Dear SHTA Friends,
“I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue” is Radio 4’s “self-styled antidote to panel games” whose participants are given “silly things to do” by Chairman, Jack Dee. Those attending the SHTA Christmas Dinner & Party on the 1st December also found themselves being given a few “silly things to do”, such as drawing a snowman on a paper plate on their heads. You’ll find plenty of evidence of this, together with a range of colourful Christmas outfits, in the Gallery section.
Many thanks to the staff of Tan Bueno Restaurant for providing us with such marvellous food, great service and an ideal venue for our function; to Rick Ratcliffe for our quizzes on the night; and to Christine Ratcliffe and Sandra Jones for liaising with the restaurant in advance. Thanks too go to Cary Morrison for so many brilliant photos and to Simon Mallett for uploading them to our website.
Two days later we were in action again: Saturday 3rd December saw our traditional Vin Chaud stall as one of those offering their wares on the Guildhall Forecourt as part of the Sandwich Lights Switch-On celebrations. The SHTA Committee was very ably assisted by a number of members doing a stint on the stall – huge thanks to all of you for that. A cold but dry day probably provided the ideal conditions to sell a considerable amount of our warming brew! We managed to sell over 300 cups on the day; once our costs are accounted for, the proceeds will go partly to the Lights Committee and partly to the Association. A big thank you to Steve Laslett for being our lead on another successful SHTA event.
I’ve no doubt that your preparations for Christmas are well underway and that, to a greater or lesser extent, that may well be consuming a lot of your time, thoughts and energy presently. However, we can still afford ourselves the luxury of looking forward to further activities for SHTA members in 2023:
No sooner will we have said goodbye to 2022 and welcomed in the New Year, than, before you know it, we’ll be getting together again to enjoy each other’s company, celebrate our differences as well as things we have in common, and, hopefully, seeing SHTA go from strength to strength. Anyone who has become a member in the past eighteen months or so is welcome to come to a New Members’ Evening on Tuesday 10th January at The Crispin in Sandwich in their new ‘Boathouse’ room. The evening will start at 7.30 pm and you’ll receive a complementary glass of fizz. You’ll have an opportunity to meet others, like yourself, who have recently joined SHTA, together with members of the Committee, for a relaxed evening. It would be useful to know some numbers for this, so, if you think you’d like to come along to The Crispin for this one, please do let me know. I’ll be waiting until Christmas and New Year are done and dusted before I send out a reminder to those who have joined SHTA since the 2021 AGM.
Moving along chronologically, our film season resumes in the New Year and runs through to June. Not only can I give you some details about the January film, but the film sub-committee has worked hard to choose and order the next six films. So, time to find your Member’s Card and write in the following:
Wed. 18th January: ‘Amélie’
Wed. 15th February: ‘Les Lyonnais’
Wed. 15th March: ‘Le Château De Ma Mère’
Wed. 19th April: ‘Des Vents Contraires’
Wed. 17th May: ‘Les Femmes Du 6ème Étage’
Wed. 14th June: ‘L’École Buissonnière’
If you’d like to see ‘Amélie’ on Wednesday 14th January at the Empire Cinema, send an email to Jan Cooper on jannicooper@icloud.com and ask her to reserve you a seat. The film carries an R certification and lasts 2 hours and 3 minutes. As always, the cinema doors will open at 7.00 for a 7.30 pm start, the cost remaining at £7.50.
The film is a 2001 romantic-comedy directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, featuring Audrey Tautou, and it claimed the César Award for Best Film. Despite being caught in her imaginative world, Amélie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love. There’ll be a further reminder and more detail in the January newsletter, but why not get your name down now?!
Although it’s a Spring event, our Cheese & Wine Quiz on Saturday 15th April, will be an early opportunity in 2023 to flex your intellectual muscles, display the power of your memory and generally have a thoroughly enjoyable evening at St Clement’s Hall. More details in the New Year from our lead for this, Committee member Steve Thomson.
You may recall that last month’s newsletter carried the latest information on our Group Trip to Honfleur in 2023 which had our number of participants at 36; this has now risen to 43, so we have a 49-seater coach booked for the trip from Friday 23rd – Monday 26th June. Obviously, we have very few seats remaining, therefore anyone who would like to join the group should contact me as soon as possible. As a further incentive, you might be interested to know that Normandy has been named the Wanderlust Travel Awards ‘Most Desirable Region in Europe 2022’ (Thanks, Wendy Wilkening for that nugget of information!).
We are tremendously lucky to be twinned with Honfleur, but they have a handful of twin towns apart from Sandwich, namely Wörth am Main in Germany, Burlington in the USA and Visé in Belgium.
The first two letters of each of the five towns combine to make the name of Pierre Jan’s bulletin, HOWOSABUVI, which includes details of visits to or from Honfleur, and an extract of which you’ll find as an attachment along with this newsletter. French students among you will be able to read some of the background and career of Sandwich-born Hollywood star, Sydney Greenstreet. Also included are photos of the visit to Sandwich earlier this year. Commiserations on this day to ‘Les Bleus’ on their defeat in the World Cup Final. Some game of football that was, n’est-ce pas?!
All that remains is for all of us on the Committee to thank you for all of your support this year and wish you a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We hope that you have a relaxing festive period and peaceful 2023.
Best wishes, Stuart & the Committee