Newsletters
I’ve
tried to keep the contacts I’ve made abreast of the progress made with this
site. To aid this I’ve been sending out "newsletters". It seems
appropriate to copy text here as well
First
newsletter was sent out on 10 November 2002
Second
newsletter was sent out on 13 November 2002
Third
newsletter was sent out on 13 November 2002
Fourth was
sent out on 30 November 2002
Fifth was
sent out on 4 December 2002
Sixth was a
"New Year" Greeting 1 Jan 2003
Seventh was a
very short one to announce availability of Air Day programme
Eighth was
sent out on 4 February 2003
Ninth was
sent out on March 8th 2003 & concentrated on planned reunion
Tenth was
sent out on April 26th 2003 & again concentrated on planned reunion
[
I thought I’d sent out another reporting success of first reunion but can’t
find it ! Anno Domini ?? ]
[I have now found the message I had in mind - it
wasn't a general newsletter but sent only to people who'd attended the meeting
]
Eleventh
was sent out on October 20th 2003 to celebrate first anniversary &
discuss next reunion
Twelfth was
sent out on December 2nd 2003 asking people whether they'd had previous
newsletter (as my computer had had a bit of a problem), reminding people that
next reunion has been arranged and telling people that we were now in touch
with the former owners of the Blighty Bookshop
Thirteenth
was sent out on January 27th 2004 as a belated New Year message
Fourteenth was sent out on
March 23rd when I returned to work after a spell of sick leave
Fifteenth was sent out on April 10th
2004 to apologise for recent lack of activity whilst home ‘phone line out of
order
Sixteenth was sent out on May 3rd
2004 as final final reminder about
Seventeenth was sent out on May 16th 2004
to mark us passing the membership threshold of 200.
Eighteenth (although with my customary efficiency I managed to label it ‘OK
Newsletter 17’) was sent out on Aug 11th 2004. It contained a (very) brief report of the
May reunion, an explanation of why I’d been a bit less active on the website
lately and a survey of members to find out what direction they wanted the site
to take.
Hi
All
[ Although this looks as though I'm writing only to myself, I have in
fact "blind copied it to several people with whom I have had contact
through the FriendsReunited
website. SInce I haven't got your permission to pass on your email addresses to
anyone else this method ensures no breach of confidence. However, I would much
prefer it if you could give me your permission to pass your email address on to
other Old Khormaksarians - which in any future correspondence I shall
abbreviate to OKs ]
As I believe I have mentioned to you all individually, I would very much
like to set up a website for OKsl. I have started the process by loading a few
dummy pages into my personal webspace at BTopenworld and I have given myself an
alternative BTopenworld email address of
Khormaksar.School@BTopenworld.com
which will allow me to rename my webspace to :-
http://khormaksar.school.users.btopenworld.com
although
for the time being a known fault on the BT sites means that it is only
accessible via a temporary url of :-
http://www.btinternet.com/~khormaksar.school
Perhaps
you would like to have a look at the current pages and consider how you might
help to build them into a worthwhile site.
In
particular, I would like to be able to extend my class lists beyond my own.
There is a little difficulty here in giving each cohort a proper identity - I
would suggest that my own group could properly be described as 1G:1958, since
if we had all been in
I'd
also like to improve the staff list (my attempt can only be described as pathetic)
and the history of the school (probably none of us will have a full picture but
together we should be able to come up with a reasonable stab at it.
I
shall soon add a couple of pictures to my account (which I might even write up
in more detail) of the Lahej trip. Perhaps someone else would like to
contribute other articles ?
Apart
from the FR website, I belong to a couple of similar organisations (see my
links page and please let me know if you're aware of any others) and also have
an "Infodisk" CD which would enable me to trace anyone with an
unusual name. This of course will only work for the lads in our class (or
unmarried girls I suppose) and only if their name was unusual enough (there are
for example about 25 "Michael Mount"s residing in the UK (although of
course "ours" could have emigrated, doesn't bother voting or may even
be dead) so it might be worthwhole sending each a postcard but you couldn't
really do this for 168,000 "John Smith"s !
If
you'd like some examples of what a really good ex-pupils website can look like
have a look at the two examples I've included on my links page. In fact both
pages are even better than you'd immediately appreciate because both webmasters
have kept some areas restricted to bona fide members.
Please
don't think I'm trying to impose my own ideas onto all OKs. I'd be really
pleased if someone else who thought they could make a better job of it were to
offer their own input.
I would end by quoting the school motto - alas that's yet another thing
that I've forgotten <g>.
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Hello
All,
I now have a list of 20 email addresses of people who attended our alma
mater (or at least who say they did - there's no way of confirming it but I
can't see why anyone would want to pretend).
To preserve your privacy - in case anyone feels strongly about it - I am
emailing this list to myself & blind copying it to everyone else. However,
I feel that it would be in the best interests of all if I were to email future
updates in such a way that everyone could see everybody else's email address.
