Richard’s first formal commitment of 2013 was to attend a Citizenship ceremony at the Registrar’s Office, which is in our Ward, to make a speech of welcome to twelve people taking British citizenship. There were new citizens from South Africa, South Korea, China, Macau (now part of mainland China), the Phillipines, a big family from India and a man from Syria, who told Richard a harrowing tale of his relatives back in Syria. In his speech Richard stressed how Sutton will gain from people with such varied cultural backgrounds joining our community.
Don’t forget that real Christmas trees will be collected for recycling between Monday January 7 and Saturday February 2, 2013. Put the tree out next to your bin on the day your re-cycling (green) bin is collected.
One of the nicest things Councillors get invited to do each year is to help serve the Christmas lunches at the schools in their Wards. Devonshire Avenue primary school, the only primary school in our Ward, had its Christmas lunch on 5 December.
The serving staff at Devonshire found Richard a particularly awful Christmas hat, as you can see from the photo above, and he helped serve 363 lunches.
Richard said “The catering staff do a wonderful job. It was great to have the opportunity to meet the Head, Martin Kersey, again, and observe the really good spirit at the school. I have served Christmas lunch two years in a row now. More this year than last as the school is still expanding, and that expansion is due to go through a further phase.”
To stay in the Christmas spirit, Richard took his concert band, featuring Richard on trumpet, to play Christmas carols at the tea for senior citizens at the Friends’ Meeting House in Cedar Road on Saturday 8 December.
Richard is the second trumpet player from the left.
Richard and Heather also went to the Christmas meeting of the Sutton and Sutton Senior Citizens’s Club, the former Eurasia Centre, which meets in the Thomas Wall Centre every Thursday. The members are mainly from India and Goa, but have lived here for a long time. Many have fascinating life stories. We had a wonderful Indian meal.
