Dear friends, I've just come across the email I sent to Arachne on the night of the opening of our Exhibition back on 15th January 1998 at 0130hrs. It brings back lots of memories and I'm sure you'll enjoy reading it (again) after some 19 years. Just noticed that back then I even signed emails with "love"!!!! What a hoot.
David in Ballarat, AUS Dear Friends, What a wonderfully exciting day we've had here in Ballarat today! Yes, the Arachne International Lace Exhibition was formally opened in spectacular fashion. Richard McGarvie (our former Governor) and his wife came up from Melbourne to perform the official duty, and (I shouldn't perhaps say it) but fortunately, decided not to stay the night. The day was a scorcher with the temperature hovering around the 40C (104F) mark and huge banks of thunder clouds building ever higher on the horizon. Richard and Lesley came to my place first for some final information regarding Arachne and its organisation. Cousin Pam was also here from Geelong, as well as my friend Maureen - the one with the super fine nose who could detect whether there was any cat smell left in the house. We all then set off for Montrose Cottage for the opening at 4:00 p.m. Everybody assembled in the private barbeque area (about 50 people in all) and what a thrill it was to meet again with Pam Lloyd and her DH Ian, as well as Chris Hancock and her parents from Adelaide. Ballarat's Town Crier performed a special opening cry honouring all those most generous members of Arachne who had loaned us their treasures for this wonderful exhibition. Then the local head person for the Tourism Board gave a short speech, and this was followed by Richard McGarvie's speech. Although Richard is now 72 years old, his speech was just incredible. As a seasoned performer in his former roles of Governor and Supreme Court Judge, he had memorized his speech and tempered it with a delightful smattering of history, fact, and humour. I know he really knows nothing about lace, yet he had studied our Bios thoroughly and was able to summarize just what sort of people lace makers seem to be. He also came up with a couple of very clever definitions of lace which have not been discussed here before. I know that both Chris Hancock and Pam Lloyd took a video of the entire opening and one of them is going to do us the honour of typing out Richard's speech in full for us all to relish. Drinks and horses doovers were served and then the rain (which we have prayed for here for sooo long) came pelting down, suitably accompanied of course by crashes of thunder and flashes of lightning. I think it has been a good three months since Ballarat had a decent shower at all. I shall leave this here as I know that both Pam and Chris want to write their impressions as soon as they are back home. Pam should be online tomorrow night and Chris on Friday. So you have that to look forward to. I can tell you that all who were present were simply over-awed with what they saw, and I was so impressed with the number of husbands who had never noticed lace before. I do hope some of their comments have been recorded, because they certainly had their eyes opened today - and knew it! Bye now Love David Downunder - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
