Wednesday 14th December was chosen as the day for five of us former HCPT Group 35 pilgrims, to meet for a reunion Christmas lunch after 12:30pm Mass at Westminster Cathedral.
The five comprised: Father John SJ who had been chaplain with the group for a few years, Bernadette from Baghdad, who was always very popular with the Group's children especially as she often had in her bag what appeared to be an unlimited supply of their favourite sweets, Paul, the Group's deputy leader without whom we could never have travelled so well, mrs maytrees, who came on the pilgrimage many years ago before maytrees max was born and myself, who was encouraged to attend HCPT pilgrimages whilst at Beaumont College a few years ago. Beaumont has of course long since closed.
We had not been able to book anywhere ranging from Bill's to The Ivy, for lunch as presumably Christmas parties were taking up restaurant lunch times.
Furthermore, Wednesday was a rail strike day. Paul who travelled in from Essex quipped beforehand that he would be ok travelling on the Central Line, which of course serves London north of the River. Bernie, Mrs maytrees and I relied on the railway. As it happens strike or no, trains were still running from Wimbledon to London Waterloo and we were able to catch what appeared to be a brand new train rather more comfortable than the usual suburban trains would have been. As it turned out Paul's the Central line had engineering problems which of course affected Paul.
Arriving early in Westminster, mrs maytrees and I were able to book for after the 12:30pm mass, a lunch table for five at the well decked out Ivy. Presumably a few diners had been put off attending by the railway strike. If so their loss of course, was (sadly!) our gain.
Mass was quite well attended and took about 35 minutes. After Holy Mass and meeting and greeting the others, we walked to The Ivy and were given a delightful table in a corner next to the ground floor window there.
Over lunch there was much reminiscing about the many pilgrimages to Lourdes we had made and the difficulties that there must have been for HCPT caused by the Covid-19 virus. Indeed HCPT children's pilgrimages ceased for a while though they are I believe, picking up again.
Food and drink at The Ivy was delicious. I had a goose and turkey shepherds' pie followed by frozen berries and sorbet with a pot of green tea.
Lunch lasted for almost three hours after which, we finally bade each other happy Christmas and farewell until the New Year.
Mrs maytrees and I were surprised to find that the District Line to Wimbledon was running normally from Victoria to Wimbledon, despite going over some train tracks for the last section of the journey, though the train to Town was far quicker than the London Underground journey home.
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