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Cressy is where we gathered to celebrate
Christmas with all our friends within the Chapter and interstate visitors,
we have a certain affection with the area since being introduced to it
by our hosts for the weekend, Peter and Veronica. A few arrived on the
Thursday evening and on the way to Cressy were greeted with magnificent
flat plains of Poppies with their purple flowers along with vegetable
crops and wheat, barley etc all quite picturesque in the sunshine of the
afternoon. The area has a history of first being established when two
brothers received land grants of 20,000 acres to establish and breed horses.
Today there are large sheep farms and with the introduction of irrigation
from the lake country it has become a renowned area for raising crops
of all varieties on the fertile plains. |
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Veronica
registering Members |
Flying
the flags |
Parked with "Western Tiers" in background |
Friday dawned
sunny with a few clouds and would remain that way all day with a few getting
sun burnt. Peter and Veronica were to do the registering of arrivals and
all were pleasantly surprised to hear there would be no fees charged for
the weekend. This was a small Christmas gift to all in the Chapter and
those interstate visitors that joined us. Unfortunately due to the layout
of the ground and the fact that a cricket match was to be held on the
Saturday a few of the larger vehicles had to be parked on the opposite
side of the ground. Up went our yellow tent and the flags and Peter was
to gather wood for our fire. Very quickly the kettles were boiled and
we enjoyed a nice cuppa whilst we renewed our friendship once again. With the wind picking up it helped to keep the temperature in check and we all sat around until happy hour enjoying the friendship. |
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Veronica
outlining events |
Attentive
members |
Doug and Bob and their music |
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Happy hour arrived and we all gathered; some
eighty members and visitors. Veronica was to outline the events planned
for the weekend including our Christmas Dinner at the Bowls Club. Don
was to outline the New Years Eve rally and gave quite an informative talk
on what was planned and how to get to the venue at Chudleigh. Then our
beloved Sheriff was to berate and fine many of us for alleged misdemeanors
imagined or otherwise. The fines of twenty cents are collected for charity
and of course is carried out in a jocular manner or how the sheriff would
say "Name and Shame" the guilty. A whole group of members after the happy hour wandered over to the bowls club for an extended happy hour with the locals before returning for our evening meal, with a few electing to cook their meal on the club barbecue. At 7:30pm both Doug and Bob were to entertain us for the next few hours with fine music and jokes and hearty singalong, a few members hopped up to dance. It had been an excellent day though a bit windy, we wandered off to our motorhome's around 11pm suitably tired. |
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Walking
their mates |
Peter
"The Pom" entertaining |
Enjoying the sunny day |
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Saturday a few clouds though mainly sunny
with little wind, the fire was lit to boil the kettles and members could
be seen cooking eggs and bacon and toast etc on the barbecue for breakfast
and sitting out enjoying the sunshine. The Sheriff was forever vigilant
and found a few members not wearing or having their membership card covered
up no doubt they will be "Named and Shamed at our happy hour. Groups left the grounds and were to walk around the village taking in the sights and visiting garage sales, the locals being aware of our presence for the weekend were to welcome and greet us in very friendly fashion. |
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Disc
bowls in session |
Cricket
game in progress |
In the Bowls club for Christmas Dinner |
During the
afternoon many were to play disc bowls and the measuring stick was required
a few times to check distance from the kitty, this game can get very serious
at times. The local cricket teams were playing their normal roster game
and it was a pleasure to watch the game with a few again getting sun burnt,
it was a 20-20 match so it was pretty lively with many boundaries and
sixes achieved. At the end of the game they had a barbecue and refreshments
to which we were invited. Given our christmas dinner this evening we declined. Happy hour arrived and our hosts Peter and Veronica made their announcements about the evening and indicated the tables were ready to decorated. Then it was time for our beloved Sheriff and he berated us and imposed fines, which bought much laughter and in all he raised in excess of $20 which will go to a suitable charity. Given the fines were only 20cents gives an indication of the extent of the amount of alleged charges such as loitering, dobbing in, no badge, smut etc etc. It is very entertaining the way our beloved Sheriff conducts himself which brings forth much laughter. |
