Tag: Bill’s

Mission Implausible, The Annual Streatham BBYO Alumni Gathering, Bill’s, 30 May 2019

A smaller gathering this year, after the record numbers last time around:

Our Annual Streatham BBYO Alumni Gathering At Bill’s, 31 May 2018

In many ways the smaller number is a shame, but it was nice, on this occasion, to have a single conversation between a group of five of us. I felt I had a proper catch up with everyone who was there this year, whereas sometimes I feel I didn’t really get to speak with some of the attendees.

Booking Bill’s is an interesting, different experience each time now. This time they seemed happy to take my booking for a largish group of people (I’d estimated eight) many weeks in advance, but I did get a shock when I was sent a reminder in late April for our 30 April booking. I checked my original e-mail from Bill’s and was relieved to see that it correctly said 30 May. I quickly got on the blower to Bill’s. Something about computer systems going awry, but not to worry, we were booked in for 30 May.

The booking all worked fine on the night. Even our reduced numbers proved non-problematic, as Bill’s had pushed two tables together for us and were able to recycle one of those tables when our last minute reduced numbers came to light.

We reminisced, perhaps a little more than usual. I think I might have got a half-confession out of Linda about the 1978 apple pie bed incident:

Abandoned By My Parents, The Only Thing For It Was To Party, 11 to 12 November 1978

Linda’s guard, most unusually, must have been down, perhaps as a result of her having had a cocktail earlier in the evening before arriving at Bill’s.

Linda, Liza, Mark and Sandra all work in education and/or care professions, so I found myself a fascinated listener to a conversation about several sign languages and their diverse educational benefits.

When I discovered that Mark is now back in London, at Deptford Green School, I initiated a conversation about non-turf cricket pitches and my Trustee role at the London Cricket Trust…

Formal Launch Of the London Cricket Trust, Seven Kings Park, 4 October 2018

…Mark agreed that it would be most helpful to his school if there were to be cricket facilities in Deptford Park. I said I’d see what I can do.

Then we returned to our reminiscing and concluded that we’d all like to see many of our old BBYO friends again, but in particular we should try to track down Barry Freedman who was, in so many ways, the driving energy behind our group in the early years.

I’m not quite sure how I got nominated and voted onto the non-existent committee in the role of “Tracking Down Barry Freedman Officer”, as I don’t recall leaving the table or the conversation at that stage of the evening.

My friends assured me that the instructions for my mission, should I choose to accept it (not that I could refuse it, seeing as I’d been elected nem con, in absentia), had been provided on a tape recording which, together with the tape recorder, had now mysteriously evaporated:

My friends wished me luck.

I said I’d see what I can do.

As usual, it was a really enjoyable evening with a great bunch of people whose company I enjoy with renewed relish at these annual gatherings. But the next gathering might need to be sooner than usual, if I can pull off an implausible mission.

Is a selfie with loads of people in it a groupie? If so, thanks to Mark Phillips for the groupie.

Our Annual Streatham BBYO Alumni Gathering At Bill’s, 31 May 2018

Is it really a year since the last gathering? 

A Winning Day, Culminating At Bill’s For A BBYO Youth Club Regathering, 1 June 2017

Yes.

This regathering of the youth club crowd has been going on for a few years now and has settled on the second May bank holiday week, mostly for practical reasons to do with school half-term and those involved in teaching.

This time the turnout was even bigger than the previous year, with the re-appearance of Ivor Heller, a first visit from David, Ivor’s “big” brother (all adjectival things are relative), plus a special guest appearance by that giant personality, Simon Jacobs.

Booking Bill’s for this group is an odd business. We’ve been there several times now, but I always deal with a different person on the phone for the booking – they won’t take on-line bookings that large. This year they didn’t seem to want to take such a large booking at all. When I pressed the point with the manager, explaining that we are a regular, reliable group, they reluctantly took the booking. Perhaps such places get a lot of large group no-shows or something – but they could always take a deposit rather than almost turn good customers away.

Anyway, once it was booked and we turned up, we were very well looked after, as we have been previously.

Linda, Me, Sandra, Martin, Liza, Andrea, Mark, David, Simon, Ivor

The waitress did a grand job of snapping all of us looking cheery and engaged in the above photo. Eighth time lucky, eh?

A few members of the clan who have been before couldn’t join us this year; Jacey and Natalie for example. Wendy didn’t join us in person this time but did join for a while via Facetime – that was a first for this gathering but might not be a last. Some time soon we’ll probably need a video link between London and Hollywood…or something of that ilk.

Without meaning to repeat myself, I do really feel at home with this group of people. The years seem simply to peel away and it really is like a gathering of the youth club; just forty years on. None of us has really changed that much since our late teens. Of course we have all lived several decades of adult life and had some very different experiences since our youth, but the essence of our personalities and why we gelled as a group back then is still there.

It was a very enjoyable evening and several of us, me included, already seem to be looking ahead to the next one.

A Winning Day, Culminating At Bill’s For A BBYO Youth Club Regathering, 1 June 2017

Al-Karak and the Moabite Hills

The day started well, with Michael (my business partner) letting me know some good business news; it’ll mean some work for me over the coming days but this is the sort of work/news I want to do/hear. I had also managed to get a lot done in the morning.

So I went off to Lord’s at lunchtime, for my first ever real tennis tournament singles match, with a spring in my step and hope (more than expectation) springing eternal.

As it turned out, my opponent had not had a good morning at all and so was not at his best for the match. 6-0, 6-1 does not reflect our respective abilities, but I did think I played well for my part and stayed focused on the task. So I’m through to the round of 16.

