Wiltshire Freemasons' 2017 Festival Launch

Another busy day today.  I spent the night downstairs last night as I was involved in a constant territorial war over bed space last night.  Sara spread herself out over the whole of our king-sized bed pushing me forever to the side and I kept finding myself clinging on to the edge of the bed for dear life to stop myself plunging to the floor.  I soon had had enough and decided to sleep on the sofa downstairs.  I was wide awake by 3 a.m. and watched an Air Crash Investigation programme about a China Airways flight which nearly plummeted into the ocean after taking off at  Los Angeles.  I did get some snatches of sleep but still felt a bit groggy in the morning.  I drove to the Park and Ride in London Road at mid-morning and met up with Lee H at Cafe Nero before we walked to the City Hall for the Provincial Grand Lodge lunch - cold meats, hot minted potatoes, salad etc and cheese and biscuits with white wine to wash it down.  This afternoon we witnessed a very colourful and exciting Provincial Grand Lodge meeting at which the wives and partners of those brethren receiving appointments and promotions to Provincial Grand Lodge were invited to watch their partners being invested followed by a dramatic launch of the 2017 Festival to the accompaniment of Copeland's Fanfare for a Common Man with smoke effect, ticker-tape, "explosion" and sweeping coloured lights.  Not quite the opening ceremony of the Olympics but quite spectacular in its own way.  Following the launch we were invited to wear our Festival Jewels (see picture).  This evening we had six people at House Group where we reviewed Dave Hopwood's DVD entitle "Signs" which we will continue to unpick next time.  I do hope I can get a decent night's sleep tonight as I have a business breakfast to attend in Salisbury at 7.30 a.m. and a day's work at Sarum College to prepare my sermon and service at Whiteparish on Sunday.