Hi everybody and a very happy and healthy New Year to all.
I expect you are aware that for the past three months Pam and I have been searching for somewhere different for this year's reunion. To date I have visited over twenty different venues and have found some pretty nice and possible venues from Stratford on Avon right across the Midlands as far as Huntingdon and Peterborough and as far south as Banbury and Oxford.
(mind you there were also some pretty awful and in a couple of places filthy rooms and ambience).Sadly most of them had such demanding terms and conditions that I was able to reject them immediately.
I had high hopes of Staveley near Northampton but in the end had to reject that too because of the demand for deposits and cancellation clauses for individuals.
Now recently I have visited a hotel on the edge of Rutland water which met almost all our requirements. Admittedly it was a bit exclusive and a bit expensive and even though they lowered their prices it was still quite expensive and they could not cater for us on 9th September. There were also some charges extra which I thought we might be able to absorb.
Well as you can guess, it was not my decision so I have put it to the committee to decide. In the meantime, Pam has been in touch with Jade at the Marriott Warwick to see if their prices were still reasonable.......just in case.!!!
Well the package Jade has come back with is very reasonable. She is aware of the "disaster" of two years ago but I think almost everybody was very satisfied with last year's weekend. I certainly was, but we thought a change of scenery might be worth a look.
Well I can tell you that the committee took all my "Pros and Cons" of both venues into consideration and the general consensus before we even voted was that for a number of members the Rutland Water Hotel was too far to travel and was quite expensive . For example there was no corkage allowance on the wine and port and the cheapest wine was in excess of £22 per bottle.
Therefore by a majority vote of 5 to 3 we have decided to use the Warwick Marriott for this year's reunion. I respect their decision.
Please remember that it is the reunion of old mates and families which matter more than the venue.
The good news is that over 40 of our members and family have decided to join us for the weekending 9 September for this years reunion.
We are now awaiting news of the menus for the Saturday evening dinner from the hotel which I will ciculate by email to all those attending
So, hopefully see you all in September before some of us are too old.
I intend to make this the best we've ever had.
Happy New Year John H
