The Camping and Caravanning Club
Greenfields House,
Westwood Way,
Coventry, CV4 8JH
Tel +44 (0)2476 694995
CORNSTALK
Published by the
SOUTH SUFFOLK DISTRICT ASSOCIATION
of
THE CAMPING AND CARAVANNING CLUB
To contact the DA Secretary or Website host please email cornstalk@johnbeales.co.uk or write to
John Beales, 20 Church Close, Hepworth, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 2QF
February 2009 Issue No 132
To read the full version of Cornstalk click on the link below - you will need Adobe Acrobat installed
Cornstalk 132 Feb 2009 Read Version
To download the
print version of Cornstalk right click on the link below,
then 'Save Target As...' and then save. The printed
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Cornstalk 132 Feb 2009 Print Version
The version below is a 'write up' version
only of the Cornstalk without crossword, jokes, photos, site list etc.
THANK YOU
A BIG thank you to Eric for his kind donation of £25 to the East Anglian Air
Ambulance, which he raised from his Christmas Light
Display in the garden over the Christmas period.
Wendy D.A.Charity Organiser
New Year
Although being extremely cold there was an
excellent turnout for the new year. We all enjoyed a great warm up evening on
the 30th, dancing to Déjà
vu. Not being a fan of bands we were extremely surprised. They were really good
and anyone that didn't come missed out on a great evening.
The hall was packed and with a good atmosphere and we never saw the children all night. They had
made new friends with some of the Norfolk & Suffolk DA children. New Era saw us
into the new year with lots of dancing. The Norfolk & Suffolk DA won the best part
of the raffle prizes but we won't hold it against them. The evening rounded off
with the good news that John and Lorraine had become engaged.
Thank you to all that organised the events, you all do such a good job. Without
people like you such great evenings would not be possible. We have met some
lovely people and yes, it is the Friendly Club. See you all at the Valentine
meet.
The Nicholl Family
CHAIRMAN'S NEWS
Welcome to the new season with some new venues and old favourites in this years
programme. Though we still have Meets with no stewards
if you are interested in being a steward please contact our Sites Secretary.
Since my last news we have held our Christmas and New Year Meets of which both
were successful events. The Christmas Party was down
on the number of units attending whereas the New Year Meet was fully booked.
Our next Meet is Valentines at Sutton Village Hall with a programme for all age
groups and 'Im and 'Er'
to entertain us in the evening.
This is followed by our AGM Meet at Dan's Meadow,
Martlesham with a Social in the evening on Saturday.
The AGM starts at 2.00p.m. and the doors will be open from 1.30p.m.,
and I hope to see many of you at the Meeting.
Finally I wish to thank the Committee for all their
hard work over the year and to John our Webmaster for
the D.A. Website and editor of the Cornstalk Magazine.
Best Wishes to you all
Bill
Christmas Party
'Thank you for a very good weekend'.
We arrived a little late on Friday night to help put up decorations,
but were warmly welcomed and joined in the bingo game.
On Saturday we were accompanied by our Grandchildren who soon made themselves at
home and joined in the games with the other children, there was stitching and
bitching for the ladies (well I think the men could have joined in,
but there were 'no takers') and much to my delight we did patchwork, I'm
an addict, the men made tea for the ladies and washed up!! bliss. The Saturday
night party was was very good, the children had their own table full of food and
were visited by Father Christmas who gave each of them a present.
The music was a good mix, with lots of dancing and the buffet food was
plentiful and of a very high standard. Much to his delight our Grandson Matty
won second prize in the draw and was very pleased with his stuffed reindeer.
On Sunday there were coffees, thank you's and goodbyes.
We were 'adopted' for the weekend by a tableful of very pleasant people
who made us feel very welcome, thank you Catherine & Andrew, Donna & Paul, Angie
& Darin.
We hope to see you all again in 2009
Trisha, Tony, Zoe and Matty Finch.
SSDA Christmas Party 5th – 7th Dec
The South Suffolk D A Christmas party weekend was our first weekend rally with
the club. My wife and I took the opportunity to take our grand-daughter with us.
On arrival at the site on Friday we were made to feel welcome by rally marshal
Ian and were able to please ourselves where we parked our motorhome. The rally
location was the Hallowtrees camping ground a nice site with wooded areas and
flat grass fields, the site is normally used by the local Cubs and Scouts.
