There’s no doubt that the retired members of the congregation came to HOLIDAY IN HAMPSTEAD during the second week in August had a great time.
The food has been so good and so generous that I, for one, needed no supper, just a bit of fruit! And the organisation of the whole holiday has been so efficient, but discretely handled, that we’ve seen no stresses or problems. It couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Thanks a million, folk!
Each day we’ve started with coffee and chat before John Willmer, or Stephen Clarke, and friends entertained us with themed readings – except in the case of John’s TRAINS when we also had recordings of voices imitating the sounds of early trains in astonishingly vivid style that quite transformed the crypt. It was such an intriguing mixture of poems or pieces of prose which one remembered, or partly so, combined with stuff which we’d never managed to catch up on. And now did! It was clever that the readers gave us the impression that they were enjoying themselves as much as we were… It was great.
Every session was entertaining but wildly different.
At the beginning of the week we travelled the world. Ted Pleasance’s Memorable Holiday Reminiscences weren’t just his. He managed to provoke a large number of the group into sharing their own shattering or astonishing experiences and had the whole room buzzing. Later we went to Saudi Arabia, Spain and Venezuela with John and Val Neild looking at stunning pictures of beautiful birds.
Then who would have thought that Decluttering could be entertaining?
But Ann Morisy had us laughing, and sharing problems, and facing awkward questions over how to dispose of no longer wanted ‘stuff’. It was enjoyable but also she had prepared a printed list of what can go where so it was truly valuable as well. Sue Kwok’s talk about the Chinese family she married into was extraordinarily interesting in exploring the totally different aspects of family life, yet in so many ways she found herself comfortable in the Chinese setting especially if it was such a setting outside China – where you would have thought it might be more rigidly Chinese! Fascinating. And so kind of her to share it all with us.
After the lovely generous lunches which might have encouraged us to doze off we were challenged by the Quizzes which I remember from last year as being great to take away and try out on the family after Christmas lunch. But I couldn’t remember all the answers last time so have made a point of grabbing a completed set or filling in my gaps this time. Stimulating. Infuriating – because when you’re told the answer you feel such a fool. Of course!
Sensibly lunch on Wednesday was just very tasty soup because we all went off to Henderson Court for an extended tea and cakes – cleverly cut small so we could taste lots of them. And we did! The residents, staff and volunteers made us very welcome and everybody mixed and mingled. With the music, vigorous piano duets and lovely sung solos and duets, including the songs we were invited to join in (useful practice for Friday’s Anyone Can Sing) it made the afternoon a very friendly enjoyable outing.
Cycling in the Alps is hardly an outing but Mark was not only entertaining but implied there was nothing extraordinary in his adventures, as though any of us could, or at least could have undertaken such exhausting trips as easily and often as he had done. It was very flattering to us oldies and good for morale. In something of the same way Sheena showed us how to make delightful lateral table arrangements of flowers as though it was normal, everyday decoration. Delightful but quite different and it’s so stimulating to be prodded into something new.
So much for the mind and soul. Gill Roberts, by contrast, went straight for our bodies with an amazing demonstration salmon mousse and salad, which really turned food preparation into a spectator sport. On Friday afternoon Margaret Willmer showed us how to make striking collages on the cardboard hexagons that have since appeared on one of the screens in church. Finally Barbara Alden led us in the joyful chorus, Anyone Can Sing. For us taking part, it is difficult to know what our efforts may have sounded like to outsiders, but singing is in any case an instinctive way to express the shared happiness we all felt at end of those five delightful days.