Friday at the Provincial Weekend began as it obviously means to continue: with heavy rain and strong winds. Most folks seem to have opted to stay in the hotel, abandoning their various plans, which apparently included walking to Sandbanks to visit a former member of Sutton Coldfield Circle. (A well-known prison chaplain in our party recalled a former Sandbanks resident, now doing 22 years at Her Majesty’s pleasure — but we don’t think these two are one and the same.)
(Today’s photo is the view from our room this morning.)
Update (at 6:30pm)
Well, the drama continues: our first-floor room (and several others) has just suffered a power cut. Fortunately, the hotel manager knew where the fuses were located and soon had everything back to normal.
In better news, the weather has calmed down considerably, and a red sky tonight promises a much better day tomorrow — as does my iPhone’s Weather app.
Update 2 (at 11:30pm)
Everyone seems to have arrived now. The hotel did a fine job of serving the evening meal to over 100 Catenians, their wives, and their guests. I’ve been a few times now and the food tonight seemed significantly better than hitherto. After the meal, Charlie Villa and friends led an Irish play and singalong in the bar. This seems to have gone very well; indeed, it is still going on as I write this.
That’s all for now. Goodnight, everybody.