OCA Committee Meeting

It�s that time again. I travelled down to the BRIT School today for our �Old Croydonians� Committee meeting.


As always, I left really early � around 4am, to ensure I had a smooth journey there. One of the benefits of leaving that early is that by the time I got to the Dartford Bridge, it was only 5.45 and so it was free! It�s always the last few miles that are frustrating and I�d quite for gotten how south London is just one big traffic-jam. Just one-and-a-half hours to cover the first 90 miles and then an hour and a quarter to cover the final 8!!!!

The meeting went well, and it�s clear that barring any last minute surprises, I�ll become the chairman of the group when Derek steps down next year. With the membership declining and members getting older, the OCA won�t go on forever, but I�m looking forward to working with the rest of committee to ensure we�re remembered for all the right things. And, with the centenary celebrations coming up in 2011, it give us all something to focus our energies on.

The meeting finished just after 12 which led to believe I was going to get a good journey home � famous last words!! The M25 was slow and the M11 was worse. I found myself caught in a 10 mile jam which added and hour-and-a-quarter on top of the journey. I finally fell-in through the front door at 4.15. Four hours to cover fewer than 100 miles � ridiculous!!!

OCA: AGM

I drove down to the BRIT School today for The OCA's AGM. It was a good journey down and I was able to spend about an hour with Mum and then drive onto Peter J's afterwards.

The AGM went well, (apart from a very cold room and a PA system that made things worse!) - I ran a short interactive session with the audience on the future of the OCA Magazine and I think they enjoyed the opportunity to get involved. Slightly surprisingly, (but good news for us), was that 99% are in favour of us introducing a charging structure for the Magazine sometime in the future.

The journey home was pretty smooth � just short of two-and-a-half hours.

Nicki visits

Nicki drove up to spend the day with us.

It was good to see her and a great surprise to get a brilliant selection of individual cheeses (including my fave, chilli-cheese) as a birthday pressy. Yum-yum!

First stop for the girls, the beauticians (not that they needed it) for a bit of pampering. Whilst they were gone, I worked on some maintenance tasks on the OCA website - at last, I finally got its menu bar sorted out!!

The girls got back around 12 and we ate-in for lunch. Ann, with Nicki's help, created a rather splendid pizza with ham, chicken, goat's cheese, onions and tomatoes. We were too stuffed for dessert (but we had it later) - fruit and crushed meringue � yum-yum - again!!

After lunch, we caught up with the newspapers and took Nicki through the Japan holiday photos. She left about 4 because she wanted to get to Bicester Shopping Village before they closed. We put our feet-up, then spent the rest of the evening watching TV � BBC's Merlin and then Strictly Come Dancing.

It's been a great day, catching up up with Nicki and all her news! � and thanks for all the cheese!

OCA Committee Meeting

I drove to the BRIT School today for a full OCA Committee meeting. The normal crappy journey (left home 4.30am and got there just before 9am � it's only 90ish miles!)

We were under pressure from the start as they had a VIP visit scheduled for the morning (it turned out to be Ken Livingstone) and two senior politicians and a pop-star in the afternoon (apparently they couldn't tell us who they were) � so we told we had to be out by noon, cutting the meeting down to just two hours.

Actually, it was an efficient meeting and we were all done by about 11.50. The most interesting news of all was that many in the Committee seem to want me to be the next Chairman! Oooo-errr!

The journey back was better, as I chose to go via the Blackwall Tunnel. I left at just before 12.30 and was home by 3.45pm.

Peter J's 80th Birthday

I took a drive to Peter's � we're going out to The Chateau in Coombe Lane to celebrate his 80th (from a few weeks ago). It was Wendy's idea to do it, and Isabel, Margaret and Pauline (from The Old Croydonians) were there too. It's the first time we've got together a group like this and I think everyone had a great time.

The journey to and from Peter's was, as usual, lengthy � the widening of the M25 where it joins the M11 is a BIG problem. It took around 2 hours 15 to get there and 3 hours 30 coming home!

More than a couple of mugs�

Karen popped round to talk-through the various Mug and other gift options for The Old Croydonians' Association centenary event in 2011.

Travel's to Mum's/OCA Summer Reunion

We set off for Mum's this morning after Ann signed-on. Wed had a really smooth journey down � just under two hours. It had been a hot week � in the thirties � but today, thankfully, started off much cooler.

Mum fed and watered us and around three-ish I set off for the School, leaving Ann at Mum's. It's our Summer Reunion, and as usual, I'm helping with the preparation and the event itself.

Rather than drive all the way home, we're staying at Mum's overnight and setting off tomorrow morning. Mum will be with us she's staying at ours next week - it'll save going all the way home and coming back to pick Mum up on the Monday (as per the original plan).

The Reunion went well, as it always does. After helping to clear-up, I left just after 10 and got to Mum's around 10.30 � the roads were surprisingly busy for that time of night. I'm so I glad I'm staying over as I'm always knackered after the event and a two-hour drive home in the dark isn't the smartest of choices!
We'll head home after breakfast tomorrow.

