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.