Monday, April 11, 2011

A charity lunch in Needham Market

It's coming up to the end of Mike Norris's term as Mayor of Needham Market, and as an old friend of Ros's - he now holds the Mid Suffolk District Council seat that Ros won in 1991 - we were invited to a charity lunch to raise funds for the Mayoral charity, Needham Market Community First Responders.

I did feel rather underdressed, as a number of civic leaders were there, many wearing the chains of office. Sadly, Creeting St Peter doesn't have any chains of office, not even a lapel pin, but we were surrounded by friends and acquaintances (mostly of Ros's, I must admit), so there were plenty of people to talk to.

There were even things to do as we mingled, and I discovered a game whereby forty-five different playing cards were randomly stuck to a large piece of paper in neat rows, the idea being to take an identical pack and place as many of them on their match in one minute. When I arrived, the best score was twenty-one, which seemed to be pretty good, but with the honour of our Parish Council at stake, I gave it my best shot. The result? I achieved twenty-seven, which set the marker for all of those to follow.

Dinner was served, with much of the menu sourced locally, and with plentiful helpings (how often at these things do people come round offering seconds?) and the conversation flowed easily. Sheila, Mike's wife, organises the Annual Dinner for Bury St Edmunds Liberal Democrats, and her stellar organising skills were again on display. She asked how my campaign was going, and I gave her an appraisal of how I thought the position was.

At the end of the meal, the prizes for the games were announced. Apparently, the name of the gnome was Cedric, which was good enough for a scarf for Josephine Lea, one of the Town councillors. The prize for the 'match the cards' game was won with a score of twenty-seven by the junior parish councillor for Creeting St Peter, and I look forward to eating the Fairtrade easter egg at some point in the near future...

All too soon, it was time to go, as there were leaflets still to deliver, and I had work to do on the campaign...

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