Twenty three units were booked in for the weekend.
A short walk gave us great views of the river Orwell, with a further walk a half
a mile down a narrow track to the waters edge.
The site is blessed with a large function hall where the Friday evening was
spent putting up Christmas decorations in the hall followed by a game of Bingo
where I won a prize.
The indoor activities on the Saturday were a great hit with our grand-daughter
as was the visit by Father Christmas during the party night in the evening.
The organisers had worked hard putting on a fabulous buffet followed by dancing
to live music. The evening raffle was entertainment in itself with plenty of
banter between the members. The left-hand side of the hall scooping most of the
prizes, despite Darin constantly rotating the drum to mix up the tickets.
We were formally welcomed as first time ralliers by Bill at the Sunday morning
get-together and I was lucky enough to win a pitch prize. During the rally we
were made to feel we were among friends and we expect to attend more rallies in
2009.
Rob, Rosie and Isabella Vince
CHRISTMAS PARTY
It was destined to be a very cold but dry weekend and in a way it was both of
those, however the weather was dry but the liquid did flow on Saturday night.
There were 23 vans out for the weekend and everybody seemed to enjoy their stay.
On Friday night we got together and decorated the hall in readiness for the
Saturday night party, following that we sat chatting just winding down after a
typical Friday at work and then rush around getting hitched to travel. Later on
that evening we played bingo which split the hall into two halves with banter
going back and forth when winners called from either side.
Some of us even called out when the wrong lines were completed and not all
numbers marked off, which all made the evening go well.
Saturday came and some people went shopping, some stayed and relaxed and some
prepared the hall a little more for afternoon coffee/tea and scones. The ladies
sat stitching and bitching whilst some of us fellows sat drinking tea and
chatting, and I don't really know who were being more productive, oops!!
The evening went off very well with a superb atmosphere throughout, the cabaret,
Patsy Rose, was just brilliant and read the crowd very well to keep the dancers
on the floor most of the evening. Yet again, as with the bingo there was banter
between the left and right hand side when the raffle draw was taking place and
it would seem the the right hand side won most of the prizes, and only a few
going to the left, who knows we may win next time!!
The buffet was excellent and suited most tastes and full credit to the committee
for their organisation for the weekend.
All in all a good weekend and once again many thanks to all who took part and
for the organisation which went into it.
Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year to you all,
See you next year as we are away elsewhere for the season.
From Kevin & Edna
Double click on the pictures below for a larger version or to print right click and select 'print target'
And some more picture from Philip Broadley
THE CHARITY
Once again I would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who
helped raise money for the East Anglian Air Ambulance.
We raised £50 for
rolling pound coins for the large case of Beer kindly donated by Eric Chapman
and again for rolling pound coins for a litre of Vodka
kindly donated by Paul Stokes and a Santa from Lilian
Nelson you raised £44. The Christmas Cake which I donated raised £48 and was won
by Lilian and Dave and the Tepee Tent raised a sum of
£31 which was collected over the last months and the winner was Harriet Dance.
The total so far now stands at £674.46.
Wendy D.A. Charity Organiser
Hello,
Pip here
OK Bill where did you put the pencils? – “Back on Marg’s desk with the out of
date dogalogues!” came the instant reply. Oh no, we haven’t got to go all
through that malarkey again have we?? You could see in Billy’s eyes that he was
struggling for an idea (with the size of his brain that’s not so much a struggle
as a major battle!!)
Anyway what he came up with was quite unique. We all go outside, stand in some
mud and put our paw print on the picture of what we wanted for Christmas, then
sneak the catalogue back onto Marg’s desk as before. Then they all ran outside
jumped in the mud – ran back inside to put their paw prints on the catalogue
completely obliterating the page by covering it in the mud………… I then took
control of this wayward bunch of reprobates and hooligans and decided that we
just have one of us go outside and get the mud. We chose Abbi to do the stamping
and although at first reluctant to go out into the rain (because it would mess
up her hairstyle!!), did agree that her paws were probably the daintiest of all
of us. Bill then chipped in, telling her it would be like giving an autograph
and she would be famous. This made up her mind – she’d do it – the vain little
madam!! - I didn’t like to add that it was like giving a fingerprint and if
anything did go wrong then it would be evident who the culprit was!!! Anyway,
eventually Abbi tippi-toed outside, put one paw delicately in the mud, then
tippi-toed back in – by this time the mud had worn off her paw as she was coming
across the patio. ‘You’ll have to poke it in further than that’! shouted Bill.
