King's Lynn Plus

Its that time of year again where we have done the formal stuff and elected a new committee to serve for the coming year. 

Committee details have been updated on the “Contact Us” page – there has been a bit of a change-around this year.

A new programme will be published shortly to run from March onwards – an update on the existing one is that 14th Feb we will be at Dears Leap for the evening (previously the New Inn), and on 21st Feb we will be ten pin bowling at Strikes. 

It is currently under discussion that we change our meeting night to a Tuesday, hence the hold-up in publishing the programme – for the moment, however, Monday will remain our regular meeting unless otherwise advised/arranged.

Ok – now onto the programme changes.

Next week should have been a visit to Trues Yard in Kings Lynn, but this has been postponed until the last week in February. That week should have been a new members night, but we can’t say for certain if we will have the venue for that night, so it seems sensible to change it. This means that next week is just a social night. Programme planning stays as it is, and the AGM will happen on whichever of the two provisional dates gives us the most attendance on the night.

Hope that makes sense, but if not, then please feel free to contact us if you are thinking of visiting.

Apologies for no recent posts!

There are a few programme updates to advise of on the current programme, and shortly we will have a new one issued.

Before that though, a quick update on what we’ve been up:

WASH – well despite all our worries after the change of venue, it really couldn’t have gone much better! A few hiccups on the accommodation front which were out of our control, and the fact that the site was rather muddy, and some of the vans a bit chilly, didn’t detract from a good weekend. The bands we had booked went down pretty well, and Manor Park could not have made us more welcome – soon we start planning the next one, it never stops!!!

The Christmas meal was held at the Crown at Gayton, and was (thanks to Paul) a great success – the place cards were a great touch, and some considerable thought went into the seating plan, which we have never had before. Food was good, service friendly, and we found a rather nice seating area with comfy sofas afterwards to sit and chat before leaving – hope we can go back next year!

New Year was at Dave & Sherries again – this time the food was indoor rather than barbeque. A packed house for the party, and I think 21 people stayed over in various places – not bad for a one-bedroomed house, but then this is a rather special house! I still can’t quite believe Glynn when he said he was “warm and cosy” in his tent in the garden though…..maybe it was the alcohol…..

A lot going on in the last couple of months, we’ve had birthday parties, Scalextric party, Bank Holiday BBQ and now we’re concentrating on organising our biggest event of the year – the party weekend known as “WASH” – Weekend in Sunny Hunny!

This year taking place at Manor Park instead of Searles, but nonetheless needing a whole shedful of planning to take place, and something which is on the minds of the small organising committee almost constantly from about July onwards, although actually planning begins way, way before that.

Just under 8 weeks to go now, and preparations have gathered speed – to the point of even announcing the theme nights of Smart & Smooth on the Saturday, and Neon Night on Sunday – now we can start the serious business of sorting out our outfits, or at least us girls will!

All hands on deck…countdown begins!

Christine T

Just a quick note to update you with programme changes – the Ten Pin Bowling on 13th September is now replaced by Keith’s night at the Crown and Mitre, and the planned meal at Voujon in King’s Lynn will now be on 24th September.

Details of the Christmas Meal to follow.

Christine T

Well if we have one problematic weekend this year, then I guess rather this one than WASH, but even so……last minute problems with the venue meant we didn’t even know until the day before whether this event would go ahead, but all resolved just in time and a great weekend followed.

Rather than all posts being written by the same person, I’m using exceprts from a posting from the “one-list”, which is the National Plus forum, to give another person’s point of view – this is written by “Biggles” from Fareham group:

“This weekend very nearly got cancelled at the last minute due to a legal wangle between the local village council and the contractor who laid the grass where we would normally erect our tents! Fortunately, some fast thinking and even faster
strimming action by intrepid KL Plus members ensured that we were able to break through into uncharted camping lands in the middle of the local woodlands (even though at night it felt more like the Blair Witch woods….)

By the time the rest of us Plussers turned up, all arrangements had been made and we settled in to setting up our tents in a more scenic setting than normal!

Friday night was fairly relaxed, well, for us anyway….. The poor pub just down the road didn’t quite know what hit it, I think their normal Friday night crowd would have been a couple of regulars and a dog – not the 20 or so Plussers who
all turned up at once wanting meals and a few drinkies! Still, Their bar staff rose to the occasion magnificently and we all got served eventually! After a few hours of that, it was time to go back to the village hall and grove the rest
of the night away to karaoke provided by Excalibur Roadshow (Adam Redshaw) til about midnight and then sat around chatting, drinking and chilling till the sky started to lighten up again.

