Richard At Eton

By Joan Roach – Saturday 28th June, 2003

Hi – Denise and I went to the ;Talking Stones XIV exhibition at the Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in Eton yesterday – this comprised some leading stone sculptors from Zimbabwe and most of the proceeds were going to go to ;the Waterford ;Kamhlaba School (Cam had originally put the gallery site ;on ;the website ;which Sue had ;sent him – thank you both).

All the artwork was great and there were some lovely pieces, but very expensive, and one lady at the exhibition had just bought two sculptures and was looking around to buy another one so there were quite a lot of wealthy people attending.

The guy in charge of the gallery, Nicholas Pritchard, was a great host. He kept on checking to see if Denise and I were okay and actually told us “Richard has arrived” – This was at ;12.30. He wore a lovely ;cream jacket with light trousers and brown suede slightly pointy shoes and had a nice even suntan (sorry, can’t remember exactly all the ;dress details but I think Denise will also be doing a report for the site so she will have the correct details in!)

Richard made a nice opening address and everyone liked him instantly (now there’s a shock!) Denise and I went up and talked to him and we mentioned the recipe/birthday book he had received from the REGiment and he was quite surprised and said “how did you know about my mail”. We answered that Cam had ;sent it but that a few names had been missed out. Richard was mortified ;and ;said he was very sorry that he had missed some out. He asked which recipes Denise and I had sent and then said “Yes, I saw them! But how did I miss ;out your names?” ;when we told him which one’s we had sent. Richard explained that he had collected ; ;the names ;from ‘greetings’ at ; ;the ;back of book. We assured him not to worry as he kept on saying “how awful, I can’t believe I did that” and then we felt awful because we had raised it in the first place!

We took a few photos before he left – he stayed for a couple of hours and talked to everyone there, practically!

There was a reporter for the local newspaper and he was interviewed and photographed for that. The reporter mentioned to Denise and myself that he had been to Zimbabwe on an exchange visit or something. He was a nice guy and was very pleased to have interviewed Richard for his newspaper.

All in all it was a lovely day. We went to a nice restaurant afterwards and ate out in the sunshine. Denise had brought her son Kieran and we had a fun time.

The event is going to be repeated next year so that will be good for the Waterford School funds. Also at the moment £1 equals 15 of their currency so it goes a long way.

Anyway I thought I would just let you know – so for those people who have been missed off Richard’s list – Richard says sorry for that. Also he told us that Cam had asked him to let him know more (and sooner) where he would be visiting/appearing but he says he gets a bit embarrassed at telling him where he will be. I told him that we would love to hear where he is so he just laughed and grinned at that.

Chin Chin
JR (Joan).

To read a report of the event by Denise, click here.

To have a look at part of the catalogue, click here.

A posing Richard.

Joan with catalogue. Richard with lychees.