If anyone wants to opt out of this, please reply (quickly) and I'll keep you on
the blind list. Anyone who doesn't object need do nothing. There is absolutely
no reason why this should result in a huge increase in your receiving unwanted
emails (unless one of you decides to sell the list - but don't build your hopes
up of getting very much for it <g>).
I've put a "hit counter" on the site. If you'd like to check
how we're doing occasionally without increasing the counter in the process try
pointing your browser at
http://www.btinternet.com/~khormaksar.school/counter.data1
There were about 20 on the counter a couple of days ago but I zeroed it
when adding a "guestbook". Since then till a few seconds ago there
have been another 38 "hits", Some of these have been me just testing
the system, but I'm pretty sure that at least 40 are "real" ones -
although of course the number drops if any individual has looked at it on a couple
of separate occasions
The bulk of you have responded to my emails via the FriendsReunited site
but I've also attracted some attention by posting messages on similar
"reunion" sites and I'm told that the site has now been listed on
"Google" (although I haven't yet been able to find it there). If all
of you managed to contact a couple of other people with whom you've kept in
touch we could treble this number almost immediately and such a process would
be exponential. If another full FR member (i.e. one who's paid their £5) would
like to volunteer to send out a few of the introductory emails I'd be very
grateful and this should speed up the process no end - but check with me first
so I can tell you how far down the list I've already got.
One method of finding old friends - providing they have an unusual
enough name - is to do an electoral roll search. I have a copy of a CD which
will do this for the 2001 electoral roll. If you'd like to help out, supply me
with a few suitable (I won't even try looking for "John Smith"
<g>) names & if there's a low enough number, I'll return you a list
of addresses which you might consider snail-mailing. Bear in mind however that
this doesn't work if the victim hasn't bothered to register for a vote, has
emigrated or even died (& let's face it we're getting to an age when this
is a real possibility).
Whilst considering mortality, it might be as well if at least one other
person (& preferably several) was willing to act as "assistant
webmaster". This would allow them to answer emails addressed to the site
and upload new pages.
I would also welcome contributions (NO not monetary - web publishing
costs next to nothing) of articles suitable for inclusion on the site. This can
range from a long article about some aspect of your stay in
As it presently exists, "my" website is nothing to get excited
about. Once we make it "our" website it should improve rapidly.
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I
wasn't intending to send out another "newsletter" just yet but
(accidentally !) found a website today in which we'd probably all be quite
interested.
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/AVA is a
website for the
Association. I haven't checked site out thoroughly yet but get the
impression it's meant for people who served there in the forces (any of us
with an eligible father still alive & surfing might care to draw his
attention to it) but there also seems to be an associate member category -
although I'm not sure what the criteria for that are I suspect a forces
sprog might well qualify. Certainly, one of their pages has been written by
a kid who was born in Little Aden where his dad worked for BP [ That BTW is
how I found the site - I was trying to see if there was anything like a BP
pensioners club on the internet when his page turned up. Funny old world -
surfing !].
I'm copying this letter to the chap listed as webmaster. If he replies to
me with some more information about his organisation, I'll forward it to the
27 people blind-copied here who have expressed an interest in a dedicated
page and hope that he might reciprocate.
AVA home page has a subpage :
http://www.britains-smallwars.com/AVA/gallery.htm which
as you'd probably
guess contains lots of
links - including one to an alleged
folded up as Yahoo (claimed to host it) deny its current existence.
Non AVA site related points :-
So far nobody has contacted me asking that their email address be with
withheld from the rest of the group. I therefore propose drawing up a small
table of names (then & now if different), dates in
tour, email address and present approximate location. This will be posted
on a webpage not immediately obvious to casual surfers and I'll email all
concerned on how to find it. I'm unlikely to do this before the weekend -
so you've still got time to contact me if you want to be ex-directory or
(preferably) if you want to repair some of the holes I anticipate having in
the table.
Note also that the current pages were intended by me only as dummy pages
during the recruitment phase. Whilst some of them have the potential to be
developed into proper web-pages, others are quite frankly rubbish and the
sooner I can replace them with a submission from you the better the site
will seem.
Still looking for an "Assistant Webmaster" [in this context
"master" doesn't
necessarily imply male]. His/her main duties will (initially) be to look
after the BTinternet login credentials in case called upon to post my
obituary although a more active role would be encouraged.
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I've
recently updated several files
The members private index.
is still NOT reachable by a link from the "Index" page.
Without going to the extra effort of making it password-protected, this should
make it a reasonably secure area to store links to the list of members'
details.
