John and Mandy's move
John and Mandy are selling their house in Birmingham, and are relocating to "Them Thar Hills" in Malvern, Worcestershire. As they say, this move will, of course, mean big changes for the Laughing Gravy Tent. “And this is something we have given a lot of thought to. ”
We wish John and Mandy lots of happiness in their new venture, and hope that they will benefit greatly from reducing the heavy workloads that they have chosen for more than thirty years. We congratulate them on their many, many achievements for the Laughing Gravy Tent and indeed for the Sons of the Desert at large. John and Many are second to none!
Read what else John and Mandy have to say:
In planning for and thinking about this move, the future of the tent has been an important consideration for us. We don't want to close the tent, so we have decided to reduce the number of meetings. From 2027, we are proposing the following:
To have four tent meetings a year- one for each season. Dates for 2027 will be:
THURSDAY 1ST APRIL - Birthday Night
THURSDAY 1ST JULY
THURSDAY 7TH OCTOBER
THURSDAY 2ND DECEMBER - Christmas Meeting
Tent Membership fees will be reduced.
We will no longer produce the Birmingham Bark newsletters. These will be replaced by occasional information news sheets. We do still plan to have a Laughing Gravy Annual.
Running the Laughing Gravy Tent for over 30 years has been a labour of love, but it has also been a huge time commitment. In that time, we have run four conventions (one International and three UK), organised coach trips to numerous places around the country, held special members only events like meals and free drinks, produced tent newsletters and annuals, sourced and sold memorabilia, and raised money for charity. We are now looking for a different pace of life, and a chance to have more time for ourselves.
The best part of running the tent is undoubtedly spending time with our members. The laughter and friendships will stay with us forever. And there is still more to come. As things stand, we plan to continue meetings as usual for the rest of 2026.
We will keep you up to date with more details when we can.
That's our story and we're stuck with it!
Good luck, John and Mandy, and thanks for all you do!
