For the first time in our 52 years, we’ve now had to cancel the Association’s Annual Dinner – not a milestone that any of us would have wished for but yet another marker of the extraordinary times that we’re all living through.
I don’t want just to leave it as a simple notice on the website. We certainly tried hard to keep options open as we aimed off for the ever-changing shape of things – looking in turn at smaller numbers, a less formal format, and even a lunchtime gathering instead. However, the latest restrictions have effectively closed the market, and ultimately we had to advise our President that we’d run out of road.
As the Journal reminds us, we’d certainly started the year with plenty to mark down for the diary – the Association’s own Curry Lunch
and the Dinner itself; a growing band of regional and unit events, plus a link into the Anglo-Omani Society; and the headline prospect of another visit back to Oman for December. Yes, it’s been a different story since then. But credit to the two that did still get something through, in September – the New Forest Lunch, and the Heli 50th that was successfully converted into a virtual event!
“Maintaining the spirit of mutual friendship” – and all that can flow from it – is what we’re about. Your Committee is still very much on the case: open-minded and ambitious for whatever and whenever future conditions may allow.
In the meantime, stay safe – in this country, in Oman or wherever you may be…
With best wishes to you all,
Mike