Rotary Trip to Scotland

Monday 25 September

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We had an appointment with the Stranraer police at 10:30. They had an elaborate, informative and fun tour of the precinct planned for us, including the first-ever tour of the Port Authority security room.

Our guide had a set schedule for us that he pretty much tossed after we kept the Superintendent a little long by asking questions. Ian thought it would be funny if one of the traffic policemen made me blow in a breath-alcohol tester. Everyone else thought it was funny, too, but I blew a zero. Ha.

We got to see how the traffic police cars work, the armoury, the crowd-control equipment, surveillance cameras and a holding cell. Quite a slick operation, and everyone was friendly and quick with a joke. The port authority security set up was an eye-opener: they record every license plate, driver, passenger and person that goes on or off the ferrys on video. They could have pulled video of us getting off the boat Sunday, but we ran out of time.

It was a very interesting, fun, informative tour.

We had to do our presentation for the Stranraer Rotary at lunch, and after many goodbyes were taken up the road a bit to the Alloway Rotary. They get us for one night only, so it’s been a bit of a whirlwind. I visited with my hosts Ron and Robin for a bit, then we had another presentation at the Alloway Rotary meeting. There was time for a nightcap and a little more visiting after the meeting, but then off to bed.

Tuesday 26 September

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Ron had to take a friend to the airport this morning, so I for to visit with Robin at breakfast. Interestingly (and conveniently) Robin knows several folks with wheat allergies, so she had plenty of wheat-free food here for me to eat. After breakfast we will take our leave and be dropped at the Glynhill Hotel in Paisley.

For a free day.

Yay.

It’s been fun meeting everyone and doing everything, but today will be nice to not do anything. We have three more clubs to visit before the conference, so we’ll be ready and refreshed for that after today. Depending on how much we drink.

Scottish word of the day: oops, sorry, it’s my day off, no more thinking allowed.

 

Jason

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 8:23 am and is filed under Jason's trip updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.