A message from Neil Wrigley

Neil's asked me to pass on this message, along with this photo which some of you may also have a copy of - we have! Anyway, Neil's message ...

Desperately sad I can't make the weekend .  As I mentioned to Dave and Bernie, I am booked on a non-changeable/non-refundable flight from Athens to Heathrow on Sat 2nd Sept and just can't get to Aber in time.

Hope the picture is of interest and it's great to get the updates on people.

   Best

     Neil


The appearance of this photo almost begs a competition to see who can name the most people off the photo. It's great to see some continuity from Spring 1970 as Harold and Tony are in the photo and will be with us for lunch on the 2nd.

I'll be pouring over the picture with Jenny, who's the one with the memory, let's see if any of you can do better than us!


Update - July 13th

The current set of known attendees is to be found here ...

https://aberystwyth2017.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/whos-coming.html

... it's good that Harold Carter, Roy Lewis, Tony Moyes and John Aitchison will be able to join us for lunch on the Saturday.

This means that we can with a high degree of confidence (95% level for Johny A.) say that the buffet will come in at £19 per person.

You can look at the menus for dinner on the Med Delight website here ...

http://www.meddelight.com/menus/Med-Delight-Menu.pdf

... and work out how much your meals might cost.

If you'd like to tell me where you're staying I could complete the table referred to above in the first link.

Also if you'd like to send me a brief bio (John's just done his which makes mine seem like War and Peace) I'm happy to post that.

Finally, you'll hopefully have looked at the photos I posted here ...

https://goo.gl/photos/1yJ4V8CswyA6JriH7

... I'd love to add some of yours as well, if you'd like to send them to me, or alternatively post them yourself to the shared Aberystwyth 2017 album if you've got a Google account. Got one glorious story of Jenny Jones showing them to her Year 13 class in Auckland to mass disbelief. I know the feeling, as I'm sure we all do.

Posting to this blog

As I mentioned in the last email, John thought it would be a good idea to write a potted bio of what we've been up to in the last 50 years. You can do that by writing an email with your name in the Subject and Sending it to "david.ian.harrison.aber2017@blogger.com". I can then pick it up and post it.

You might also like to start a discussion on a subject such as "What do I remember about Sunday's in Aber" for instance. That'll test you. Put your Discussion Topic in the Subject of your email and Send it to the same email address - david.ian.harrison.aber2017@blogger.com.

Commenting on this blog

I'd encourage you to comment on any, or all of the posts on the blog, I've made commenting as easy as I possibly can. As it's a private space for us a you can choose to comment in a number of ways when it comes to supplying a Profile in the Comment box. The most obvious and easiest ones would be ...

  1. Anonymously, but if you do, could you just start by saying "David says:" or whatever;
  2. Alternatively you can supply your Name with the URL of this blog - eg "David" and "aberystwyth2017.blogspot.co.uk"; or 
  3. If you have a Google account (eg Gmail), you can login to that account and that will identify you to the commenting system.

Accommodation

Just a quick note. There's a bikers' convention on in town the same weekend as us. That's why we didn't stay at The Richmond Hotel, and why John, Midge, Jenny and I are staying at The Premier Inn - formerly Carpenter Hall, we think.

Who's coming ...


July 3rd Fri night Sat night Accom Sat lunch Sat dinner
John & Midge Whitelegg Yes Yes Premier Inn Yes Yes
David & Jenny Harrison Yes Yes Premier Inn Yes Yes
Richard Morgan Yes Yes Lives in Aber Yes Yes
Dennis & Babs Thomas Yes Yes Lives in Aber Yes Yes
Nick & Nicky Williams Yes Yes Premier Inn Yes Yes
Andy & Dot Pardoe Yes Yes Premier Inn Yes Yes
John & Liz Williams-Davies Yes Yes Belle Vue Yes Yes
Alan & Ros Clowes Yes Yes Camping Yes Yes
Tony Bovey & Liz Thomas Yes Yes Premier Inn Yes Yes
Bernie & Eileen Fingleton Yes Yes Premier Inn Yes Yes
Gareth & Cheryl Davies No No Not resident Yes No
Eryl Thomas No No Not resident Yes Yes
Jenny Jones No No Not resident Yes Yes

I'm also pleased to be able to tell you that Harold Carter, Roy Lewis, Tony Moyes and John Aitchison are able to join us for lunch on Saturday.

I'll keep this up to date, as I hear from you.

How things have changed

I've just been looking at the pubs in Aber having been recommended two - the Ship & Castle and the Glengower - by Dennis.

My, how things have changed. No Central, no Blue Bell. The Angel, Downies Vaults and Coopers are still open however - I'll have to pop my head round on Thursday evening. There are links to some of them from the menu.

It's getting closer (a revised message)

Monday 3rd July

The sun came out in Cardiff yesterday and I was sat in front of a computer writing to you - it’s a hard life … Things are coming together for our weekend in September, we’ve arranged a buffet lunch on the Saturday at the Richmond Hotel, and an evening meal at Med Delight on North Parade - you can look here for the menu etc - http://meddelight.com/.

There are still four members of staff - Harold Carter, Roy Lewis, John Aitchison and Tony Moyes - living in, or near, Aberystwyth and Richard has suggested we invite them to join us for the buffet lunch. They may of course decline - Harold must be well into his eighties - but it would be nice if they could join us. That would add a little to the cost of c.£15, so £20 for lunch would cover it.

We do however need to have some idea of committed numbers though as Richard has volunteered to co-ordinate things in Aberystwyth for us.

I therefore need a firm reply asap from you all answering the following questions:

1) I will be coming and “I’m bringing … with me"/ “will be on my own”

2) I/We would like to come to the lunch buffet on Saturday

3) I/We would like to come to the evening meal on Saturday

Answers to these questions are far more important than what follows.

It’s only a couple of months away until we get to the 1st September. I’ve decided that I’ll be going up to Aberystwyth on the Thursday (in our camper van) to get my bearings, and perhaps do a scout for a pub meander (not crawl) on Friday evening. Again … it’s a hard life …

Now we get to the interesting bits. John is very keen that he minimises the shock to his system. He thinks it would be a great idea (for him at least) - and perhaps you might even agree with him - for us to write something down about what we’ve been up to in the last 50 years. Dennis has already done that (to me) and upon request from some of you, Rick has also done this as he and Laura won’t be able to be with us. Of course I know bits and pieces from Christmas cards, seeing folk etc. but “the little grey cells are letting me down increasingly” so I don’t trust myself to broadcast what I know.

I thought about setting up a Facebook Group, but I really don’t like Facebook, it’s so easy to make a slip and all of a sudden stuff gets “out in the wild”, I then thought about setting up a Google+ Community and I, unfortunately, sent out instructions yesterday about how to join that - I wish I hadn't. Even I found it a challenge, and this morning I woke up (having had some feedback, I must add) and tried to think of another alternative. 

I thought about flickr, but that again might have been "challenging" for some, so I eventually decided on this, a private blog. I'll copy emails from people into it - not a difficult task, or you can email directly into it, I'll tell you how to do that in another post. It makes things easier for you and means you only have to use two tools - email and a web browser - ones you're using already. 

I'll stick with using Google Photos and the Aber 2017 Album already set up, where I’ve added a few photos I have, or have picked-up in the last couple of months, which should get you “in the mood” so to speak. You should also be able to add photos that you have to this album. You can get to it from this link - https://goo.gl/photos/1yJ4V8CswyA6JriH7 - again if you’re not into this sort of thing, but have photos you’d like to share, just email them to me and I'll add them.