Pétanque Evening
Saturday 29 February 2020 – 7.30pm to 9.30pm
The Pétanque Evening postponed from last year took place on Wednesday 14th July, and many of our members were suitably dressed in red, white and blue to celebrate Bastille Day.
About 30 people were present to show off their skills. There were 15 games of Pétanque, some teams of 3 and some of 2 people, Each game took about 25 minutes.
The winners and losers were delighted with their prizes and certificates as can be seen from the photographs below.
Our thanks go to the Towers Pétanque Club for organising the event and refreshments which followed. We look forward to a repeat fixture.
Ramble round Hartswood
Wednesday afternoon, 9 June 2021
Some thirty of our members were pleased to be able to take part in a ramble around Hartswood followed by a ploughman’s platter at the Brave Nelson on Wednesday 9th June.
The walk was at a moderate pace as some of us had not been out for a long wihle due to Covid. We were lucky to have lovely sunshine for the event this year.
Zoom Quiz Evening
Saturday 21 November 2020
Having had no social events since our Soirée Ciné-Crêpes in March, we decided
we ought to be brave and attempt an event using Zoom, since many other
organisations seemed to be using it successfully.
So on the 21st November, we organised a short quiz with a festive theme, as a
substitute for our usual Pre-Festive event, in which twelve “teams” took part.
One of our members was kind enough to be the host on his Zoom account so that we
weren’t cut off mid-quiz!
The rounds were: Born on Christmas Day; Art and Literature; Christmas Songs;
Christmas Traditions; and Christmas General Knowledge. As a Christmas gift,
we allowed the teams to play their jokers at the end of the round to try and
maximise their scores.
The winners were Jon and Noelle, closely followed by Ros Garrod and Sue and
Derek Kortlandt, with David and Christine Minns having the third highest score.
It was lovely to see all the members who were able to take part and to share a
virtual drink together.
French Conversation Evening
Saturday 29 February 2020 – 7.30pm to 10.00pm
chez Diane Matthews
MEMBERS ARE INVITED TO AN EVENING OF FRENCH CONVERSATION
BRING A DRINK OF YOUR CHOICE AND SOME FRENCH-THEMED NIBBLES TO SHARE
Please contact Diane by 25th February to confirm your attendance
Fête des Rois
Saturday 11 January 2020
If you didn’t attend our Festival of the Kings event this year, you missed an extremely pleasant, jovial evening.
On Saturday 11th January, in true Gallic style, we held our most enjoyable annual celebration of Twelfth Night with a traditional Fête de Rois. Before settling down to enjoy our meal we had to put our knowledge of France and French to the test with a three-part quiz covering What, Where and Who, Loire Valley Châteaux and Fish, Flowers and Birds. The picture quiz challenged a few people, but the winning score was an impressive 49 out of 50!
Having completed our exam papers, we were treated to a tasty meal cooked by our volunteer chefs of Chicken Chasseur with jacket potatoes or pommes de terre en robe des champs as they are known in France. Dessert was of course the Galette des Rois, an almond puff pastry tart in which is concealed a china token or fève which one lucky person on each table will find in their slice. This discovery will make him or her king or queen for the rest of the evening! Fortunately no teeth were broken on the hidden fèves inside, and by the end of the evening we had eight Kings/Queens as can be seen in the picture below.
We were delighted to welcome the Mayor and Mayoress and also 3 visiting students from Japan, who must have been rather confused by a group of British people celebrating a French tradition!
A fun, friendly event which we all enjoyed enormously.
Judy Ripley
Pre-Festive Event
Sunday 8 December 2019
Members of the Twinning Association we were once again welcomed to the home of two of our members for this (what has now become an annual) social occasion. A fun, friendly event which we all enjoyed enormously.
We enjoyed sausages, sausage rolls, vegetarian options, cheese and biscuits and mince pies, all helped down by a variety of drinks including mulled wine.
The return of Santa’s Lotto gave us the opportunity to “bring and buy” a wide choice of items from Wimbledon coasters to a bottle of Champagne!
Judy Ripley
Murder Mystery Evening
Saturday 9 November 2019
Little did we know that when we arrived at South Weald Parish Hall for the Murder Mystery evening, we would actually be participating in an AGM of the Village Society of Vixen Match and would be witnesses to a murder. The cast of the drama were volunteers from those attending.
The plot was gradually unveiled. Claire, the chair of the meeting (Sue Kortlandt), was poisoned by a cup of herbal tea, provided by Alan (Colin Miers) whose speciality was herbal teas and botanicals. The various suspects, all with motives, were then interrogated by a detective (Graham Greenaway), conveniently present at the meeting.
We then had an opportunity to try and guess the perpetrator. After the fish and chips and further interrogation by the detective, we had a second chance to try and guess the murderer. A hard task as not many guessed correctly. The perpetrator turned out to be Fleur (Clara Greenaway) who had a grudge against Claire over Claire’s opposing of her planning application for kennels. She had said previously that Fleur’s pet dog should be shot. Fleur had surreptitiously supplied the poisonous herbal tea, grown in her flower workshop, to the innocent Alan.
Fortunately, the evening ended on a lighter note with a raffle, with thanks being given to Viv Northall for devising such an entertaining evening.
It was amusing to note that the detective and the assassin were played by husband and wife.
Rita Anderson
Pilgrims Korai or
Spice up the Autumnal Night!
A new fundraising venture for the French Town Twinning took place on Tuesday 8 October at the Pilgrims Korai restaurant in Pilgrims Hatch. 26 members and friends were present.
The restaurant was open as usual but the 26 of us were in the majority sat around long tables on each side of the restaurant.
At £15 per head, OK you had to buy your own drinks but the prices were not extravagant, and that included one raffle ticket, the evening was excellent value. We had a starter and a main course, both of which catered for all dietary requirements and also proved to be pretty substantial.
The Social Committee are bound to want to repeat this event, so watch our for future dates.
Jenny Daly
Brentwood/Montbazon Town Twinning 