YEAR 1980 REUNION

On 10th February 2011, almost 31 years to the day since seventy 17 and 18 year olds sorted sleeping arrangements, and enjoyed their first (of very many) escalope and chip suppers at the Pensione Atlantico in Venice, the 1980 alumni decided to celebrate their 50th birthday year by having a reunion!

(With the huge strides in communication over the last three decades, and tools such as Face book, LinkedIn, Google, school and university databases, as well as the humble telephone, word of mouth, and friends from the course,) the organisers, Louise W, Karen T and Sophia B were able to track down about 55 of the 1980 alumni . There were sad refusals from friends in Scotland, Canada and Hong Kong, and a few people unable to come at the last minute but ............

..... on the night forty of the original group, including two who flew from Ireland, one from Geneva , and others from all over the country, converged on a house in London.

It was a fantastic turnout. Cars and taxis arrived with people carrying quantities of beer, wine, champagne, platters of food (thanks to the food organisers) and photo albums. As a result of several pleading, and slightly panicky emails beforehand, everyone wrote their own name label in the hall when they arrived. The whole evening was wonderful as people recognized old(er) faces, caught up, looked at the old photos (nearly everyone had to search handbags and pockets for their glasses!) reminisced, and complimented one another on how little each other had changed. We tried to take a group photo on the staircase but everyone was so overexcited, noisy and involved in their chats that it didn’t really work.

   There was a delicious buffet supper in the kitchen, so we all continued moving round and seeing everyone. One of the lovely moments was that Joss M had his 50th birthday that day, and had bravely decided to celebrate it with us all, so with two fantastic cakes produced by Jamie S we had a celebration with singing and candles. The 1980 year also produced the marriage some years after Venice, of Bruce and Rachel, and although only Bruce could make it, we celebrated that too. There were fond memories of Pensione Atlántico, Alessandro (from the female contingent!), Carnevale, all the wonderful experiences we had had in Venice and all the lectures and talks we had been lucky enough to attend on a daily basis.

The years really fell away and everyone said how amazing it was that a shared experience of only 6-8 weeks could have been so important to us so many years later, and that we all had such happy happy memories at such a formative time in our young lives. We all saw lots of people we hadn’t seen for years, but it was amazing that practically everyone who came still had kept in contact with someone from the course, and for many, some of our oldest friends were made during those weeks. The evening went on until nearly 2am when the last guests left and those staying went up to bed.

Lovely emails and cards arrived in the following couple of weeks and perhaps a few little quotes from this sum up the evening well…It was a hugely enjoyable evening, made so by everyone’s massive enthusiasm for the idea of all meeting up, bringing food and drink and memories, and by being so lovely and entertaining on the night.

“..a wonderfully happy reunion evening – thank you very very much. The years fell away, just as intended and we relived for a few hours those long-lost Venetian days.”

“This morning I seem to battling with great waves of nostalgia. The trip was 31 years ago but in some ways it seems like we were all there the other day”

“..Although the name tags were certainly a great help, we had on the whole aged reasonably well and the strange temporary compression of the intervening 31 years was not quite as surreal as it might have been…slowly and perhaps a bit reluctantly now returning to the 21st century and to middle age, but thank you very much for such a magical if all too brief respite from both.”

“What a great evening, just so brilliant to see everyone…….”

“Apart from a few grey hairs it was just like rolling back 30 years to that great fun time in Venice. Interestingly almost everyone remembered different things and it was like putting a jigsaw together.”

“It was really great to catch up with people and look back on such a life enhancing time”

“Your kindness in organising the evening was matched by lovely food, flowing alcohol (my head hurts a little!) and some lovely people whose company I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed.”

It was a really happy evening, and an unusual one – and now we all have each others emails hopefully someone (else!) will organize another in 10 years or so!