Wednesday, August 25 2004 @ 01:51 PM Contributed by: angusclarke Three months into the job and already I have been literally around the world! Retiring President, Tony Watson, handed over the control column to me at the Rotary Convention in Osaka. Tony did a great job during his two years and I know that his visits to Europe and Australasia were much appreciated by the Sections there. Thanks Tony. After Osaka it was off to Hawaii for the post Convention Fly-around there. By flying with two local pilots we saw some very special things that only local knowledge can reveal. For example the sight, from 200 feet, of the hot lava hitting the sea below us was spectacular. Thanks Eliot and Steve. It was a particularly friendly event. Congratulations to Joe Keifer for producing such a memorable ten days. My feet had hardly touched the ground when three days after returning to England I was off to Holland to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Benelux Section. As ever Stan Jesmiatka and his team entertained us royally. They even had me as passenger in an aerobatic aircraft – self-respect was preserved as I kept my lunch where it should be! At the end of June it was off to Rome to join up with Italian Section. We broke our 1000 nms. journey on the way out at Cannes where we spent a very enjoyable evening with Past President Charles Strasser and Do. Giorgio and his team put on excellent weekend that I cannot do justice to in a paragraph. Suffice to say the that the Italian Air Force Museum was one the best that we have visited and the memory of eating dinner in the open air on the banks of the River Tiber will stay with us for a very long time. The brief visit to the city ensured that Alisma and I would be back to Rome to explore it further in the future. At the beginning of July over 80 IFFR members and friends joined us at our home village to celebrate my becoming your President. It was a truly international gathering with members from South Africa, France, Germany, Holland and Portugal joining up with those from the UK Section and members of Alisma’s and my Rotary Clubs. If this was not enough earlier in the week I had attended a mid-week IFFR-UK visit to Bletchley Park where the breaking of the Enigma code had taken place during the Second World War. At the end of August we flew ourselves the 700 nms. to Norway to join the Scandinavian Section at their annual meeting. The weather was not particularly kind but we left the UK a day early to successfully stay ahead of the bad weather. Others were not so fortunate and regrettably had to cancel. Rolf Mikkelsen put on a first class event and when the weather did not allow us to fly to the mountains we visited Oslo instead with the opportunity to visit the Kon Tiki and Viking Museums. The sun shone on Saturday when we had a boat trip that took the breath away as sailed around the archipelago south on Fredrikstad. Well that’s only my first three months! Finally I would like to thank retiring Web-Master Luis Henriques for the dedicated job that he did. Luis, your efforts were much appreciated by everyone. I would also welcome our new Web-master Simon Barlow who has already put in a power of work. Thanks for taking this on Simon. Tail winds – except on landing. Angus