I suggested to the professionals that I should write the score on the tournament scoreboard in blood, “pour encourager les autres”. But for some silly reason they laughed, seeming to think I was joking. I explained that I wanted my subsequent opponent…or if things go well opponents…to fear me. The professionals laughed louder.

I was able to half-follow Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund win their modern tennis matches that afternoon (although, frankly, with far more fuss and less convincing scorelines than mine). I was also able to half-follow England beating Bangladesh at cricket, so very much a winning day.

I had also been very much looking forward to the evening; a traditional (if traditions can be established after three or four years) regathering of our old Streatham BBYO youth club clan at Bill’s, Covent Garden.

We were a little depleted in numbers this year. Natalie had originally said yes to the date, but when we got closer to the date realised that the date was the second day of Shavuot.

Natalie is latterly religious, whereas the rest of us have either lost most of it or never had it much in the first place.

In truth, I had to look up Shavuot, to remind myself what it was. Having done so, I discovered that eating dairy was part of the festive deal, as was The Book of Ruth. Realising that I knew as little about The Book of Ruth as I did about Shavuot, I looked that up too. I discovered that Ruth was a Moabite who converted to Judaism and went on to become King David’s great-grandma…

…so naturally I also had to look up what a Moabite was…and from whence the Moabites hailed.

At this point I was on slightly more familiar turf, as I realised that Janie and I had visited Moab briefly, betwixt Amman and Petra in 1997 – hence the picture above and below – all of our Jordan pictures from that Middle-Eastern visit can be seen here.

Moabite Girl With Kid near Al Karak

But I digress big time.

We were further depleted, as Martin had a late call to a shoot (photographic, not weapon-based). The date also clashed with Wendy’s son’s birthday; I got an e-mail from Wendy the day before explaining this and asking me if we could avoid 1 June next year. I observed that 1 June next year is a Friday night and that even I am sufficiently familiar with the ethnic mores to avoid Friday night.

Anyway, when I got to Bill’s, Linda, Sandra and Mark were already there. Lisa soon joined us and Andrea arrived fashionably late, as expected.

Reunited with each other and reacquainted (well, frankly for most of us, belatedly acquainted) with the traditions of Shavuot, we all made sure that we chose something dairy with our meals; in several cases regardless of other aspects of dietary laws and traditions.

The wine flowed, sufficiently to lubricate the chat but not so much as to render me useless the next day.

I really enjoy these gatherings. I like this group of people a lot. We did a fair chunk of our growing up together and I feel very comfortable with the gang. We have a remarkable amount in common still, despite our lives going in various directions and despite the fact that our youth was such a long time ago.

Ivor wasn’t there this year, sadly, but three out of four ain’t bad

It’s simply a great bunch of people who are good company; I’m looking forward to the next gathering already.

A winning day and a super evening.

Youth Club Alumni Dinner at Bill’s in Covent Garden, 28 July 2016

The last two or three years we’ve been having youth club (Streatham BBYO) reunion gatherings at Bill’s in Covent Garden. Having done nothing of the sort for well over thirty years, it suddenly and seamlessly felt like something that several of us actually really like doing.

The previous gatherings have been late May, to coincide with half term (several of our number being tied to school holiday times) but that week didn’t work for a great many people this year, so we shifted to the “schools out” week in July instead.

Slightly depleted in number, nevertheless seven of us gathered; Andrea, me, Linda, Liza, Mark, Martin, Sandra. Very pleasant it was, as indeed it has been previously.

We discussed old times, new times, in-between times and of course recent political events.

It’s amazing how much we slip back into club mode when we meet; of course we all have very different lives now, yet we are unquestionably in many ways the same old group.

The time passed very quickly and when the out-of-towners shot off to make sure of getting the last train, the west/north-west London contingent decamped for a drink/coffee and a few more minutes of chat before going home.

A very enjoyable evening.

Youth Club Alumni Dinner at Bill’s in Covent Garden, 28 May 2015

Around this time the previous year, my old youth club (Streatham BBYO) gang gathered at Bill’s in Covent Garden. We had done nothing of the sort for well over thirty years, but was a great success.

Linda had taken the lead organising the 2014 gathering and then asked me to finalise the details at the end. This is how she kicked off negotiations, in March 2015:

Hi Everyone,
Thought it would be good to meet again as its been a year in May!
Last year we met on a Thursday in the school holidays so thought we could try that again, what do people think?
The date would be 28th May, if that is not good for the majority any suggestions are welcome!
Then Ian I can pass it to you if it becomes complicated ?
Linda xx

Strangely, it proved incredibly easy to organise. Everyone was comfy with the date and everyone agreed that the company was more important than scratching around for a different venue, so Bill’s got the nod again.

Natalie had to drop out at the last minute this time, sadly, but still we had me, Linda, Sandra, Mark, Andrea, Jacey, Liza, Wendy, Martin and even a visitation from Ivor.

The atmosphere was partly tinged with sadness that evening, as news of Jeffrey Spector’s passing was only a few days old that night. Still, Jeffrey wouldn’t have wanted us to mope and nor did we.

Ivor told us all about his Hollywood movie prospects while Martin showed us the photographs he took at our infamous “fashion show” back in 1979 (I didn’t realise colour photography had been invented back then). Details of both of those interludes shall remain under wraps for the time being.

Again it was lovely to see everybody and again it seemed impossible that so many years had passed and that most of us had felt disinclined to meet up like this for such a long time.

After two such gatherings, it seemed inevitable that there would be more get togethers…as indeed there have been.