GIn club lunch 2 Nov 2023 Founex Tennis Club

After something of a pause, GIN lunches resumed on Thursday 2nd of November. 

With everybody back from summer travels, a strong turnout was expected and so it proved with almost 30 attendees. The venue was Founex Tennis Club restaurant with the charming host Ishmaël providing the function room so we could make as much noise as we liked and stay as long as we wanted. 

With driving rain prevailing, the biking group wisely decided that discretion was the better part of valour and just came for lunch. The restaurant was probably very glad to have GIN since, probably on account of the appalling weather, the main restaurant was virtually empty. The upside for us was attentive service and quick production from the kitchen of our lunches. 

There were many different animated  conversations going on around the room but there was much interest in the Himalayan returnees, Mark Watts, Mervyn Powell and a guest John Horekens. Their brief description brought back many memories for others who had been on trips to the region with something of a competition going on to establish who had been there first. The clear winner seemed to be Norman in 1969 but congratulations go to our intrepid threesome who are still getting out and doing it in 2023!

PS A vote of thanks from me (PeterT) on behalf of all of us to MikeH for organising the fine meal, and getting a separate room and eliciting Ismaël’s good service. Thanks to Mark2ts for the Trek talk and to John H for his insights on the expedition. See John if you plan to go to Nepal.

PPS Attendee list (in no particular order)

Mike Hempstead (organiser)

Norman Eatough

Terence Gale
Ralph Wares
Philip Jenkins
Trevor Davies
Drew Meek

Bryan Clark

Hubert Pettingel

Ken Forester
David Colledge
Dave Gwilliam
Peter Drew
Mark Warren
Richard Saynor
Mike Price
Stephen Long
John Horekens
Mervyn Powell
Leslie Coull
Mark Watts
Mike Clayton
Gerard Swart
Peter Taylor
Brian Allardyce
Gus Ritson
Bill Martin

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