Saturday morning was a bit delayed, I think the woodland setting made the tents a bit darker for longer – so we were not dragged out this year by the hot sun bearing down directly! About 10am enough of us had surfaced to make going to
the pub for breakfast viable – although once again we overwhelmed the staff who didn’t have enough in stock for 15 or so hungry people – The poor landlord had to make a quick trip to Tesco in a hurry! lol!

Saturday afternoon found members attending National Rounders in King’s Lynn – I am reliable informed that one team won and the other came second…

Saturday evening found the fires being stoked for the traditional BBQ, Having been to Tesco’s ourselves earlier, we were well supplied with meat products and the King’s Lynn group supplied the salad and buns! Such a yummy feast was had by all.

Later that night found some people winning the endless raffle (I swear theremust have been dozens of prizes!!!) although the numbers were only coming up for Chris Porter and Serena Horsewell! How many redraws can one couple have????

The rest of the night passed with a large number of us just sat outside the hall around a fire-pit (BBQ with no food on!) for several hours just chatting, drinking and chilling out.  The fire was very watchable! Those who spent time on the dance floor seemed to enjoy themselves just as much! I understand that some members managed to stay around the fire till about 4am.

Sunday morning found us up around 9am packing our tents away and eventually departing (after everyone helped out cleaning up the hall and its surrounds!) A short detour to the local burger van was made (We gave the pub landlady a
break!) and I can recommend their double cheeseburger!

Thanks again to King’s Lynn group, Hope to see some of you at Scalextric’s in a months time and the rest of you at WASH 2010!”

Thanks to Biggles for the review and it was good to see that the alternative camping arrangements went down so well – some people are even talking about camping in the woods again next year!

Christine T

SADY – stands for Summer at Dalesbridge, Yorkshire – basically a weekend near Settle in Yorkshire, either camping or in dormitories, with evening entertainment and daytime walks planned.  No-one from Kings Lynn group has gone before, but I thought I’d give it a go!

I arrived about 8.30ish in evening to pitch my tent – luckily a pop-up affair,  so up and “furnished” in time to head to the pub for a pizza with friends, much to Corinna’s (organiser) disgust as she was busily trying to convince everyone to go into the room for karaoke, which just isn’t my sort of thing (s0rry Corinna!).  A mix up at the pub resulted in a larger than ordered pizza which was quickly snapped up when I got back to the site with it.  Dancing to the disco then lots of chatting and catching up with people resulted and the late night was inevitable.

Morning time saw some cooking their own breakfast, some heading to the catering van over the road, then a short drive to the start of the days walk, and a chance to go buy a sandwich in the local shop to take with us for lunch.  The weather was excellent, the route steep in places and surely more than the 5 miles we had been promised by Francis, or maybe I’m just stupidly unfit!  Quote of the weekend was I think from Geoff – who when Francis warned us to be carefuly of the orchids in the field replied with “why – are they dangerous?”!!

Saturday evening saw us fed by Richard’s curry which was very tasty, and entertainment was a duo singing to a backing track – then disco with DJ Gary from Brean – a good chance to work off the stiffness in the legs from the walk – and no aches the next morning either!

Another walk on Sunday, although as it fell on the same day as the World Cup Final, we were under pressure to get back to the pub in time for the match…..the walk once again took us through some stunning countryside including a waterfall that we had to go through a pub to get to, and some more very steep hills.  Once strange part was walking through someone’s back garden, complete with washing on the line (attached to the footpath signpost) as part of the route!  The view was certainly worth the hill climb.  Back to the pub just in time for the football, and the non-footie fans (ok, just a few of us) went for a bite to eat at a tea-room and a wander around the town of Hawes – the home of Wensleydale cheese.

Back to site and after a bite to eat we listened to a very talented guy with an accoustic guitar – a refreshing change and I could have listened to him all night. 

Sunday morning and time to pack up and head home – all in all a great weekend, made brilliant by some excellent weather.  Definitely to be recommended!

Christine T

The photo page is now back up and working, and looking even better than before – thanks to some outside help. Now I just need to learn to use it and add more photos!

