Rotary Engagements since July 1 311
Been an odd week!! Started the week with a webinar with
all my fellow District Governors (well as many as could make it) going through
the regular business of our General Council in advance of the more weighty
discussions regarding the aftermath of our annual business meeting and the
progress made towards restructuring of our Districts. All of which I shall miss as we’re now away
(of which more later!). I guess having a
webinar is more efficient in terms of time & travel, which I appreciated,
but doesn’t provide the personal interaction that helps jolly these things
along. I reckon you need both to be
fully effective.
Tuesday marked a great occasion – the chartering of the
26th Interact club in our District, which would in itself be a great
milestone, but made doubly, or triply so by it being the Interact Club of
Northwood School, with my own club as the sponsors and being the school where
Joan is Chair of Governors (seen here with the Mayor of Hillingdon, who kindly
attended. In addition, with 19 newly
inducted members the club is one of, if not the largest Interact clubs in our
District. 
Great to see such a group of
enthusiastic young people with a will to help their community. Credit also to the head, Graeme Atkins, and
the 3 teachers who give up their own time to help with the organisation (Louise,
Rob & Niall). President Maria
accepted the charter and her badges of office and had to rush off to her
Psychology AS exam – here’s hoping she did well!
And in the evening over to Reading for a meeting of our
succession team (the people who are following on over the next three
years). Useful chat on the sorts of
things that are currently live points for discussion etc. Just six weeks before our District
Governor-Elect, Tim Cowling takes the reins for his year.
Wednesday evening took us to our District Council with
what were essentially wrap-up reports for the current year and introducing the
people who will be joining the team next year to the topics that are currently
being taken forward. Thanks to Moya
(Harvey) and Tony (Sherrard) for their service over the last year(s), not
forgetting our Immediate Past District Governor Judith (Diment) and welcome to
John (Evans) & Joan (Greening) as Assistant Governors and David (Pope)
& Richard (Monger) as Committee Chairs.
Touch of musical chairs with one or two of the other positions!
From here on in we’re into the start of the great Greening
Travelogue. Over the next few weeks
we’ll be in Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. Clearly there’s bound to be a Rotary purpose
– our annual International Convention takes place in Sydney, but the rest is
just pleasure.
Started with a really,
really long day on Thursday taking us from London to Honolulu (via LA). The clock said 7:30 in the evening but it
didn’t feel like that – much more like 6:30 a.m. at home. However, that’s it for the really big time
changes, everything else until we hit Singapore is no more than a couple of
hours at a time. Let’s be honest, 16
hours in the air is a long time, but the BA/AA combination worked very well for
us. 
And when we got here – beach one
side of the hotel and wall to wall shops on the other – what’s not to like?
Quietish day on Friday – there are four “trolley” routes
in Honolulu and we took the Green Line round Diamondhead (very long extinct
volcano) – superb views and lovely warm sunshine.
Saturday – Pearl Harbour – well you can’t come to Hawaii
and not go to Pearl Harbour, can you? Hats
off to the US National Parks Service, they have the respect level absolutely
right – particularly when taking us out to the USS Arizona, a perpetual
graveyard for more than 900 crew from the day that Japan attacked and brought
the US into World War II (and arguably started the process that eventually led
to the Allies winning the war). Our tour
picked us up at 6:00 a.m. and dropped us back at 2:00 p.m. – probably barely
enough to scratch the surface of half of the display, but in reality probably about
right in emotional terms. If we ever
come back here we’ll go again and stay longer.
There’s some great exhibits on the lead-up to war from the US
perspective, which is an area of history that seems to have passed me by, plus
the refurbished USS Missouri battleship last used in the Gulf War to launch
cruise missiles which we saw and a 1940’ssubmarine, the Bowfin and the Aviation
Museum, which we didn’t.
Sunday and we thought we’d try out the Green trolley line
– out of Waikiki and through downtown Honolulu.
First stop the Honolulu Museum of Art.
Without any great expectations really, but a surprisingly good
collection of European and American art, not to mention Chinese, Japanese and
other South-East Asian cultural heritage.
Great to see that we found ourselves visiting on a free Family entry day
sponsored by the Bank of Hawaii and incorporating Hawaiian cultural displays of
music and dancing with quizzes and paintings for children – super initiative to
get young people into art and heritage.
As far as the rest of the trip around – a little disappointing to be
honest – not a lot going on on a Sunday and frankly, not a lot of history
visible – some late Victorian architecture amongst the high rises but precious little
else. Off on a tour of the rest of the island
of Oahu on Monday but you’ll have to wait until next week for that one!
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