Wessex Mead (Trowbridge) Rotary Club

It seems to be becoming a habit of doing 2 months blogs together but January, as with most people was a fairly quiet month for the club.  In saying that, we did have 2 fantastic events.  The first being our delayed (due to snow and ice) Christmas meal.  This was a very good evening and I think we had a larger turn out because of the delay.  I would like to thank Caroline for organizing this for the club.

The other main event in January was our business meeting where we inducted our latest new member, Liz into our club.  Liz was supported by her father, Ian who is a member of Bradford on Avon Rotary club.  

Mark and Liz

To round off the month we got together at Sue’s for an evening of shared food.  Everyone who came brought either a homemade starter or sweet.  It was an enjoyable evening with some delicious food.

At the beginning of February some of us went to our first president’s night, hosted by Westbury at the Standerwick Centre.  The event had a very nautical feel with a local sea cadet band performing at the start of the evening.  It was a very pleasant evening with good company and a very nice meal.

The next morning we drove to Wincanton for the District Final of the Young Chef Competition.  There is some information about this on the website, but our finalist Holly was runner up and will be going forward to the regional final in Pool, Cornwall on 19^th March.  We wish her lots of luck in this round.  The Rotary clubs of Wiltshire did quite well as Melksham’s finalist came first.

Holly and her food

Monday 14^th February was Valentine’s Day and Caroline offered to cook a meal for members of the club.  She was very brave as she ended up cooking for 9 of us, plus herself.  Three courses of homemade food were on offer, including choux pastry swans and a delicious chocolate pudding.  The event raised £50 for our twinning fund.  A big thank you to Caroline for organizing this. 

Valentines day 2011

I would also like to thank our President Elect, David for taking the February business meeting.  I am sure he found the experience useful for when he takes over in July.

Our big event for February was our 2^nd Big Breakfast.  This year it took place at the Peace Memorial Hall in North Bradley.  Ann and her team successfully fed around 100 guests, including our District Governor Stan, who ended up washing up for us – what a star.   We are pleased to regard Stan as a friend of Wessex Mead.  The event was staged to raise money for Rotary’s Thanks for Life campaign.  You can find out more about this on our website.

On Monday some members bravely entered a pub quiz at the Stallards in Trowbridge.  Unfortunately I couldn’t attend but I am told that the team of 3 came joint first and also drew on the tie break questions.  However David’s paper airplane skills were not up to the job so they gracefully came second.  A big thank you to Ann and Chris for suggesting the quiz and organizing the team.  David said it was amazing how much they actually knew about James Bond, when they all thought they knew nothing.

With one of our big events for the year having taken place we are now in full planning mode for the next ones in our calendar:  the Bavarian night on 12^th March and our newest event, the Colour My World Children’s concert on 2^nd April.  Not forgetting a pub quiz on 4th April too.