Reading Valley Ladies' Circle

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Wantage Report Thatcham Carnival Area Social Newbury BBQ Sandhurst & Yateley 70's Disco Reading Valley - Jenny's Kidnap Interruption for Table West Forest Caribbean Evening Marlow Report High Wycombe Report

Wantage Circle Report 2004

Following our own Circle AGM, Wantage then hosted the final Area 52 AGM at the Wantage Museum. All members of Wantage Ladies Circle attended the celebration and our newest member, Hazel, was inducted on that evening in the presence of Morag Daley, which was really special. Each member from Wantage had contributed in some way to make the evening a success and we were all really pleased that everyone had an enjoyable time.

The weekend before 10 of us had spend the day at the spa in the DeVere Hotel in Swindon. We had a massage and a facial and enjoyed relaxing in the swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. We had a lovely lunch and finished the day at the nearby cinema.

At the beginning of June some of us and our families joined Round Table for an evening at Oxford Gliding Club. It was a great opportunity for anyone who wanted to go up in a glider. A few of us were brave enough to do it, but the children were even braver getting their pilots to do loop-the-loop and some even went up for a second go. It got quite chilly standing in the middle of an airfield waiting for your turn so we were very grateful for the barbeque afterwards.

In May and June our Circle meetings had very summery themes - A Hawaiian evening with grass skirts and cocktails at Angela's House. An evening learning to paint in a local artist's garden (Beryl Maile). A 50s evening at Sandra's house where we all looked like extras from Grease and where we confirmed that we were all far too young to remember what had happened in the 50s. Finally we were joined by Helen B for a very civilized trip down the river in an Edwardian picnic boat. At home it had been freezing and pouring with rain but as if by magic in Oxford it was beautifully sunny and even warm enough for some of the braver Circlers to wear posh frocks and hats. We enjoyed a delicious picnic which we had all contributed to.

We are looking forward to doing belly dancing next month and the month after we will be in Germany for our twinning weekend.

Thatcham Carnival

Fathers Day in Thatcham took on its usual hectic form for Thatcham Round Table and Ladies Circle. Carnival Day had arrived! Unfortunately the sun did not!!

Undeterred, the "Holiday" theme was broached in a spectacular style by the 7 floats that came out to support us! Not many I hear you cry! P’raps not, but sandwiched between the limo containing runners up in the princess competition, the steam traction engine, the vintage car containing the Princess and her attendants, the mini bus bought by Round Table for a local charity group and our very own Santa Float, it was a pretty colourful sight on such a dreary day!

Back to the field where the highlight of the Carnival was about to take place – the long awaited "It’s a Knockout"! Tensions were mounting amongst the Ladies as they prayed that all the teams turned up! They did! An unexpected entry from Newbury Round Table meant equal number of teams and gave our own combined LC./RT team a run for their money!.

After almost 2 hours of races over obstacles, rugby tackles (for which a member of a reputable bank was disqualified), water fights and generalised mayhem, Newbury Round Table were pipped at the post. Not, alas, by our home team, but one of our local business entrants, Pronet.

Preparation for the Knockout, followed by celebration and commiseration meant that our beer tent sold out and, thanks to a good bit of site planning, so did the burgers!

All in all, a very successful day despite the threatening rain which thankfully held off! £3000 profit made on the day means a charitable donation of £2000 to the West Berkshire Mencap Appeal and a further £1000 will be distributed to local charities who supported us on the day!

AREA SOCIAL- 4TH MARCH 2002

Well, what a night! There were plenty of surprises for those attending the area social at Great Marlow School on 4th March.

Pete the Perm and his karaoke crew did a super job with acts intermingled with some disco. ‘Crumbs’ catering provided some great nosh as usual.

There were a diverse range of acts from Abba, The Blues Brothers, Cliff Richard, Weather Girls, Village People to name but a few.

A very rude interruption took place during the evening with Marlow Table members doing the Full Monty routine- sorry can’t provide any photos CENSORED! Believe me this was a total surprise even for Marlow Circlers. Not that we hadn’t seen it all before…

I am sure everyone found it difficult deciding upon a winner. The final result being Marlow (as HearSay), Reading Valley (Gerry and the Pacemakers) and Twyford (Solid Crew).

Many thanks to all those supporting the event. I hope you enjoyed the evening. Including the contribution from the raffle, we made a profit of £316 for Area funds. Thanks also to Carol for her never ending enthusiasm and fantastic year as chairman.

