Southampton SCARA Event September 2022

Update!

Dear all

As the British summer unfolds with its traditional mixture of heatwave, rainy spells, industrial disruption, queues for almost everything, we hope that you are managing to keep a sense of humour and might even be able to take some time off for a well-earned holiday.

Thank you to those of you who have responded to our earlier message about the curry lunch on September 15th, letting us know you can make it, or advising that you already have a commitment (mostly exotic holidays in foreign climes).

For those still considering we would just like to remind you of the date for your diaries, and which we hope is something to look forward to when summer begins to fade into autumn. The lunch will be held at the Everest Cuisine restaurant, on the first floor (there is no lift) at 1 Queensway Southampton (https://www.everestcuisine.co.uk/). It’s just around the corner from the pub where we met in April so getting there should not be too great an issue. Proceedings kick off at 1230 and carry on until about 1500 or whenever you want to finish!!

The format will be a buffet curry so you will have a choice and we promise that it won’t be too spicy!! The price is 15 pounds per head, plus of course drinks depending on how much you consume

Partners are of course very welcome and we look forward to seeing as many of you as can make this date. We have already had quite a number of positive replies but there remain quite a few who haven’t replied yet so if you can spare the time in the next few days it would be great to hear from you.

We will let you know how to pay in the next few weeks and certainly by middle of August latest.

In the meantime though we hope that you are having a great summer break and that when you have a moment you will let us know whether you can attend the lunch so that you have something to look forward to at the end of the summer.

All the best meantime

Julian and James

25 July

The original note about this event was sent out by Julian Bevis and Jim Baxter on Tuesday 28 June:

Dear all,

We hope that you are well, are enjoying the summer weather such as it is, and aren’t being too much inconvenienced by the current trials and tribulations of the railways.

On the social front, as you may know, we organised a SCARA get together which took place towards the end of April in a pub in central Southampton. We had just under fifty people attend and as far we could tell most people thoroughly enjoyed the event ( there is a full report on the SCARA website ).

In order to get ideas for future planning , we asked everyone who attended if they could let us know what they thought about the April function and for their ideas on future such events. The consensus response to this was that most people would very much like to attend another event at the end of the summer and that they would also be prepared to pay a modest amount to attend.

Accordingly we have done a bit of research of suitable venues in Southampton and have selected the Everest Cuisine restaurant (www.everestcuisine.co.uk) as an appropriate venue for a SCARA event in September. This is to be held on September 15th and will be a Buffet curry lunch from 1230 to 1430. The charge per head will be £15, plus drinks which will be to the account of individuals attending. The restaurant is easily accessible from Southampton station and there is some on street parking and multi-story car parks nearby .

We have already been to sample the food there and its excellent, so we very much hope that you will be able to come and join us for a get together on September 15th. We will have our own separate room and there is plenty of space. So do put this in your diaries, and please let us know if you would like to attend, so that we can assess likely numbers. Also tell all your ex-OCL/POCL/PONL colleagues who you think might want to come and ask them to contact us if they are interested. It goes without saying that this function is for partners as well.

Meantime enjoy the summer and your various holidays, keep safe, watch out for further updates on this event and we very look forward to seeing you in September in Southampton

With very best regards

Julian Bevis and James Baxter