Several
people have emailed me with corrections to their entries. I think all those
requested have now been made - but can't guarantee that I haven't (a) forgotten
someone or (b) introduced new errors so am relying on everyone to check that
their own entry is correct. There are still several gaps in the data - for
example, very few of us have indicated roughly where they live. This particular
point would be handy to know as it might make the difference between deciding
to get in touch with an old friend who lives in the same county or not
bothering if they're at the opposite end of the country - or further. It would
also be useful if and when we decide some form of reunion should be arranged -
knowing roughly where everyone lives might enable us to minimise travelling for
as many people as possible. A reunion in
I
am also experimenting with setting up an "on line Forum" on the web
page. If it works, members should be able to link to it from the members only
page (links are already provided but clearly marked as "experimental
only" - feel free to try it out if you like) read whatever is there
already and enter a message in response to that or create a new topic of their
own. The Forum messages reading page is slightly less private than the members'
registers because (as currently set up) it needs to use a "guestbook"
page
which
any experienced web user could find. Entry of messages should be a little more
secure.
On
the "public" pages, I've added a "PictureGallery.htm" page
where all the pictures I think I've received are now displayed. If yours isn't
there yet, then either you haven't sent it or you have, but I've lost it - I'm
afraid that the cure is the same in each case !
There
are also a few more "links" - including one to a page I've written
explaining that the BFES/SCE link also shown doesn't work but that all their
records are available for public viewing in a University of London archive of
which details are shown on my page http://khormaksar.school.users.btopenworld.com/BFES.htm. This archive is only a physical one I'm
afraid although there may be web access to it at some time in the future. If
anyone should happen to be at a loose end in
I'm
still looking for a volunteer to act as joint
"webmaster".
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Hi
Folks,
There are now 45 people whom I regard as "members" of this
website. Our School attendance in
Which nicely brings me to my next point. As some of you may have
noticed, I've been struggling to set up a Members' Forum on the website.
Although I'm not really happy with what I've got, it is at least ready for
use:-
If you would like to use it, it's easiest if you first start from our "Members
Page at : http://khormaksar.school.users.btopenworld.com/*********.htm
At the bottom of the page you'll find two links "Forum Entry"
& "View Forum Page".
Taking these in reverse order, "View Forum Page" will let you
see what's already written there. Most of the other forums (fora ?) I've seen
manage to put the latest entry at the top of the page. When I find out how to
do that, so shall I (anyone got any tips ?) but for the time being the latest
is at the bottom of the page so you'll need to scroll down. I should also point
out that if you've got your browser set to cache pages you won't necessarily
see the latest state of the forum unless you first press your
"Refresh" button.
"Forum Entry" will take you into a text entry form. The top
left hand box is for your email address (but only if you're happy to see it
published on the forum (of course the only people who should see it will be
those who know where the members' page is and can find it out anyway). The top
right hand box is for your name.
The main box is for entry of your message. There is a limit to how much
text will be accepted but I'm not sure what that is or what happens if you
exceed it (apart from repetitive strain injury I guess !). When it's all typed
in, press "Submit" and you'll get the standard BT
"Accepted" message. I have tried to arrange things so you leap
straight into the View forum entries page but that too seems to be defeating me
(so far). I would strongly recommend that you then press "back" a few
times (or just re-enter the Members page URL) and select the view Forum page so
that you can confirm it really got there. Note too that if you don't wait long
enough for the "thankyou" page & press "Submit" again
your message will appear twice (or more).
If you have something about our school to say briefly, please try &
use this facility so that we can all share it and perhaps respond. If you ned
to go into a bit more detail & perhaps attach a picture or two, then write
a short article & email it to me & I'll put it on a page of its own (or
even tell you how to do it yourself if you're confident enough).
If you'd care to check your own entry in my "registers" , you
may find a few gaps. Please email me (or post in the forum) any missing details
Finally, if anyone has given up hope of seeing anything useful on the
site and wants to "resign" you'll need to contact me or you'll be
included in the circulation list of my next newsletter.
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Sixth
From Remembrance Day to New Years Day is only about seven weeks (even less
when you realise that many of us tend to abandon the internet at Xmas).
In that time we've gone from nothing to a membership of over fifty (I think
there are 54 names in the address list above but there are a couple more who
haven't yet given me any details at all).
In some ways, that's quite impressive although in others I find it a little
disappointing. For instance, I haven't yet managed to locate any of the
half dozen or so people to whom I thought I was fairly close, I haven't
managed to prise all the details I'd like out of the existing membership and
I'd really like to see more writing &/or pictures from other people.
If anyone's in the market for a New Year Resolution, could I suggest that
checking that all your details appear in my "register" would be much
appreciated. Anyone wanting more of a challenge might even consider writing
a few pages & sending them along.
I'd also very much appreciate any suggestions for spreading our net a bit
wider - I suspect there are still another couple of thousand OKs just
waiting to be found.
Happy New Year to all of you.
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Seventh
Pat's
Air Day Programme is now available on the website.
I'd suggest you first read the warning notes about file sizes on :-
http://khormaksar.school.users.btopenworld.com/AirDayProg.htm
This should be linked to the two actual files mentioned. In case of
difficulty, the full URLs of the files are :-
http://khormaksar.school.users.btopenworld.com/KsarAirDayProg.pdf
and
http://khormaksarawm.users.btopenworld.com/KsarAirDayProg8MB.pdf
Note that the second one is actually on a different website which may
slow
loading it down even more.
