It sometimes happens that the best laid plans of mice and men.....! Two coaches left Canterbury early one morning in May but traffic into London was so exceptionally heavy that we were almost an hour late to start our itinerary. However, no-one was downhearted and we still had a wonderful day.

After coffee at the Festival Hall we took on board a guide from City and Village Tours (Doug). He  promised to thrill us with tales of dark and sinister happenings in a relatively small area of London over the past several hundred years. He certainly did this - I wonder how he sleeps at night with so many things in his mind!  Stories of Oliver Cromwell's bones being dug up; executions; violent deaths and the whole saga of Jack the Ripper. He showed

and plates of cakes) was definitely welcome and enjoyed. We were all able to sing even louder in the second half. Andrew Robley gave us a medley of Scottish songs. Dressed in rather a handsome kilt he gave a couple of vigorous twirls, throwing the kilt in the air. Were we at last going to be able to answer the question about the Scot and his kilt - "was he or wasn't he?" Jenny Barling, sitting very near to the stage told Andrew she had enjoyed every minute of it. He presented her with a bunch of flowers and she is now definitely not telling!

The Chairman told us about the Charity they run, taking music and song to care homes, hospitals and hospices. He said memory is strange; people can still sing songs they learnt when young, even when other things have vanished. He invited us to buy raffle tickets and guess who won the first prize, a DVD player -our Chairman, June Brewer.

This was an extremely successful outing organised by Eileen who is hoping to be able to repeat next year. If anyone is interested in going it alone, you can find out more at:
www.bricklanemusichall .co.uk

Barbara Holland

us the sites of the deaths of the girls he had killed. We also heard about cases at the Old Bailey and the bodies buried at Smithfield Market.

After all this it was lucky that we had such a light-hearted afternoon planned. We were on our way to the Brick Lane Music Hall. This is no longer in Brick Lane but in a converted church in Silvertown. The interior was colourfully decorated with period murals and had a great atmosphere.

Sitting down at tables laid for tea enhanced the feeling that we were in for a very good afternoon.

We were not disappointed. The Master of Ceremonies, Vincent Hayes, was everything that a Chairman should be. His jokes were funny, rather risque at times but never offensive. Also he was no mean Irish dancer -look out Michael Flatley!

We had Ian Adams, well known, of course, to The Marlowe people there. Wonderful singing from Jane Webster and  Andrew  Robley.     Mark Walsh gave us virtuoso performances on his ukulele. They were all accompanied by Laurence Payne on the piano. This was a   sing-along   afternoon  and   everyone sang with gusto. The main casualty of our late arrival had been no time for lunch so the wonderful tea provided (lots of sandwiches