Social Events 2016

Cabaret Evening 24th September 2016

These are the pictures of our club house for the cabaret evening on Saturday 24th September.  Some people said that the club house looked like a French restaurant as they walked in saying "ALLO ALLO" !   

Everyone enjoyed the singer and Dennis tells me that the comedian was  Excellent                      

Holiday 2016 Costa Almeiria

The tour group of 23 people convened at the now traditional ludicrously early starting time. Last year it was the early hours of the morning; this year, the middle of the night !  With joint favourites for last arrivals being Val /Alan and Yvonne / John,  local bookmakers made a tidy profit as with both these pairs amongst the early birds, it was left to Sue and Jill to bring up the rear mumbling about a tardy taxi driver.

The travel arrangements all went smoothly although with the departure gate being just about as far away from the South terminal as possible, there was more than the usual amount of puffing and panting in the queue for boarding. Happy Memories of last years half empty Monarch Airbus soon faded as we squeezed into Easy Jet’s modified Spitfire but we arrived in Almeria on time and after an hour on the coach were at the hotel by mid morning. All the rooms were ready for occupation which was an added bonus for the weary and the rooms were spacious and overlooking either the sea or the hotel gardens / pools. A nice touch by the hotel was to put our oldest tourists( Fred and Ron ) in adjoining rooms and to make it easier for them  to remember, with room numbers correlating to their respective ages (Fred in 111 and Ron in 113).

 The first game on the following day got off to a somewhat inauspicious start with the coach driver missing the turning and dropping us off on the hard shoulder. With a somewhat lukewarm welcome followed by a thrashing in an untypical mini hurricane, that game is best glossed over . In fact all of them are probably best glossed over because although both welcomes and performances improved as the week progressed, there was, with a couple of exceptions, in coaches parlance, room for improvement. Two of the exceptions were Peter and Sheila who won best male and female player respectively for the week.

There were two free days with the option of one excursion and the majority vote was to attend a nearby Olive Oil factory and Vineyard/   Bodega. Not much to report from the Olive Oil factory other than it is healthier to eat your bread dipped in oil rather than spread with jam. There was certainly no sign of Popeye or indeed any of the extra virgins that the men had been expecting to see. At the bodega , we were met by Juan, the owner who had recently finished runner – up in the all Spain, Sacha DIstel look alike competition. This was all too much for Sue who spent the rest of the day jostling to the front at every opportunity to get a better view. Unfortunately for her the very front row was occupied by the men getting a better view of Louisa, our tour guide / translator for the day.

 

Although the hotel accommodation was fine, there wasn't much in the way of entertainment so as with last year year,  mammoth games of chase the ace filled the time after the evening meal. The hotel food was plentiful but somewhat variable in quality so on the recommendation of Tony, the group ate in a excellent local restaurant on the Saturday evening which was very well received.

 

There were few complaints from the whole week although Phil complained that nobody swam in the hotel pool at the same time as him (he promised to bring some trunks next year). In addition Tony complained that apart from Carol, his long suffering wife , nobody sat near him at meal times ; he promised to see a digestion specialist on his return.

 

Thanks are due, as always to Mo for co- ordinating the trip and to Steve, our Bowls Abroad representative for making all the local arrangements. As previously thanks are due to the whole group for their camaraderie throughout the week.                                   

Phil Connell