Again Abbi went outside and gingerly poked her paw into the mud – again the same
thing happened, by the time she got back, the mud had worn off. ‘Right’! said
Bill resolutely – ‘you’ll just have to come back on three legs’. This she
obediently did but it did take rather a long time and we weren’t sure what
‘management’ was up to. Moll then shouted ‘If you do two paws at a time it’ll be
quicker’. I watched in astonishment as Abbi put her two front paws in the mud
and looked up at us all watching her expectantly. Realizing what she’d done, she
did an amazing, hop, skip and jump towards us and landed triumphantly on the
opened magazine. Well done Abbi – a real team effort – we think she’ll make the
2012 Olympics yet!!!
OK pictures of what we wanted all marked off, now we can get the dogalogue back
on Margs desk and we all watched as she picked up the dogalogue, looked at the
first page, then went to turn the page but unfortunately it was all stuck
together with mud!!! We all thought that it would end up in the bin………….but no,
she gently prised open the pages. This was when she saw Abbi’s paw prints. She
spent a long time studying these, then peered at us all over the top of her
glasses (not always a good sign!!) but then she smiled so we knew it was OK……we
think she’d got the message of what we all wanted….…..
Abbi decided it was time she had her own ‘pad’ and had seen on a house she
liked. She would even invite us round if we behaved (we’d rather not go if we
had to behave!!!) It even had a name ‘The Wendy House’ but she obviously would
change this to ‘’The Abbi House”. – I know, I know, but we have to humour her!!
Missi had found a restaurant on the Isle of Dogs called Wag-amama and said she’d
like to go and sample their cuisine. I didn’t even know she’d tried Japanese
food!!
Billy wanted a Quad bike. I told him his back legs would be dangling from the
seat and wouldn’t reach the floor, his front legs wouldn’t reach the handlebars
and the crash helmet would fall over his eyes. True to form Bill being Bill he
couldn’t see why any of this was a problem!!
Moll wanted everything she saw but was particularly taken with the skateboard or
a trampoline. We told her to get on a board we found across some bricks and
asked her to pretend it was a skateboard and just balance on it but she fell
off. Then we all tried trampolining on the spare bed and she was the only one
that fell off that as well so we don’t think she’ll qualify for the 2012
Olympics yet …….think she might need some training – that should be fun .. hee
hee…..
For myself I wanted driving lessons to save John driving me about so much. BUT
being a learner driver I need someone qualified to come with me - any offers???.
Christmas morning – Marg got home about 7am (been working the night before to
keep us in the manner to which we’ve become accustomed!!). John (Head Chef and
Senior Management) cooked a BIG breakfast. So HUGE that there was some left over
for us. So the day started with a bit of a treat which I could get used to!!.
Anyway …after getting up so early and this unexpected treat us canines became
sleepy so we made ourselves comfy and had a snooze. What woke me up was smells
coming from the kitchen – I knew they weren’t coming from Missi ‘cos they smelt
nice and Missi does tend to do stinkies hee hee.
According to Marg (Head washer up and Senior Management), we had to have our
dinner before 3 o’clock - Something to do with the Queen’s Speech – I don’t know
her personally but Marg says she’s very nice and also loves her doggies, so this
was good enough for me. – Bet they didn't have a breakfast like ours though!! As
it turned out we had our Christmas dinner after the Queens Speech. As you can
expect we all had turkey, sausages, potatoes (I like mine smashed), sprouts –
yes sprouts – we all like them. After that ‘management’ had Christmas pud and
stuff and me and my pack had our favourite chews for afters.
Then we opened our presents, there were toys, our favourite chews and nibbles.
Molly and Abbi played ball and me and Billy put on a ‘pretend’ fight. Abbi gave
us a little sing song (more like a howl, but never mind). Missi got comfy on her
favourite chair and watched the shenanigans. Billy had a ‘ripping’ time with the
paper as well. We may not have got what we wanted but what we did get made us
forget about presents. We were all together, we were warm, well fed and happy –
what more could we ask for.
A Yappy New Year to you all
Pip (Junior Management) and pals
The Camping and Caravanning Club
Greenfields House,
Westwood Way,
Coventry, CV4 8JH
Tel +44 (0)2476 694995