Goodbye and Thankyou

Jessica is going camping today, and when she returns, we’ll be on holiday – so we won’t get to see her again before she flies back to Texas on August 10th. So last night we has a barbecue at the Godfrey’s home [where she has been staying this summer]

We wanted to say ‘thank you’ to Jessica, for all her hard work with the young people over the summer, and also say ‘thank’ you to the Task Force group, who worked so hard at WasteWatchers. And a barbecue is always a good idea. There were fifteen of us having a lot of fun [and many sausages]

Here is our chef – in front of the splendid brick bbq oven which David built …

And here’s Jessica opening her gifts…

What do you buy in a situation like this? There were lots of things to consider

• it had to be quintessentially English
• it had to be useful
• it had to be compact and easy-to-pack
• it had to be durable, and withstand transatlantic travel
• it had to be mid price [neither cheap plastic nor precious gold]
• it had to remind Jessica of her time working at KMFC

We came up with this

An alarm clock, from the Victoria and Albert Museum shop.

• it is very English, and the design is “Kennet”, an indigo print by William Morris, dating from 1881
• it is useful [Jessica has occasionally struggled with getting up, these past few weeks!]
• it comes in a neat little box
• it’s tough metal
• the price was right
• during WasteWatchers, we taught Jessica the song “Boing!!!” which features a ringing alarm clock

She was thrilled with the gift – and we had the matching vacuum flask for her as well

Altogether a good result and a lovely evening.