Sydney Get-Together

Inaugural Sydney Flatters Get-together

Pictures at second half of this page

A Message from the Organising Committee

The Bamba ex Flatters' Reunion was held for the first time in Sydney on the 9th March 2013. The organising committee consisted of Hillary Senanayake, Roger Billimoria, Milroy and Romany de Silva, Stewart and Sweeny Keuneman, with the assistance of Anoma Udulagama.

The venue for the event was The Greyhound Trotting Club in Yagoona. The hall was beautifully decorated and arranged so that people had enough room to move around comfortably, dance and catch up with old friends.

One of the greatest challenges facing the committee was the sale of tickets to as many ex Flatters as possible. Since there are only a limited number of ex Flatters that live in New South Wales, it was expected that we would have good representation from Victoria and other States. In fact, the 9th of March was selected as the date for the reunion as it was a long weekend in Victoria and it was felt that this would improve the chances of more Victorians attending the function. As it turned out the majority of ticket sales were from New South Wales ex Flatters and their guests.

Although the numbers were a bit below what we anticipated, the good old “Hard Core” of Flatters (and friends) were there in force rocking those old bones into the night with Ex Flatters from Sri Lanka and other States attending!

From the point of view of the organising committee The Inaugural Flatters Dinner dance held in Sydney lived up to our expectations. However, the success or failure of any event can only be judged by the feedback and comments of the guests. It was therefore gratifying to receive so many compliments, pats on the back on the night and messages of appreciation from Ex Flatters in NSW, Victoria, QLD and WA for organising the event and also for the great time that was had by all. The comments centered round the quality of the Venue, Yvonne’s Cuisine, the great music of the Band “Take 4”.

There was also plenty of positive comments about the "special touches"for this event of place mats consisting of old photos of ex Flatters and the bottles of Red and White wine which were provided on each table with special labels to capture this event and the giveaway CDs containing music from the sixties and seventies commonly heard around the flats at the time and the souvenir. Judging by the response of people on the dance floor, the CD was a big hit. The CD cover, the labels for the wine and the souvenir were designed by Hillary Senanayake. It was also particularly humbling to get such a dollop of high praise from a man who has been a key part of organising this event in Melbourne over the years, namely Kumar Bhagwandas.

As you know, it’s almost a tradition to have a little picnic the day after but as many folk had other pre planned events we decided not to have it Having said that, remember that “hard core” we mentioned? Well they all piled into Hillary's place armed with Vadais, Muspaan, rotis, and even a bottle of Arrack!

As the day progressed, every story you’ve ever heard before was spiced up a bit more and related for the umpteenth time……..strange how after all these years those stories sound as fresh and funny as the first time you heard them. That at the end of the day is the joy and the uniqueness of being a Flatter. Given the unstoppable march of time, it’s even more important that the reunion concept be maintained in whatever form that works.

The Sydney committee has on the 28th April sent a donation of AUD 2,262.00, which was the sum left over after expenses, to the Prithipura Infants' Home in Hendala, Wattala as their chosen charity.

Prithipura Communities - http://www.prithipura.org (Click to go to the website)

Dear Sydney Flatters Organising Committee

Thank you for your generous donation which we received some time ago -please find attached a scanned copy of our official receipt - my apologies for the delay in getting this back to you... We will be posting the hard copy of this to your physical address provided as well. We will be using this donation towards the general running costs of the Homes - which is often a difficult fund to get donations for due to its recurrent nature - and as such we appreciate this even more.Please let us know if you need any further information regarding this or anyother thing - we will of course keep you on the mailing list for any publications that we put out in the future.
Thank you again for your generosity.
Yours, Pieter
Pieter S. de Kretser - Secretary - Pushpa (Juliet) Ramanayake - Assistant Secretary,
Prithipura Communities - Prithipura Infants Home,
Beach Road, Hendala, Wattala - 11300, Sri Lanka
Phone: 0094 11 2 930 635 Fax: 0094 11 2 945 247 email: prithi@sltnet.lk Web: http://www.prithipura.org/index.php

Click to view Receipt for Donation