Newbury Ladies Circle - BBQ Fundraising

Last year, as Chairman of Newbury Ladies Circle, I was keen to support the local needy families and hence nearly emptied the fund-raising account. However with relatively few members, jumble sales, cake stalls etc. would be hard work compared with their financial rewards.

Dianne the present Chairman, was keen to run the barbecue at the ‘Crafty Craft Race’ as we had done in previous years. Local companies/organisations, build a craft to row on the canal; the race finishes in the local park, where many spectators gather. This year the towpath was closed, so a shortened course meant the crafts followed a circular route through the park itself. This proved to be a great advantage as the crowds flocked to watch.

The main problem initially was ‘man’power, but Dianne drafted in her Honoraries (one of whom oversaw the erection of the tent, an expert who had camped at Everest Base Camp.) My Honoraries pulled out the stops too, with two hard-working husbands cooking burgers, hotdogs, ably supported by the Tangent Chairman’s daughter. Teenage sons and daughters, workmates were all stalwarts to the cause.

The barbecues were lit, the meat van in position, fizzy drinks laid out on the customer service bench. No sooner had we cooked the first sausage, the queue formed, and we had a constant stream of people until 3pm. Never could we remember a year like it; all ordered burgers, sausages, rolls sold and most of the drinks too! What made the task easier – no hard sales pitch, as our customers were genuinely hungry and we were selling to the public; not purely ladies Circle members / friends.

The day’s work over and we were pleased to raise more than £1500. Just a thought that a barbecue might be a good idea for other Circles, maybe at a Bonfire Night Party?

Anyway… food for thought.

Back To The Seventies

Sandhurst & Yateley Circle held a 70's disco on Saturday 9th March and it was a resounding success! Sixty-five of us bopped till we dropped. Great food, great company and original 70's gear including a new Tangent member in a Laura Ashley dress which still fitted perfectly!

Most heart-warming was the reaction of our Tangent. They had bemoaned the lack of our Circle charity events so they came along in support so they said. Well it wasn't them complaining about the loudness of the music nor were they shy on the dance floor! That spurred the rest of us and the result was a great time and around £200 for our charities. Thanks to everyone who came and local companies for the raffle prizes. See you all next year!

Jenny Breaks Bungee Jump Record

As Reading Valley’s illustrious Chairman was sober for at least part of this event, she didn’t have to get her sister to write it up for her …(Ed).

Well I have been well and truly had!!!

Whisked off from my home at around 9.30 on Saturday 2nd February by a bunch of well dressed Ladies to my complete and utter surprise as I thought I was going into Reading to shop for the family February Birthday Party! (you should have seen us cowering behind the hedge dressed in our finery, ready to pounce. The neighbours must have thought we were barmy! Ed)

I attended a fabulous Eastern Regional Luncheon at the Hilton in Warwick and was thoroughly entertained by a harem of Round Table Belly Dancers (entitled Bin Hidin’ the Salami)!! The guest speaker was Mr Steve "Kinkyboots" Pateman. The catalogue is well worth a read!!

Little did I know I was to be staying the night with all in the know, and to my astonishment, they had organised a hunk for me to share my room with – a 7ft cardboard cut-out (in full colour) of Superman. The look on Superman’s face from the photographs will tell you that nothing happened! -

(We had to get permission from the manager to put Superman in Jenny’s room – let’s just say it’s not just policemen that are starting to look young. However he managed to give the impression that this kind of thing was all in a day’s work Ed).

We later swam, steamed and sauna’ed and then I was sung to in the bar by my fellow Circlers and Tangent, to the rousing tune of "What shall we do with the Drunken Chairman". The next morning over breakfast was the ever looming threat of the Bungee Jump I would be doing. I was taken to Warwick castle, where the guides seemed to be in on the act and wished me well in my "jump". I was taken to the Wardrobe Area of the castle where the date was 25th March 1471 and they were preparing for battle. I was made to dress in a Noble Lady’s outfit where I was the subject of many a photo shoot. A welcome alternative to flying through the air!

A most informative and excellent day out where once again we lunched and had a couple more drinks.

Over a cup of tea no less at the end of the day I was presented with a beautiful Cross Stitch Kit of Warwick Castle and was told to make my own souvenir and they would like it finished by the AGM on 18th April!! I shall bring along my progress, but do not expect the finished article!

