Week 40 Zipping Around - Hither & Thither

Rotary Engagements since July 1                              271

(Very few pictures this week, sorry – must do better!)

Another busy week started with the first of my Charity Golf Challenges with a very pleasant foursome in the company of RC Gerrards Cross & Chalfont St Peter members Desmond Hall, Reg Larman and Des Legg.  As I said the company was good, which it has to said was more than my golf!  However, the most important thing was that the event raised almost £500 in aid of the Hillingdon Mencap Jubilee Pool!!

Following that spent an interesting couple of hours with our Conference Treasurer, Terry Ruby going over the preliminary numbers for the outcome from the conference.  Pretty pleasant reading and able to report to our District Council that this year we won’t be going cap in hand to the District for subsidy from our reserves, which is great news.

Tuesday a meeting of our Leadership Development and Training Committee where all the talk was of events that either relate to the next Rotary year starting in July or will take place then – it’s really quite odd that the year has disappeared so rapidly!  But as of the end of Week 40 there are still 85 days to go!

Wednesday and our District Council, this time in Henley.  This is one of three events where our District Officers report back to our membership and they have the opportunity to question us.  It’s our version of democracy that is peculiar to these islands – they don’t have such things elsewhere in the Rotary world.  I like it – it’s open and fair. Was the final one of my year in office as District Governor - tiem is justing flying away!

So on to Thursday and a meeting with Conference Chairman Jean looking at how much we can donate to our generous conference speakers (generous in the sense that they all gave their time for nothing but the hope that we might donate to their causes).  Happy to say that we don’t think that anyone will be disappointed.

But then on to the funeral of Wantage Rotarian Peter Cecil.  Have to say that the more I hear of the things that our members have done in service of their communities either through Rotary or elsewhere the more proud I am to belong to our movement.  And Peter was clearly no exception – his service was marked with testament to his goodwill and service to others.

On Friday Joan & I were over to Henley again (same venue as Wednesday’s District Council) for RC Henley-on-Thames Big Band concert featuring the Roy Bailey Band (and fish & chips).  As ever the music brings back memories – super stuff.   

Evening was only slightly marred by my backing my car into another XF – oops!

Saturday morning we were out in the streets of Eastcote with our own club members and those of RC Pinner encouraging members of the public to “Know your Blood Pressure” a Rotary joint effort with the Stroke Association.  It has to be said that the weather was ever so slightly chilly(!) and we were glad when our stint came to an end.  But we did manage to keep our Pharmacist busy – always a good thing.

A diversion Saturday afternoon, having almost forgotten they were playing at home – Watford FC v Burnley.  Deserved the lead for most the game, should have had a second, paid for it in the last two minutes giving away a goal and yet another 2 points.  Story of the season really, but a good result against a very strong Burnley team. 

Sunday morning up early again and off to Maidenhead for the RC Maidenhead Bunny Fun Run – just the sort of madness we do so well – persuading more than 250 local people to come out on a Sunday morning and run 5 km for charity, some in full fancy dress bunny costumes.  Again it wasn’t warm but it didn’t deter the runners, young and not so young.  Prizes given out by the Mayor of the Royal Borough and Naomi Riches, our resident Paralympian star.  Having seen Naomi only a couple of weeks before at our conference it was really good to catch up again – sooo many new friends this year!

And another non-Rotary treat on Sunday evening – this time a quick spurt up the M1 & M6 to Sutton Coldfield for the NoDA West Midlands awards where Pepperpot Players’ (Upton on Severn) performance of Joan’s “DIY” was up for best drama award.  This was the first time the group had been nominated for an award and we were delighted to go & support them on their special evening.