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| Blog for Monday 30th July
2007
In certain circles, it is generally
thought that if you provide a good spread, then you will be well
supported.
So not unexpectedly, our evening BBQ at Ken & Judy's turned out to be a full house, or more accurately, a full garden! The menu...... Starter : beautifully cooked sardines a la Brian Foster (see photo below) Main : a selection of steak, sausages & burgers a la Ron Roberts - all cooked to perfection. And if that wasn't enough there was some spiced chicken a la Jim Fulton succulently served. Sweet : A great selection of summer temptings including fresh strawberries & cream & fresh fruit trifles. A truly sumptuous feast accompanied by drinks generously served by David Rankin
We had some lively conversation,
interspersed, as usual, with the odd borderline joke from Peter Jones.
(It's amazing how the tellers of the jokes seem to laugh the loudest
afterwards!)
The weather was perfect, (until the sun went down), and the setting beautiful. We are all indebted to Ken & Judy for graciously opening their lovely garden to us.
No doubt Brian's photo record will demonstrate how it is possible for we Brits to be seen to be wearing summer, autumn and winter fashions all within the space of 3 enjoyable hours! Rtn. David Warburton |
| Blog for Monday 23rd July
2007 After a hard day, including an early morning drive down to see a client in Kent, then back for an afternoon at the grindstone, all I wanted was a quiet evening at the Rose and Thistle. Just a couple of beers, a hearty platter of man’s grub and forty winks during the speaker, that was all I needed. Instead I got a tap on the shoulder in the bar with the information that it was my night for the vote of thanks and the b***** blog. I therefore had to summon all my powers of concentration in order to be able to codge together a vote of thanks and remember enough of what had gone on to provide a record of the evening. So here we go……….. We started of with the club’s current and immediate past good and the great exchanging gongs, three weeks late because they hadn’t got them ready in time for the usual handover ceremony. This was followed with an account by the president of some sort of caravan rally with a bunch of other sad people and a few toffs at Buckingham Palace, plus an account of how he tried to walk through a plate glass window and cut his head. Then we had a repeat of the great gong exchange, this time with seriously cheesy grins, as the club photographer had now bothered to go and get his camera from the car.
The time arrived for the speaker, who was given a slightly insulting introduction by the president. Undaunted, Roger Newton, our speaker for the evening, gave a very interesting and entertaining account of the history of his business as village carpenter. The talk was illustrated by fine examples of workmanship, together with many photographic illustrations. The club’s interest in the subject was underlined by the number of sensible questions at the end of the talk.
There followed a scintillating vote of
thanks, (given by yours truly), which most of the club thought richly
deserved the Grumpling Trophy. However, Jack Lazenby had already decided
that Peter Jones should receive that particular honour, for not
completing the aqua boxes in good time. Peter had probably been too busy
telling other Rotarians what to do instead! |
| Blog for Monday 16th July
2007 It was appropriate that we should have a walk around Haddenham, home of witchert, at the time that we are changing our name and after twenty years of trying to explain to fellow Rotarians just what this eccentric building material is. Our genial guide was Michael Whitney who kept us amused with the fascinating history of the village and anecdotes about villagers past and present. We started at Church End; ‘Midsomer Murders’ land, hearing from Michael about duck brooding, the church, witchert wall building and the history of the pond. On to Skittle Green and the corner house, with the pargetting decoration and then into the Croft and the tiny cottage which was burned out twice and is now beautifully restored. Visitors to Haddenham who decide to explore the High Street are regularly surprised to find that it ends in a cul-de-sac and a closed gate at the Kings Head pub. Resisting temptation to stop for a pint, we walked on to the witchert Methodist chapel and the Haddenham Museum – Michael was the joint founder. Our evening ended enjoyably at The Peking Rendezvous where Stephen provided one of his Chinese banquets. Rtn. Brian Foster |
|
Blog for Monday 9th
July 2007 Monday 9th
July was a Council and Business Meeting. Council were delighted that members
were actively supporting the new committee structure and there was great
benefit in event organisers having been confirmed at this early stage in
the Calendar. Rtn Alan Dichler |
| Rotary Blog Monday 2nd July
2007 A new Rotary year, a new President to break in, a new Vice President expected to match the excellent programmes of the last 2 years, these were the makings of a potentially riotous and noisy evening. The ‘Chief Executive’ started badly with excessively noisy use of the gavel but managed to carry out his duties and control the meeting without summarily dismissing any of the members. Our guest speaker, Graham Laurie MVO, spoke on the history of the Royal Flight or as he summed it up, ‘90years of history and 20 years of flying.with the Queens Flight’ Although there had been some Royal flying in WW1 it developed in the late twenties as a result of the enthusiasm of the Prince of Wales, who learned how to fly and was the first member of the Royals to land on an aircraft carrier. In later years Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew all learned to fly and flew the Royal Party themselves. The 'fleet' started with a De Havilland Gypsy Moth , a DH Puss Moth and graduated, via a DH Dragon Rapide and a Heron to a BA146. Surprisingly it was not until 1964 that Royal planes had air conditioning and were pressurised, allowing them to fly over 10000 ft. Graham told many anecdotes of his Royal Flights and said that his most memorable flight was bringing back the mortal remains of Princess Diana from France to Northolt. Graham was a very accomplished and interesting speaker who held the audience in rapt attention for over an hour. Well done Paul - what a good start to this years programme! The Grumpling Trophy was awarded by Jim Fulton to Peter Jones. Not as you might expect for mutterings during the speakers address but for a Scottish accent that he insisted using when talking to Jim. For those not aware, Jim is from Fife and is very familiar with a Scots accent. Peter isn't - on either count! Rtn Frank Readman |