November is flying by and last week I’m sure was the shortest week ever. On Wednesday night I drove into town to Claridge’s where I was met by their Events Manager not with a wonderful warm welcome but a long lingering look up and down and I could’ve sworn a lip curl from beneath her mask. A quick whistle stop tour through the very kitchens that prepared the chocolate soufflé that Jacob Rees Mogg lived on as a student to The Ballroom where I was to remove 8 table centrepieces but only once the coast was clear and out of sight of their customers. Unfortunately The Ballroom was still in use so in the meantime until it was clear I was invited initially to wait in the cleaner’s cupboard but then the foyer! It was a great place to people watch and their décor and Christmas decorations were inspirational. I can’t wait for 2 weeks time when I’ll be collecting gold urns from the Marriott Grosvenor!! The whole trip was a glorious experience and the flowers were exquisite. On Thursday I was involved with preparations for Mitzvah Day at Jewish Care’s Kun Moor House. We planted daffodil and tulip bulbs with residents and one of the ladies, 98 year old Iris hated getting her hands dirty but fortunately the others in the group really threw themselves into it. The winter coats keep coming and we’ve collected over 100 so far - getting them into Lisa’s car to take to Colindale Food Bank proved a bit of a challenge though! On Friday myself and 3 of my lovely volunteers handed out bunches of flowers to unsuspecting Co-op shoppers in East Barnet as a thank you for the £2,000 they’d helped to raise for us. The bunches of flowers were all created from surplus flowers from that Co-op branch. Next week is Chanukah and I’m going to be decorating our window in homage to my Claridge’s trip! Have a great week. Ursula.