Day 2

Without further delay....  (and a big thanks to Brenda for re-typing all of this)  

The picture is Duncan, taking a picture of me.  The cute little tyke on the right is Juliet.

Unlike Day 1, Day 2 isn't being recorded at 4 am local time.  We were still up in the hotel bar at 2 am, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We were ambitious to set our alarms for 8:30 am, me for having just gone back to bed at 7 and Brenda for being "unable to open" her eyes.  Her words.  11:00 am and we were ready for the day!  Duncan's 2 year old daughter, Juliet and 6 month old son Monty had been dropped off earlier by his parents, so we missed meeting them.  The kids are wonderful!  Juliet, (who we instantly decided is a dead ringer for Grace Hardwicke... I will post side by side photos later to back up my point) was very shy at first, but after a bit was talking and playing with Brenda.  Go figure...  She is not so sure about me yet.  Monty has never once looked at me and not smiled.  He will be the social butterfly of the two, once he learns to control his drooling ways.

Our morning of site seeing turned into an afternoon of lounging about the house with the kids.  Karen, Duncan's "other half" arrived just before 3 and Duncan and I descended upon the fish room in a mad fit of fish bagging.  He wasn't looking forward to the job and thought that he had 6 hours of work to do to be ready.  I scoffed and told him we could do it in 2.  We did it in 3, which I'm happy with considering a few of the obstacles we had to deal with.  Meanwhile, Brenda was spending quality time with the kids, which for her, honestly, was likely as good or better than seeing Kensington.

We were re-packed and on our way by 6 pm and we got to see the countryside via the M25, which means we didn't see much of the countryside.  It took is a little over 2 hours to make the trek north, and we found the Hotel after one wrong turn and a stop at a petrol (gas) station.  As a side note, the "mini marts" in England, at least so far, are like miniature Zupan's or New Seasons.  Of course, none of the packaging or even brands are the same, but that's half the fun.

The Nottingham Gateway is a nice hotel, the downside was that even the English are complaining about the prices in the bar.  There are 2 factors to consider here.  The first is that to the English, for any subject there is a least one sarcastic remark to be made.  I think it is built into the language.  The second thing is that they were in fact charging 3 pounds 40 for a pint of coke.  At the "favorable" current exchange rate that would be 5.78.  I'm with the English with this one.  Bloody robbery!

We checked in and found the convention room.  The show tanks were all set up and I was impressed with the layout.  The BLA has put in some time and thought into the presentation and some members have gone above and beyond to make the stands.  The photos should speak for themselves.  We ended up in the lounge and were introduced to about a dozen new faces and re-acquainted with David McAllister and Ivan Dibble.  We had a great time.  The staff asked us to leave around 2:30 am.