker - Purple Community Fund

The highlight of the first session of the morning was the presentation of the Rotary Young Citizen Awards, which were being filmed live on BBC. This meant that the auditorium was in ‘lockdown’ for an hour or two, as the BBC couldn’t have background noises of doors slamming, and noise from outside disrupting the recording. I was glad I had gone to the loo before taking my seat.

Eve Conway with this year's Young Citizen Award winners

The awards were co-hosted by Ellie Crissell, who does it every year, and Konnie Huq who was new to it. Of course the real stars of the show were the young people, who had been nominated by Rotary Clubs throughout Britain and Ireland for doing something extraordinary, whether that is community service, overcoming adversity, or otherwise gone out of their way to help others. As this year is the tenth anniversary of the Young Citizen Awards, winners from each previous year were also in attendance to tell us what they have been doing since winning their award. One of them, Grace O’Malley is now an accomplished opera singer, who was to sing at the Concert tonight.

Grace O'Malley

The rest of the morning was taken up by two outstanding presentations. The first of these was from the Born Free Foundation. The Foundation was started by the actress Virginia McKenna, who starred in the film ‘Born Free’, and her son Will Travers. The Foundation aims to stop individual wild animals from suffering and also protect threatened species worldwide. A tall order you might imagine, but as we heard there have been a number of successes including the rescue of elephants, tigers, lions and dolphins. It was great to hear Virginia McKenna talking about the dangers encountered when filming Born Free, and how as a result she resolved to do something to try and help the magnificent wildlife of Africa and elsewhere in the world.

Virginia filming Born Free with Elsa the lion cub

They were followed by the final, and probably my favourite speaker of the day, Ade Adepitan, a British basketball Paralympian and TV presenter of Paralympic sport. He is very charismatic, and had a lot of funny stories to tell us about the difficulties of growing up in the East End of London whilst crippled by Polio. Sport was the way out for him, as he discovered basketball and through hard work and dedication made it to the GB team, with whom he won a bronze medal in the Athens Paralympics. A regular TV presenter now, he pops up in many programmes, including BBC’s One Show and various documentaries. He co-hosted Children in Need last November with Graham Norton. Ade is also an ambassador for Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign, by which we are determined to eradicate Polio all over the world. At the end of the session I found the PDG hanging out with the Guide Dogs and told her about Ade’s talk, and how she should have been there to listen to him.  She said she had met him earlier and had a nice chat with him in the Community Showcase over a cup of tea, where she told him he has been an inspiration to her. How about that for being in the right place at the right time?

Ade Adepitan

It was now lunch time and there were no more plenary sessions today, but there were a variety of options open to Conference-goers. For instance we could attend the RIBI Annual Business Meeting. Well we’ve done that twice before and both decided ‘never again’. Alternatively there were various general interest sessions we could attend, such as Eric Knowles doing antiques valuations, or comedian James Allen. There was even a session on Guide Dogs for the Blind, but as the PDG had already spent most of the weekend with them, she decided she would go shopping instead. We had already done a trial run yesterday, and she was comfortable about using her electric chair to get on and off the trams, so I was free for the rest of the day.

Eric Knowles is a Rotarian

I had a ticket to watch Manchester City play Hull City at The Etihad Stadium that afternoon. However there was somewhere I wanted to go first. Having heard that Manchester Art Gallery had a good collection of LS Lowry’s paintings, I wanted to see them at first hand. Born in Manchester, he became famous for his paintings of matchstick men. With literally only about 10 minutes to spare, I dashed into the Gallery (entrance free) quickly located the Lowry room, and had a good look at the paintings on display. To my surprise, the canvases were not very big. I had expected great big pictures full of detail, but they were actually quite small. Still, it was good to study them close up and see how clever he was at injecting character and humour into his subjects.

