Afternoon Tea At A Mansion

I attended the PLC Old Collegians afternoon tea yesterday down in Weybridge, Surrey. The youngest person there after me graduated from PLC in 1960. The oldest was the host who graduated in 1940 (I guessed her age to be ~84). She would have to be one of the most tremendously eccentric people I have met. All of the attendees met on the train at Waterloo and then took a couple of taxis to Shirley's place. The house just had a name (Beech Hill House), no number, so I was expecting a mansion. And it was. Sweeping drive up to a fountain in front of the house with beautiful gardens. I heard later that a couple of the others found a wood on the property. A wood?! Shirley was married to the president of Shell. He passed away a couple of years ago and she has been spending her time in Surrey (3 months of the year) and Geneva (9 months of the year) since. She spends much of her time managing their estates and money.
When we arrived, she came down the stairs to greet us in red high heels and a Singapore Girl outfit. It later transpired that she had talked to a Singapore Girl during one of her trips in Asia and had been given the name of the tailor who makes the uniforms. She had a couple made for herself (aside: there is no way any normal person would fit into one of the actual uniforms of the Singapore Girls - average size 2). She was heavily made up with black eyeliner, aqua eyeshadow and red lipstick. To complete the picture, she had on a red headband.
She showed us some videos of her skiing, hang-gliding and parasetting (spelling? Same as hang-gliding but with a parachute). The videos were of her in her late 70s. Phenomenal.
The other ladies were not quite so glamorous. All had worked through their lives but only the youngest was still working part-time. Some pioneering women as you would expect from PLC Old Collegians, even such a small sample.
They had incredible memories. Put me to shame. They reminisced about teachers they had for geography, gym and the like from 50+ years ago! I can't even remember 12 years back. : (
I found out that Kalika (what is pork from?) is in the UK. Must catch up with her.
More on work. I was called on Monday evening to get in contact with the Senior Project Manager on a project in Aberdeen. Went up on Tuesday morning and will be travelling back and forth until the end of July. Have been pulled in to the end of the project to help get tasks completed. This apparently means that I will be babysitting one of the module leaders to make sure he gets things done. Things are better now that I know what I am doing for the next 5 weeks but very tired because of a cold, the long hours and the travel.
Still looking for a house. Taffy and I went to see a place in East Acton. We almost made an offer but it was too expensive. If we had got it, all three of the Yiu kids would have been living near a prison, which I thought would have been quite amusing. Went down to see Woolwich Arsenal, which is looking like a good option at this stage. Cheap but beautiful and new and not too far from central London.
Back to Aberdeen tomorrow morning. May get a chance to play some badminton on Thursday or they may decide to go drinking instead. I know which option I would prefer but it is probably the minority opinion...