Friday 7th December saw 12 members rendezvous at The Drum and Monkey for the annual festive dinner.

Unfortunately Andrew and Caroline had to cry off at the last minute due to the bug that is doing the rounds and lost their money.

The venue was suggested and recommended by Robin but he chose not to join us and go out to lunch with his work colleagues instead!

We wondered if he knew something he hadn't told us about. We needn't have worried as I am delighted to say that the restaurant and the food were superb and we all had a good evening. The secret Santa sack did the rounds and Tim was a little concerned when he pulled out a lovely silver evening handbag from the lads sack. Fortunately Paula wasn't keen on the motorised diver she ended up with and so they did a swap. Bath time for Tim is so much more fun now!

Pat had hoped that we wouldn't cancel Andrew and Caroline's meals as they had already been paid for and thought that double helpings of Baked Field Mushrooms, Venison Casserole and Baileys Cream Cheesecake would have settled quite nicely on his internal combustion system!

Alas, we cancelled before Pat had the chance to express his desires.

The usual cracker jokes did the rounds and kept us enthralled. Mr Steve and Dave competed against each other with wire puzzles pulled from the crackers but ended up cheating as the challenge was beyond either of them. Anyway a good evening was had by all and we will do it all over again next Christmas. Enjoy the photos.