Making Jack a dull boy

Tuesday

Shock - Horror. I went to work today. Also no performance of MacBeth .

Despite having been in the country for 2 weeks I woke up about 4-30 this morning. Since I'm off home again in a couple of days perhaps I should continue to do this so as to be reacclimatised to Australian time.

I am also coming down with a cold/flu. Seems inevitable after spending so much time in meetings with several dozen people or on aircraft. There's always someone who has something to pass on and working at home I avoid getting exposed most of the time.

As usual, I eventually went back to sleep and had to force myself to get up about 7.

I was just going to have some fruit for breakfast but Maggie looked so forlorn and Robert had already started cooking bacon and sausages that I gave in and had a small cooked breakfast.

The office was a short walk and I was there around 8. I took over and empty desk and then spent most of the morning with Richard seeing what they use now and talking about what they wanted and suggesting ideas.

Sandwiches were ordered in for lunch and after others I commented on some specs done by someone else and wrote up some recommendations.

They seem quite keen to get me involved in what I expect will be a supervisory/advisory capacity define the technical specs for the actual programmers.

I was collected after 7 by Richard and we met Iain and Debbie for a meal in the city centre, It was qjuite pleasant and the food was tasty buit not too generous. I had a nice lamb steak for mains.

It was 10 when I got back to the room. I'm going to take some paracetamol and hope to get a decent night's sleep.

Perth to Perth

Monday

My flight left on time although we had to wait ages before the gate was posted. Fortunately it was in the A area of terminal % as you have to travel by train to B (10 min) and C 920 min) areas.

The flight itself was quite short and actually less time than I spent waiting in the terminal at Heathrow.

It was reasonably full in a single aisle plane, but there was an empty seat next to me. In only 1:25 there was just enough time to get a drink and some crisps.

A taxi was waiting for me but I missed him in the terminal and needed to call the taxi office to contact him. Eventually he caught up with me in the pre-booked taxi collection area abut 20m from his car.

The trip to Perth from Edinburgh took about 45 minutes through green and rolling country, with the bridge over the Firth, some small hills, villages and a Loch to provide some scenary on the way.

I am staying in a B&B with an ensuite that is only a 5 minutes or so walk to the office. Robert and Maggie are good hosts and she is even putting a small load of washing through for me.

I took that walk to the office and caught up with my friend who is the owner and some other staff. They have a round building on six acres, with a lovely large garden at the back. Everyone but the boss seems to have a view.

One of the staff dropped me in the city centre on his way home and I wandered down to the river Tay.

It is quite lovely there with the horse shoe shaped bridge supports looking like frames for the river banks beyond.

Some scenes looked like they should be made into jigsaw puzzles.

There were a handful of trout fishermen casting there lines from the shallows but I didn't see anybody catch anything.

There are many lovely stone buildings here as well and a centre area that is pedestrian only.

After walking around for some time I bought fish and chips for dinner. It was rather generous and probably could have gone close to feeding 2 people.

A bus back to the B&B was only 1.70 pounds. It had free wi-fi but speed test revealed the lowest speed seen anywhere - only 0.3. The B&B on the other hand has over 30mbs, faster than anywhere else on this trip
other than Osaka airport.

The Royal We

Sunday, Monday morning

We managed to finish our meeting only a bit over schedule and even had time for me to do a very cut down presentation on the new Admissions test we have adopted. THis was reduced from 15 to 20 minutes down to about 3.

We had taxis arranged at 2pm to take us to Windsor Castle and an option of 3 pick up times. I had opted for the middle time of 8 pm.

They had put a package including our ticket, a flyer and a list of everyone going and their collection time at our positions in the morning. Of course there is always someone who forgets to bring this, in this instance it was the treasurer, who had to then buy his own ticket.

I had been to the impressive Cardiff Castle a week earlier but Windsor is 4 times the size or more

I had been before but it must have been 30 years ago well before the 1992 fire that destroyed part of the castle.

We wondered around in loose and changing groups as people walked faster or looked at things longer than others.

It is indeed an impressive place.

We took opportunities to have photos taken with a very disciplined guard. who stood immobile for a very long time.

We also captured a classic shot of people taking pictures of each other.

Unfortunately there was no photography allowed inside. A pity because it is spectacular with the layout of various rooms showing the original furniture, others with original paintings and still others with walls full of weapons, coats of arms and so forth.

A few of us at one stage needed to go to the Ladies. First we were ladies in waiting, then came the Royal wee and finally the Royal flush.

A group of us met up at the exit and wandered down the mall, eventually stopping at an icecream shop.

After that we didn't really want to stay for another 3 hours till our original pickup time so wandered back to the castle and got an earlier ride back to the hotel.

The Korean chairman decide to take a train to London to catch a show, with Wicked being his choice and there were a number who didn't come in so the extras balanced the drop outs.