Lowry painting

My whistlestop tour now over, it was back to St Peter’s Square to catch a tram to The Etihad. II had no difficulty identifying which one I wanted, it was full of people wearing Man City shirts. It was a bit of a tight squeeze when I got on, but that was nothing. There were about six more stops before we got to the ground, and more people managed to get on board at each stop. I ended up being pressed so tightly on all sides that I couldn’t move in any direction. Looking on the bright side, at least I wasn’t going to fall over. It was noticeable how good-humoured everyone was. There were Hull City fans mingling with Man City fans and I never saw a hint of any unpleasantness. What a refreshing change from the tribalism I used to encounter when I went regularly to football in the 70’s. I suppose it could also have something to do with the fact that a team at the top of the table was playing a team at the bottom, so the result wasn’t really in doubt.

Inside the stadium

When I got to the Etihad I had a few minutes to soak up the atmosphere before going in. There was a stage set up and the compere was interviewing somebody I didn’t recognise (probably a past player) and I had to shoulder my way through the crowd watching them to get to the food outlets. When I visit football grounds these days (not often, maybe once a year) I like to check out their meat pies, which are a staple at most grounds, I think. However, Manchester City fans are obviously more discerning, as I couldn’t find a meat pie anywhere, so with time running out before kick off, I opted for a giant sausage in a small roll, with onions and mustard. I was trying to eat it quickly, with a beer in my other hand, and I’m afraid most of the onions and mustard ended up on my shirt. This didn’t bother me as much as it might otherwise have done, because I wasn’t expecting to meet anybody I knew.

Proof I was there

Today happened to be Grand National Day, and I always like to have a bet on the race. As I didn’t have time to find a betting shop earlier on today, I decided to do so at one of the betting kiosks at the ground. I’ve given up trying to work out the best horse in the race, my plan is to select one who is priced at around 12/1. Favourites rarely win the National, but at that price you normally get a half-decent horse. So I found a kiosk, paid my tenner, and got a receipt. It was only later, as I checked my ticket at half time, that I discovered the kiosk would not be open after the match today, and I would have to come back at the next home game to collect my winnings, if any. Failing that I could visit any one of several betting shops to claim my winnings. These were all in Manchester, by the way.

The Grand National

I took my seat in the East Stand just before the teams appeared on the field, and realised I had made a big mistake. When I chose my seat online a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to ensure I didn’t have the sun in my eyes, so on the basis that the sun sets in the West, I selected a seat in the East stand. Doh!  I should have chosen the Colin Bell Stand which is opposite, as the setting sun would be behind me. I spent the whole match trying to shield my eyes from the sun’s glare, on probably the brightest day of the year so far. Funnily enough, I made the same mistake a year ago, when I went to see Ross County. Some people never learn, do they?

The Colin bell Stand - the one I should have been in

Despite all the above, I thoroughly enjoyed the match. Some of the best players in the world were on display, and it was a pleasure to see them at close quarters. It’s one thing watching the likes of Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and  Raheem Sterling on television, but when you see them live, you get a better impression of their skill and technique. I was sitting level with the penalty box, so had a good look at offside decisions. I was also able to observe John Stones, England’s best central defender going about his work. Having played in that position myself during my playing days, I could appreciate just how good he is. I don’t think I saw him put a foot wrong the whole match. The only slight disappointment for me was that my favourite City player, Kevin De Bruyne, wasn’t playing today.

John Stones

Hull City put up a spirited resistance, but didn’t really threaten Man City’s goal very much, and Man City ran out comfortable winners at 3:0. Although they didn’t win the League this year, Man City finished comfortably in the top 4, thus qualifying for the European Champions League next season. Sadly Hull City were relegated at the end of the season. On the way out I learnt the result of the Grand National. My horse came nowhere.

Aguero scores second goal

Earlier, when I arrived on the tram, I had noticed that we had to cross a bridge over the Rochdale Canal to get to the Etihad stadium. Knowing that this canal passed very close to my Hotel, I decided to follow it back into the City Centre. It was only a mile or so, and quite a pleasant walk along the towpath. The canal looked derelict in places and was full of rubbish, but as I got closer to the City Centre it became noticeably smarter, with fashionable restaurants and bars along the path. It was whilst walking past one of these, trying to look nonchalant, that I tripped and almost fell into the canal, much to the amusement of onlookers.

