Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Our Rotary UK Advisor, Colin Bain has done a ton of work arranging our itinerary and lining up our host families for our visit. He sent me a map of our travels, which everyone can view by clicking:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104355077562199012890.000453b6fcef7639be242

We have been assured that we will have high speed Internet available throughout the trip. We plan to make free family phone calls to the U.S. using Skype.

Our final team meeting will be hosted by Colette DeGarady in Charleston, on Sunday, August 31.

Bill Greene

Sunday, August 3, 2008





Our Third Meeting, August 2, 2008

August 3

The challenge riddle: What did the monkey say when he got his tail caught in the lawn mower?

Yesterday, our GSE met for the third time in Myrtle Beach at my home. We had a barbecue and a small beach party. Fellow Rotarian Richard Scott is the manager of the Carolina Oprey; he generously provided tickets for the team to enjoy the wonderful musical show in the evening. Two team members stayed overnight.

Unfortunately, Alternate Team Leader, Roy Prescott, was forced to resign his position because of illness in his family. We will miss him, although I am relieved that the contract on my life has been withdrawn (an inside joke).

David Wright has agreed to fill the position. David withdrew his name earlier because of significant threat from Colon Cancer. He has since undergone successful laparoscopic surgery followed by chemotherapy. His rapid recovery will permit him to serve with us.

We met at my home, after a change in locations to permit us to visit the annual Carolina Craftsman Arts and Crafts show. We had the opportunity to purchase gifts for our British host families.

Colin Bain, our GSE leader in Peterborough, has been working on the difficult task of creating our in-country itinerary. At present, we will stay with no less than 8 families in the 4 weeks.

We have received confirmation that our travel requests were accepted by the Rotary International Travel Service. We will drive to Charlotte on Friday, Sept. 12 and take a non-stop flight on USAIR. Flight 732 departs at 7:55 PM and arrives in London, Saturday, Sept. 13 at 8:45 AM. (Sleeping pills will be offered to all members.)

The team returns on USAIR Flight 333 on Saturday, October 11, departing London at 10:40 AM arriving in Charlotte at 2:25 PM. I will have the opportunity to remain in London for 3 days of sightseeing. I depart London on the same USAIR Flight on Tuesday, October 14.

The following items were on the agenda:

The “Memory Switch Presentation” on how to rapidly recall names.

PowerPoint Presentation practice.

Study Assignment presentations on British life by Mary, Joe and Bill.

We are still working on our business cards, tri-fold, and uniforms.

We plan to have our final meeting on August 31, hosted by Colette DeGarady in Mt. Pleasant.

The riddle answer: “It won’t be long now.”

Bill Greene

PS For those who have been following the progress of my tennis team, we won the SC State Championships, which qualifid us to go to the Sectionals in Mobile, Alabama (a 12 hour drive from home, but, we flew). There, we competed against 9 other states. We won all 4 of our preliminary matches and qualified for the finals against Georgia. We then won one match, lost one match, and my partner and I played in the #1 position. We won the first set 6-2. We lost the second set 6-2. We then played a 10 point tie-breaker. We led 6-0, then 8-2. Georgia then ran off 8 points in a row and won 10-8. We were only 2 points away from competing in the Nationals. C'est la vie!