Much of the early part of this week has been spent
(again) on preparations for our District Conference – Conference Chairman Jean &
I have now had to cancel a planned one day visit by train to Torquay thanks to
the horrendous weather we’ve been having – when will it ever stop raining? (I had a look at the statistics for our local
weather station and we’ve already had one third of a year’s rainfall in just 6
weeks!).
First meeting (other than conference discussions!) was on
Tuesday with those who will follow me as District Governor for the next three
years discussing the proposals for changing the shape of Districts within
Britain & Ireland and the way our central organisation may change. These ideas are to be discussed at our
General Council (the administrative body for Rotary in Britain & Ireland)
Sunday & Monday, so it seemed like a good idea to find out what everyone
who’ll be leading our District as far as we’ve determined it thinks before
representing our common view at Council (yes I know that some of you will find
this a novel concept for me, but there you go!).
At my club on Wednesday we had our monthly Business
meeting, but also a really pleasant surprise for a visitor from the Samaritans. The generosity of the public in Hillingdon
for our annual Santa rounds raised a singficant sum this year and we were able
to present the Samaritans with a cheque for £2000 – don’t think I’ve ever seen a
more shocked and delighted lady! (She
said she thought she was coming to collect about £100). Great to make such a difference to such a
worthy cause.
My year as Governor has been marked by many happy
occasions and a few rather sad ones.
Thursday I attended a service to celebrate the life of one of our
Rotarians who died suddenly in late January at the age of 64. The extent of the work he did in his community
was a reflection of the gaping hole that many of our members leave when they
are no longer with us, for the communities and clubs, but particularly their
families.
Friday night and a quick burst up the M40 saw Joan &
I at the celebration of 60 years of the Rotary Club of Bicester, including a
short address by a founder member – yes that’s right, John Jackson joined
Rotary in 1954 and 60 years later he’s still around to tell the tale – not
quite as active as he one was, but it makes you think – 60 years of Rotary
service!!
Saturday took us over to one of our favourite events –
the District final of one of our competitions for Young People, this time Young
Chef. The kitchens were an oasis of calm
as the 8 winners from previous rounds cooked up a selection of super looking
meals (I’m told by the judges that they also tasted great – we mere mortals
weren’t allowed to taste unfortunately).
They had to cope with a dram on arrival, no gas or electricity in the
kitchen! Thankfully that as solved and
they took it in their stride. The
competition winner and runner-up will now go onto a Regional heat in 4
weeks
time – looking forward to being there to support them. And no apologies
whatsoever for all the pictures of food and the brilliant competitors.
Busy Sunday – first to the lunch for the incoming Club
Presidents for 2014-2015 (this is seeming very odd – it only seems like
yesterday we were doing this – but it’s a year ago!). Joan & I have both taken on the role of
Assistant Governor for next Rotary year so we’ll be supporting the clubs in
Hillingdon and Gerrards Cross, and Windsor, Maidenhead, Slough & Burnham
respectively.
Followed by a quick burst up to Alcester for the General
Council meeting – I’ll report on that next week as it goes into Monday.
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