Regional Open Day
On 13th August 2005
Saturday 13th August saw our first "open day" combined with evening entertainment. The venue was the Holiday Inn Rugby/Northampton off M1 J18 - conveniently yards from the motorway and in the centre of our region. 40 members joined in the fun with a few interlopers from Wales, London, West Midlands and the North West!
The afternoon started at 2.00 pm with an icebreaker activity of "Mensa Bingo". The idea being to pick up an individual bingo card and tick off numbers as you found people whose birthday, house number or postcode area matched that number. This was one of my novel ideas and seemed to work, with Freda Bramhill winning a bottle of wine for being first to get a full house.
After an hour of people drifting in, mingling and viewing the information displays on SIGs, SIGHT, regional newsletters, photos of local events and the Diamond AG it was time for our talks to begin. Sue Lord was the first "turn" telling us the history of British Sign Language and teaching us some basic signs. We learned the alphabet, how to order drinks at the bar and how to sign our name. After a short break Mark Streeton gave a talk on life coaching and hypnotherapy. Being awkward Mensans the experiment he tried on us didn't work very well! But undeterred he carried on and the relaxation technique had better success. Last but not least our youngest attendee Jackie Goss shared her love of Egyptology with us. I was most impressed she brought her own TV and OHP projector to illustrate her talk as well as wearing an authentic Egyptian tunic and slippers! She was also brave enough to invite debate about the future care of famous artefacts and some interesting points were raised. Many thanks to all our volunteer speakers.
At 6.00 pm we relocated either to the bar or to the break out area to play the Mensa Connections boardgame whilst the room layout was changed. Having rained all afternoon it was too soggy for our planned outdoor BBQ but we enjoyed the same food buffet style indoors instead which I think worked just as well. It just meant no croquet game on the lawn!
This was followed by an informal disco with a few people dancing the Time Warp, Macarena or salsa steps. Though most preferred to sit and chat, drink or play other boardgames. Thanks to Ray Calverley for loaning his sound system so that we could host a "DIY disco" and play our own tunes at the correct volume, i.e. not too loud to talk over! Half way through the disco lights were dimmed and a big chocolate cake was brought out for birthday boy Paul Henchliffe. The hotel kindly gave us the chef's best knife to cut it up plus a pile of napkins. In fact the hotel staff proved friendly and helpful all weekend.
At midnight we packed the disco away and those staying overnight at the hotel continued with a "room party" hosted by Sue. The fun went on until 3.00 am. Amazingly all but one of our group made it to breakfast the following morning. Sleep was more important than nourishment for Claire Knust! But then we had been chatting at our own "slumber party" until gone 5.00 am! Seven of us took advantage of the hotel leisure club and went for a dip in their pool and soak in their jacuzzi before check out.
In the afternoon we visited nearby Althorp House to see the house itself, the Diana exhibitions and lake where the Princess of Wales is buried. Entrance was a bit pricey but worth a one-off visit. Five of us then began a fruitless search for food in Northamptonshire villages, by which time most pubs had stopped serving so we ended up having Burger King at Leicester Forest East services for "lunch" at nearly 5 pm! Those returning to my neck of the woods came to my house for a soak in the hot tub in my garden and a bit of star gazing. So for me the weekend lasted until 10 pm.
Once again a fun yet tiring weekend. Thanks to old and new faces for making our first "open day" a success.
Maxine Bates