Lull before the storm

This is a day for girding my loins (that phrase again!) as it is most definitely the lull before the storm.

(How many more clichés can I squeeze into this post?)

The coming week looks to me as though it will be the busiest week of the year for me, almost entirely taken up with Lions activities.  Tomorrow we (that is Brighton Lions) will be hosting a pre-Christmas tea party for elderly citizens.  We have almost 40 acceptances from a couple of sheltered housing schemes and we hired minibuses to collect them and deliver them to one of the sea front hotels.  Granted, it's not the poshest of Brighton's hotels, but is nonetheless very acceptable.  There will be a Lion on each bus to escort our guests and more Lions at the hotel to greet them.  We have arranged for someone to entertain them before the Lions serve tea.  Last year was our first attempt at this activity and it was well received.  I suspect it will now become a regular addition in the calendar.

On Tuesday I have to be one of the small panel conducting the annual appraisals of the Housing Society staff.  The Lions Club has a Housing Society as an integral part of the Club, albeit a separate legal entity.  With 116 flats and bungalows, this is not something that we Lions can run entirely in our free time and we have a small team of employees, both full- and part-time.

There will be the monthly business meeting of the Club on Wednesday evening, and on Thursday it will be Housing Society business once again.  Mind you, 'business' is not really the best word as I shall be attending the staff Christmas lunch!

Friday, as ever, means a trip to the MS centre and the supermarket shop, so that will be the morning taken care of.  (Or, to be grammatically correct, that will take care of the morning.)  It is on Saturday that I will really feel Christmas coming as it will be that evening that Chris and Mrs Chris host their annual Evening of Carols, about which more another time.  Meanwhile, I must spend some time lying down in a darkened room in order to gather my strength for the turmoil ahead.

~~~~~

Back in the Forêt de Juigné is this road.  I don't suppose there is one like it in England, but it's not uncommon in France for a relatively minor road to run strait as a die for several miles.