Count down to inauguration on 7th November!

My Profile for the Centenary Book:
'Helen's father was a doctor in the Army, her mother, an artist. Her childhood was spent partly in West Africa commuting back to boarding school where she learnt very little apart from Drama. Her early career led her into the film industry. Subsequently following a nomadic life from Kenya to Berlin and Hong Kong she ran her own interior design business in the UK. he has two sons and four grandchildren.
She finally came to roost in Cheltenham with husband John and went full circul back to theatre producing shows for charity. She joined.............Golf Club eitght years ago and has loved being a member of such a welcoming and friendly club.
SHE IS VERY PROUD TO BE MADE LADY CAPTAIN FOR 2010 the centenary year of the course.'
That's it in a very tiny nutshell so I'll just enlarge a little bit. I'm half Irish and my father who went to Trinity acted with the Abbey Theatre and only remained a doctor rather than an actor because he joined when the war came along. I did indeed commute back to West Africa to Accra. In those days it took 3 days - there was a gang of us escaping from maleria and we must have given the air hostess who was meant to be in charge of us, nightmares. But we only commuted once a year, other holidays were spent with my Irish Grandparents or my Grandmother in Kent or with other school friends. Bearing in mind I was a wartime baby, many of my school friends didn't have fathers, they had been killed in the war. It always surprises people that 50 years on we are still a close bunch and meet regularly. We have these atrocious nick names, I'm Spot but there is Pooh, Splosh and Stew as well! We must have sounded funny in the Club car park earlier this year! We all play golf. But next year its Stew's turn - so we're going up to Wakefield.
I had a wonderful time in the film world - I was waiting to go to LAMDA I was only 17 and you had to be 18 if you'd won a scholarship) but a Abbey Theatre friend of my father's turned up in Niarobi and gave me a job as a double for Elsa Martinelli in a film called 'Hatari' with John Wayne. If you see the film - her backside in the safari jeeps, is mine! I won't bore you with my film stories they do go on a bit and this is about me and golf really.
I first learnt to play golf when I was in Hong Kong - I was still acting then and doing stuff on Radio Hong Kong but at the same time designing evening wear for the export market. Mad! I was a complete amateur. Anyway, I started off at Fan Ling in the new territories - I was secretary to the secretary and decided I should have some lessons - then we moved to the island and this extraordinary character, Diana Lawrence, I can see her now invited me to play with her at a club called Sheko. In those days we always kept our water in Gordon Gin bottles and always brought a ful one with us because it got so hot even after a few holes and starting very early.
I took me a long time to discover why Diana was so unsteady on her feet after a round. Yes, you've guessed it her bottle was liberally topped up with gin.
When I got back to the UK I knew I couldn't continue in the rag trade and rather missed out by now on getting a proper acting career going or getting back into film so I trained in soft furnishing and learnt the building regs! Won't bore you with the interior design world the best part of which wasn't the clients so much as my lovely gangs of builders who kept me laughing all the time and always made me be optimistic when I thought everything was about to go pear shaped. They worked all hours and never complained. One lot was from Rainham in Kent and the other lot from Worcestershire. I worked mainly for the hotel trade and corporate market in the City.
I took up golf properly when I lived in Worcestershire and there's no doubt it helped to keep me fit and to endure the very long hours and physical stamina you need. Even when I came full circle back into theatre putting on shows for Charity I found the Club was a wonderful place to come to and forget the stresses of budget and the odd premadonner (can't spell)giving you hell
when you know they are complete amateur idiots yet they profess to know more than anybody.
Enough of all this stuff - get to the diary!

1st November:
Less than a week to go to my inaugoration on 7th Nov. Have got the committee I want (with a bit of juggling I might add! But all's well that ends well- will have to ask the girls if they want their names changed for privacy.
Its too late for me cos I've got a website and another blog (toadsrevenge.blogspot.com) and I do need to attend to that a bit this year to try to get on and sell my play - so please look at that as well if you like, especially if you have a production company. I will tell you about all the girls on the committee later - in fact now I come to think of it they could post a bit about themselves on here.
Tomorrow is photo time - getting the hair done first thing for shoot at 2.0 pm.
Talk to you tomorrow!