Fire-dancers in a cavern

[bunn]

We went to the 'Best of Bodmin Moor' organisation AGM this evening.  I  have attended a few AGMs now and again, but this was the first one that was held in the vast cool candle-lit cavern of an old slate mine.

It turns out that ten degrees centigrade is the perfect temperature for such a meeting, and candle light is the perfect lighting.  Nobody can read documents, there's no internet and no powerpoint, and the chill encourages an admirable brevity to the proceedings.  Also, if you get bored with the speakers, there are bats to watch.

After the AGM bit there were fire-dancers juggling, shadow-fighting with swords of flame and a girl twirling inside a burning hula-hoop to the sound of a live band, which included a skinny lad with enormous hair who played the washboard.

After that, we all put on hard hats and descended into the UnderCavern to see illuminated pools, coloured a delicate clear green from the reflective mica in the slate.

Really, the only minor disappointment to the meeting was that we arrived late (due to fog coating the roads like the ghost of cotton-wool), and thereby missed the mulled wine and our pasties had gone cool. 

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Beast of Bodmin Moor AGM! You and the hounds went hunting the fell beast, pasties or not, and -

Oh, Best of Bodmin Moor. Never mind...

ETA: Realisation dawns... processes group's logo... too slow for clever marketing types, is I...

[huinare.livejournal.com]

That sounds diverting!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

All AGMs should be like this! Also all meetings of Parliament.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

This was pretty much the conclusion we came to. We ended the meeting plotting with another Tamar Valley Tourism committee member on how we could make our next AGM 100% less dull and 100% chillier. Sadly the slate cavern is out of our area. I suggested boat on the river. But I'm not sure we have a big enough boat. :-D

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

The Devon contingent could stand on one bank and the Cornish contingent on the other, and you could conduct the meeting by megaphone? If Important Documents need to be shared, you could sling a rope across the river, and have a minion on hand to haul a little boat across. The meeting would then end with the chairman ceremonially eating a confused cream tea in the middle of the river.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Still doesn't duplicate the excellence of the lighting though. It was just dim enough that you could sort of see the minutes, agenda etc, and make out people who stood up and raised their hands as silhouettes - but dark enough that if you failed to recognise someone, it was entirely reasonable due to the lighting, and that the Usual Suspects who normally read the documents then ask lengthy idiotic awkward questions, clearly found them too much of a struggle.

In all, I was in awe. :-D

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Wow. How splendid. I've never been tempted by the thought of an AGM before...

[sally_maria]

*makes note to suggest it to committee*