Each
Rotary District organises a weekend conference that offers the opportunity to
listen to inspiring speakers, mix and share fellowship with other Rotarians and
to discover what is happening elsewhere in the organisation. This year’s District 1220 Conference was
held in Southport and was the third year that I have attended.
As Club
President, it was my task to find a hotel for the members of my club who were
attending. I don’t mind admitted that
this was the one thing I worried about trying to balance people’s
expectations/budget etc.
I’d
ended up booking Hucknall Rotary Club into the Prince of Wales Hotel,
Southport. One wag commented that we
should that the hotel’s initials serve as a warning; P.O.W!
Upon arrival, we checked in and received the allocated
room keys. The receptionist gave me
instructions as to where to find my room, and as rooms were numbered in the usual
convention of identifying floor numbers, because my room was 1XX, I was told to
go the first floor.
Despite
walking around the floor twice, the room we were looking for didn’t exist. At this point I thought that one of our members
had pulled a prank on me. So I returned
to the reception area, half expecting to be greeted by a laughing crowd.
However
the receptionist was extremely confused, and her manager over-heard and then directed
us to own room which was not a room but a suite, and was neither on the
first, but the ground floor. I just hoped now that everyone
was happy with their rooms!
Although
the conference starts on Friday, the format is designed to be more low key allowing
for those who are still travelling to the venue not to feel that they have
missed out. Some may describe Friday as
a washout in more ways than one!
A
District Golf Competition is always held on the Friday morning/afternoon. Not being a golfer myself, I’m reliably
informed that a new sport was created: Aqua Golf. Although the contest went ahead, the course
was severely waterlogged in places.
The
evening’s entertainment offered much, but delivered little. First of stage was Johnnie Casson, an
experienced comedian.
Mr
Casson’s stagecraft shone through and, although some of his material was
recycled, he was still able to make the audience laugh and received well-deserved
applause for his routine. If it was
intended that he was supposed to ‘warm’ the audience up for the next act, then
he succeeded.
There was an air of
anticipation in the auditorium as we awaited the act described as ‘one of the
few Queen tribute acts to be advocated by the remaining members of Queen,’ Tony
Grant.
Mr Grant
failed to live up to the hype. He
clearly had what read as an impressive CV, but this was one show too far or
five years too late. The real Freddie
sang “The Show Must Go On” and “Don’t Stop Me Now,” but with alarming numbers
leaving the building, the embarrassed entertainments officer stopped him and
ended the show. At least, it gave Rotarians something to talk about as they
returned to the hotel bars!
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