Chinese New Year
Nee how! (That's "hello" in Chinese.)
48 of us gathered at the Holiday Inn Derby/Nottingham on Saturday 12th February to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the rooster. The hotel had provided Chinese lanterns and background music to which I added some oriental parasols and Chinese good luck messages on the tables.
Early arrivals had either attended the East Midlands Mensa regional committee meeting or played the Mensa Connections boardgame in the hotel lounge. Guests started mingling in the bar from 7.00 pm and we were seated at 7.30 pm. [Mental note to Maxine when organising future events: Count the number of place settings yourself!] The hotel had mistakenly only set 47 instead of 48 places so there was a hasty addition of a table before we started dining.
The starters comprised prawns, sesame toast, spare ribs, fruit salad and soup. Quite a combination and very messy. This was when I realised we were being served a totally different menu to what I'd ordered! A complaint was lodged with the hotel but it was a bit late to change anything at this stage. The main courses were buffet style with second helpings for anyone wanting more. Sweet and sour appeared to be missing, but we did get ice cream as a surprise dessert along with various fritters and lychees. The meal was rounded off with coffee and fortune cookies and we compared our messages.
Those wanting to dance then adjourned to the lounge area whilst those wanting more serious discussion remained in the dining area. Top marks to the elderly Holiday Inn barmaid who - even after a 12 hour shift - was still up on the dance floor joining in the Time Warp and Macarena with gusto! The DJ played a variety of music and many of our requests. It's the first time I'd heard the Rocky Horror megamix though. He must have had us sussed! We enjoyed a session of salsa music where six of us who are currently taking lessons once a week got to strut our stuff. We also danced the merengue to Girls Aloud! Good fun!
During the evening there was a ticket draw for an appropriate prize of a six piece Chinese willow pattern rice bowl and chopsticks set and the winner was Joyce Ellis-Croft from Northampton
When it came to the last slow dance the DJ was desperately seeking an obscure request from one of our group so that she'd dance with him. [So he played Robbie Williams - is 'Angels' really the best song of the last 25 years as announced at the recent Brit Awards? - a couple of times whilst searching through his tunes.] Eventually he gave up disappointed, the lights were switched on and it was time to either go home or saunter up to our rooms.
The following morning was bright and sunny yet cold. After a hearty breakfast eight of us wentwalking in the Peak District starting from Ellen McArthur's home town of Whatstandwell and winding our way over muddy fields and through the Tramway Museum to Crich Stand. Here, with the elevated position, there was a bitterly cold wind and it even started to snow though there were blue skies! We warmed up round the fire in the pub before saying farewell.
Thanks to everyone who attended the weekend.