Installed as Master of Brighton & Hove Civic Lodge for the Second Time

A busy and long day again today.  Although it would have been really enjoyable to have a lie in today after the busy weekend, I had much to do.  I spent the morning in the study reading and dealing with correspondence which had accumulated over the weekend and at lunchtime Sara went to have lunch with our friend Jan.  John H called at just before 2 pm to pick me up in his Audi and drive me over the Brighton to attend the meeting of Brighton & Hove Civic Lodge at which I was to be installed as Worshipful Master for 2011-2012.  I navigated him on to the M27 and then spent the journey learning my words for the obligation and investiture of my officers.  I must confess to closing my eyes for a short while to help me concentrate on the words and then waking up with a start on the Chichester by-pass!  So unlike me to fall asleep in a car!  We arrived in Brighton quite early and so I took John on a guided tour of the city including a drive along the seafront to the Marina.  The meeting went very well with Maurice Adams, the Provincial Grand Secretary for Sussex, attending a presiding officer.  A lovely man and a very good companion over dinner.  I did struggle a little with my obligation but was word perfect when it came to my second obligation in the Inner Working.  I also chose to extemporise a bit in the investing of my officers deeming sincerity and a flowing oration as being far more important that being word perfect from the book.  I think this came across well from some of the comments I received afterwards.  It was very much a low key affair from when I had been installed the first time in 1994.  Then, there were far more brethren in the lodge and my then father-in-law had attended from Middlesbrough. That visit to Brighton was also the last time I saw him alive too.  Tonight there was less pomp and I enjoyed the increased informality and sincerity of the speeches.  A lovely evening.  John managed to get me back home for 12.30 a.m. but I found it difficult to get to sleep.  I watched a "B" move starring Klaus Kinsi (of fame) called Commando Leopard about a revolution in an unnamed Latin American country with Kinsi playing the part of a general in the army of an oppressive dictator.  Eventually went to bed about 2.30 a.m.