Sub-committee Meeting

I travelled down to the BRIT School today to chair our second meeting to plan for the OCA centenary in 2011.

I felt it was a very productive meeting, but perhaps I need to allow more time for the fact that most of the group don't really know each other and they may be holding back.

It was a good journey down but coming home took ages! I left at 2.30 and didn't get home until almost 6pm � and it's only 100 miles!!!

TV: The Bill

Nice to see my old school on the TV tonight. It was used as an integral part of a complex storyline involving drug-smoking-and-dealing; an arsonist; two scrapping pupils, (one of whom stabbed 'Smiffy'); and a far-too-liberal head of year - a lot different to my days there when the most serious offence was jumping the lunch-queue!!!

Busy...Busy...

I really must allow more time for actioning things after attending OCA committee meetings. I promised myself that I'd leave yesterday's meeting with hardly anything to follow-up on - some chance! I was up at 5.15 this morning (and that's crazy on a Saturday! - even for me!!). I worked on stuff like follow-up letters to magazine subscribers, a bit of ghost-writing for the Chairman, Magazine content and updating the OCA website ...phew! I finally sat down at 10.30 and caught up with some TV.

Mick popped round just before 2.30 to replace the lights in the bathroom and the shower-room. He ran out of time so he wasn't able to sus-out why the external security light wasn't working. So, all we need fixed now is the kitchen perimeter light, the ceiling lights and the cabinet lights in the front room, then all the electrics are sorted out.

We're off to Chris and Pete's tonight with Jo and Janet and if we're not too late we're going to stop-by Karen and Paul's as well.

We got to Chris and Pete's around 7pm. They were in fine form and it was good to catch-up with all their news. They hadn't heard about Ann's situation and Chris's first comment to Ann was 'how to you feel about it all...?' What a nice person and just what you would expect a professional (ex) HR person to say - Nice one Chris!!) Pete was looking a lot better and his hearing has certainly improved. In fact, he only realised he hadn't got his hearing aid in right at the end of the evening!

The food was nothing short of magnificent! Spicy prawns to start (yum-yum...very spicy!); then Chicken breasts in a lemon and bacon sauce; followed by home-made sticky toffee & banana pudding; then the cheese board. Brilliant...but stuffed as a stuffy thing who's just been to stuffsville!

We left just after 11.30 and got home just before midnight. Jo and Janet were tired and were having an early start tomorrow, so decided to not join us at Karen and Paul's

Tom and Julie were also there - we haven't seen them for quite a while and it was good to catch-up. We chatted for about an hour or so and then Lewis arrived to pick them up. Boy, he's grown; easily taller than both Mum and Dad! Lewis is home for the weekend because Julie's Mum, Jean, is 80 tomorrow.

The early rise for me was starting to catch-up and Ann also tired so we finally left around 1.15 - and that's pretty late for us!!!

It's been a great day catching up with good friends. I'm laying-in until at least 6 tomorrow!!!

OCA Committee Meeting

I travelled down to the BRIT School for an OCA committee meeting today. It's over 100 miles, so I left early - really early (4.45am)in order to miss the traffic round the M25 and especially the south-side of the Dartford Bridge.

The meeting was originally scheduled fro 13th February, but the snow and the general driving conditions then, made it a bit of a risky venture for me - so it was postponed.

I had a smooth run down all the way to Mum's. She sorted me out with coffee and toast and I spent about 45 minutes chatting about this-and-that. Mum seem to be pre-occupied with Dad's death (1991) and was looking and sounding a bit frail and emotional.

I left about 8.15 and it took me an hour to cover the final few miles. I'd quite forgotten how congested the area had become and it was a slow, torturous journey!

Arriving at 9.15, I parked the car in the car-park next door and headed for Reception. The BRIT School has a big extension going on and although there weren't any pupils or teachers on-site, the whole place was buzzing with activity - because of that, the front car-park was full of contractor cars and vans.

We started on time, and in my view, it was a very productive meeting. We were all finished by just after 1. After some faffing-around by me, I was away by 1.30 and had a trouble-free journey home. I was indoors by 3.30! Not bad.

AGM for the School

I travelled down to the School today for the AGM (and dropped in to see Mum on the way through). The School closed in July and we're now in residence in the gym at the BRIT School next door. At least they had painted it since we had the Reunion there earlier this year - nice job!

We were slightly down on numbers this year, but apparently that's down to the impending half-term. I'm not sure I understand the logic of that but something kept them away. Around 50 attended - 15 fewer than last year.

Bernard finally retired (to be replaced by Donald) after 400 years on the Committee. He looked relieved - but only momentarily, because he was then nominated to re-join as a vice-president!!

It all finished around 2.15 and I was home by 5.30.

