Our 50th anniversary tea

This is what greeted members and guests at our much-delayed 50th Anniversary tea, which was held at the Pitbauchlie House Hotel on Saturday 22 April 2023. We sat down at wittily-devised G&S-themed tables – thanks to all the creative members of Sinead Black’s team:

Not only did Sinead organise the event splendidly, but she also acted as Mistress of Ceremonies. Guests who were introduced included two of our founder members, Ann Duly and Robin Ożóg, who duly cut the cake after Robin had spoken most movingly of our history and what it had meant to him to be involved with the Society. Do take time to read what he said, which you can find at this link.

Stuart McCue-Dick, Councillor for NODA (Scotland), was our guest, both to speak and to present a record number of long-service awards. Illustrated at this link is how we totalled 315 years of NODA service! Presentations acknowledging specific service were also made to Gwyneth Kirby in memory of Howard, who had laboured valiantly front of house, and to Mary Kidd, a former vice-president and orchestra convenor. And, of course, no G&S gathering these days is complete without an appropriate ode from our G&S makar, Kerry Black, which you can read at this link!

Grateful thanks to everyone who took part on the day or worked behind the scenes to make the event such a success, and especially to Sinead. And of course we are eternally grateful to Val McManus our resident photographer who has helped us fix the fugitive moment! Val had also put together the archive material presentation projected during the Pirates overture, and this formed a backdrop to the tea: you can enjoy it again at this link.

And grateful thanks to everyone who came and supported. You can see below that they enjoyed themselves! [The order is fairly random, based on Val’s walkabout round the room, with some artefacts of the uploading process, and we hope that everyone has been identified correctly. All comments to the webmaster, please!]