On Friday 14th Rotarians with their partners gathered at the Stratford Manor Hotel in Stratford upon Avon for this years 'Presidents Weekend', brilliantly organised and executed by Rotarian Iain Ramsay (aka Falstaff). Friday evening in the bar set the tone for the weekend with large amounts of Sack (or was it gin, whiskey, wine and beer) consumed. The hotel also provided those with an energetic bent a decent pool and spa area as well as super friendly and efficient staff to make our stay comfortable and fun.
On Saturday after a hearty breakfast we went into Stratford town by coach for a wander amongst the many Ye-Olde shops, bars and coffee houses before we had to be at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre to take our seats for the modern slant on 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'. On taking our seats one instinctively knew we were in for a real treat and a modern interpretation of the Bard's play (not many Sky Satellite dishes and Morrisons trolleys in Tudor England!) and we were not disappointed. The play, split into two halves with a decent and quick bar in between held us all in rapture, with one or two of our party seriously in danger of rupturing something as they laughed so hard, the whole play was a magnificent treat for us all.
Following the play, another hour to wander amongst the swans, boats and hordes of tourists to get an ice cream or a cold beer as the sun made a guest appearance for that hour before returning to heavy grey skies and rain to match the national mood, we then once again boarded our coach to return to our Manor.
The evening dinner and speeches were great fun and included a Presidential quick fire quiz (Bard or B'stard) hosted by our very own Falstaff to great acclaim, which our President crashed and burned with 2 out of 5 questions right, but to be fair to him the questions were a little demanding of his attention to the details of the set and didn't include any complex mathematics! Our Presidential address was short but pithy and well received leaving the evenings merriment to continue with an impromptu jamming session with our own dear Court Jesters who sang beautifully and played guitar to rapturous applause with enthusiastic audience participation (Adrian you know what you did). Whilst tired and cautious folk retired to bed around midnight, some braves souls continued to the wee early hours in great Rotarian tradition.
Overall a fabulous end to President Johns reign as we all shared this excellent weekend with him and Bev, which wouldn't have been possible without the care and flair that Rotarian Iain Ramsay put into its organisation and execution. "Setting the attractions of my good parts aside, I have no other charms", true but organising a good bash is clearly one of them!