Eighth
Numbers are creeping up. There are now over 70 of us - although this
includes a couple of Scout Leaders (who will have had a fair bit of contact
with pupils from our school during their tours) , one convent pupil, one
"Summer Visitor" and a few primary school kids. There must still be a
couple of thousand OKs to find and I'd welcome any suggestions on how to do
it. There seem to be remarkably few examples of "kids" in my register
having brothers or sisters so if you did have other family members at the
school I don't know about, perhaps you would ask them to get in touch (or -
with their permission - just forward me their details). Also, if there's
anyone else with whom you've kept in contact since
might be interested in our site too.
Scouting : I've had an email from Dennis Hunt (who ran the Sea Scout troop
towards the end of its life) which I've copied in full to the Forum page and
another introductory email from John Palmer (who ran the Air Scout troop in
1959/60). I'm not quite sure how many of us were Scouts during our tours -
if you were a member of either troop, please get in touch with one or other
(or even both) of them. There's still a page waiting to be filled with
Scouting (and Guiding) contributions.
Pictures : We're getting a steady trickle of members' pictures - most of
which I've added to the gallery page. I'm relying on somebody telling me if
the page gets too big to load comfortably and if when that does happen, I
could try & divide up what we've already got into smaller "subject
area"
pages. There is still plenty of room for more pictures on the website and
as our numbers
increase so does the chance of your "unidentified kid in the second
row"
being another of our members .
Other Contributions : If there's anything else you'd like to share with the
rest of us about your time in
website. You can put a few sentences on the "forum" page yourself or
I can
convert your twenty page article into a reasonable sized .pdf file.
and place for a reunion meeting ? Personally, I'd hate to try and arrange
anything in Central London (allegedly the easiest place for a spread-out
population to meet up) and I can't say that I'm wildly keen on arranging a
trip to the
we all live would be a big help in arranging somewhere convenient for as
many of us as possible (very few people have supplied even the approximate
location I've suggested for the "register"). Perhaps we shouldn't
have paid
quite so much attention to the old school motto <g> ? ["Into the
Remote
Places" was shared with the RAF station]. Travelling long distances
isn't usually very popular at this time of the year and no doubt most of us
already have plans for the summer holidays; perhaps therefore some time in
late spring / early summer might be considered ?
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page
Ninth
Hi
Folks,
There hasn't been a lot of feedback re plans for a reunion. I thought that
hiring the "Officers' Mess" at Duxford for £35 per head was rather
"over the
top" and nobody has actually responded saying that they thought the
expense
well justified.
Perhaps I could bounce another idea off you ? The pub in the next village
to me is shortly holding a reunion meeting for pupils of a school that used
to be nearby (but closed around ten years ago). I have asked and found that
I could have their dining room for our exclusive use one evening for around
£20 or £30 (that's a Total charge) or alternatively could have a buffet
provided for comfortably less than £10 per head (exact price depends on menu
selected - a couple of quid per head gets you a few plates of sandwiches,
smoked salmon & caviar would be at top end of range).
I still haven't got full details of where all our members live, but there
are certainly a couple in
between as well as a handful of overseas members. There is therefore no
location for a reunion meeting that would be ideal for everyone, but I'd
suggest that a mile off an M1 junction in the
minimise the inconvenience to most people.
Obviously, a pub near my home would benefit me more than anyone else but if
I'm going to be organising the function, that's probably a much better
situation than trying to liaise with a place a hundred miles away. The pub
is called "The Elm Tree" and is in the
junction 29 of the M1 motorway. Perhaps I'm biassed, but I consider it a
super pub (& hence visit it quite often). They have a website which I'd
suggest you try and have a look at ( http://elmtree.members.beeb.net ). The
Elm Tree itself doesn't do accommodation but there are plenty of hotels
within easy travelling distance or if there are any keen campers or
caravanners amongst us, I can arrange sites for them.
The ideal night for the pub would be a Sunday - when (in spite of what it
says on the website) the kitchen is closed so there would be no pre-booked
diners to persuade to eat in one of the bars. Since many of us would be
travelling quite a long way, I assume that most people would prefer not to
have to go to work next morning so a Sunday immediately before a Bank
Holiday Monday would be preferable. Easter is almost upon us and it's not
long after that till Mayday so we wouldn't have enough time for organising a
meeting for either of those Sundays. Spring Bank
preferred option but the room isn't available that night. Hence, August
Bank
tentatively booked the room for that day and if a reasonable number of
people contact me within the next week or so to confirm that they would like
to come, I'll confirm the room and circulate the interested members with
menu options.
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Tenth
Hi Folks,
There are now
over 120 of us. The majority are former pupils of Khormaksar Secondary School
although membership qualifications have widened a little since the original
concept and we now extend a warm welcome to ex-pupils of any of the schools in
Aden (Khormaksar Secondary, The Convent or any of the primary schools) or to
those kids who visited us only briefly between sessions of being locked away in
UK boarding schools.
