Yesterday morning's conference speakers included middle school students who spoke about their Interact club at their school, the Canterbury Rotary Club who discussed the successful hospital project in Ghana that they recently accomplished along with four other Rotary clubs and various donators, Frances Allen who discussed the "Inner Wheel" of Rotary, and Peter Burkhill.
The last man, Peter Burkhill told an amazing story. He is a pilot for British Airlines and about three years ago, on a flight from China, both his engines died about a minute from the landing in England, but they did not send off any warning signals until thirty seconds before hand. He discussed his experience there, which involved a lot of quick thinking, but concluded with a successful crash landing that saved every life on board. He wrote a book that I am going to blindly promote here, based on the fact that this man was a wonderful speaker, the topic was fascinating, although dreadfully frightening, and that he is George Clooney's look-a-like. It is called "Thirty Seconds to Impact" and I would at least suggest to check it out of the library and skim it.
After Mr. Burkhill's presentation, a Rotary panel came and sat on the stage for what was called a debate, but which I would rather characterise as a pre-planned interactive questionnaire with the audience.
Once the session finished, I decided to explore the town of Eastbourne for an hour or two, so I walked along the boardwalk, which was beautifully adorned with twinkle lights and which served as the base for some beautiful and charming buildings that made me feel that I needed to be carrying a parasol. The water was a beautiful sea green. Not like the North Carolina coast that can be compared to the Rio Plata of Argentina where you have to guess the color: is it brown or orange or green? This water was truly a lovely shade of bluish green. Once I stepped off of the pier, I tried to walk along the water's edge, but the sand was not actually sand; it was pebbles, and rather large pebbles at that. So, I walked along on the sidewalk. After going along for a ways, I became distracted by a church tower in the distance, so I crossed over a few roads, took a few pictures of the church and began to head back to the conference. If you're wondering why the Rotary let me walk around the town without a chaperone or even a buddy, I'll just sum up the basic reasoning by writing that this is a town for retirees mainly. I do not thing that the crime rate is through the roof.
I arrived back at the theater just in time for Richard Stilgoe to present the Orpheus program that houses and habilitates disabled children. He was wonderfully charismatic and the program, which teaches the disabled how to live independently, appears to be very effective. At the end of his presentation, three of the Orpheus students came on to the stage and sang for us. They had wonderful voices, and at least half of the audience was moved to tears.
In the Friendship House, the dEBra foundation gave me a butterfly pen to add to my jacket and the Westgate and Birchington Inner Wheel Club gave me a free Dessert Cookbook! Yum!
Mrs. WIlton and I returned home, let the dog, Shawnsey, go for a walk, and then I tried a mince meat pie. I must reveal the truth: mince meat does not actually contain meat in it! In fact, it is a dessert, like a tart! It is delicious and the filling tastes rather like homemade apple butter with raisins and some other dried fruit in it. It tastes like fall and winter.
Around six thirty Liz and John dropped me off with their son, his wife, and their two children, Mimi and Ben. We joined in a procession, with most people carrying flaming torches (it rather reminded me of the introduction to Histoires et Reves d'Artois) leading up to the most humungous bonfire. After we watched the bonfire burn down, a brilliant fireworks display erupted behind us. When I returned home, Liz and John had not returned from the black tie Rotary banquet and ball to which I had not been invited (also which they later told me had mediocre food and a not-so-good band). So, I ate a typical English dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (more of a bread than a pudding) and thouroughly enjoyed it while watching Friends on the television.
The Reason for the Bonfire:
On November 5th, 1905, a man named Guy Fawkes attempted to hide several cases of gunpowder beneath Parliament. He was caught, tried for treason, and executed (hung, drawn, and quartered). Later, to commemorate the event and warn others against the serious crime of treason, the British hold bonfires over which they burn effigies of Guy Fawks.
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