Business at our meeting of 29th September covered the forthcoming ‘Casino Night’ in Crail Community Hall on the 14th November and also a possible Rotary walk. This was followed by a short EGM. 

Following business and a meal the speaker was Andy Hancock, who was brought up in SW England and joined the Navy at 18. He served for 37 years before retiring to the East Neuk 3 years ago, where he has more or less hand-built his own house.

Andy was a Warfare officer and spent 20 years at sea in a variety of warships, before working as a staff officer in a number of shore appointments. His final nine years of service were as a Defence diplomat in  Latin America - and that is what his talk was about and illustrated with pictures of people and places - some of places that he got to, that the ordinary tourist doesn’t; eg Cave of (Selenite) Crystals in Mexico - some measuring 12m long and weighing 55 tonnes! These were  discovered by miners in 2000, where the cave can be 58 degrees C with 95% humidity!

It was a fascinating talk: on entering diplomatic service Andy first of all did a crash course learning Spanish - and Spanish spoken in South American countries can be very colloquial and different to that spoken in Spain. He then became Defence Attaché in Mexico.

It was here that Andy’s talk entered the world of James Bond and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy! We were treated to tales of spying and sussing out who was a spy. It was fascinating and provoked many questions. Apparently ‘It’s all about WHO you know’.

A most entertaining talk and following many questions a vote of thanks was proposed by Irene Walker.