Were you there??
Computer Analysts and Programmers was founded in May 1962
Those people lucky enough to have joined the company (at any time - but certainly during it's early formative years) know just how fortunate they were. It was a very special group, with a very special ethos, run and staffed by wonderful people, who played an enormous part in, not only helping to develop the software industry that the we know today but also, most importantly of all, in helping to form, nurture and bond many enduring friendships - a great many of which indeed, still stand as firm today, as they were all those years ago!
Hi there Everyone!
Many, many thanks once again to you all for making the occasion such a pleasure and a delight, and even if everything on the day didn't quite go according to plan - where oh where did all the beer go (and the London Pride in particular - I don't think that ever did put in an appearance after all!) I trust you were all suitably 'on a high' by the end - sated in nostalgia - and felt that the effort had been well worth it.
Talking of being sated, I hope the food was to your liking and agreeable - and particularly those among you who had special dietary needs. My sincere apologies if anything fell short.
Mea Culpa also, again, to those of you who had to sport my hand-written labels, it really was a 'technical hitch' - somehow or other a couple of pages worth of labels, got lost in the ether! You were all equally as welcome and loved as everyone else! And I thought I had been so clever - it's true what they say about pride coming before a fall!
Thankfully CAP always managed to find a place for me away from the firing line - if it had had to rely on my technical nous, it certainly wouldn't have survived, let alone developed and flourished into the wonderful company that we all had the privilege of working for, and loved so dearly, and which enabled so many life long friendships to blossom - as the recent gathering was a true testament!
Whether or not we'll be able to have yet another, as many of you were already talking about, only the good Lord will know - but I guess, CAP Sixty! does have a definite ring about it!
It really is such great fun and we really are such very lucky people!
Delighted to see so many of you afterwards in the Shakespeare, even if it was almost impossible to move around and talk to anyone - but at least the beer was cheaper! I guess expecting to find a pub in London on a Friday evening, that wasn't heaving, was a tad optimistic!
In the event I'm sorry that I didn't stay for too long, I was pretty bushed by around seven o'clock.
I hope you all had as warm a feeling of the world - thanks to seeing you all - as I had this morning, when you pulled back your curtains! (I couldn't pull mine back, as I had had them made up into a shirt!)
Having the sort of friendships that we were all lucky enough to be able to forge thanks to CAP, is what life is all about! Sadly there will always be those who have passed on to higher pastures, but as Keith alluded to yesterday, their memories - again thanks to CAP and the unique company it was - will always live on!
Thanks once again to you all, for being there and supporting the day, and for allowing me the pleasure of bringing you all together.
Finally, condolences to those of you, who for various reasons, were unfortunately at the last minute, unable to be with us. You were definitely thought of and fondly missed - and indeed (particularly) if your absence was as a result of mis-health, then I trust that you all make swift and full recoveries. There will I'm sure, be other occasions, when we will have an opportunity of getting back together again with, at least some of, the wonderful friends who gathered yesterday.
All the best for now and hopefully see you all again sometime soon - if not in another five years!!!
Westie