Dear Friends,

To everyone who attended the reunion on Saturday, a big Thank You for your support and the Committee all hope that you enjoyed the event and the chance to meet up with long lost friends again.   It was absolutely wonderful meeting up with everyone again after so many years and remembering and sharing so many happy times together.

There are a few things which we will certainly improve on if/when we do another event in, say, two years time, but in the true spirit and enthusiasm which we all had in Nigeria all those years ago, everyone made a tremendous effort and entered into the swing of things – and for that we thank you.   

Next time we will definitely find a venue, which will accommodate us all on one level and no restrictions on numbers, and also be able to provide an extension to our drinking time.     My apologies for those who would have liked to continue drinking …………… but just think how much worse you would have felt the next morning!!

We would love to hear your comments and ideas as to what and where you would like to hold the next venue, and, if it is feasible, try to accommodate some of these ideas.  Our initial idea would be to hold the next one at a hotel in the historical town of Windsor, in the shadow of the Castle, and not too far from London for those who might wish to see the sights of the City.

We would also like to encourage you to continue to spread the word to other people who might be interested in attending the next one.   If they contact me by e-mail or post giving me their details, I will enter them on our database and Tony Allwright will also keep our web site updated too.   Don’t forget we are targeting the people who were in Warri between the years of 1968 – 1975/6.   Our thanks too, to Tony for his entertaining "After Dinner Speech" which was full of happy recollections of our time in Warri.

Might I also ask you to keep me updated if your e-mail address changes.    It makes communicating so much easier by e-mail than post and keeps the costs down too.   If you could use the warri@tallrite.com e-mail address to communicate with me, as I will probably be changing my personal e-mail address shortly in order to avoid all the unnecessary SPAM mail I receive.

I will be sending a CD of the photos I took on the night to Tony and he will be putting them on the web site: www.tallrite.com/warri.htm from where you can down load them and print them out.  Check this out towards to the end of the week.

Once again may I say, it was just great meeting up with everyone and hopefully we will stay in touch this time!    I think Warri was so unique that it holds a special place in our hearts.

With fondest regards to you all.

Dear Eileen, 

May I thank you and the committee for arranging the soiree on Saturday. I didn't know many people, but found plenty of chatting to do. One common denominator opened the conversations - Warri, Nigeria. We'd all been there, done it, got the tee shirts and have a million stories to tell. Only those who have been to Warri can believe those stories as some are so unreal. 

I'm glad we are having another one in two years (a few more grey hairs, extra pounds and inches - I'll start working on mine now). 

Thank you again, Eileen. 

Best Wishes. 

Dear Eileen, Chris, Norman, Doreen, Steve and Dave,

I was so pleased to log on this morning and find your all round robin email on our wonderful evening together. I would like to thank you all, and of course, take my hat off too, for all the hard work, dedication and organisation you put into making such a super evening go off with a bang and swing. Everybody looked pretty marvellous. It was really worth every moment coming over from Paris, and was in a way, the event of the year! I am now back in France. Mum, Florida Pedder, and I spent most of the next morning reminiscing about the evening and talking about all the wonderful friends and acquaintances we met up with, many being my parents colleagues at the time, and the others our 'teenage' friends! Most of us teenagers could biologically be grannies and grandads now, my children aged 26, 25, 23, 20!

We did have to giggle though, for suddenly, and nobody was keeping time, it was a timeless event after all, we were asked to leave the dining room and were literally herded out! We followed each other aimlessly, Maureen Quinn, the Andersons, Flynns, and ended up in hotel's small reception area. The staff were very kind, and put out chairs! During the course of the delicious buffet, (the staff did a great job and we thanked them for it!), I think most guests thought there would be ample time to mingle and catch up with each other through out the night. We firmly believed that the time was ours! We had booked a minicab home for around 1:30 but called our man back for a midnight pick up! We didn't get much of a chance for goodbyes and offer sincere thanks to you. You certainly were in our thoughts. I hope we do all meet up in about two years time, (sounds like our old school girls' meetings every two years!) and I think the idea of a hall in Windsor would be great. We could all be together on one level, and perhaps stay until whatever time within reason, respecting of course the licencing laws and drink! After time's up we could have soft drinks to keep the heads from spinning!

Once again I would like to thank you all so very much for giving us all this great opportunity to renew old ties, and to remember all those who have passed on since our Warri days!

Love and best wishes to all of you,

Dear Eileen, Chris, Norma, Doreen, Steve and Dave

I for one, thoroughly enjoyed myself - and judging by all the happy faces, I'm sure everyone else did too.  A fabulous evening and very many congratulations to you all for organising such a wonderful event.

