What A Night!

The weekend went incredibly well. So goid to meet up with so many friends. Here's a crowd of flower folding females!

The food was excellent, bedrooms comfortable, staff cheerful and helpful. 

On the first evening we had the usual "housekeeping" information.

• Wear your keycard-lanyard whenever you leave your room
• No fire drills planned, so if you hear the alarm, go to the assembly point in the car park
• There are two other groups, we each have designated meeting/dining areas
• Clear your room by 9am Sunday

All good. I slept really badly Friday night,don't know why. Saturday night went to sleep easily. Woken around 4am by loud noise. I thought it was my alarm clock. Fumbled for light switch. Thumped alarm. Noise continued. Spotted red overhead alarm was flashing. Opened my door to find two friends in the corridor "What's happening?" "Fire alarm, come on!"

I'd put out my Sunday clothes and packed most of my stuff before going to bed. So there I was trotting down the corridor in pj's, best blue suede heels, and my biker jacker. I'd remembered to take the card out of the power slot and tuck it in my lanyard. But I didn't put in my two little partial dentures, or remember my watch, phone or glasses! 

My friend had let her door slam behind her. So was stuck in the corridor without a keycard to get back in. Just in her nightie, no shoes or coat. Someone lent her a cardi. We all trotted outside to the meeting point, following the line of women ahead of us. Sarah kindly took my arm in case I stumbled on the steps [with no glasses it was all a bit blurred in the dark] 

Top marks to Lori from our planning team who had a list of Thrive delegates on her clipboard, and a pen to tick us off. We were all present, if not correctly attired! We stood around for ages. The other conference delegates were in their groups. 

Then somebody said we could go back in, false alarm! But nobody was quite sure who had said it,. The women by the door said the alarm was still going off, and they could smell smoke. Back to our muster station... 

Shame I had no phone, I'd have rung Bob for a chat [at 4.20am? He'd not have enjoyed that!] Shall we sing "My favourite things" to make us feel better? Or a rousing hymn [like "Send the Fire"] Tried not to think about needing the loo.

Finally we were sent back inside at 4.50. It was definitely a fault. No fire or smoke anywhere. I got into my room, visited the loo, put my little kettle on, made a cuppa, and did a sudoku. This will go down in Thrive history as "The Conference With The False Alarm"