Chalk & Cheese

Our VIP visitor from Elgin has the task (as District Governor) of visiting every Rotary club in the district to speak to them, spread the right message and (ideally) up the inspiration levels.

His territory stretches from Inverkeithing in the south to Thurso in the north (of the mainland) plus Orkney, Shetland and the club in Stornoway.

He's very likable, but then with my family history the folk from Moray are often "my kind of people".

One of his statistics was that the average age of members in the district is about 73. Women and people from ethic minorities are still very badly represented - not welcome at all in some clubs I know of.

In my club the average age will be in the 50s, and women are in the majority. That's one reason I'm there.

Without meaning any disrespect to DG Graeme, my Blip just shows the past and the future (if there is one). The person on the left is our club president, and Graeme is on the right.

Rotary (along with Bill Gates and others) has been leading the battle to eradicate polio. The DG's update was that Pakistan has had a new case this year, so the fight continues. Eradication means 36 months without a new case. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the last places.

Later this morning I popped into a charity coffee morning to say hello. and hoover up some home baking. Good fun to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen recently. One of them (the councillor I was campaigning for in the May elections) was also on last week's official visit to Ingolstadt. She too mentioned beer a lot.

Then it was backside on the office chair and a resumption of the usual routine.

I managed to stay out of trouble with traffic all day, so that was another positive. Friday tomorrow.