Yesterday
was the Rotary meeting at the Glengarry’s with a prominent guest, the
Dutch ambassador. I had already bought a sympathy card to be added to
the Registry of Condolence for Prince Claus, and apparantly I was
the only one who thought of it. With the approval of the chamber of
commerce, the town council and others, me and Keith added the
names of those organisations (we both insisted on the importance of
this Dutch formality). Bob then told me that he would add me, and the
offer of sympathy, to the agenda. So he did and I was called upon to
address the matter to the attendees and the ambassador. I hate
improvising, but I offered the card to His Excellency with the end note
‘from Truro and the organizers’. Etc. Etc. If I couldn’t say it in
Dutch, the Ambassador asked. Stutter. Mutter. Stutter.
At the end I talked with the Consul-General to Montreal
and the Honourable Consul of Veteran affairs (‘I’m the man to talk to
if you end up having problems’). Then the ambassador took me aside
(eager to talk with me), and we exchanged thoughts in mixed
Dutch and English, even discussing Bali: I was curious about the
official point of view of the Dutch government, particularly in the
light of the recent advisories of the American and Australian
government. It was funny to hear him say ‘Well, we do things
different’. There was a photo shoot too. Me shaking hands. All
shaking hands. Whatever.
Afterwards, I had a quick chat with Christine (a local politician),
who I actually recognized from an earlier birthday party a couple of
weeks ago. She complimented me for thinking about the card of sympathy.
I think I told her that I have always bean a great fan of the
prince. And that you never know what happens if the Queen (or her
secretary) reads a card from a small population in NS.
If I’m a monarchist? Not at all, I just appreciate smart people.
The food was good too, though. Although they should have asked
me to make one of my world famous sauces. Peanut sauce. Or Cheese
sauce. Whatever.
Rescued from XSamplex