👪📰🎄🎅Happy Holidays

Dear Companions
This year I determined to finally lead my first walk for Forest Ramblers after thinking about it for some time.  I initially thought to follow the course of the River Effra, one of many lost rivers now buried under London, all making their way to the Thames.  They do still rise during heavy rains.  In our campaigning days we complained locally to the authorities about flooded drains; however, it was just the ‘lost’ rivers doing their thing, in particular the Effra rising outside the Oval tube station.  I did a couple of recces with Veronica L [who lived in Herne Hill where the Effra rose in their basement from time to time] and Mavis; however, we concluded that whilst the river is interesting, the walk wasn’t, so I set about devising with Muriel a walk from the Elephant & Castle shopping centre to Vauxhall, zigzagging through Kennington’s green spaces.  The group completed the walk earlier this month with excellent feedback so I was well chuffed.
We only managed 24 bus routes this year so still over 120 to do.  We did get out as far as Alperton in the west, Belmont prisons in the south, Beckton in the east and Southgate in the north.  Helen and I were back in Alperton this month for a delicious Lamb Biryani served like a pie in the Guajarati style, after which we visited the remarkable Hindu temple.
Ladies Who Lunch had a couple of outings this year: to the Polish ‘Mamuśka’ and the ‘Vincent Rooms’, a college for trainee chefs with alumni such as Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott, and Antony Worrall Thompson.  Gisella invited Marie and me for lunch, on my birthday as it happened, at the Chinese ‘Firecracker’ as she’d sold her flat and was moving to St Albans the next day, all rather sudden, although it’d been on the cards for a while.  Mike and Liam invited me to their home for a three-course lunch, my first vegan meal – delicious!  Sadly, they too have moved away, down to the south coast.  Several Companions joined the Huguenot Society for a guided walk around Greenwich.
Mary organised an outing to the local Cinema Museum to watch the classic ‘Grapes of Wrath’ with a young Henry Fonda, which I’d never seen before.  It was quite wonderful and several of us then watched a program on TV explaining how the dustbowl and subsequent depression came about.  A couple of days later I joined the River Thames Society for a walk from Pimlico to Blackfriars and suggested that we all go to the Museum, which hardly anyone had heard about, so we did in October, with coffee at Jamyang Buddhist Centre’s Courtyard Café, then an excellent late lunch at Toulouse Lautrec Brasserie.  Part of the tour of the Museum includes screenings and they included a film about the River Thames from 1959, which was special.  Several Companions also joined RTS’s visit to the Migration Museum, where I also took a group from Mosaic Clubhouse, when neighbour Veronica P joined us, on Nelson Mandela Day in July.
Years ago during our voluntary work, we raised funds to light up the huge plane tree at Kennington Cross.  There had been a tragic incident around that time of a boy, Alex, becoming victim to the knife crime that now afflicts the young people in our cities so we called it The Tree of Hope.  Recently the lights were out… and the community felt the loss.  I enquired of Kowsar and Angus, the key players behind the lighting, and learned that Transport for London had pruned the tree, and cut the cables – into shreds!  I took pity on their crestfallen faces and offered some admin support to get the lights back on.  We networked our way through the tangle and TfL agreed to put matters right.  Thoughts then turned to a formal Lighting Ceremony and I suggested that we ask Mr Richard Taylor to do the switch on.  You may recall that in 2000 there was a dreadful incident when a child, Damilola Taylor, was stabbed to death in Peckham, south London, on his way home.  His parents set up a Trust to campaign and work towards better things for young people.  Kowsar and Angus agreed that Mr Taylor was the right person to turn on our Lights – now I just had to find him!  The family were from Nigeria so I thought he might be there.  I turned to Bola who’d invited me to the Yoruba royal wedding last year, although realised it was a long shot.  Amazingly she said she’d make a phone call and get back to me!  Turns out she woke up a friend who was asleep in California but was on the case.  Next thing I know, I’m talking to Mr Taylor who readily agreed to switch on our lights for us!  The event took place this month.  Angus put on his vicar’s collar and drove to collect Mr Taylor from his home, and we had such a lovely gathering, with Kowsar providing food from his restaurant, the local primary school playing the steel pans, and much joyfulness abounding.  Wonderful!