memorial curry update

...apologies for the relatively late notice, but this year's graham/bodge memorial curry lunch is now booked for sunday 11th may, at the thame tandoori.

everyone's welcome and we'd love to see you there, but we need to give the tandoori an idea of numbers.
so if you're planning to be there, please drop si a line - si[at]simonsmithillustrator[dot]co[dot]uk - and he'll count you in :-)

memorial curry 2014...

Apologies for the late notice, but for a variety of reasons [weather, being disorganised, other stuff happening in February] we've decided to not have a birthday curry on graham's birthday this year. Instead, we'll be fixing a date in May, and will let you know the details as soon as that's arranged...

memorial curry photos...

a quick reminder...

...about the buffet curry on feb 3rd to commemorate bodge's birthday - we need to have numbers for the curry house ideally by the end of next week [jan 12th], so if you'd like to come, please let us know with a comment here, and we'll make sure you're counted in :-)

birthday curry

back in the day, a select few of us helped graham celebrate his upcoming nuptials with a brick lane stag-do curry. at the time we agreed that it'd be good to meet up every year like that and share an indian, but sadly, we never quite got around to organising it...

until last year that is, when we decided to celebrate what would have been graham's 51st birthday with a meal at his favourite curry house in thame. it began as a plan to reunite the four of us that were there with him in brick lane, but in the end around twenty of us gathered at the thame tandoori for a very enjoyable and poignant meal.

and it went so well that we're doing it again this year.

the thame tandoori will again be the venue, sunday 3rd february, 12.30 lunchtime for a buffet meal. it'll be pretty informal, and it's open to anyone who knew graham and would like to be there to remember him with us.

(we need to know numbers, so if you'd like to come, please send an email to si [at] simonsmithillustrator [dot] co [dot] uk, or leave a message for us here in the comments...)

Mr Hollows the football coach

Mark Ansell writes: I have been going through the attic at my parents' to have a clear out and found a photo of Graham Hollows when he was our football coach at John Hampden. I'm in the middle in the top row. He was an excellent coach, encouraging us all the way and got the balance right between having fun and trying to win the matches. We were a decent team and I learnt a thing or two about how to defend from Graham.

Bodge, i've been thinking about you a lot again lately.

it's little things - the cherry tree we planted around the time you died is in fruit again, and the local pigeons are eyeing it up. i'll soon be getting obsessed with chasing them off, and you'd have enjoyed laughing at me for that.

other things - i just bought a shirt that looks like it's made from deckchair fabric. i gave you such a lot of grief for wearing something similar a few years back - it doesn't seem fair that you're not here to extract some revenge and to hear my admission that actually shirts like that do look ok, really.

the latest failings of the england footy team - plus some minor family football triumphs that we've had here recently - you should be around to share in these things [your dad still talks about when we went to wembley to watch graham taylor's lot struggle against holland, and i love him for that]

if you were here now i'd have bought you the latest elbow album [if you'd not already got it] and be banging on about how great it is.
it's about friendships and reminiscence and fond rememberings, so it's probably not surprising that it leaves me thinking about you.

the last track - 'dear friends' - is maybe most appropriate...
"dear friends
you are angels and drunks
you are magi

old friends

you stuck a pin in the map i was in
you are the stars
i navigate home by"

i miss you mate.