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Patrick
& Julie enjoy festivities |
First
course soup |
Main course being enjoyed |
It was time
for our annual Christmas Dinner to commence and it was great to see our
ladies dressed in all their finery along with the gents of course, so
from 6pm we wandered over to the bowls club for pre dinner drinks and
set our tables out. John the chapter chaplain was to say grace and then
we started on our soup which was a choice of pumpkin or chicken corn,
very nice indeed. Prior to the main course being served the Candle lighting Ceremony was performed. Marlene was to light the candle for "Friends present", Sue for "Friends we have yet to meet" and finally David lit the candle for "Friends departed over the Past twelve months", then there was a minutes silence in remembrance of those friends lost. As has been the tradition of the Chapter these candles burn for the entire function and are not extinguished until we leave the hall. Then the main course was served of the traditional christmas fare and it was very nice indeed and as some noted there were no frozen vegetables used in the meal. During the meal our band played music which was soft enough to enjoy. |
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David,
Marlene and Sue lighting the candles for "Ceremony of Friendship
and Remembrance"
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it was time for Santa to make an appearance to distribute merriment and
lollies to all whilst our
Choir with the accompaniment of Bob on his keyboard sang Christmas Carols.
Many were to join in singing along in the spirit of christmas and then
it was time for our traditional pudding and other sweets, what a meal,
there was plenty of it and it was well prepared and presented.We were to thank the staff by acclamation for a wonderful meal and have booked them again for another location next year. Peter "The Pom" was to give us a rendition of an Australian christmas poem the he had written for the night and after much acclaim gave us a rendition of an english poem that he had written which was well received. Our band then continued and then the dancing commenced for the evening, given the amount of food we consumed some were to rest awhile before getting into the swing of things. |
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Santa
makes an entrance |
Choir
singing Christmas Carol's |
Dancing the night away |
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| Brittany performing "Cat in a hat" dance routine | |
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Our host's Peter and Veronica's grand daughter
Brittany was to perform "Cat in Hat" dance routine in full costume
and we were amazed that one so young had such a talent for song and dance.
It really was a professional performance which lasted over ten minutes
and was performed in such an energetic manner. When Brittany finished
her performance there was much acclamation and when retiring Brittany
was called back and then received a standing ovation in appreciation of
her presentation, skill and energy that went into the performance. Yes
it was true, Veronica shed a few tears during Brittany's performance and
Peter was a proud Pop. |
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Mr
"Silly Billy" award - Brian |
Mr
"Nice Guy" - Peter |
Mrs "Nice Gal" Wendy - accepted by Kaylene |
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It was time for more dancing and merriment
and then our beloved Sheriff was to present his annual awards. The "Silly
Billy" of the year award was won by Brian to much laughter when the
Sheriff outlined the actions of Brian that won him the award. "Mr
Nice Guy" was won by Peter and the "Mrs Nice Gal" award
was won by Wendy which was accepted on her behalf by Kaylene. Our monster raffle was drawn which consisted of three hampers. The lucky door prizes were drawn and won before the dancing continued until around 11:30pm when the last of members had decided to retire, the candles were extinguished and we headed off to bed all very happy with the wonderful evening meal and entertainment. Sunday morning presented itself without a cloud in the sky and though many were to elect to stay in bed longer this morning the fire was alight and the kettles were boiling. John and Colleen were to conduct a Christmas service that was well attended and then it was time for our Annual General Meeting. Among other matters elections were to take place and the current officers will complete their term office at the end of 2010 the following were elected to the committee: Liz, Michael, Peter and Herb for a two year period. The hosts Peter and Veronica were thanked by acclamation for running such a successful Christmas Rally and have indicated subject to work may conduct the Christmas Rally next year. After the meeting was concluded we dismantled our yellow tent "Bee Haven" and packed the gear away in the trailer then many were to leave for home or other destinations, especially our interstate visitors and others elected stay on to have fish and chips for lunch and then head out with a small group electing to stay a further night. |
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