Polly Evans – “Mad dogs and an Englishwoman”. Polly travelled to Canada’s Yukon Territory to learn about the Huskies who take part in the 1000 mile Yukon Quest sled race. First Polly spent time with Frank, who invented the race and his son Saul who have 108 Huskies in training. She learned about the dogs, how they each have a personality and like to “live” with their friends and their rather gruesome looking horse meat in hot water diet! The race itself runs from Fairbanks in Alaska, via Dawson where the Mushers have a 36 hour rest, before continuing to the finish at Whitehorse. Each team set out with 14 dogs and are allowed no outside help, though they can drop off injured dogs at “Dog drops” and pick up supplies along the way, though they must finish the race with at least 8 dogs, which the fastest sleds manage in 10 days. During the race Polly watched, a bad storm occurred resulting in the Military having to use helicopters to rescue over 88 dogs and their Mushers. After the race Polly had a go at dog sledding, as she said you end up with lots of photos of dogs behinds!
More information at www.pollyevans.com
Our second speaker was John Mole whose talk was called “I was a potato Oligarch!”. When Russia changed into a free market economy John thought he saw a gap in the market between McDonalds and Pizza Hut, something quintessentially English, his own version of the now defunct “Spud-U-Like” chain to be called “Jackets Moscow”. After getting a grant he set off to try and find the best potatoes Russia could grow, visiting farms, looking at Spuds and learning Russian along the way. Alas John’s plan was thwarted by the Russian Mafia, where everyone from the Police, Fire Brigade, Local council all want paying off, the Russian mafia demanded 10% of his takings, which was the equivalent of 80% of his profit, so the whole thing was a no starter, but made for a great story.
More information at www.johnmole.com/oligarch
For details of the forth coming meetings of the London branch, December 2008 through to July 2009 – http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/lon09it1.html.
London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend. There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh in September. For more information, contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk.