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Robin's 70th Birthday Party in Sunninghill on Friday 26th May 2017

Does anyone have any pictures to give Robin ? Click on a picture to play video or enlarge ...

Robin and Gus on 25 May 2017 St Crispin's School Wokingham June and Robin in Hippy dress White strip

the earlier "Flexible Invitation" ...

Robin's 70th Birthday Party - Flexible Invitation - Just YES/NO/MAYBE Needed Folks ! Our contact details are below :-)
Robin Lovelock as Hippy in Sunninghill Cordes Hall Friday 26th May 2017 in Cordes Hall Sunninghill, opposite the School. 6pm setup; 7pm starts; Out by Midnight :-(
Dress Code: come as you wish, from "casual" to "fancy dress". Robin will be a 1960's Hippy with long hair and beads again.
Food: state preference such as ANYTHING/VEGGY/HALAL/INDIAN/CHINESE/ ITALIAN. Drink also free from bar.
My devout Muslim friends say that 26th May is the first day of Ramadam. Sunset in Sunninghill is at 2103. Eat when you like.
Online at www.GPSS.co.uk/70.htm with pictures and videos. e.g. Nick Knowles being arrested outside the Jade Fountain.

Utube video Utube video Ideas & Offers welcome on things like Master of Ceromonies*, DJ, Cook, Entertainment. NO cards or presents please !
Jack's funeral, Snoopy Tests, (temporary?) bad back, meeting the Sharps and other guests, slowed my invitations work.
Samantha set up a Google Sheets Spreadsheet to total YES/NO/MAYBEs. Some may say YES late, but please say it soon.

Contact details: Robin Lovelock, 22 Armitage Court, Sunninghill, SL5 9TA ; Tel: 01344 620775; Mobile: 07736 353 404 ; email: gpss@compuserve.com or robin@gpss.co.uk or robin@NHSCare.info . More information about Robin and the Lovelock family is on www.GPSS.co.uk.

* If you think you recognise Royalty, or a famous TV Personality, mingling with you, it could be an actor. Offers welcome.
My budget for this get-together is considerable: equivalent to all June & Samantha's Greek Tennis holidays, and their shopping trip to New York soon after 911.
Click on pictures to enlarge, play videos, or reveal relevant pages. My fun will be in watching you all mingle. Please make love and not war :-)

DF Animation near School and Cordes Hall Grumpy Old Pensioners Here are a few public pictures and videos spread around my web sites, that should help you get a flavour of what I hope this rare get-together might be like, starting with the location: The Cordes Hall Sunninghill. There will be people you know, and people you wish you'd known much earlier.

Lots of overlapping "Networks" of friends, going back to Robin's (first) childhood: St Crispin's School for young offenders; Italy and the Mafia; India and Bollywood dancing; Sunninghill residents and traders; Workmates from RADYNE, Ferranti, NATO, and EASAMS; NHS and Politics; Journalists; Team-Joker Snoopy Robot Boat fanatics; Robin's extended family; Jack's friends; Grumpy old pensioners who behave badly, and many more. You can start by parking near our home in Armitage Court. You can use Robin's souped up mobility scooter, if you are not up to the walk down through the village.

AMRA Indian Evening in Cordes Hall AMRA (Armitage Murray Residents Association) was formed by the residents soon after the two Charles Church estates were built in 1977. The main function then was to take possession of the Amenity Area in the middle, and handle issues such as insurance, tree surgery and grass cutting, etc. It then soon became a useful excuse for us to get together for social events such as the summer barbecue in the amenity area, and low cost dinner/dances in places such as the Cordes Hall in the village of Sunninghill. Robin has been active with AMRA since we purchased 22 Armitage Court before it was built.

rocking chair

Some of the people who may be there ... or watching via Skype and/or from above ...

Robin's Grandad Harold Sharp and Robin's huge local extended Sharp family ..... Bernie ! You still owe me twenty quid ! Click for more detail.
From WWII Somme trenches and Le Treport Hospital Town ... raises family under a tarpaulin near Arborfield ... bungalow in Aggisters Lane ... and much more. White strip Big Poppy and Bigger Picture Sharps Sharps Sharps Harold Sharp and Gambling White strip

Friends and Family of June's dad Jack Ponsford, including his golfing mates at the Sunningdale Ridgemount Golf Artisan's Club, featured in Golf World.
Jack Ponsford's mates
There is more about Jack on Robin's Jack page, and his Sunninghill page, including as a boy at St Michael's School opposite the Cordes Hall.

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The Italian crowd: fellow Italian students and teachers, Italians, or just those who speak Italian. Pictures and videos are on our Holiday page. Sicileans are important to us ;-) white strip

Italy animation Sicily Holidays Jager Bomb

Click on the pensioners in their undies for our Saphire Anniversary page; Connections with local Estate Agents and the Sunninghill Sicilean Mafia :-) white strip

Those into Sailing , and Team-Joker's Snoopy Robot Boat to cross the Atlantic since since Ben Moore of BBC filmed 2012 Attempt. Testing at Bray Lake Watersports ...

Utube video Cowes Week Snoopy with Bray Lake Watersports staff in 2012 Utube video Utube video Bray Lake Video Snoopy and Dick's Mavic Drone Sailing Test on 21st April 2017

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Greeks, those with Greek blood; Corfu; lovers of tennis; Phil and that lady doctor with weapons training ? See Corfu Tennis .