I agree with all your comments regarding venue/numbers/drinking etc as it was a shame that we were on different levels and turfed out far too early.  Windsor is a good spot and we would be more than willing to attend should another event be on the cards.

As a result of meeting up with Isobel and Jimmy Davidson, I spoke to their son David last night (who I haven't seen for 21 years!!) and I know he will definitely come next time and was sorry that he didn't do so on Saturday.

Once again a very big thank you to you all for organising such a fun evening.  I look forward to the photos!

Here's to meeting up in two years time!

Kindest regards

Dear Eileen,

many congratulations on a highly successful reunion which I thoroughly enjoyed. Looking forward to the next one and I'll bring my wife next time! 

Best regards,

Mike Saker.

Eileen

It was a brilliant night and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!  You have covered in your email the only shortcomings of the evening - venue and early close - but these were far outwieighed by the sheer pleasure of the evening. Well done to you and all. My partner, Janet, who knows nothing of Warri or the times we had, was totally caught up in the evening and immediately fwlt that it was something so very special - and important to me.

Wow - did I have a ball!

Thank you

Dear All,

What a super evening that was and many thanks to you all for the effort you made to produce such a successful gathering. We had a wonderful time and it was so good to meet up with friends we hadn't seen for such a long time and some had come from far and wide to be there. As many of us stayed the night in the hotel we were able to continue the reunion the following morning over breakfast which was great fun. A more spacious reception area might help next time but you are obviously working on other ideas yourselves so Hugh and I are quite happy to leave all decisions in your capable hands and we will be there wherever it is. Actually I rather like the idea of Windsor Castle but have you checked with H.M. that it is available?? Sorry, I see a venue nearby might be a good idea, we could end up making a weekend of it with sightseeing as well! Anyway, very well done all of you and thank you. 

Much love from 

12 October

To the Committee Members.   

I haven't communicated before as I'm sure your email was redhot for a while.   I do thank you and congratulate you on organising a truly amazing evening.   Pity it was cut short, but in any case it would have taken us into next day to meet and chat to everyone there.   What fun! it was to identify old friends - after peering, in most cases, at name tags.   I think those long-ago teenagers had a wonderful get-together; themselves all mums now. 

We will certainly spread the word, and I'm sure that those old Warriers who were not able to attend will be eager and keen to join in next time.   If indeed the numbers swell you'll have to rent the banqueting hall at Windsor Castle; after all we were all such loyal subjects never missing an opportunity to celebrate all things British and raise our glasses to her Majesty

Whatever your decision on the next venue, we will certainly be there.   I do hope that you too were pleased with the success of the evening after all your hard work, Once again my sincere thanks and I look forward to the photos.   

Yours aye,

12 October

Dear Eileen

This is a few words to say a big 'thank you' for organising the inaugural Warri Reunion in London last weekend and for enabling Frank and I to be belatedly included.  I am sorry I haven't conveyed our thanks until this weekend but I have had a busy week inbetween organising two celebratory events held at our home - a 60th birthday party for some close friends and the 86th birthday party for my aunt (sister of my late Mother) and as a consequence I haven't been either to the Library to use a computer or had time to access Karen's workstation either! It's certainly not an idle life being retired!

Anyway, last Saturday was a very successful evening and it was such fun to see old friends and acquaintances after 30 years and for us to recognise most of them and be recognised in return!

You clearly put a lot of effort into the event and I'm sure you feel well rewarded with how it all turned out.

So, here's to the next time!

With our very best wishes to you both,

Dear Eileen,

Just a quick note to thank you and the rest of the committee for organising such a splendid reunion last week.  It was wonderful to see so many old chums and felt as if it were just yesterday.  Sam and I agree that perhaps a different venue next time, and Windsor sounds great, would be better.  Getting breakfast was somewhat difficult and we simply didn't bother in the end to order anything cooked.  Despite that, everything else was fine and again, thank you for all your hard work.

Love 

Gordon & I would like to thank you all for a wonderful evening.  It was really terrific to see everyone together after all those years.  You can definately put our names down for the next reunion. If any of you are coming to Scotland before then please come and visit us.  The Cordills survived the ordeal and Jimmy & Isobel Davidson are coming up next weekend. Sure beats working.  We love having visitors.

Love,  

Many thanks, Tony!  Have so enjoyed the piccies, and just wish we had been able to be there!  Congratulations for having pulled it all off - also to your fellow Comittee members.  We should have had you on the Ladies' Committee!

Love to you both,