We are primarily
an internet based organisation although our numbers now include a few without
internet access who receive messages such as this from a brother or sister or
from Pat - our Postal Section coordinator. I don't suppose anybody knows
exactly how many people there are who fulfill the above criteria but my guess
would be several thousand. Pleased as I am to have found 120 in six months,
this suggests that we've got about twenty years searching ahead of us - by
which time alas our numbers will inevitably have thinned out a bit.
There are
therefore several reasons for organising some sort of reunion meeting as soon
as possible:-
Several weeks
ago, I proposed that as many of us who can might like to meet up at a pub ( http://elmtree.members.beeb.net ) near my house on 24th.
August 2003 - the Sunday evening of August Bank Holiday weekend. I have
received a dozen or so responses from people indicating that they'd probably
like to attend and most will be bringing partners or children so it would seem
justified to go ahead and book the room.
My apologies to
overseas members (and maybe even
Depending
exactly what menu we select, the cost of the evening could range from a couple
of pounds per head (for a few bowls of crisps or nuts shared between a lot of
us) to twenty (or more) pounds per head for rather special fare for a very
small gathering. More realistically, I'm suggesting a "middle of the
range" buffet for six or seven pounds per head (still depending on exact
numbers).
I would
therefore ask that anyone who definitely wants to reserve a place (or several)
now sends me a deposit of five pounds per head - which I shall fully account
for and will be using to pay a deposit for room hire. If too few people respond
to make the function worthwhile I shall return these deposits in full. If you'd
like to take a chance that enough other people will respond to guarantee that
the meeting goes ahead and that we'll still welcome last minute bookings,
there's a chance that this will be a successful strategy. However, if everyone
else does the same, I'm afraid there won't be a meeting to go to or if we
manage to fill the room with deposit-payers there won't be any casual places.
I'm afraid I
haven't got any facilities for accepting credit card payments etc. Cheques
should be made payable to me and sent to my home address (which I’m not
publishing on a public page so you may need to email me and ask for it).
I realise that
some of you may have some distance to travel and might need somewhere to stay.
The retired Scouts amongst you are very welcome to pitch a tent on our lawn
(seeded last weekend so should be ready by August). If there are any
caravanners amongst us, I could find room for a couple of outfits or can
suggest some reasonably local sites. Anyone preferring a "proper"
hotel might care to look at the following websites:-
Closest to
actual venue is Twin Oaks motel – actually within walking distance (about quarter
of a mile as crow flies, bit more if you’re not a crow) as it’s a few hundred
yards away from M1 J29 but in opposite direction.
http://www.twinoaks-motel.co.uk
If you’d prefer
to be in town centre, try either of these two :-
Chesterfield
Hotel very close to railway station – in fact a former traditional
"railway hotel"
http://www.uk-hotel-accommodation.co.uk/England/Derbyshire/Chesterfield/hotels/chesterfieldhotel.cfm
Ibis Hotel a
couple of hundred yards further away from railway station, newly built & a
little cheaper.
Surfing around
from the Chesterfield Hotel page above will turn up several other candidates.
There’s another
Ibis Hotel (a little cheaper than the town centre one) close to M1 J30 (i.e.
approx 10 miles North of venue)
Another group of
hotels you might consider is Travel Inns. They have one in
http://www.travelinn.co.uk/TI/index.jsp?page=inn&id=260
and two more
they describe as
http://www.travelinn.co.uk/TI/index.jsp?page=inn&id=145
http://www.travelinn.co.uk/TI/index.jsp?page=inn&id=246
There don’t
appear to be any B&B Guesthouses in or near Heath village – but should be
plenty in the
If staying in
the area for longer, you might appreciate a few suggestions of other places to
visit.
Hardwick Hall
(National Trust) & Old Hardwick Hall (English Heritage) are about 5 miles
from the pub. Chatsworth House (Duke of Devonshire) is about 15 miles away.
Return to Top of newsletters page
Eleventh
Hi Folks,
It's not quite our first anniversary - but that's only a couple of weeks
away. The website went live on Remembrance Day last year (11.11.02) and has
been steadily building up ever since. The latest count gives 150 members -
although that's perhaps cheating a little in that we've included several
brothers & sisters who might not have wanted to join if their sibling had
asked before registering them. However, even when we deduct them plus the
half dozen or so who seem to have changed their email addresses but haven't
got round to telling me yet, we're still comfortably over a hundred in
number.