As we were driving back we saw the Italian rep trying to hitch hike but our 8-seater was already full.

I took a lot of panoramas to try and capture the scenery at Windsor castle and the view from it. When someone moves across the foreground some funny results occur.

x

I had dinner at a local pub with a Danish attendee (ie not an official rep) and we met a Spanish guy who was already there. I had a mixed grill with chicken, ribs and salad.

The Helsinki party is the traditional but non-official windup where we bring our own drinks and nibbles. We held this in the downstairs room we had used for the past 3 days and were having some quiet drinks and playing games when the night manager turned up and told us we couldn't be there. We were trying to work out whether we could go to an outside patio or even the lawn area but eventually they sorted it out and we were allowed to stay.

Part way through, the Korean chair turns up. Apparently theatres are closed on Sundays so he had 2 train rides and not much else to show for his time.

The last left about 2-30 but I was back in my room a little earlier.

We lost our group wi-fi at midnight and I had to try and sort out a problem with our website using my phone - not easy but I had a chat with the support people eventually, who were going to do it for us.

At breakfast I learnt we could get a free hour. It took me about 5 minutes to sort it myself then.

I had just got down to the desk to retrieve my laptop when the fire alarm went off. The staff treated it very seriously and I grabbed my case and headed to the muster point. It turned out to be a false alarm fortunately.

2 of us shared a taxi to the airport, to different terminals. We left at 10 and by 11 I was checked in and through security. The gate was not published to 12 so I am writing this while waiting.

My bag was 5 kg overweight and they were going to charge 40 pounds excess (and presumably the same coming back) so I unloaded some shoes, games and other stuff not needed in Scotland into a large carrier bag and used Left luggage for a cost of 20 pounds.

A mob of Galas

Saturday

No rest for the wicked just because it's the weekend. Meetings from 9 to 6 today.

There were a lot of motions including some controversial ones. I think I was on the "winning" side all day.

I had proposed a series of motions on social groups, such as Facebook, which were revised multiple times but in the end all passed.

Danish Mensa sprung a surprise on us (in particular on the Web Board) by presenting a Mensa website template that could be used by any group. They were happy to provide for free despite spending 10,000 euros to develop. It was a a generous offer and a very useful tool for new Mensas or any Mensa that needed to update their website. Unfortunately nobody knew about it and I know that, in the last year, Singapore developed their own new system, NZ is part way through doing likewise and we, in Australia, have just bought a commercial system.

The gala dinner was held in the chapel. THis has been refurbished as a dining room with changing coloured lights and alcoves for conversation along one wall.

These affairs are one of the few times that people get dressed up.

There was a 3 course set dinner with some puzzles to occupy us between courses. One showed 7 flags and we had to pick the countries - we scored 0.I was expecting to do better since I had set a similar puzzle myself for our Australian gathering last year.

I retired about 11.

Spain, Belgium and Australia

The web board meets face to face for the first time. Britain, Germany, Italy and Australia.

A toast to Absent friends. Canada, Germany (via photoshop) and Australia

Fun and games

Friday

Today we got down to business with presentations, motions, discussion and appointments. We seemed to get through the agenda in a timely fashion and had morning and afternoon tea breaks and lunch all in the same area downstairs as for the icebreaker and the meeting upstairs. It is quite convenient to be so self contained.

As usual we are in a large rectangle with the exec committee at the head and the presenters at the bottom and 2 sides with some 20 people each. We are somewhat cramped and half of us have a table leg to contend with. I am in the other half fortunately.

As this is my 4th IBD, I have been assigned a new members as a buddy, and he turns out to be the Italian rep who is also on the web board with me.

The day's business finished at 5pm but there was an opportunity to comment on or ask questions about upcoming motions. As I have 4 motions myself I needed to look at these and reply or at least think about what to say when they come up in the agenda.

As usual I bought small Koalas for everyone and this time also gave out bookmarks with our 50th anniversary AMC details. It seems these are still popular with everyone.

There were also pens, notepads etc from other Mensas with Spain giving everyone a small bottle of olive oil and France a small torch.

Dinner was at 7pm, so after the trek back to my room I had a look around the grounds. This estate was at one time a school and some of the older buildings are from that era, as were some religious statues in the gardens. There are vast amounts of lawn surrounding the buildings and huge trees.

I rinsed out some of my dirty clothes which I am hoping will dry before too long.

I showered and changed but was a bit late for the 7pm start for dinner. We had one room to ourselves and a vast buffet. Not being able to choose between a casserole and rice, Fish and Chips or a Roast Pork dinner, I had them all. I restricted myself to only 2 desserts.

After dinner I encouraged some people to try the Cogz game and when the dining

room closed at 10 I played a Chinese card game with 2 Spaniards and a Swede.

I wasn't really sure what we were doing but my partner, who owned the game, and I won all 3 hands.