OCA Magazine almost finished

I put the finishing touches to the School Magazine today, in preparation for meeting Prontaprint on Monday

The Old Croydonians' Association Annual Reunion

I drove to my old school today as it's the annual reunion. On the way there, I popped in to see Mum. I couldn't see Neil as he had just returned from working a night-shift.

I also ran the first sub-committee meeting for the Centenary celebrations planned for November 2011.

I got home around midnight - knackered!

School photos/Meal with Mick and Jane

Set off from home at around 5.30am and got to West Wickham by about 8am - not a bad journey and over 40mpg!

Picked up Peter J and we headed for the school where we spent an hour or so taking some internal and exernal shots. We're not sure yet whether we'll publish these in a book for the centenary or simply make them available on the OCA Website

The ATC Board that we were trying acquire has mysteriously disappeared. Strange!!!

I got back around 2pm.

Picked Ann up from the station at 6.45 and we then went over to Barnwell to the Montagu Arms to meet up with Jane and Mick for a meal.

Meeting at the School

I drove down to Selhurst today for an OCA Committee meeting. A great run down - it took just under two-and-a-half hours.

After the meeting finished, I went for lunch at 'Joanna's' with Keith W in Crystal Palace. Met his friend Mascha'. I left there around 3.30 and got home at 7pm - yeesh!

Bromley Court Hotel

Met up with Peter, Isabel, Pauline and Margaret from The Old Croydonians at Bromley Court Hotel today. Gosh, I haven't been there since 197? when I helped run the Effective Teamwork Course for Chislehurst JS. It still looks shiny and new!

We had a good meeting and a good lunch although the sight of Waiters dismantling tables around us was a very unsubtle way of reminding us that we should be leaving!!!

A long journey home - nearer three hours! :(( No jams, just lots of traffic

AGM for The Old Croydonians

Off to the AGM for The Old Croydonians today as well as catching up with Mum in Bromley. Ann should have accompanied me, but the specialist she's been seeing for het tummy pains rang to say he wanted to see her. The only day was today at 9.30.

Fortunately, the Specialist said that the tests hadn't shown up anything to worry about, but has asked Ann to get in touch if the pain returns.

I took Mum to The Crown in Bromley - it's a regular haunt for us now. The food is excellent and the services is very good too. I dropped Mum back at hers for aorund 6pm and was home by just-after 8pm.

Sad News

We heard today that Doreen - Peter J's wife passed away. She had been poorly for some time and was backwards and forwards on a regular basis to the hospital forblood tranfusions. A few weeks back, she tumbled down the stairs and was of course, rushed to hospital.

She seemed to be doing OK, but in the early hours of today she passed over. Peter said that on seeing her lying there, he noticed that all the worry and strain on her face had competely disappeared.

Although we had only known her for a few years, sh always struck us as a warm and very friendly person, and, in spite of her constant trips to hospital, was always in good spirits.

Blesss you Doreen, you're in abetter place now...

University Arms/Sally for lunch/Meal with David and Amanda

Set off early this morning to meet Isabel at The University Arms. We arranged the meeting a while back so that we could have some time to have a proper discussion about The OCA and the future.

Then off to meet Sally for lunch at Brown's.

..and then, if that wasn't enough fun for one day, Ann and I visited Mazza's with David and Val as part of our monthly meal out. Unusually for Mazza's the service was really bad. It was slow and the food wasn't as hot as normal PLUS, they managed to serve the two tables either side of us before us (they came in LATER). I feel a letter coming on.

Reunion Blog

Attended the annual reunion of my School today. There was a pretty good turn out - around 100 and everyone had a good time even though we all know that the scholl is going to be closed next year :(

But what a c*** journey there. I left at 9.45 in the morning and arrived just before 2pm - and it's only around 100 miles!!! Had to cut through central London*

Apparently some problems on the M11 sent everyone onto the A1...and it was of course, a Friday!

Fortunately, the journey home was much better. I left at 10pm and got home around midnight!

* Found out a few days later that I'd forgotten to pay the congestion charge. I'm �50 lighter now!!

School Re-Union Blog

Attended the annual school re-union last night. Ninety plus ex-pupils attended - a great turnout!

Popped in to see Andy McMillan on the way. Wow! Alexander has grown and it was good to meet Christine again too!

School Blog

Visited my old school today for an OCA Committee meeting. It's funny, I don't ever recall the surrounding area ever being quite so 'built up'.

OC's Centenary Lunch

Ann and I attended the Old Croydonians' Association Centenary Lunch at the Hilton Hotel, Purley Way, Croydon. It was a great day culminating in a damn good rendition of the Boys' School song 'Io Selhurst'!

Editor Blog!

Attended the Old Croydonians' AGM today at my old school. Happy to announce that I was nominated to become Editor of the Old Croydonian Magazine. The first one is due, March 2005

"Teacher! Leave those Blogs alone..."

Today's Blog comes from my School reunion...