Hotel for providing excellent coffee and goodies at very reasonable cost, and to Vivien Marshall who kindly hosted a coffee morning at her home. We also enjoyed a scrumptious afternoon tea at the Mandeville Hotel.
Our evening events included a dinner at Garbo's restaurant, Christmas cocktails and canapés at The Arch Hotel, a very well-attended New Year party at Ishtar, and dinner with matching wines at Galvin Bistrot. A highlight in December was the Interfaith Service which was hosted at One Marylebone by the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple. It was a splendid venue for a fascinating evening of music and prayer, followed by delicious vegetarian food and drinks.
We made daytime visits to a wide variety of places; included amongst these were Spencer House, the Masonic Grand Lodge, the Oriental Club, Covent Garden Opera House, and interesting new buildings such as Kings Place and the London Clinic Cancer Centre.
Every few months members meet in the downstairs bar at Ishtar, in Crawford Street, for pay-as-you-go drinks, where everyone is welcome. Members also enjoyed a free wine-tasting event here in October.
Finally we would like to thank Charlotte Joseph and David Unwin who produce your newsletters and e-newsletters for being helpful, good humoured and always managing to squeeze in our information.
Sheila Green & Patricial Neville
BOOK CLUB
Since the last AGM the Book Club has blossomed beyond my wildest dreams! With excellent publicity from the website and the newsletter, the membership has mushroomed and reached the giddy heights of just under twenty five people. Fortunately all twenty five do not choose to attend simultaneously otherwise I was fearing that we should have to rent the Albert Hall!
We have enjoyed a wide variety of authors and subjects. With a larger membership we have had the stimulation of differences of opinion when a book has aroused strong feelings of liking, disliking or boredom. Discussions can be very lively.
It is always good to have fresh blood in the group and new suggestions for good books to read. Just get in touch and we can take it from there.
Andrew Cooper
SCRABBLE
What to do if you love Scrabble but have a husband/partner who hates the game? Well much cheaper and less stressful than a divorce is to join The Marylebone Association Scrabble Club!
When I moved here just over a year ago I enrolled with the Marylebone Association, joined the Book Group and heard about the Chess Club. Enquiring about the existence of a Scrabble Club, organiser Sheila Green suggested I write a couple of lines in the newsletter to gauge possible interest. Imagine my amazement when I groggily switched on my computer one Sunday morning to find no less than 8 keen would-be Scrabblers had responded. The numbers swelled over the next few days and we now have 27 members on our mailing list.
Some players are relatively new to the game, others are a bit rusty, whilst some are frighteningly good. Overall the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. The session starts at 5.00pm with a second wave of players who have just finished work arriving around 6.00-6.30pm.
But why take my word for it, come and see for yourself!
Rosemary Forgen