Also now uploaded – our most recent programme covering July to October 2010.

Coming up – more blogs, SADY and summer party amongst them, with accompanying photos for SADY – also photos for  ice-skating, Brean, and our annual visit to Nene Valley Railway….don’t go away…!!

Christine T

…on thin ice?  No not this time – actually at the ice rink in Peterborough, and an interesting experience!

On a sunny day when sensible people were out enjoying the fresh air, we were going round in circles on the ice indoors wearing hats and gloves – ok so you can’t choose the weather but whats the betting that when we want to spend a day outside it won’t be half as nice!

Some of us had skated before, some hadn’t, although I peronally think Colin was having us on as he seemed to be a natural on the ice.  Dawn C was sceptical at first, but by the end of the session gained some confidence….just as we had to leave!  I am sure we will go again though as it was loads of fun, and I don’t think too many of us ended up too bruised…..despite some impressive falls!

Photos to follow, when the photos page is working again…!!  No pictures of people falling over as it always seemed to happen while I was skating myself – and I didn’t quite manage to master the art of taking a camera out of my pocket, switching it on and taking a photo whilst skating!  Also nobody was considerate enough to fall over just in front of me while I was standing at the side, camera in hand!

Another trip south-west down to Brean Sands in Somerset for a weekend of entertainment and activities with friends from across the country.  After settling in on Friday we were entertained in the evening by both Lady Gaga and Pink – otherwise known as Vicky Jackson, an extremely good tribute artist.  This was an evening to catch up with people we hadn’t seen for a while, and generally relax and get into the party mood for the weekend.  As is usual for the party weekends, the party mood continued well into the early hours of the morning in one of the caravans, despite the usual host being missing – stuck in Spain due to the Iclandic volcanic ash cloud (and on his birthday too!) – that didn’t stop the party happening in his caravan anyway!!

Saturday was pretty much free to do as we wished, the sun was out, the fair was open, there was a market on site and ten pin bowling had been arranged at the neighbouring site – so what did we do?  sit in the caravan reading books and chatting for a lot of it!  A wander round site now and then resulted in several helpings of some rather special ice-cream – and a weather check showed not a breath of wind to fly the kites that I took!  We took a walk down to the beach where the tide was so far out that a member of another group tried to go for a swim but gave up looking for the water!  The sun was so bright and hot we were wondering if we should have put on sun cream, but none of us were actually that organised!

Saturday evening was 80′s night – the band were the ZX80′s, a young band who on the most part hadn’t actually experienced the 80′s first-hand but that didn’t stop them belting out not just the usual cheesy pop that 80′s tribute bands tend to do, but some great long-forgotten songs that got us all up and dancing – possibly the best 80′s group that I have seen so far.  Despite a slight power problem part-way through their second set they kept going long into the night – definite value for money!

Sunday morning, with only a few hours sleep after returning from the caravan party once again, some of us tried to stay awake long enough to watch the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.  Not certain if any of us actually saw the whole race, certainly I missed a few laps here and there!

With some time to recoup our energy in the morning (back to sleep after the motor racing!), Adam, the organiser, had found a way of making us use it all up again in putting on some silly games in the venue after the usual quiz – think giant Twister, giant Kerplunk, inflatable indoor footbal penalty shoot, limbo and adult space-hoppers.  Phew!  Also some Wii games going on which were slightly more sedate.

Sunday evening was rock night with a band called “Angel Up Front” – a great band who not only did the usual rock covers, but some more hard-core rock such as Metallica and AC/DC – this was followed by another trip down to the beach, once the girls had changed their footwear (well some of them!) and torches had been collected.  With us we took some chinese lanterns which proved to be a bit of  a challenge to light, but quite spectacular once they got up in the air.  A few got caught on the dunes but the National Chairman had been enroled in “stamping out” duties.  What a way to end an excellent weekend, although of course not technically the end as the third caravan party of the weekend took place with our very own “toast-maker” to keep us fed!

All feeling slightly worse for wear through lack of sleep and probably excess of alcohol in a lot of cases, all we had to do on Monday morning was drag ourselves out of bed (easier said than done…), pack up our stuff, tidy the van and head back home, another great weekend over far too quickly.

Photos have been uploaded and will be available on this site as soon as the page is working again….

Christine T