There were some 42 Lions and guests expected to be attending a do on the 20th of December, but everybody felt that if we held it at the village hall, we’d just be rattling around. So we cancelled out of that booking, but we may have paid the village hall half of the hire fee because of backing out at this late date.
Instead, we were going to Pebbles, with a rather unique twist. We were going to make our own entertainment in the guise of Nigel’s disco/karaoke, and it was BYOB. The menu was to be a choice of:
- sausage cassoulet, or
- chicken curry, or
- chilli con carne, or
- vegetable bake
with sides of rice, salad, garlic bread and finishing up with a delicious dessert. The catering was going to be handled by Fran Wraith’s foodie committee, and, as Prue suggests in her excellent minutes: See you all there. Wey hey!
The report at the business meeting of the 7th February, 2005 was that it was a real party night, thanks to the crew who worked so hard to make it all come together.
Before the Christmas Party, however, there was a small matter of twirling around villages in our catchment area with the newly refurbished Santa’s Sleigh. As the sleigh stopped off at Haltwhistle on the 16th, and in Allendale on the 18th, elvish collectors (Hilary and Pete Aldcroft, Fergus Sandison, Ann Bacon, Fran Wraith, June Thompson, Margaret Stonehouse, David Humes, Jonny Baynes, and Prue Newman) shook their tins, and people donated to help the Lions support good and needy causes near and far. Cliff Calvert performed Santa duties with aplomb!
After a final Santa twirl around Allenheads, the day after our Christmas Party, the next event, and the final one of the year for the Allendale Lions Club, would be a repeat attempt at an annual Carols in the Square which would also see a visit from that friendly Santa character in his famous sleigh.