It's That Christmas Time of Year

The holiday celebrations started last Wednesday at New Dawn and culminated with the annual Christmas dinner on Friday evening at Marks Park.
     It was a great event, so thanks to everyone who helped and obviously to everyone that could be there.

Red was clearly the colour of the night as Susan Kasango, Amina Frense, Ronnie Kasrils, Linda Vink and Nic and Carol Stier prove

     Last week's meeting took the form of an AGM in which we voted for club officers and other board positions for Paul Kasango's year starting next July.
     The meeting on Wednesday was the last meeting of the year, so please don't pitch up for meetings this coming week or any Wednesday until Wednesday, 16th January 2019. If you do, you might end up very lonely.

Presidents past and present celebrated last week. PP Joan and IPP Carol with IPP Graham and President Linda getting into the Christmas mood with champagne and orange juice and mince pies at the meeting

     Both the dinner and the Golf Day were very successful this year and with both we surpassed our targets of last year.
     Income from the Golf Day is now over R100000 (R90140 last year) and we're just waiting for the invoice from the Parkview Golf Club to see how much of that we get to keep. The money is in aid of the 5Cees, more specifically to pay school fees for two girls starting in Grade 10 next year and following through to Grade 12.
     Income from the Christmas dinner will be over R25000 once everyone has paid for the auction items they bought (hint, hint!) against R15590 last year.

Tutty Faber and David Marshall were guests at the meeting. Our AG, Peter James-Smith, was also a guest

Megan Maynard was also a guest last week. Here she is with Ian Widdop, celebrating
 the news that the Global Grant from RI has finally been granted.

     The Pink Elephant raffle proved very popular on Friday and that and the turkey carving competition were highlights of the evening.

Carl Chemaly sizing up his turkey before the carving began

Peet Kruger clearly thinks there's nothing to cutting up the bird

He proved his point by winning the competition. Here he shows off his prize to Jankees Sligcher with Martha Schuler in the background

     In case nobody has caught on yet, the turkey carving competition is a ruse worked out by Graham Donet and me to get somebody else to do the job. It's hard enough work cooking the damn things.
     The auction raised about R8000 and the raffle a further almost R5000. Thanks especially to Natasha Tuinder of Zero Appliances in Edenvale, a client of Debbie de Vries, for donating the main auction item, a Zero gas stove.
     Thanks also to Amina and Ronnie for the book donation which sold as a single lot and fetched a very good price and to Robyn Widdop for the three bottles of Rupert and Rothschild Classique 2006 which also fared very well.

Graham and I in the kitchen prepping the green beans before tackling the four turkeys

Thanks to everyone who helped, the salad table was a feast

The Christmas Pavlova also went down very well

Ian and Robyn Widdop are definitely in high spirits

Mike and Frances MacDonald full of Christmas cheer

Linda with Jacquie Chemaly-Myburgh enjoying the evening

Zena Kimaro is normally on her way home to Kenya this time of year, but
managed to stay long enough to join us. Behind her is Ronnie Kasrils

Lucille Blumberg, who provided and prepared the salmon, with Susan Kasango

David Rose-Innes and Jankees Sligcher, the men with the moustaches

The link between New Dawn and The Link Trust was cemented when two tables full of their volunteers joined the Christmas party

As usual the guest house staff were the stars behind the scenes and worked until late into the night to get everything done and removed from the venue. Here's Linda with Thokozani, Nomvula and Nonhlanhla

     For everybody who's waiting for news of our imminent grandparenthood, at the time of writing nothing has happened yet. Greta and her mother, Martha Schuler, celebrated with us on Friday evening and spent a whole day shopping at the Kamers Market in Irene on Sunday, blissfully ignoring the Saturday due date - and John's protestations.
     Here's wishing everyone a happy time over the festive season and into the new year. Be safe, be careful and be happy.
     A Thought for the Year: May you live all the days of your life. - Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)