We have one of our occasional cinema trips on Wednesday 1st at Showcase Cinema in Lenton (near Queen's Medical Centre). Please contact me in advance to express interest and decide which film we'd like to watch so that the rendez-vous time of 7.00pm can be amended if necessary and we can check there are enough Orange 2-4-1 vouchers to get us all in half price. There may be opportunity for a meal beforehand or a drink afterwards depending on film preference and timings.
Thursday 2nd May at 8pm marks the date and time of our first meeting of the month and we are eschewing the normal pub venues. We have an invitation to visit Cheyne Walk Club, Cheyne Walk, Northampton, NN1 5PU. We have to be signed in and the intention is to meet in the car park just before 8pm so that we can go in as a group. Most of the parking at the club is reserved for members, but on-street parking is available within a 5-10 minute walk.Dress code is "smart casual" - if you need clarification of that please contact me. It would help to know roughly how many people are expected so ifyou are interested can you please let me know by the previous Sunday.
As ever, we're at the Millstream, Cambridge Road, Hitchin. Good food and good beer both available! Call me on [Phone Number] for more details and encouragement. The pub is about ten minutes' walk from the railway station.
Join us on Saturday 4th May for a breath of spring air at Stockgrove Country Park near Heath & Reach/Linslade, just north of Leighton Buzzard. This comes well recommended for its bluebells, which we hope will still be in flower in early May. Meet outside the Visitor Centre at 11am - look for an Mblem. After a leisurely walk we will have lunch at the park café. LU postcode members particularly welcome, as this is technically in your area.
Join us at the Vat & Fiddle pub on Queensbridge Road (near Nottingham railway station) from 8.00pm on Sunday 5th for a drink and chat and tell us how you're spending the bank holiday weekend. We're usually in the Golding's Room to the left of the bar and Mensa Magazine will be on display.
As I type this notice, snow is gently falling outside the window, and the weatherman is warning me of "snowmageddon".... Sigh.......! Well in the hope that the weather does improve eventually, I thought we'd start May off with a Sunday morning stroll around the beautiful and historic Bradgate Park; taking in the deer, Lady Jane Gray's house and so on. Meet up in the car park in Newtown Linford at 11:00 on Sunday 5th, and family/friends/pooches are welcome! Give me a call on [Phone Number] if you can't find me.
I know of several local members who are interested in meeting up for regular games of Scrabble, but it is proving difficult to find a time and location that suits everyone. I will host a one-off Scrabble evening at home in High Wycombe on Tuesday 7th May from 7pm to 10pm so that we can meet and discuss possible future locations and times. This will enable me to gauge the level of interest as well as giving us an opportunity to play a few games. Please contact me by phone or e-mail for directions and to reserve a chair. Space is limited! If you are interested in coming, but cannot attend on this evening, please let me know your views on possible venues and days or times which would suit you. It is likely that we will want to use more than one location. If you would be able to host a Scrabble evening, please let me know. I will then put a programme of future meetings together.
We'll be at the Beekeeper Hungry Horse pub/restaurant on Meadow Lane in Beeston from 7.30pm on Thursday 9th. I call this our "natter & nosh" event because that's what we do! Though you're welcome to just have a drink if you don't want food and you may arrive and leave whatever time you like. Find us on our reserved table near the food order point at the end of the bar displaying a yellow Mblem.
The following evening, Friday 10th, we're returning to Nottingham Greyhound Stadium for one of their charity tournaments. Tickets cost £5 each including admission and race card. All this money goes to Cancer Research UK as 100 tickets have been donated by the stadium. Accompanied under 18s are free so a good family night out. Food and drink are available at the venue and there's ample free parking. You're very welcome to invite your family, friends and work colleagues. Gates open at 6.00pm with the first race at 6.28pm and last race finished by 10.30pm. You may arrive and leave when you like and there will be an optional rendez-vous point at 7.00pm.
