We gather in the dinning room later for our evening meal, Eddy’s there. I didn’t see him carried down the stairs but apparently he was suffering from altitude sickness as they carried his chair so high. He said the trip was ok but I noticed after that he had the rest of his meals up in the lounge. Bob and his crowd made their customary entrance in their DJ’s and dickey bows. Their young ladies looked lovely as well in their colour coordinated outfits, red this year.

And so up to the bar where we gather, with some apprehension, to be entertained. We needn’t have worried as we had an excellent evening provided by “stars in their eyes “ Annie Sheppard.
Lots of dancing, I think I saw some drinking, though I could be wrong. I definitely did see John Jones of the small boat section, in the middle of a group hug surrounded by women. He had this distant look in his eyes and a grin from ear to ear. I saw him sitting with Eddy after that, I think he was getting crafty drags of liquid O2. So the evening drew to a close but Jill (Mrs. Commodore) suggested our little group go for a walk, we said no as Saturday is the traditional evening for our walk, but she insisted, so of we set just the six of us.

It turned into a longer than expected walk as Jill did a good Samaritan act and spent some time talking to a young girl in distress on the beach. However in our little group we had a man called John Douse, an admiral I think he is, and on the way back to the hotel he suddenly bent down, not far, and picked up a £10 note. Apparently he’s famous for it. Not bending over for £10 but for finding money. He found some last year in Bournemouth and Joan says he’s always doing it. We got our own back though, we made him buy a round of drinks when we got back. I said to Den “I think we should just have an orange juice between us”, but that thought didn’t last long so we had whiskeys instead. Still he did get £2 change.

And so to Saturday.
People went of on trips to Poole, Bournemouth town, far flung chandleries some even as far as the Isle of White, returning in time for forty winks before dinner.

On the commodores table along with the rest of the Hills was special guests John and Carol (Vanity) but I don’t think Carol will be sitting at the commodores table again as she turned out to be a bad influence. Between courses whilst the commodores attention was elsewhere she removed all his cutlery and replaced it with spoons. I’m afraid to say it did take him some time to notice. Commodores Note: 1> I wasn’t wearing my glasses and 2> I’m not normally allowed to use sharp objects!)

The evening disco was very good with plenty of people up and dancing, I don’t know what Helen (John Bishop) was on but she hardly stopped dancing all night, I was worn out just watching her.
And so with festivities drawing to a close it was time for our traditional walk along the beach . We were lucky this year as it was relatively mild and dry. People gathered outside the hotel and we seemed to have amassed quite a few new recruits.

Some looked as if they aught to have had name tags tied to their collars somebody else mentioned care in the community but we decided to risk it and let them come along. Perhaps that was a mistake as no sooner had we hit the beach than Paul Hayes (Mister Pimms) and John Gould (Jabrad) were stripping off to go for a swim. Paul started to go but I think he changed his mind when two lumps appeared behind his ears. John however went in for the full monty, and as we watched him swimming we were trying to decide who would go to his aid if he got into difficulty. All I can say is it’s a good job he didn’t get into difficulty.

But we all made it back safely to the hotel for a night cap which was only spoiled by the sight of Paul Hayes walking about in his wet trousers. Somebody said something about a tenner lady, but that’s bringing us back to John Douse.

Another great weekend.
Special thanks to Olivia for organizing it.

P.S. why does Tom always have to fiddle with things. The toaster was working fine all weekend till he decided he just had to tweak with the dials on Sunday morning. That poor Elly.

Click here for picture of the weekend.