During the year, we have of course held our first reunion meeting. Fifteen
members, two mums and around a dozen partners met in the Elm Tree Inn at
Heath near
get there seemed to be enjoying it and the consensus was that we should hold
another. I suggested to those who attended the first that perhaps we ought
to try and hold the next one somewhere different to give some other members
a chance to attend. however, nobody has offered to organise something
similar in their locality (still not too late if YOU would like to take on
the challenge !) so I've provisionally booked the same venue again. The
equivalent date next August is a little difficult in that the pub landlord
&
his wife are due to retire at about that time. You may also recall that
when it was discussed previously several people thought that spring would be
the best time of the year for such a function. I have therefore asked Paul
to book our next meeting for Sunday May 30th. 2004 (the Sunday evening of
Spring Bank Holiday weekend). The last meeting was done at £6 per head and
whilst there might be a small price rise before next year I can't imagine
that will affect anyone's decision very much. Before I actually confirm the
room, I'd like to collect a deposit of £5 per head from anyone wanting to
attend (just as I did last time) and (also as before) will of course refund
any deposits if the meeting is cancelled or you give reasonable notice that
you have to withdraw.
The function is a full seven months away yet - so you should have every
opportunity to arrange things to join us. Do please try ! Most of the
details I published about the venue & the area are still valid but I'll try
and update things well before Easter.
People keep sending me stuff to post on the website. Please don't stop -
but I do need to apologise to several people for the delay in posting their
contribution : it isn't lack of interest and certainly not the opinion that
it wasn't really suitable ! I'm afraid I've just been a bit busy lately.
If there is anyone reading this who has some spare time on their hands and
would like to take a hand in running the site, please get in touch.
Best Wishes to All
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Hi Folks,
Have just had a very busy few weeks followed by a software problem with the
home computer on which I keep all the OK stuff. I think it's all recovered
now although in the tidying up process I have found several people for whom
I've got various bits of data missing. Some of these I perhaps never had
but others are probably my fault. In either case, I'd be grateful if
EVERYONE could have a look at the members' page and check their own details
in whichever version of the register you are able to access. If you find
any errors or omissions, PLEASE let me know. At the same time, could any
of you who have brothers &/or sisters but haven't told me about them please
let me have their details (unless of course they strongly object).
Another odd thing I found when sorting out this computer was that my email
"group" that should have had 151 members only seemed to have about 30
names
in it. I'm not entirely sure whether this is a recent fault or if the last
newsletter that I sent out only went to a select few. Apologies if that was
the case; I shan't repeat it in full (you can find it on the website if you
look hard enough) but the important point in it was the announcement that
there is to be another OK reunion at the Elm Tree on the Sunday evening of
next year's Spring Bank Holiday (Sun 30th. May 2004). There have been few
responses so far (perhaps not surprising if I didn't distribute it properly
!) but just about enough to be able to confirm that the event should be
going ahead OK. If you would like to join us, please get a £5 per head
deposit in the post as soon as you can.
Several people have mentioned "The Blighty Bookshop" at Families
gate. I
thought you might all be interested to read an email I've recently received
from the family of the owners of that establishment. I'll append Samir's
email and my reply to the end of this message.
EMAIL has NOT been added to this archive. Contact webmaster if you'd like to
see a copy
Good news for the website (but perhaps not quite so good for me !) is that
I've just injured my knee joint and look like having the next month or so
off work. Hopefully this will allow me a lot of time to get the website up
to date so if you've already sent me a contribution you're in with a chance
of seeing it published. If you haven't, please try and do so soon as I
anticipate being rather busy at work after Xmas.
Regards
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Hi Folks,
[Hope nobody's superstitious ! I need to number the newsletters to make it
easier to update the webpage where they're archived. It just so happens
that I didn't get round to it for the first twelve.]
A belated Happy New Year to you all (not quite so belated if you think of it
as Happy Chinese New Year]. Afraid my damaged knee has made it rather
difficult to sit down at a desk and use a computer for any length of time
recently. Pleased to report it's now a lot better.
Current OK membership is 169 (plus 2 Scouters). If you look at the
"register" you'll notice I've now included a "membership
number" column -
this is simply a number representing the order in which people found the
site and is only there to make it easier for me (or anyone else who wants to
know) to count how many members we've got at any particular moment. Whilst
on the subject of the register(s), I wonder if we really need all the
different versions of them that I've prepared ? I'm not really sure how web
browsers handle an Excel file when the computer hasn't got Excel available.
If (as I rather suspect) the browser can make sense of it anyway, then I'm
wasting my time in preparing several different versions. I would therefore
appreciate it if everyone would have a go at opening the Excel version
[I gave complete url in the real newsletter but this is open to public viewing
! ]
If (and only if) you find that this doesn't present you with a copy of the
register, please let me know - and also let me know which version(s) you CAN
read. If I hear nothing, I'll abandon the alternative versions - which
should speed up the rate at which I can publish updated copies of a single
version.
I recently came up with another scheme to increase numbers. By doing a
Google search for a few key words that were specific to my dad's particular
branch of the RAF (Marine Craft Section in case anyone didn't realise) I
managed to find a couple of webpages dealing specifically with that section
and on which I could post messages telling people about our site. This has
already
resulted in us recruiting a few more members. I'm sure
the same sort of approach would work with any other service unit - or indeed
for civilian companies - that we know had an
everyone could have a Google for their own dad's unit we could find a few
more OKs ?