Our pub discussion meetings seem as popular as ever, so we continue this month with 'Music: mind and body food?' at the Adam and Eve in Lincoln, Saturday 11th May at 12.05 until we all go home, usually sometime between 2 and 3. All welcome to join us for lunch or just a drink, to add one's thoughts or just listen.
On Saturday 11th May we will be visiting Chalfont St. Giles. We will start with lunch at the Milton's Head from 12:00 and then cross the road to Milton's Cottage when it re-opens at 2pm. This is where John Milton sought refuge from the plague in 1665 and completed Paradise Lost. His sixteenth century cottage houses a small museum dedicated to Milton's life and works and has a grade I listing from English Heritage. Outside many plants mentioned in Milton's poetry are growing in the restored cottage garden. Further details are available at http://www.miltonscottage.org/about-miltons-cottage.htm Bus service 353 between Hemel Hempstead and Slough passes through Chalfont St. Giles and also stops outside Amersham railway station.
Our regular 2nd Monday games and puzzles evening meeting is this time held at Julia Haldane's place. Please bring the usual small amount of crisps or nibbles. Please email/phone me if you plan on attending and I will let you have Julia's address.
Our regular get together will be on Wednesday 15th - the earliest date our "3rd Wednesday" event ever falls - and you're welcome to join us for a full meal, snack or just a drink from 7.30pm until late. There's discount for Cathedral Quarter card holders on top of the already reasonable Wetherspoon prices. Look for the yellow Mblem on one of the long tables at the rear of the Standing Order on Irongate in the city centre. New faces always welcome
The second Northants meeting of the month is on Thursday 16th May at 8pm and it's another new venue. The Roadshow travels take us to The Old King's head, Harbidges Lane, Long Buckby, NN6 7QL. There's no telling where we will be sitting, which means that you will have to search for us. A copy of the Mensa magazine will show you who we are.
More talking, this time of a gentle philosophical bent as we amble through the alphabet, this month we reach 'Plato: body and soul considerations.' No previous knowledge required, so feel free to join us for a bit of thinking well sustained by tea and cakes at my house near Alford on Sunday 19th May, 3-5pm. Maybe by then we can sit in the garden.
Following on from that is our usual "Fourth Thursday" get together in The Craddock Inn on Thursday 23rd at 20:00. Please feel free to bring along a partner / family / friend as they'd be more than welcome. We're normally in the bottom bit of the pub, so look out for the magazine or yellow mBlem on a table somewhere.
On Monday 20th we continue our Third Monday of the Month meetings at The Barge at Woolstone. Join us from 7.30 if you wish to eat or chat beforehand, and then from 9pm we will form one or more teams for the quiz. Cost is £1 per person.
See www.vintageinn.co.uk/thebargewoolstone/ for location and menu details. If possible, please let me know beforehand if you're coming so we can reserve a big enough table.
Sunday breakfast will be at 10.30 am (please note the slightly later time!) on Sunday 26th at Wetherspoons on Midsummer Boulevard West, next to Chiquito's and not far up from the railway station (NOT the other Lloyds/Wetherspoons nearer the shopping centre and next to Jury's Inn). Come for a full breakfast, a snack, or just a drink - look for the Mblem on a table.
On Tuesday 28th we're returning to the School House restaurant in South Normanton for our "eating meeting". This proved a very popular venue on our last visit. They serve an excellent choice of well presented British food with 2 courses for £10.50 or 3 courses for £12.50 in a lovely environment. Due to its popularity reserve your place with me by 17th please.
Pub meeting King's Head, Bridge Road, Hunton Bridge WD4 8RE Please note this is a TUESDAY as Monday is Bank Holiday We usually meet upstairs in the 'gallery' area furthest from the bar. The pub is easy to find from the dual carriageway (A41 Watford Road) From Watford turn right at the traffic lights, over the small bridge and then on the right. Look for the magazine or ask at the bar. New members are warmly welcomed
As ever, we'll be at the Cowper Arms, Digswell, Herts (by Welwyn North station). Call me on [Phone Number] for more details and encouragement. The pub is next to the railway station, which is served by stopping trains from Kings Cross to Cambridge and Peterborough.