Chairman’s Blog – Meeting Thursday 11th October 2012
A good turn out – 28 members present.
I would like move straight away to the 60 second round. There are certain times in your life when you feel you have witnessed something truly extraordinary. Invariably you remember for the rest of your life where you were on that day and what you were doing when you heard it. Frequently it relates to death, JFK and Elvis spring immediately to mind; but frequently it is when you witness a truly remarkable achievement. It tends to stay with you for always….
Something like that happened in the 60 second round, but before I deal with this memorable phenomenon let’s get some mundane matters out of the way.
Graham Wright, newly hitched, sported a stubble best suited to an Armani advert. He confidently predicted a full beard for next week. Surely that will prompt a full house. By contrast Terry Maylin sported a reasonably severe haircut. With the simple addition of underpants over his trousers and big “S” on his shirt we would have considered him capable of even greater feats than effectively collecting overdue debts for his clients.
Graham Thurston kept his hands, once again, out of his pockets, but achieved this by starting off his 60 seconds tucking in his shirt into the back of his trousers. Geoff Todd was celebrating the virtual end of the mowing season and declared himself up for unseasonal work. Curiously he included putting up Christmas lights as unseasonal work. I think there is a man with a big beard who might disagree with this and I don’t mean Graham Wright.
All of this, however, was something of a side show. The collectors item, the jewel in the crown, was our resident Architect, Alan Shaw, who was trying to illustrate the capability of his organisation with interior design, or was it ulterior designs? It was all pretty straight forward stuff when he described arriving at Zoe’s house and being invited in. We were then treated to a double entendre fest involving two large items that belonged to her, some work and appreciation of the size of Neil Lewer’s equipment. By then pandemonium had broken out and we were treated to the sheer joy of one Shavian non sequitur after another. The unmitigated joy of all those around was only matched by the quizzical surprise of the great man when he came to the end of his 60 seconds and wondered what everyone was laughing about. I think the memory will stay with all of us. Please feel free to contribute your own thoughts on what particular gem of the Alan Shaw 60 seconds you enjoyed most or any other Shavian moment from past meetings.
I must now bring us all back to reality.
The meeting was a great meeting for lots of other reasons. £21,000.00 worth of business recorded.
The 10 minute presentation was abandoned for a Q & A session which worked, as always, very well and makes a useful change to the regular 10 minute slot.
We welcome Adrian Crosdale back as a fully fledged member with his new Company.
Now our thoughts turn to Christmas. May I once again remind you all, Terry Maylin is arranging the annual Christmas dinner at Prezzo in Billericay on the 21st December. In order to secure the booking for the right number of people deposits need to be taken and lodged and the numbers finalised as soon as possible. If you have not already done so and want to go please contact Terry and let him know.
Until next week.