Ladies  and  gentlemen,

It is with joyful anticipation that we look forward to the CADS cricket lunch next Friday. Mugsy, a.k.a. Adrian Molloy, and his Aussie team, are coming for a whirlwind tour of Europe and will entertain us at the VRA.

The lunch price includes entry to the ground, and those wishing to stay after lunch are welcome to watch the whole match. Reserve your places quickly with Allan or myself as we need to finalise numbers with the caterers.

We have an exciting and fairly full agenda for the coming months:

In August there will not be a speaker; however, we will enjoy the culinary and aesthetic delights of the Apollo terrace if it is warm and sunny.

In September we have the CADS golf competition. This will be held at the Hilversum GC. Please let me or Allan know if you wish to attend as either player or spectator. And we will be addressed at our September lunch by Frederike Brockhaven, winner of the 2013 BBC English Speaking Award.

Also an early heads up on a visit to the International Court of Justice in November. Following on from Judge Greenwood’s visit to CADS in April, he has kindly invited us to the Peace Palace to get an idea of what the ICJ does. More of this later, but likely dates are the 15^th or 18^th of November. This is your chance to take a private tour of Andrew Carnegie’s vision for resolving disputes between states using lawyers instead of gunboats. Not bad for a guy who used thugs to break up any union organisations in his own factories…

Enough of CADS. Your chairman occupies his copious spare time as treasurer of the Voorschoten Anglican Church. In this capacity I recently received a letter from Rabobank advising our fixed rate mortgage period had ended, and without further communication they had put us on a 10-year fixed mortgage at 5.65% interest. Odd, because this is much higher than the rates they advertise on their website. On calling them, they were unable to provide an explanation except that we are not a ‘particulier’ client. So there you have it. Rabobank discriminates against God. What was that about bankers’ parents you said?

As the halcyon days of a Dutch summer once again get under way, I thank God that there are still some diverse, interesting and fundamentally decent people left in the world, and that we are meeting for a good lunch!