Bread and Ice

Thursday

I awoke at 7 to the smell of baking bread from the kitchen below. We had showered, dressed and packed well before our scheduled breakfast time of 8-30.

The breakfast was cooked while we waited although the bread was available before that. We met a couple from Mexico who had stayed the night as well.

After the breakfast was cooked, James the host made special hot chocolate for 2 of us as well.

We headed off south intending to use the M3 rather than the M4 which is further North. we stopped at a few places on the way as the whim took us.

The first was a ruined castle in Ludgershall which was a short walk from the car park.

We then found the Hawk conservatory but thought it was overpriced, especially since flights were over 2 hours away, so we just turned around.

We did stop at a park in Andover that we came across by accident. There was a duck pond with ducks and moor hens swimming around. We didn't stay long as a walk around to the next bridge would have taken too long.

Rather than follow the M3 to the M25, we headed North at Bagshot and took minor roads through to Windsor. By chance these passed Sunningdale Golf Club, so we stopped for a look and short walk there. This club has hosted the men's and women's British Opens in recent years.

We arrived at the conference venue, which is Beaumont estate, before 1 pm and immediately started meeting others there for the meeting. After registering for the conference, I had some lunch and then returned to the area we have until the room was available.

We have one building to ourselves, with downstairs for eating and informal gathering and meeting rooms upstairs.

The facility is huge with nearly 500 bedrooms.

My room was available around 3pm so I have finally moved in and unpacked. It seems to be about as far as possible from the conference rooms, except for the room on the floor above.

I was given the wrong lift to get to my floor in the directions, which meant I still had to drag my luggage up a flight of stairs.

{Later - It appears it is impossible to get to my room via an indoor or outdoor route without having to climb at least one flight of stairs.}

After unpacking I headed back to the conference venue where people stated gathering. There are lots of familiar faces and this year quite a lot of new ones

All 4 members of the web board are here and we had our first face to face meeting which was lively to say the least.

We broke up so that we could get ready for the ice breaker. More people were met, and discussions were frequent with old and new acquaintances. There were some canapés but not really enough for a meal. However I have been eating too much for weeks, so I did not have another feed afterwards like some people. 

Being old does not make you unhenged.

Wednesday

After another filling breakfast we were packed and ready to check out when a call came to say the hotel room had already been booked and we couldn't have it.

We headed off on the same route as planned with the idea of staying overnight in Marlborough. Since this was closer we spent more time site seeing on the way.

The first place was the village of Lacock. this charming village has been used for Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice amongst other movie and TV shows. There are no visible TV aerials and the village does indeed look like it could be the setting for a period drama.

From there we planned to head across to Calne but the scale of the map had us miss a turn off and we finished back on the same main road we started from. Still got there but went a bit further north before heading south again.

We then visited Avebury, the site of the largest and oldest stone henge in Britain. The stones themselves are not as big as the famous Stonehenge but the rings are much bigger and encircle the village. It is apparently the only henge with both a pub and a church inside it and is about 6000 years old.

We walked around the first sector of the rings, crossed the road to the inner rings and then walked the ramparts outside the trench till the half way point, where we took the road back into the village for a lunch at the pub.

On the way out we visited the farm which has a couple of museums, saw the manor house which was closed for viewing and finally through the church and graveyard.

The road from there to Malborough then passed 3 further Neolithic sites. Silbury Hill is a huge mound. Nobody knows why it was built but is was a multigenerational effort.

Next was the long Barrow, which had 36 bodies buried in it. This was a 1/2 mile hike up the hillside.

A bit further along there was the Sanctuary. There were a dozen or so of smaller mounds in the area in groups of 2-5. and the remnants of a wood and stone henge. Nothing much remained but the re were markers showing where the wooden posts and stone pillars had stood. This was quite small not much more than 20 or 30 metres in diameter.

Marlborough is another charming market town and we found a park, connected to the free wifi and picked up a guide book. we then spent the better part of an hour trying to find accommodation.  Between phones not being answered, websites showing  no vacancies and places with unsuitable, we were getting frustrated and worried and eventually decide to try either Newbury or Swindon. Sylvia was on  a website for a place in Swindon and I was on the phone to a booking agent, who said that hotel was full, as did their website. none the less Sylvia was trying ti snag a room that was available through one of the web booking services.

My agent offered us a few choices before saying she found a twin room at a B&B in Marlborough for 75 pounds, which I then booked. Turns out is was some way out of town but it is another spacious room.The B&B is part of a farm and we walked up the hill to the stables eating blackberries from the bushes and looking at the horses.

The village is quite narrow with only a few cul de sacs off the main road, where lorries and cars hirtle along. It seems to be an upper class place with large houses and lots of BMWs Audis and Mercs in the driveways.

We had dinner at the local pub.