A warm welcome to old and new faces at the June Mining Sundowner

The Chain Locker was busy last night, on the warmest evening of the year so far. Crowds have been flocking into Falmouth for the annual 3-day Sea Shanty Festival, the largest nautical music and song festival in Europe, which starts tomorrow. Falmouth has a long history as a first safe port of call for deep-water sailing ships and sailors filled the waterside taverns, such as the 17th century Chain Locker, and their shanties and stories are kept alive to this day. 

There was an unusually high turnout for the sundowner, with a few surprise guests among the regulars. It was great to welcome back Linda and Mark Shimmield. Linda has always been a regular at the summer sundowners, but this was her first in three years. Linda and Mark are based in Adelaide and have been effectively locked in Australia during the worst of the pandemic. Mark, a CSM alumnus, travels a great deal but Linda will now, as in past years, spend the summer in their apartment by the harbour so we look forward to her presence over the next few months.

A welcome back to Linda Shimmield

It was also good to welcome a number of youngsters, mostly current CSM students, and Barbara and I were particularly pleased to see our grandson, 17-year old William Collins, the elder son of Amanda, at his first sundowner. Maybe he will be the next generation of the MEI dynasty!  He has played a significant role in MEI's recent online conferences, filming and editing Jon and Amanda's opening addresses.

William with his grandparents.......

......and directing his Uncle Jon at an online conference

Regulars with CSM students

Last night was a pleasant occasion for renewing old acquaintances, and we look forward to doing the same at the next sundowner at the Chain Locker, which will be on Thursday July 21st from 5.30pm.

@barrywills