The April lunch saw the welcome return of some members who have been unable to attend the first three lunches of this year. Awaiting them, and the rest of those assembled, was a menu of grilled Cumberland sausages with creamy colcannon mash and caramelised onion gravy, followed by banoffee cheesecake.
The speaker for April was Andy Smith who gave a talk entitled “Mysteries and Conundrums”. As a warm-up, he asked those present to guess the weight of his (spare) prosthetic leg, receiving answers ranging from weights in imperial measures, to the equivalent in bags of sugar or even bags of potatoes.
For most of us, it was the first mystery and/or conundrum of his presentation. In an entertaining and mostly light-hearted way, Andy explained how his life had been changed by a car accident in which he lost and arm and a leg, forcing him effectively to choose between making the best of life with the help of humour, or to wallow in self-pity.
Andy went on to give further examples, illustrated by readings of his poems, of the way in which he and others have had to negotiate the challenges life throws at us, one instance being Lord Lovat, Commander of 1 Special Service Brigade, who on D-Day had his personal piper play the bagpipes to give his men the necessary courage to storm Sword Beach despite the enemy fire directed at them. Although this was one of Andy’s earlier examples, he returned at the end of his talk to the theme of giving courage, or encouragement, to others, in his case, amongst his other activities, through engaging with young people who feel they have nothing to look forward to.
John Gilbert
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