ThamesMog
Secretary's Report May 2007

Our exciting plans for Ireland have now been finalised. The tour, for most of us, begins at Cong; continues to Killarney; then onto Waterford ending at Bray for a chance to have a look round the fascinating City of Dublin. Please contact Robin Henderson if you would like to join us. I believe it is going to be a tremendous holiday. A good dozen of so of us have booked our ferries, please contact Robin if you would like to know our full itinerary. Towards the end of the trip Peter Page and I hope to spend sometime in the beautiful Wicklow Mountains, giving my two dogs Bobby and Sally some worthwhile exercise. I do hope you will be able to join us for perhaps some of our journey or if you can for the entire trip. All Centres are welcome. I am looking forward to partaking of the “black stuff” once more!

I was pleased to hear from Helen Thorne about the Calais to Casablanca rally, taking place this coming June, involving cars that must not cost over £100. Helen is supporting two local girls: Charlotte Pope and Lucy Bolsover, who will be running in a 1990 Lancia Y10 GT1E. They will be raising money for both Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Children’s Cancer Charity. Great Ormond Street Hospital is of course one of our charities that we are supporting this year. The girls hope to come and visit us at the Bird In Hand noggin in May and June through to the run up to the Rally and their exciting adventure. I believe when they get to Rick’s Place in Casablanca, Bert Oslar will be “playing it again”! That’s very kind of you Bert I must say. Mike Aldrich will be having a chat with Charlotte and Lucy to see if there is anyway we can help. I wish them both well and I look forward to meeting Charlotte and Lucy soon. I shall have to give my old Morgan a polish before then of course!

As you know Sandra Stuart and David Smith are running the gymkhana for MOG 007, to be held at Goodwood on Sunday 12th August. The plans for the event are well underway but we are looking for volunteers to act as marshals for the gymkhana. A good number of people have come forward but we need more. If you would like to get involved please contact Gerry Burkitt as soon as you can. Gerry is coordinating the time slots for the marshals during the day. Clearly, we would like to even out the work load during the course of the day.

Tom West has been sent details on an annual canal boat do at Beale Park formally known as the Childe Beale Trust. At the show of canal boats they are keen to have some classic cars on display. Anyone prepared to show their cars will have free tickets to the show for the Driver and passenger and half priced entry to the wildlife park. If you would like to go along either contact Tom and he can give you an entry form, alternatively I shall be giving some forms out at future noggins. Tom was there last year and he found it quite an interesting day witnessing a continuous stream of canal boats along the Thames. Anyone interested in canal boats, classic cars, and wildlife parks, this I would think, would be a perfect day out. I would like to thank Tom for bringing this special and possibly unique event to our attention.

With our MOG 007 gymkhana commitments our normal fourth Sunday walks in the Chilterns are postponed. However, we still have the opportunity for some fresh air with a continuation of a series of Tri-centre walks with Brighton Centre, Hopmog and ourselves, the third of these takes us to Leatherhead and the splendid old pub the Running Horse. See our events page for more details.

Take care & see you all soon