Father Christmas visited St Albans early - at the Medieval Banquet in July Newsletter 2004/2005

Season’s Greetings   English Language Learn the Individual Way

Dear Friends

2004 is nearly at a close and things are a little quieter. We had an interesting and full summer season. Ian’s St Albans School of Languages opened in the Spring and that brought opportunities for a wider range of social events with other students. The school has established courses for English and also so far, for Spanish, French and Italian. The opportunities in St Albans for cultural exchange are growing ever richer. We had good representation from both German and French speaking Switzerland again this year. And France and Spain have also provided students.

Antonio from Spain began his course in the sweltering heat of August with a trip on the Thames from Westminster to Greenwich. West met East at the Observatory, when he stood on one side of the meridian line whilst a Japanese colleague stood on the other (Eastern) side.

Several students took advantage of St Albans’ excellent tennis facilities at Batchwood this year. Both Philippe’s son Adrien and Kirill and Igor took courses there. The British Lawn Tennis Association rated Batchwood facilities in the top three in the country this year. Combining a sport like tennis or golf, or some other hobby, as well as sightseeing with developing English language skills can be very fruitful. It provides a relaxing break and topics for further conversation. St Albans is a very good centre for a wide range of activities, as well as being so near to London. Fit firefighter Anton from Switzerland saw much of the Hertfordshire countryside on a borrowed mountain bike.

As promised, 40 or so of our friends from Worms in Germany arrived in July, complete with resplendent costumes, instruments and other equipment, as well as beer and wine. We had a wonderful weekend and both Brigitte and Benoit were able to join in some of the events including the Sunday evening social – a medieval banquet. The planning was long and arduous, but the end result was a very memorable cooperative event enjoyed by both local people and foreign visitors. One of the visitors was sufficiently impressed with St Albans to choose our hospital for her training placement later in the year.

Both Mayte and Mercedes, from Spain but now living here, have enjoyed stretching their reading and writing skills in English and plan to continue with more literature discussion into the New Year. We kept our fingers crossed for Marine’s (Navy!) exams – hope they went well. And we also welcomed Natalie, Gill, Jeff and Jules to the teachers’ team this year.
With all good wishes for 2005 from St Albans. Do keep in touch. Kate

Highlights of the past year

* What does Boxing Day have to do with aggressive sports? (see below for the answer)

Antonio took a trip on the river Thames from Westminster to Greenwich, walking up to the Royal Observatory and straddling the meridian line with one foot in the Western and the other in the Eastern hemisphere. The outward trip on the river passed all the wonderful new modern architecture to be seen in the City and on the banks of the river along the docks. The return journey took him past the Cutty Sark, the tea clipper, a sailing ship that used to rush tea back from China for the London market in the nineteenth century. Then we took the Docklands Light Railway past Canary Wharf back to the City for the Thameslink service back to St Albans.

The visit of the Wormser Freien Gewandeten celebrated the common cultural heritage of our two regions in the late Middle Ages. King Richard the Lionheart of England was held ransom near Worms on his return from a crusade to the Holy Land. The Abbot of St Albans helped raise the money to allow his return to England. Musicians and dancers accompanied the Group who made a pilgrimage through the town to the Abbey Church and took part in the Carnival parade, all part of the Festival of St Albans 2004. Seen here the Mayor of St Albans joins in the dancing in front of the old Town Hall after a civic reception for the guests in the 1831 Court Room. The Mayor joined in the fun again on the Sunday evening when he entertained the visitors, leading his group the St Albans Mummers as they performed their traditional Boxing Day* play for the first time at such an event.

Brigitte watches him here with blackened face and wearing a lady’s straw hat, such as might have been made in St Albans in the nineteenth century.
Mummers provide a traditional form of entertainment for the community. The word is associated with mime and so perhaps a little close to pantomime which is the slapstick form of entertainment put on in theatres in every English town at Christmas for children.

Anton, a colleague of Werner from Switzerland, came for four weeks in the wonderful weather we enjoyed in June. This meant of course that our lessons could be in the garden every day. He worked hard early in the day, for the opportunity of getting some exercise and seeing the countryside on Tim’s mountain bike on the way home. He restored it for us after long lack of use. Kate’s cat Jessie was a frequent companion, but sadly Louis had died this year after an unfortunate series of events in February’s very cold weather.

Answer: Nothing. Boxing Day is the English name given to 26th December and, although often a day for sports, it is actually named for the traditional giving of Christmas boxes (with gifts inside) to tradesmen, such as the milkman. The family receive their gifts on Christmas Day.

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