Thanks to Chris for organising this. We spent a splendid evening racing small cars at high speeds round an impossible circuit. Those of us with daredevil, cut-throat, kamikaze experience on the open road would probably have done better than others - I name no names, Trevor.
What is the collective noun for a group of sparrows? (A host.) Where did Canaletto live? (Venice.) What happened in London in 1665? (The Great Plague.) What happened in London in 1666? (The Great Fire.) Thanks to Lorna for an educational evening.
We spent the evening in structured exercises leading to mastery of the ball, the table and the opponent, and went on to play some fast and lethal games using all the shots we had just learned... Actually, we just hit the ball around all evening, but we had a nice time doing it. Janet disappeared at speed halfway through the evening when her husband returned home unexpectedly after ten days in Amsterdam. He phoned her on her mobile phone to tell her he'd got back, and she barely paused to say goodbye before she shot off. I always wondered what those things were for. (Mobile phones, not husbands.)
This was an excellent evening, and caused many of us to feel a deep pang of envy. Such mountains! Such glorious scenery! And the beautiful flowers of the Alpine summer. This kind of thing lends itself really well to slide shows because you can get the feel of the atmosphere far better in a slide than you can in an ordinary photograph. I'm glad though that we didn't see any zoom pictures of Lorna's injuries, although Lorna was on hand to show off the scars.
Thanks to Lynn for giving this talk, about an innovative means of paying off third world debt by the year 2000. I think Lynn was glad to have the opportunity to practise in front of a home crowd, before she starts her lecture tour - she'll be giving the same talk to other groups on behalf of the charity. Good luck to her.
There was a big turn-out for this, despite the fact that it took place on the other side of the world (well, in Surrey.) Myfanwy looked stunning in a dark blue dress, and Martyn didn't look at all stressed or nervous, despite having spent most of the previous night decorating the hall with garlands and flowers. The two bridesmaids, Helen and Lynn, gave an excellent repeat performance of the role they had played at Helen's brother's wedding in 1977 - exactly 20 years before. A good time was had by all, although some people had to leave a little early to get to ...
My training at the Trevor school of motoring allowed me to make the deadline for the ferry. Robert and I were at the Boddingtons on the 30 min crossing. Over the two days we did a good part of the Tennyson Trail from The Needles to Carisbrook. A fine walk over the downs with their Bronze Age relics above spectacular cliff scenery. We called in at beeches and pubs overlooking the sea and we found the ultimate tea shop at Chale Farm where we had half an enormous cake and 3 cups of tea each, I just though Helen should know that. We had just enough room for volcanic chilli.
Tom
Nigel Eley's sent us another beautiful postcard from America, the swine, in which he gives his new address as:
c/o Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center,
3029 Spirit Lake Highway
Castle Rock, WA 98611, USA
Email: /S=N.ELEY/OU1=R06F03D01A@mhs-fswa.attmail.com
"CRVC is about 3200 feet above sea level. It has been raining for 4 days now and the roads are starting to get washed out in places. Mount St Helens is now snow capped from about 5000 feet upwards and looks very pretty when the clouds lift."