United Guilds Lunch, Stationer's Hall
31st March 2017This is always a fun lunch - most, if not all, Livery Halls host the entire Livery and for the past year or two we have gone to Stationer's as we house our gowns there, and it has that lovely garden if the weather's nice.. There's no formal line up, so we could get stuck straight in with some fizz and regroup. Our party consisted of, in addition to myself and Camilla, Sandra, Ralph and Maureen, IPMs Chris Allen (in tails from doing his stuff as sidesman in St. Pauls for the service) and Mary; PM Mark Gower-Smith; Fran and Sean Gavin, one of our new members. Sadly Roger Brookes had to pull at the last moment for work reasons. We had enough time to use the garden for a half corona so we had a very happy half hour or so before summoned to lunch. Our table was in one of the smaller anterooms this year, so we had to cheer extra loud when invited to be recognised by the Master Stationer in his welcoming speech. With that all done, we settled down to an excellent guinea fowl terrine; cod with chorizo sauce and fig cheesecake with good wines. The Master wound it up informally and we were able to finish our coffee in our own time. We heard from another Company about last-minute concert the Lord Mayor was doing, so happily accepted Ralph and Maureen's invitation to tea in the Barbican a few minutes away.