New Year 2017

The Bridge Inn, Shortwood; our new venue(photo: Jonathan Billinger)

Last Friday was our first session back in our new, old venue, The Bridge Inn at Shortwood (BS16 9NG). Expect us to be there every Friday night from 8:15pm unless otherwise posted on this blog and the Facebook group.

Before I get down to last week's report I was asked to mention one "parish notice". Roger and John have hired the Kingfisher Café in Fishponds on Thursday 26 January from 8pm to 9:30pm for anyone to come and sing, play, read poetry or anything within reason in aid of the CLIC Sargent charity, specifically to help the charity deal with the fire that damaged its shop at Fishponds in December. CLIC Sargent supports children and young people with cancer.

New Year and matters arising

Wren (photo by Alden Chadwick)

It was a perfectly respectable turnout for the first session of 2016. We had been promised songs on themes to cover the whole period between Christmas and 8 January, which is pretty much what we got.

Colin was MC and he asked Derek to start us off. Derek said he had to start off in his traditional way with Miner's Dream of Home (Roud 1749) - "For the bells were ringing the old year out, And the new year in".

Nearly New Year and much mirth

Kipper Family

I arrived this week to find everyone sitting in the side bar supping their drinks. Apparently the electricity was off to the wing of the pub where our room is situated. In times gone by this would not have been a problem since we always held our sessions by candlelight, with the sole addition of the light on the dartboard. However, since refurbishment the use of candles had been prohibited, so we are usually in the still subdued glow of the electric wall lights. Apparently Maggie S usually brings her candles just in case but on this occasion she had not. The landlord came to the rescue with candles carefully waxed into "energy drink" glasses and we were quickly underway.