Saturday night

We all (most of us at least) dressed in our finery and were taken by bus to the gala dinner. After a round about trip that had us feeling lost and confused we arrived at the destination which turned out to be a residence of the president. This is often used for housing visiting heads of state. We were welcomed with champagne and a string quartet.

The dinner was on the first floor up the marble staircase. It was 4 or 5 courses and in between we were entertained by a quartet of dancers who had 4 different costume changes and 4 different styles of dance. between their sets were had 4 male opera singers who sang various opera folk and religious songs for us.

After the entertainment was over the Mensa brilliant prizes were awarded to the winners or the chairs of their country. It was an Australian who won the Poetry competition, so I had a chance to accept and remind everyone of Australia's reputation as a centre of culture with icons such as Barry McKenzie and Paul Hogan.

After this we had a DJ and dancing. One bus left about 11 the other well after midnight. It was all in all a great evening.