Our proposed second reunion meeting is getting closer. Format will be
exactly the same as first and cost approximately the same (£6 per person).
I have had a few replies from people definitely wanting to attend but at the
moment it's
looking as though it will be a much smaller event than last year's. This
isn't necessarily a bad thing - I don't think anyone actually managed to
have a thorough chat with everyone else present last time - but if you are
intending to come but were trying to wait until nearer the time before
making a firm commitment I really would appreciate hearing from you as soon
as possible. Spring Bank
months and the pub really would like a good idea of numbers at least a
month - preferably more - before the event. If you haven't already sent off
a deposit (£5 per head) then please try and do so soon.
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Hi Folks,
Pleased to report that I'm now back at work after a 3 month "break".
Bad news is that my home telephone has been out of order for last six
weeks and looks like staying that way for at least next fortnight. Hence
the published copy of the "register" is rather out of date.
FYI, there are now approx 190 of us.
Distributing newsletters by email is getting rather difficult these days as
several ISPs seem to assume that anything sent to more than a handful of people
must be "spam" and may be instantly deleted or at least pushed into a
subfolder that the owner never knew they had. If yours is in this
category, perhaps you'd make a point of checking that
Khormaksar.School@BTopenworld.com & Eric.Mears@Lafarge Cement.co.uk are on
your list of approved senders (of course this email will probably be addressed
to several people who are already affected by such a rule & won't therefore
see it; if you're in contact with any other OKs, perhaps you'd check with
them that they got this ?)
One new "member" [ Jacqueline Wright(nee Raynor) Email:
<wrightatruskin@aol.com> ] has an entry in the guestbook asking to
be contacted but seems to have been affected by a rule of this sort as none of
my emails have been accepted. I'm told that AOL operate some sort of
"buddy" system whereby buddies can check to see if their friends are
on line and send an instant message when they spot them.
No doubt most of you already know that Craig Young (zinescene@blueyonder.co.uk)
runs a website for kids who lived with or visited their parents at BP's Little
Aden site. He's organising a reunion meeting this year " The reunion
is on Saturday 19th June in the Linlithgow Rugby Club. The doors will open at
16:30 and it will be an informal buffet affair where people can mingle rather
than being sat in a particular place. Children will be welcome" and
if any of us wanted to go I'm sure he'd be pleased to hear from us.
Also, don't forget our own reunion is going ahead on Sunday May 30th
(Spring Bank Holiday weekend) at the "Elm Tree",
http://khormaksar.school.users.btopenworld.com/ReunionReport.htm
to see what you missed last year, then contact me if you want to be part of the
next one.
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Hi Folks,
Pleased to report my home
telephone line working again. I should
be updating "register" today - it now shows 190 "members".
Afraid we seem to have
mislaid a few !
These have been reported
as not receiving my emails for last couple of months :- Pat Bawden , Chris
Hodge (nee Mason) , Ian Yeardley , Penny Brewis (nee
Jacobs) , Shelly Kent
and these have had what
may only be temporary problems with more recent ones
:-
Jacqueline Wright (née Raynor) , Christopher
Paul, David Barker, Gill Taunton (née Pratt), Mike Crane, Margaret
Hansard (née Mallinson), Judith Sanderson (née Heslop)
I'm sending this email
out to them as well, so if your name is on either list please respond to this
email so that I can cross you off the "lost"
list (which is also
posted on web page. If you're in touch
with any of them and know that there's been a reent change of email address
which they might have forgotten to tell me about, please let them know I've
lost them &/or let me know their new address.
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Hi Folks,
Reuni2 is
fast approaching – now less than four weeks away ! It’s a little disappointing that we’ve only got 7 “ex
I’d really
appreciate some feedback from people who have decided not to attend such
meetings. Is it too far to travel
?
I’d like to report
a personal success in the contacting old friends area. Not quite an old school friend rediscovered
but just as welcome. I reported a few
newsletters ago that I’d been contacted by Samir Aziz - the grandson of the
Blighty Bookshop’s proprietor. More
recently, I’ve been exchanging emails
with his uncle - Hamed Aziz - and in one of them I happened to mention my
parents’ friendship with a local police inspector – Kassim Kassim. Not only had Hamed known Kassim in
To recap on a few
points mentioned in previous newsletters :-
Has anyone else
had any success in finding their father’s ex-colleagues (&/or hence their
children) via websites set up for e.g. their old service units ? Do please try. It might help us to swell the number of OKs and it might even
help you to a better understanding of whatever it was your dad did.
Have any of the
AOL members among us managed to contact Jacqueline Wright (nee Raynor)
Email: wrightatruskin@aol.com via the AOL “buddy” system ? Jacqueline has put a couple of messages in the guestbook asking
us to contact her but unfortunately seems to have taken such extensive
precautions against receiving “spam” that no new correspondents are able to
contact her ! The “buddy” system is
therefore about the only way left of trying to contact her.
