The bad news and the good news...

Happy New Year to you.

My year didn't start brilliantly, when I went into the church hall on Wednesday Jan 4 to find this...

Vandals had broken into the hall, probably on the afternoon of Jan 2, and made quite a mess. A lot of crockery had been broken - we were storing it on the stage while the kitchen was being refurbished. The police found some fingerprints which might identify the culprits of the damage if they are already on their radar, which they might well be. If you saw or heard anything on Monday afternoon, though, please let me know so I can pass on the information to the police. 

Yes, that is the remains of the tea urn on the floor - not much of it left. The wine bottle was empty (unsurprisingly)  as was another which had been broken - there was glass everywhere. 

They had broken in through the back room window.

They had had less success trying to break the toughened glass in the inner doors, but they were extensively cracked. 

Mercifully the new kitchen was undamaged, except for the plate of spaghetti hoops which they had thrown at the wall...

So what is the good news...? It is these folk, who came in on Thursday  morning  and laboured long and hard to clear up.  Many thanks to Marion, Jill, Nicky, Sally and Rosemary (not in this photo), to Jenny, who came along with fortifying home baked cookies, and to Martin Clews who liaised with the insurance company and the glaziers very promptly and efficiently with the result that...

The hall is now back in good order. We have swept and hoovered and sorted, and the glaziers came very promptly to replace the glass. 

We even discovered that spaghetti hoops in tomato sauce CAN be washed off walls without leaving a stain - I really thought we'd have to repaint the wall, but Marion applied detergent and elbow grease and all is now well.

And here's a sneak peek at the refurbished kitchen, which we are going to officially declare open tomorrow at 12 noon , at the end of the Friday Group. Come along if you'd like to have a look for yourself.