Hip Society, Pasadena

21/09/07 – 22/09/07

Returning to the car park that is Los Angeles after a delay at San Francisco airport, we were delighted to find that the venue for the Hip Society meeting was in a very nice hotel in leafy Pasadena.

Having arrived too late to get to the reception at Larry Dorr’s, we took the opportunity to have a relatively healthy dinner, not involving steak or cheese. Unfortunately the “traditional” French onion soup contained more cheese than soup or onion.

The meeting itself was excellent. It was fantastic to hear surgeons such as Drs Harris, Ranawat, Paprosky, Engh, Dorr, Bourne, Duncan, Berry & Callaghan talk, & put faces to such famous names. Even better when they disagreed.

Having received the program on arrival, we were only slightly surprised to find “Travelling Fellows Report” on the agenda for 5pm on the first day. After a quick download of photos from our cameras & plagiarism of our other talks, we managed to put together an acceptable presentation which we spent the following day rehearsing during interludes. Come 5pm we were ready…. And treated to a report of the 2006 American Travelling Fellows trip to the UK! Remarkably similar to what we had prepared but with Old Trafford substituted for Shea Stadium & Haggis for Cheese Steaks. Still, it helps to be prepared for next year’s BHS.

The guest speaker at the dinner was a famous sports commentator whose great love was college (American) football.  Needless to say much of his talk was lost on us. We must get Aggers or Blowers for the BOA so we can return the favour for the American travelling fellows next year.