After working on site in the Royal Mint in the morning it was a case of moving on to the Vale of Glamorgan Resort Hotel for the rest of the day and evening for the Annual Awards dinner. Met up with non golfers in the hotel for a period of networking whilst the sporting lot took part in the Annual golf tournament on the Hotel golf course.
 |
| The Vale of Glamorgan Resort Hotel |
I was staying the night at the hotel so later in the afternoon I got dressed for the evening dinner, black tie, ready for an early start for an event that was destined to last for six hours. We were required to attend a drinks reception at 6.00pm and dinner was due to start at 6.30. Paramount were to be represented by myself and Ceri Bowden and I met Ceri in the foyer of the hotel at 6.00pm and we immediately headed for the drinks reception.
 |
| My colleague Ceri Bowden |
After the drinks reception we took our place at table 23 and introduced ourselves to the other table guests who were made up of seven staff from Thomas Carroll, Insurance Brokers, including an old cricket adversary of mine, Phil Makinson who once hit me for the longest six ever struck off my bowling during a match between Old Monktonians, his team, and Rockhampton, mine, on the common at Rockhampton. I swear it nearly hit the church tower in the neighboring village!
We were also joined by Andy Rose and Joy from the Royal Mint. Andy is the current Head of Finance for Circulating Coin and as much a Dragons fan as I am. We had a lot to talk about, and on that subject I have to mention one other guest on our table, a Director of Thomas Carroll, Brynmor Williams. Brynmor was a wonderful scrum half who, during his career, played for Cardiff, Newport, Wales and The British Lions. A really nice bloke who was fascinating to listen to.
Brynmor is the father of current Wales scrum half Lloyd Williams.
 |
| Brynmor playing for the British Lions against the All Blacks in 1976 |
 |
| Brynmor Williams |
The evening was well organised with the presentations to winning suppliers spread out between the courses of the meal which was, as usual here, outstanding. There were no winners on our table , except for the Golf award, but just wait until next year.
Adam Lawrence, the Chief Executive and Deputy Master of the Mint opened proceedings in his usual eloquent fashion. He is a 100% Aussie and a real gent, much respected by the royal Mint staff.
 |
| Adam Lawrence, Chief Executive |
Previously at these events, the identity of the guest speaker has been a closely guarded secret and this year was no exception. When it was announced everybody present was delighted that it was to be Baroness Grey-Thompson, of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham, or as a we all know her, Tanni Grey-Thompson.
 |
| Baroness Grey-Thompson, of Eaglescliffein the County of Durham |
She was a most eloquent speaker who clearly loved to talk about her life and in particular the years of competetive sport, but it was the talk of her family life and upbtinging that I found fascinating.
 |
| Tanni representing Great Britain in the Olympic Games |
After Tanni, there was a most amusing auction and raffle hosted by two of the funniest guys, both Royal Mint employees. I tried, but failed in my attempt to secure international match tickets.
This finished at around midnight and Ceri had to get away so I saw her safely to the car park and returned to the event. I had a couple of drinks with Royal Mint employees and decided to call it a day at one o'clock, although there were plenty there intent on carrying on.
All in all, a good day. Can't wait until the 2017 event.
 |
| The new Royal Mint Visitbuildingor Experience |
No comments:
Post a Comment