TAS Kington Langley Christmas Lecture and Lunch December 2024

TAS Kington Langley Christmas Lecture and Lunch Tuesday 3rd December 2024

It seems no time since we were pulling last year’s raffle ticket out of the hat and then we suddenly find ourselves at Christmas 2024. Once again, we had a good audience on Zoom with a large number of guests joining through the TAS Zoom Guest Scheme.

Geoff Miller, our programme secretary, is excellent at choosing topics and lecturers to meet the season. So, we had David Wright talking about ‘A Brief Story of Wine’. We were taken back to 2,500 BC to the Golden Triangle and saw the earliest artefacts relating to the producing and consumption of wine. (Alert for April Fool’s Day – The Art of Trickery)

As we progressed through history we realised that wine was an important part of different cultures, society’s, religions and customs. Rules were made relating to wine, how important it was to drink three glasses of wine at a meal to the laying out of vineyards, the art of the wine label and up to the taxes coming in next year on the strength of wine. Buy now seems to be the best advice.  Enjoy was the other piece of good advice!

David joined us and 90 members for Christmas Lunch. The hall was prepared and decorated by a huge number of our members before the lecture. Members in glittery outfits were greeted by coffee, mince pies to start our last lecture of the season and the generous purchasing of raffle tickets added considerably to our Arts Volunteering kitty.  We are very grateful to everyone who contributed.

We were treated to a showreel made by Annabel Lowe. We part funded her ‘Stop, Animation Professional’ course at Aardman Studios and were thrilled to see the outcome. Annabel says that she worked from 9:00 to 5:00 each day and relished the opportunity to work in such a prestigious studio. She found that she enjoyed every moment and can see this as her future. So, Arts Volunteering money well spent.

Lunch was a lively and gregarious affair. The food was as wonderful as ever and people were able to spend time chatting with friends and making new friends over delicious food and the now required glass of wine. I’m not sure anyone was able to manage three glasses! Afterwards David drew the raffle ticket and thanks were made to the catering team.

I would like to thank all our members who helped prepare and then clear away after lunch. The technical support team, who are vital to zoom lectures, all the committee for their continual support and finally to Martin who got out the hoover and cleared away the last of the holly and the ivy.

A Happy Christmas to everyone and Best Wishes for 2025

We recommence on Tuesday 7th January with Mark Allum and ‘Fakes and Forgeries’

Heather Leach

Chair TAS Kington Langley