Corfu Corfu tennis Corfu

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Some of Robin's friends are "shakers and movers" on NHS matters such as www.NHSCare.info . Some are "well connected". Robin often just watches things happen :-)

Utube video Utube video Ian, Derek, and Robin

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From Robin's "Home" page on www.GPSS.co.uk :

BBC TV World News at 0700 22 February: Ethiopian Famine, and Africa. Perhaps Pensioners can help bring a little Peace and Understanding in the World ? white strip Click here for GPS Software on Pocket PC Akalu Alemu in Addis Ababa Ethiopia Click here for GPS Software on Pocket PC Click here for more information The Life of the Prophet Muhammad Samantha in Central Park just after 911 John Mannielo in USAF Grumpy Pensioners white strip Visit the expanded Holiday page, for details how a combination of Technology, Translation, and Tourism, might be a force for good to be done: probably by Grumpy Old Men :-) white strip

From Robin's Bigger Picture page. ....

16. Robin's German Connections ... Don't Mention the War(s) ... WWI, WWII, WWIII.

Robin's German Connections Poppy to remember them Anyone who knows me well will know one topic that will bring tears to my eyes. It is when I recall my dear Grandfather, Harold Sharp, telling me of his experiences in the First World War - WWI ( 1914 - 1918 ). He would talk of the Christmas Football Match: Germany v England, when there was a short, unofficial truce, before they went back to their own trenches, and resumed killing each other. What particularly moves me, was his personal account of his being among the "walking wounded", making their way back through the confused lines. German and Allied soldiers would be walking together, helping each other, until they eventually parted company, sometimes bidding "farewells", to their respective Field Hospitals. His was "Le Treport", the name of his bungalow in Agister's Lane, not far from Arbourfield Army Camp. His eldest son, my Uncle Ern, was in the 8th Army "Desert Rats", during WWII, coming up through Africa, through Sicily and Italy. I inherited my wicked sense of mischief from Harold, as my dear Uncle Berny and Aunty, near Sandhurst Military Academy, will confirm. They share many memories, with my Cousin Geoff, now retired and sailing in the Med. The Sharps are Thatchers.

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white strip Robin's German Connections Robin's German Connections Jack never used a camera much, and has always tended to avoid one. So if he discovers these words about him, we should remind him of his two major public appearances: the photo on the right was among many published in "Golfers World", when they did a special article on the Sunningdale Artisan's Golf Club. Another was when he appeared on BBC Worldwide, broadcast into 200 million homes: doing Geocaching in Richmond Park with our neighbours. Jack was happy for me to take this picture of us enjoying a rare hour or two of October sunshine at Bray Lake. Click on pictures to enlarge. Jack has worked for the Waterboard Blacknest site since befor the War ( 1939-1945 ). Jack has told me far more detail than we have room for here. He was called up and was among those captured near Dunkirk. When the Germans caught him, he happened to be sheltering in a farmhouse, near the Belgium coastal town of De Haan. It just so happened that he was with Sid de Haan, who eventually set up SAGA Holidays. They made the long march, then train, to Stalag Luft 8b, in what is now Poland. Jack and Sid were in adjacent bunks for most of the war years. There was a little known exchange of prisonors, and Jack returned with about 100 of his fellow POW, through Scotland, and down to Aldershot. He says that was the worse bit - all that news about what had happened while they were away. It was then down to the south coast, to join all the other Allies, waiting for D-Day. Jack has always said that only "Saving Private Ryan" gives a realistic picture of battle. It seems (allegedly) that some of his mates, after realising that they were about to be sent across, said "b*gg*r that for a game of soldiers", rioted, and burnt down their nissan huts. Robin's German Connections The Army would have had them shot, in WWI, but split them up and gave them "cushy home postings". Now it seems that Jack has forgotton this tale, and says that, under the Geneva Convention, they could not be sent to the same front - but could have been sent to fight the Japs. Jack was posted across to France and Belgium, as the Allies advanced, and was stationed near De Haan again. De Haan He remembers German POW being used to clear the mines they had laid, with the occasional fatal explosion. He was posted up to Holland, until the war ended, and he was demobbed soon after. He returned back to England, and his old Blacknest Water Pumping Station Job. He married Ida in Sunninghill St Michaels's Church in August 1945 and the Local Council gave them their first house in Crossways. They took a delayed Honeymoon in 1947, near De Haan in Belgium. Jack met my NATO German friends, like Gunter, years ago. Jack has many amusing "Royal" stories, but they do not belong here. Jack mentioned that, under Hitler, red headed Germans were rounded up, like Jews and Gays, to be taken to the Death Camps. This reminded June and myself of our dear red-headed German friend, who spent her war years in Berlin. I wonder if she will ever meet Jack ? The "What did we do today" image for Sunday 30th October 2016, has direct relevance to the above.

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Fritz Wurstlein Janet Wurstlein Fritz was my first German friend, and I rapidly discovered not to believe the typical stereotype of Germans not having a sense of humour. This was when I left school in 1963 and started an Ordinary National Diploma, in Engineering, at High Wycombe Technical College. I spent over 4 hours each day commuting from Wokingham, by moped, train, and then bus. Part of the course was to learn German, because Germany was a little more enlightened on what "engineer" meant - someone better trained than a doctor or lawyer. Fritz taught me words that were not in our German lecturer's vocabulary. It was fantastic for my wife June and I to meet Fritz and his wife, Janet, over 50 years later, when we made contact again in 2015. The same can be said for Lord Peter Carrington - but that's a different story. The shared links that Janet and I have, to numerous friends, are too numerous to mention here. There is no substitute for face to face meetings in Tring :-)

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