I am indebted to Nicola and everyone in on the act for all the organisation and generosity and also for the wonderful sense of love, fun and friendship that these occasions bring.

75 Years of Tabling - Interruption

Well – we couldn’t let the occasion of Round Table Area 25 celebrating 75 years of tabling go unmarked – could we!! So 5 intrepid Circlers gathered upstairs in Sonning Golf Club for a last minute rehearsal (aren’t they all!!) and a little Dutch courage and then we were off downstairs, making our grand entrance to the tune of Fever and clad in hats, scarves and raincoats. Moments later, the gloves etc came off – and the assembled crowd of approx 110 tablers and 41 clubbers were treated to a quick glimpse of black basques and (of course) fishnet stockings before we beat a hasty retreat. The smiles and cheers were enough to tell us our little interruption was well received – and poor Tim has yet to recover from the shock of seeing Vicky ‘dressed like that’!!!!

Caribbean Evening – 8 June 2001

West Forest Circle held a very successful Caribbean Evening to raise funds for Twyford based charity Daisy’s Dream, which provides a support service for bereaved children in Berkshire.

The evening started with a welcome rum punch and each guest being given a colourful neck garland to get them in to the swing of things. The Reading children’s steel band entertained us all while we ate jerk chicken, rice & vegetable curry, followed by tropical fruit salad or rum bananas in cream. The Caribbean relaxed attitude crept over our guests enabling us to sell lots of raffle tickets and successfully auction off donated prizes of a night in a top London hotel, a day at a health club and a session with a beauty therapist.

A limbo dancing competition identified a fair few gifted male dancers in our midst. Was the chance to win a bottle of bubbly or the rum punches taking effect??? Finally the disco sprang into life, the holiday atmosphere took over, and we all danced the night away. With a big thanks to Mandy , who was key to organising the evening, just over £1300 was raised for Daisy’s Dream.

MARLOW LADIES CIRCLE - AREA DELEGATE REPORT 2003

Membership in Marlow currently stands at 15 members. The summer months have seen a lot of money raised for charity through holding various events.

In May we ran our regular stall at Marlow Mayfare when we sell bacon butties, hotdogs and make tea and coffee and have a delicious array of home baked cakes. We raised £407 which was donated to British Heart Foundation.

On 14th June we ran the Pimm's bar at Marlow Regatta and had, as always, a very success full day raising £2500, which will be held in our funds until it has been decided which charities we will be donating the money to.

27th June saw our biggest fund raising event to date. We organised a Summer Charity Ball held at Phyllis Court, Henley. This was an extremely successful evening with some stunning ball gowns and some excellent dancing to a rock band. The food and wine was exquisite and everyone involved had a super time. We had raffle prizes donated by local companies, and a signed Manchester United football was auctioned during the evening. We are very proud to announce that we made a fantastic £3,167 pounds, which has been donated to Cancer Research UK.

On 4th August our members took a short train journey from Marlow to Bourne End and had a lovely stroll along the river back to Marlow. On 19th August we challenged Marlow Round Table to an evening of pictionary whereby the Ladies won hands down. This event was set up by myself during my year as Chairman and is called the Lightbulb Challenge (how many men does it take to change a light bulb!!) and was designed to encourage more joint events between Circle and Table, and has so far been very popular.

Finally, we all attended our annual Chairman's BBQ and had a very pleasant evening hosted by Mandy.

Our TC Challenge with Thatcham has been arranged for 8th October.

High Wycombe Circle Report 2003

Since our AGM we have been very busy. first we supported a local schools fundraising fashion show by buying items and a few brave souls modelling for them. In June we handed over a cheque to Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy for over £1000 - raised during a quiz night at the start of the year. In July we held our annual archery evening, not only is it great fun but we find our prospective members (of which we have 2 at the moment) always love to come along to this.

We also thought that we would take advantage of the nice weather in July and hold a couple of out door events, the first being a Think Pink BBQ. We invited our partners and friends and raised £270 a total that we hope to add to in October with our coffee morning. Next we held a Mexican Safari supper and luckily had a marquee up and ready because the rain poured down. In September some of us visited Buckingham Palace and then were delighted when one of the group had connections in the right place and managed a ride in an armoured police van ending with a guided tour of no. 10 and the houses of Parliament. This week we had a go at keeping fit with an evening of badminton and table tennis. Our next meeting will be our annual pot pourri evening with High Wycombe Tangent.

Don't forget our masked ball on 14th Feb 04.

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