The 1st Committee meeting

The conversation broke into several threads as the other two members of the committee arrived and took their places around the table.

John offered the biscuits round, topped up everyone’s coffee and then called the meeting to order.

Once everyone had settled, a quiet air of expectancy flowed through the room and all eyes focused on John. He savoured the moment, basking in his own importance before starting the meeting.

As the only item on the agenda tonight was "Possible Twinning Partners", he lept right in, proposing to go round the table taking suggestions from everyone.

He started with Jeanette, the secretary.

Jeanette’s idea was basically that a certain amount of concentration should placed on identifying up and coming areas in the newly evolving economies such as China or India. I have to say it took her a lot longer to explain than that one brief sentence though.

There were murmurs of approval from all round the table although, Tony, he’s the fisherman, was heard to say that it was a bloody long way from the south of England to China!

Next came Evey. Evey didn’t have any notes or indeed anything to support her speech. When John focused the attention on her she simply said "France"

There followed quite a bit of discussion about how a small village – I know, it’s a town really but… - about how a small village could organise to twin with a whole country.

After quite a bit of this discussion bouncing back and forth round the table, Evey, eventually, stood up and stopped everyone. "Not with France but with somewhere in France" she explained and there was a long silence.

Somewhat taken aback by this sudden outburst, and aware that Evey hadn’t spoken "through the chair", John moved on and sought Derek’s opinion.

Derek didn’t really have an opinion. He just wanted to twin with somewhere sunny so that he could enjoy his twinning exchange trips. After another bout of round the table rambling, Derek finally conceded that a place in coastal Spain would probably be good.

John moved the focus to Tony.

Tony was probably the only one of all the committee who had read the agenda and realised that John would be looking for suggestions. He had spent the past couple of weeks wracking his brains to come up with a good idea. In fact he had identified somewhere in France and was bit upset when Evey had suggested France. Still, undeterred he stood.

Being a fisherman, Tony, actually, had quite a good knowledge of both the south coast of England and the channel coast of France. He was familiar with Calais and Dunkerque as well as Le Havre and Honfleur. These were all ports where fishing boats worked.

He’d also had a couple of weeks to think about what he wanted to propose.

So when he stood, he had a look on his face of the cat that had found the cream. He was the little boy in the sweet shop.

He waited 'till silence fell around the room and then he started.

"Dives sur Mer" he announced with a level of gravity that would have made Sir Lawrence Olivier sit up and take notice.

The room remained silent. Tony bathed in the glory.

"Dives sur Mer" he repeated. "It’s a little village just south of Le Havre in Normandy"

The silence got a lot louder and all eyes focussed on the new superhero - Tony the fish!

John had heard enough and jumped in. "OK Tony, what can you tell us about Dives sur Mer?"

John gloated to himself. This was going to stop Tony in his tracks. He might know of a little village in France but he wouldn’t know anything about it!

"Dives sur Mer" repeated Tony for the third time. "Like I said it’s a little village in Normandy, actually, it’s in Basse Normandie erm – Lower Normandy. It’s in the Calvados department. "

He paused and looked around him to ensure everyone was listening.
"Calvados takes it’s name from a very fine apple brandy that is made there. In fact, the region of Calvados was created after the French Revolution but Calvados, the apple brandy, has been made in the area since the mid 16th Century."

John was getting hot under his collar now.

However,Tony was into his stride and wasn’t going to give John the satisfaction of catching him out. He continued "Dives sur Mer is the port where William the conqueror amassed his army of 55,000 men and 700 boats in preparation for his invasion of England. Of course, that was back in 1066 and interestingly enough, since then the sea has receded almost a mile and now the small bay he departed from is full of grazing cows."

Tony looked around the room. Every one of them, John included, had their eyes fixed on his face. Evey sat with her mouth open. Jeanette’s eyes sparkled as she admired her handsome and oh so knowledgeable fisherman. Even Derek looked a bit surprised.

"Anything else?" John asked rather too tersely.

Smiling, Tony looked at him and said "Well, the medieval wooden market hall is still standing!"

There was a sudden burst of applause from the two women and Derek patted him hard on the back.

To be fair to John, he was pretty good at reading a situation and he knew when he was beaten.

He didn’t mention his own idea, which until Tony had spoken he was convinced would be adopted. But now, as each committee member congratulated Tony, John just added his own weight behind the inevitable.

John allowed things to settle before calling a vote on which of the ideas should be followed up. Of course there was no competition really and it ended with a unanimous decision to go ahead and investigate the situation with Dives sur Mer

There was no "other business" so John wound the meeting up, diarising the next meeting for 3 weeks time