Yesterday lunchtime it started to cloud over and the wind got up, then we had R A I N ! and parts of the city were flooded ! Seems we have the tail end of a hurricane passing us by - lightening and thunder in the evening, and the people who went to Iguazu for the day couldn't get back ... we are told that they flew in this morning and should be back at the hotel soon, but I haven't seen them yet.
The day continued to be quite quiet and peaceful, so we got quite a lot of work out of the way = and the draft timetable was sorted out for Philadelphia ... it should be approved at the meeting of the Executive today and then I will be able to publish it on the website for you. It is going to be an amazing set of Championships!
After lunch I sneaked off quietly for a while, and on switching on the TV in the room found that they were broadcasting Shaun the Sheep ! Well, it is fine in any language of course, and most entertaining, so I watched that for half an hour before returning to the computer, and it made a nice change.
Jean Paul Meyer, who is co-ordinator for the vu graph, asked me to go to be interviewed before the start of play in the evening, which was very nice of him. He asked me how long I had been working in International bridge, which was actually positively frightening ! The first Championship I was involved with was here in Sao Paulo - I didn't actually attend on that occasion, but my work with the British Bridge League had me dealing with all the hotel and flight reservations for our Women's Team who went on to win the Venice Cup - I remember staying up to get the results! It was my first "World Championship" and was really exciting. And that was backin 1985. Two years later, the British Open Team qualified to go to Jamaica for the Bermuda Bowl and on that occasion I went with the team - not to work, but as a supporter, and that is where I met Carol for the first time ... she was working as WBF Secretary, working with the then-President, Jaime Ortiz-Patino. And with two exceptions I have worked at every World Championship since!
Anywa - back to Brazil. Yesterday evening we were invited to a cocktail party given by Jerry Fleming, the President of the ACBL, which was most enjoyable ... talking to his wife we discovered that they live in New Mexico, and we recalled working at the Championships in Albuquerque, which was another really enjoyable one! Then we went up to the Piano Bar and joined Grattan for a while before retiring to bed, where we found that the film "The Queen" was on - one I hadn't seen, so we watched that before a good night's sleep.
Now I must do some work - another meeting will be starting very soon!
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