Societies’ day was its usual two yearly triumph.

If there was a certain amount of dash and worry behind the scenes to cover for the odd speaker who was late, it certainly did not show on Philip Pantelis’ calm face. Some 25 societies had stands, Mitzi and her ladies provided tea and coffee and, later, a wide range of cakes. There is a rumour going round that some societies attend for the super range of cakes rather than anything else; that can’t be right – can it?

We had a secondhand bookseller, who brought the right kind of books for our sort of occasion. People met old friends and made some new ones. Societies showed what they and their members had done or had published or were going to publish. There was a steady trade in publications that somehow people had missed earlier in the year. But above all there was the satisfied hum of people who had listened to some good short talks in the morning and who were busy exchanging information or asking about researches or just plain renewing old acquaintances.

All in all a jolly good day and a useful one too.