Caution low bridge - Rochdale Canal in Manchester

That evening, the Conference organisers had booked Katherine Jenkins for a concert. I’m a great fan of hers, and was looking forward to it. However a few months ago she cancelled, as she had landed a role in a West End musical. Instead, the organisers arranged a ‘West End meets Broadway’ show, which didn’t really interest us, so the PDG and I decided to do our own thing.  We went out for dinner and opted for a Chinese Restaurant on the edge of Chinatown. It was rather a smart Restaurant, with good service, but we really should have checked the prices before entering. It was without doubt the most expensive Chinese meal we’d ever had. We didn’t feel we ate all that much, not even expensive choices off the menu, but we didn’t get much change out of £100 by the time we left.

Katherine Jenkins

RIBI Conference Manchester Day 2

Friday 7^th April. The Conference gets started today. After a leisurely breakfast at our Hotel, we crossed the road to Manchester Central Convention Complex. Getting there couldn’t be easier, we just had to negotiate the tram lines of the Metro transport system. If the wheelchair had got stuck in these, the PDG could have had a much faster journey than anticipated. Safely across the road, we found our way into the Conference Centre, which was formerly a Railway terminus, and the original building is still intact. It looks very impressive from the outside.

Manchester Central Convention Centre

Although the Conference didn’t get going until 2 p.m. we thought we would register early and get our delegate badges and other stuff. We sat in the concourse nursing a cup of coffee, and meeting old friends as they arrived, reminiscing about our times in such far-flung places as Lisbon and San Diego. Lyn Derrington came in from Bury on the Metro. I was impressed. The Metro goes out to towns circling Manchester, bringing in commuters, shoppers and football fans to all areas of the city by tram, without the need to use cars.

Lisbon also has trams

About 11 a.m. the PDG and I went on a tour of the surrounding area to get our bearings. Our Hotel is a couple of hundred yards from St Peters Square, a traffic-free zone with some handsome buildings, such as Manchester Central Library and the Town Hall. We walked past the Restaurant we went to last night, through the Chinese quarter, and ended up at the massive Arndale Shopping Centre. The PDG will be coming here tomorrow and we wanted to check out accessibility on the trams, which would be crucial to the PDG getting around. We needn’t have worried. The Metro was easily accessible for wheelchairs, with ramps up to platforms, no steps up to the tram, and the ticket machines were easy to operate. We caught one back to St Peters Square, and I was surprised to find we were there in less than 5 minutes, travelling mostly through traffic free streets.

Chinatown

It was now time to take our seats for the first plenary session (I must find out what that word means sometime). The Conference was opened by RIBI President Eve Conway, who has a lively bubbly personality, and she remained on or near the stage all weekend, filling any gaps between speakers. We then heard from various dignitaries welcoming us to Manchester, including Carl Austin-Behan, the youthful-looking Lord Mayor of Manchester. The speaker who impressed me most that afternoon was Jennifer Jones, Vice President of Rotary International. She was standing in for President John Germ, who could not attend due to a family matter at home in the USA. I thought she was an inspirational speaker, unusual for a Rotarian in my experience, and has worked as a seminar leader at San Diego. It could well be, therefore, that I may well have met her in San Diego 3 years ago, but don’t remember it.

Eve Conway with friend

The Inner Wheel President, Zena Coles spoke very entertainingly, as did Luke Addison, Chairman of Rotaract in Great Britain and Ireland. In fact, Lyn was so impressed with Luke, that she arranged for him to come along and speak to our club a few weeks later, and after that he visited the Sunbury Manor Interact Club and delivered a brilliant talk.

Luke Addison

That evening there was a choice of formal entertainment, a Centenary dinner or a ‘legends of Las Vegas Show’, but we decided not to bother. Instead, we hit the town and dined at Duttons Restaurant in Albert Square. It was lively, friendly, good service and good food, just what I like. We stopped off at the Hotel bar on the way back and had a convivial drink with Doug and Rosemary and a few other friends old and new before retiring.

Dutton's Restaurant