I’ve stopped maintaining the multiple versions of the
register and have concentrated on the Excel version. If anyone is unable to read this, please let me know and I’ll be
pleased to email you an up to date copy in any other format that you want (providing
I can write in that format of course !).
Before you write off the .xls version as a lost cause, please ensure that the whole of that
filename is appearing in your browser address bar as some copies of the “Welcome
New OK” email had that link overflowing
onto two lines and effectively left you trying to access a filename ending in
e.g. “.xl” instead of “.xls” If that is your problem, typing the missing
letter(s) into the address bar will probably cure it (and if you then save it
as a “favourite” you shouldn’t get the problem again.
Numbers continue to creep up. There are now almost 200 of us listed in the
OK “register”. With any luck I might be
able to announce at Reuni2 that we’ve passed that milestone.
Regards
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Hi
Folks,
Just
a quick note to let you all know that we’ve passed another “milestone” - in
that there are now more than 200 of us.
204 members plus 2 scouters and a few other associates – such as my mum,
Margaret Hanson’s (and maybe a few more mums who members haven’t told me about)
together with a couple of local friends from Aden days who have contacted me.
The
current “register” – as published on website - is missing the last few people
to join us but should show the above figures within the next couple of days (by
which time I’m hoping it will already be out of date again <g> ).
I
still haven’t managed to contact
Jacqueline Wright(nee Raynor )
who
seems to have an anti-spam system set so tightly that none of my messages are
being accepted. Have any of the AOL
members amongst you managed to adopt her as a “buddy” yet ? Once somebody has pointed out the problem to
her, she should be able to adjust her spam settings so that any of us can get
in touch.
Final
Reminder : “Reuni2” will be two weeks
from today. I’m expecting there to be
eleven of us in the room who spent time in Aden together with another five
members of our families. Just about
time for any last minute deciders to join us.
Regards
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Hi
Folks,
Just
to let you know I am still around.
The
Spring Bank Holiday reunion went off very well. I’m afraid I still haven’t written up a report of the meeting or
posted a new picture on the website.
This isn’t just laziness; I replaced
my main home computer just before the meeting and when I came to edit the old
Reuni-Report page I discovered that the new version of Word I intended to use
for that job didn’t work in quite the same way as my old version. For very similar reasons, I haven’t been able to publish any of the
members’ pictures that I’ve been sent recently.
There
shouldn’t be any problems with editing any text-only pages that already exist
as I’m fairly happy editing the raw html code with WordPad and maintaining the
register with Excel is also pretty straightforward. Speaking of the register,
our numbers continue to creep up :
we now have 215 OKs on the register together with two Scouters &
three Adeni friends.
As
I’ve casually mentioned in all these newsletters, I really do need some assistance from other members. I have recently received an offer of help to
tidy up and extend the Members’ Gallery – this may well mean that we need to
move the gallery onto another website (although we would of course still be
able to access it very easily from the existing website). I have also received a suggestion that
perhaps the time is approaching for us to give up the present website (which I
have to admit was only ever intended as a temporary facility pending the development
of something better) in favour of a commercially hosted website with a proper
domain name.
Before
we can take this suggestion any further, I need some feedback on how the rest
of you feel about this. A commercially
hosted website sounds expensive but doesn’t have to cost an enormous
amount. With over two hundred
members, an annual subscription of a
few pounds each would be more than adequate.
If we can put up with having a few adverts displayed on the site it gets
cheaper still. It would still be my
intention to make at least part of the site publicly visible so that we could
continue to recruit more members and it may well be that some current “members”
would prefer not to contribute at all but just rely on the occasional visit to
the public area. If we are to consider
setting up a member-funded organisation then we perhaps need to have a formal
structure – committee members , bank account etc.
Another
point that needs to be considered is the domain name we choose. ‘Khormaksar.School’ was originally set up as
a site for former pupils of Khormaksar Secondary School but we seem to have a
consensus that any kids of servicemen (or other expats) working in Aden -
whether they attended the RAF Secondary School, one of its several feeders, one
of the other schools with facilities for Brit kids or even a UK boarding school
– have a great deal in common. Are we
happy to stick with a domain name including the words ‘Khormaksar.School’ (e.g. ‘Khormaksar.School.org.uk’ ) or should we perhaps find something that
better describes our disparate origins
( e.g.
‘BritKidsWhoVisitedAden.org.uk’ might be more accurate but seems a tad
clumsy )
Perhaps
you would all get back to me – either by replying to this email or better still
why not post your comments in the members’ forum so that we can all see what
each others views are – with replies to these points :-
Are
you prepared to consider paying a membership fee ?
What
sort of annual subscription would you be prepared to pay ?
Are
you prepared to serve on a management committee ?
What
domain name would you propose for the new site ?
And
don’t of course forget that a bigger site would need even more members writing
articles for it than we’ve ever managed yet !
Hence I need to include another question :-
5.
Have you got (or will you be preparing) an article for submission ?
Look
forward to hearing from you soon.
Eric
Mears
OK Webmaster
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