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WINE TASTING AT LAITHWAITES
3 September 2007
Rather than just drifting into their regular networking meetings West Surrey thought they would kick start their Autumn programme with a sociable Wine tasting at the local Laithwaites retail shop. Laithwaites is the leading UK online wine store and specialises in wines from family run vineyards. So successful has the online business been that they have now opened 8 shops around the country.
However, this was no ordinary wine tasting. Beginning with a reception, serving a new Thierry Lesne champagne, members and guests were soon separated and allocated teams which were imaginatively named after people significant to accountancy history. Stiff competition ensued in the guise of ‘Call My Bluff’. Jayne, Laithwaites manager, and Karen, West Surrey president each did their best to persuade us that their’s was the correct description for the wine we were tasting. If you knew your Pinot Grigio from your Sauvignon blanc you were home and dry but you still had to decide on country of origin and price. To split the scores still further there were bonus questions, both wine and accountancy related.
A delicious buffet separated the white from the red wine tastings and the worthy winners took home a bottle from a lucky dip box. The shop was a perfect setting for the event with its vineyard atmosphere amongst bottles and barrels. After the scores were announced and the prizes distributed attendees were able to mingle and chat some more and browse the shelves at their leisure. In all a most enjoyable and social evening; good wine, good food and good company.
West Surrey visit the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club; home of the Wimbledon Championships
On a warm mid September evening, 112 West Surrey members, and their guests, enjoyed a 'behind the scenes' tour of the tennis grounds at Wimbledon. The route included No.1 Court, the picnic terraces and water gardens with their fantastic views across London, the Millennium Building and Press Interview Room, which are out-of-bounds during The Championships, and the BBC Television Studio. Centre Court was off limits due to the extensive building works to install a roof that will be operational in 2009. An impressive sight nonetheless.The tour was followed by dinner in the splendid No1 Court Debenture Holders' Lounge and the evening concluded with a very entertaining and enlightening talk from Tony Hughes, Director of Finance and Championships, for the AELTC. Tony gave an overview of funding the Championships and some history of financing the All England Tennis Club and its grounds. This included TV rights, income from debenture holders, energy consumption – and how you deal with it, the long term plan that they are currently working to and what happens when rain stops play! All wonderfully illustrated with entertaining anecdotes and stories.
Hays Accountancy & Finance sponsored the tour and their representatives mingled with the guests. The attendees voted the event a huge success.
West Surrey Walk and Talk
On 11 July, a brilliantly warm and sunny evening, the Financial Services and the West Surrey members' networks joined forces for a guided walk through the banking and insurance areas of the City.
Pauline Hedges, from City Walks and Talks, brought to life some of the rich history of the Square Mile. Why is a certain bank where it is or why is a street called by that odd name; Pauline gave the group of 30 an insight into the present day financial institutions combined with a fascinating glimpse over some 2000 years of history, around which London has become a financial centre of the world.
The circular tour began with banking. From the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England the group walked along Cornhill, taking in one of Wren's churches, the Stock Exchange and Nat West tower, through Leadenhall Market to the Lloyds building, passing perfect examples of the old and new living amicably together. Then on to the insurance area around Lime Street. Insurance companies are as abundant here as banks were in the first part of the walk. The Monument, Gracechurch Street, Lombard Street, among many others, and a detour down a few alley ways to be reminded of how easy it was for the Plague and the Great Fire to destroy so much so quickly. It is possible here to touch both sides of the alleys whilst walking down the centre. And then we are back in Cornhill.
The evening concluded with a light buffet and wine at the Balls Brothers subterranean wine bar in Kings Arms Yard. Perfect weather, an enthralling guide and the opportunity to meet fellow professionals in a convivial setting led many to ask if this was to become an annual event. Clearly a successful evening!