A great treat.Such a memorable three days.Excellent food..Instructive, stimulating and entertaining..Makes August a month to look forward to..
Some of the enthusiastic feedback from this years packed Holiday in Hampstead week.
There were thoughtful and witty readings each day from John Willmer and Stephen Clarke and their talented friends in the Literary Half Hour. And on Thursday afternoon a very enjoyable parish premiere when the vicar and our churchwarden Jeremy and Jenny played their guitars and sang together for the first time.
A wide range of interests and talents in our congregation were (again) revealed by those who came to speak. Who would have thought blood transfusions were so interesting, or how straightforward it is to research your family history. Our parish clerk Rebecca Keane told us how the boy scouts have evolved (some troops are now led by women like her) and Jenny Bunn described meeting the Queen when she was a volunteer gardener at Lambeth Palace. We were reminded of favourite heroes and heroines from childrens literature and the life of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson led to a discussion on the sacrifices early women in medicine made to be in the profession.
There were delicious lunches and homemade cakes and biscuits each day. And to make sure we didn’t put on too much weight, each morning we were encouraged to do gentle exercises led by Sue Kwok.
And then there were outings. Julia Fletcher talked to us about the challenges of moving into houses not chosen by her and invited us to tea. The rain had stopped in time for us to have tea in the Vicarage garden.
The wettest day of the week was Wednesday and it rained heavily and constantly. This was the day we had hoped to be outdoors for our Tea at the Ritz Experience with friends at Henderson Court. Instead we squeezed into one of their communal rooms and were happily entertained by David Moore and the Community Choir with everyone able to join in the singing of popular old time favourites.
Thank you so much to all who took part this year and made it such an enjoyable week – all the helpers, caterers, bakers, entertainers and everyone who came and took part.