Our final meeting of the year used to be called the Chairman’s evening and this one certainly was just that. Anne bought all the food and drink and engineered the evening as she thought fit, which was to get everyone talking to one another. She was very ably assisted by liz who prepared and heated up the very tasty punch and organised and ran a quiz; by Daisy who helped setting everything up; and by Chris who also ran another quiz. I was teamed with Martin and Terence and we were rubbish in the first quiz and a great deal better in Chris’s quiz, which was technical and having the club technocrat on board helped! - a lot.
We all mingled until the punch was ready and then we tucked into the grub, hot sausage rolls, Audrey’s very tasty mince pies, nuts, crisps, cheeses and satsumas to mention just a few things available. Audrey was going to miss the party as she was going on the holiday of a lifetime to Antarctica; and so she prepared the mince pies before setting off. But as we heard, she suffered a fall in Argentina breaking her hip, and ended up in hospital. I have just spoken to her to get my facts right and she tells me that she fell over in her hotel, was eventually taken to the best hospital in Buenos Aries by ambulance, which refused to set off until they were paid! (we do not know just how lucky we are with our National Health). She then had to wait until the new Hip joint was paid for before they could fit it! But eventually their top surgeon did the op and then there was a delay until she was fit to fly home. Audrey was insured through the Post Office who were brilliant, sending out a nurse to see her safely home, and they rang her several times a day to see that she was OK. So, next time you spend 10/- (50p) on a stamp, just grin and think of Audrey. We all wish you well and hope you recover quickly Audrey.
After the punch and eats we sat down in our teams of three for the quizzes. Finally, Anne encouraged us to visit the exhibition in the Storrington Library where Liz has set up a very good show with examples of our ‘One a Week’ project. Anne then bid us a very Happy Christmas and told us to buzz off home!
I apologise for this late report but I was without power for the full four days which was miserable to put it mildly. How life changes without the leky!