talking tonight

This is a real flying post.  I am going out in fourteen minutes to do a talk on gardening for bees to a garden club outside Sudbury.  It was booked back in January, which is quite short notice by garden club standards, and they were originally trying to get me for a date later in the year which I couldn't do, then I ended up filling in for a cancellation.  I was getting slightly concerned when by yesterday I hadn't heard from them to confirm that the talk was on.  I had the e-mails, but a series of six month old e-mails isn't the same as an actual conversation near the time with a live person.  I rang the bookings secretary and got her voicemail, so left a message.

I rang again this morning at ten past nine when I still hadn't heard anything, but got the answerphone once more.  I tried looking the club up on the net to see if they had a website and published their programme, but they didn't seem to.  In a fit of inspiration I rang a friend who I thought belonged to that society, to see if she had a list of events and if so was I on it, but she was out.  I decided to assume that it was on and went to collect the plants, hoping I wasn't on a wild goose chase.

On the way to the plant centre I stopped at a friend's house, to sort out some beekeeping business, and she told me a not entirely reassuring story about how a chap talking to her garden club about fuchsias had turned up at another club where he thought he was booked, only to find a second speaker already there and setting up.  He claims to have sat at the back and enjoyed the talk, which if true was commendably stoic of him.  By the time I'd got all the plants and bits and pieces stowed in the car I was going to be late for lunch, so I rang home to warn the Systems Administrator, who told me that my garden club lady had rung, having just got back from holiday, and the talk was on.  Once I knew that I wasn't wasting my time en route to making myself look ridiculous I began to look forward to the talk.

My friend had e-mailed back to say that no, she wasn't a member of that society, and wishing me luck.  I expect it will be fine, though actually gardening for bees is the most technically difficult talk I do, because of the stretches when I'm not talking about the plants in front of me, so have no props to remind me what I'm supposed to be talking about.  And now I must go, hoping that there aren't any huge traffic jams on the Sudbury road, or gridlock around Colchester north railway station.  I could update the post when I get back, telling you how it went, but I probably won't.  I don't suppose the uncertainty is going to keep anyone up all night.