Joyce's Column: August

I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to all who attended the funeral of the late Roy Deeming, it was wonderful to see you all there and he would have loved being the centre of attraction.  Many of you travelled from a great distance to attend, even flying in from abroad, and one young lady travelled by coach on the morning of the funeral just to attend, this goes to show that Roy had gained respect from many people over the years in the industry. The celebration of Roy’s life following the funeral went well and he would really have enjoyed this had he been there in person as the champagne flowed.

Many people who could not attend the service have viewed it on the live webcast and have commented how lovely the service was so relaxed, just as he would have wanted it.

Sound Leisure’s Alan Black summed the day up perfectly when he telephoned me the following day and his words were ‘I really enjoyed the whole day’ and that made me happy and content after all my organising and when someone says they enjoyed a funeral and the wake that is a sign of a good funeral.

I would also like to say a special thanks not just on my behalf but on the behalf of some of the mourners as ‘Our Derek’  -  Derek Lynch acted as a taxi service ferrying people backwards and forwards to railway stations etc, you really are a real gem Derek.

Thanks also to the trade media for all their acknowledgements they published about Roy and for also giving the details of his funeral, and also thanks to Instance Automatics Ian Eason for sharing information on his Facebook page.

The final thanks go to all of you who have sent donations in memory of Roy for the Stroke Ward at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital, this was appreciated both by me and the Stroke Ward.

Poor Gloria Newman (Gary’s wife) was limping at the funeral, and she thought she had pulled a ligament in her leg, I must admit it was very swollen, but like the trouper she is she just carried on. Tell me Gloria did Gary offer to carry you if your leg had got too bad, he maybe even offered to give you a piggy back ride, if he didn’t he should have.

I was going through some cupboards the other day and I came across pens from many companies of the past including Bell Fruit, Barcrest, Glendale Automatics, Video Fruit Services, Coincheck, Deith Leisure, Omser, MHG etc and I even found a rulers from CT Leisure and Associated Leisure Sales, just goes to show you never know what you have lurking in your cupboards, maybe more of you should try clearing them out, gold bars here you come!!

Best wishes to GeWeTe’s Mark Edmundson who has had a small operation recently, hope by now you are on the mend Mark, and that it won’t stop my vintage red wine, which truthfully is so vintage I have been waiting some 20 plus years. Mind you he has promised now that he will bring his wife Sarah and son Alex to meet me and share the red wine in a restaurant in Manchester, now I really am going to keep you to that Mark, and don’t leave it that long that the restaurant goes out of business, no more excuses now!!

Staying with GeWeTe but this time Robert Clarke, his daughter Katie was back in the USA at Camp America and his son Matt was at home, and he had no holiday planned as his friends had all got temp jobs so they couldn’t go, so Robert being Robert joked that they could always go together for a few days, and guess what was happy to do this, Normally their usual conversations are virtually single sentence or even less he realised he need a plan, so he worked what he thought was a comprehensive one out and also getting a day of relaxation. Arriving in Malta at 9pm (Monday) it was time just for a walk around and a nightcap at the bar and the following morning (Tuesday) at 8am they went for a full day quad biking around Gozo (I love Gozo) and at least when they got back to the hotel they had something to talk about and more than a single sentence!! The following day (Wednesday) it was War Museums of which Malta has many and this was followed by a jet-ski safari on Thursday, and on Friday Robert thought he was going to have a relaxing day in the sunshine by the pool, but how wrong can you be!! They ended up on a back of the house tour to watch the feeding of sharks in the aquarium and then went to an air museum, mind you it was a more sedate day than the rest of the trip.

 Guess what Matt wants to go on holiday again next year with Robert and Katie  is even thinking of going along too, making it a family holiday, on Dad’s wallet of course!!  Next year he has plans to include scuba diving and water skiing to the itinerary, you really are quite a big kid at heart aren’t you Robert?

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30 August 2023

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