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Last year, September 2014, (as we had done
for several years), we hosted The South of
England Region Lunch for 106 members. The
Venue, The White Swan, was not quite big
enough for our numbers making it quite
difficult to move around, the service wasn’t
exceptional and the food, whilst quite good,
was just too much!! Several members asked
why we couldn’t just have our own
celebration this year so here we are.
We have used the Windsor Hotel several times
in the last few years for family occasions
so we inspected the facilities and Barbara
negotiated with the manager and booked for
Sunday lunch for 60 people. However as the
day approached, we realised that this year
our own Branch numbers attending would not
come up to our expectations so we invited
Southampton Branch to join us.
On the day, assisted by our daughter Karen,
we arrived about 10.30 to find the round
tables beautifully laid up and just filling
the room with quite reasonable spacing
between them. Barbara and Karen arranged
the flowers that Barbara had previously
prepared, made sure the number of places on
each table were correct and put out the menu
and games she had previously printed. I was
allowed to bring in the raffle prizes that
had been donated over several months hoping
that some guests would bring some too, which
they did.
The meal - Prawn cocktail, Roast Beef with
all the trimmings and really super Eton Mess
was excellent. The service friendly and
attentive and I heard that the vegetarian
option was also very good indeed. During
lunch we were entertained by the Sundown
Ukulele Band that we had previously heard at
The Shelley Fete (The old Lantern) who
volunteered to play for us without charge.
Of course during lunch we were all
“persuaded”
by Terry and Gaynor to buy the raffle
tickets and we all did very well by raising
£186.00.
The Highlight of the afternoon, the
Speeches, were not initially welcomed
enthusiastically, but with just gentle
encouragement the thought of listening to
me and our guest of honour Bryan Rowley,
who was accompanied by his wife Ann, for
half an hour was greeted by a roar of
approval!!
Bryan has now been the National Chairman of
the Fellowship since the last AGM in Cardiff
and has been determined to meet as many
members as he possibly could in his first
year of office. His speech told us of some
of the history of the Fellowship, Meetings
with our Founder Frederick Morena and the
development of our Charity over the years.
He reminded us of the fact that his father
had also been National Chairman in the late
1960,s and concluded by asserting his
support for the purchase of premises
for Central Office – a topic that has caused
some debate this year.
The afternoon ended with the winners of
Barbara’s game being awarded their prizes –
Worthing rock!!, the calling of the
raffle and a very nice vote of thanks
delivered by our President Clare Colfer. I
thought an excellent day and excellent venue
and I believe thoroughly enjoyed by all
members.
Bob Stephens
A few
pictures taken by Peter Hellings and Ashley
Nicholls
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