Hacked email - Apologies

Apologies if you received a SPAM email from me. It would appear that my account address book was hacked into last night. It wasn't me - honest guv!

More Photos

John and Maria - Best man and one of the bridesmaids

and yes he made a speech here!

 

as did our son Andrew

Some of the guests - the "young" table

Julia and her twin sister, Phil, another bridesmaid.

A Red Letter Day

Sunday marked our Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Some forty five of us celebrated with lunch at our favourite Italian - Ferraris in Bromley.

It was really enjoyable, friends of over forty years standing were with us. We cannot thank them enough for the friendship.

 Our family; Helena, Sam, Julia, Barry, David, Gaew, Andrew, Emma and Lawrie

The Last Ramble (and my first)

Last night was the final ramble of the season for the Old Askean Rambling Club. Despite all our good intentions Julia and I had not been able to make any of the rambles; until last night when I was able to make the final one of the season - a gentle ramble around Eltham. Not much of a choice of walks you might think; but you would be wrong. We started at Eltham Palace and at the back of it there is a surprising amount of green spaces. Eighteen of us rambled for a gentle couple of miles, expertly guided by Dermot Poston who is a fount of local knowledge. We went via some farms and fields to the Tarn, past some lovely house to Royal Blackheath Golf Club and then back to our starting point. We finished at Dermot's house for a glass of wine and some food - an excellent way to spend a Wednesday evening - and we avoided all the rain bar a few spots proving that the sun does shine on the righteous!

 The Chancellor's House

 

By the Tarn

 Royal Blackheath Golf Club

The Tilt Yard Gate

El Presidente!

Last Thursday I was elected President of the Old Askean Association. I feel somewhat of a fraud as until recent years I has not taken any part in it. For dome reason links with the old school, or rather college as it now is have lapsed somewhat. It is my aim to strengthen these links and we can hopefully increase the membership of the "Old Boys". If you would like information on joining the Old Askeans' please write a comment to this post.

Update on the Lodge

Julia and I are just back form a couple of days at the Lodge. The aim was to finish off the work and generally make sure all was "shipshape and Bristol fashion". The one major outstanding item was the cooker and the problems we were having with it, when using the grill the controls become too hot to handle. We had arranged for a service engineer to attend to take temperature measurements etc; as luck would have it we found out at 9 pm the evening before he was due to arrive that the power was being turned off during the day by the local supply company - the best laid plans of mice and men. One day we will get this finished, he said hopefully.

 

The lounge

 The new look kitchen

 We did manage some time by the sea

One Parish, One Mass

For the past three years we have held a Parish "One Mass Day". The aim is to gather the whole Parish together and have one Eucharistic Celebration. As there are so many people attending the event has to be held out-of doors. This year we were blessed with splendid weather and a gathering of some 750 people. The preparation for the event takes some days and a lot of hard work; that is just preparing the site, erecting marquees, building a stage etc. Never mind the liturgy, choir practice etc. Still the hard work is worthwhile and this year it was a great success. After the Mass there is a picnic followed by entertainment put on by the parishioners. This year quite a few stayed behind after the event to help clear the site which we did in record time. At least we have 12 months to recover before next years "One Mass Day"!

Ready for the Mass

The choir, final preparations

 

Some of the congregation

Processing in

The Mass is over

Elvis, not on the moon but at St. Joseph's!

Two of the site crew