Upton Park Safari Supper

Every year in the summer and at New Year we celebrate Upton Park style with a Safari Supper in the Park, which involves eating, drinking and finding your way to the next house for the next course! It starts off with everyone meeting at one house for drinks, where you are given a card with house no and host for your starter. After the starter you find out where you go for your main course and so on till you stagger or crawl to the final venue for coffee etc and dance or talk the night away. It’s a great way to meet your neighbours and create a friendly community.

It started in 1987 with Hilary Williams (ex no 9) and I knocking at every house in the Park to see if it was feasible. It took us 3 weeks but most people said yes, so we had the first one on April 1^st with 40 people. It was a great success despite Brian Beard (ex no 84) phoning me early on the great day to warn me he was cooking swan and was that OK? I was somewhat taken aback until I realised what day it was!

From then on it has grown - our highest attendance was 76 and there is now a New Year's Eve version run by Megan Hinde (no3) and Margaret Measures (no 50).

We precede the Safari supper event with a wine tasting evening to choose the appropriate wines. A very difficult task, but despite this, invitations to the wine tasting are very much sought after and newcomers to the Park are given priority. The organisers now include a Dutch contingent - Marianne Buck (no 56) and Ineke Meijer (no 13).

It will hopefully continue as an Upton Park tradition for many years to come - I've even heard rumours that it has been included in estate agent's patter to prospective buyers!

Any suggestions - put them on the web….

Nicola Quartermaine (no 19)