Reydon Weekend - 29th & 30th October 2004 - Photos by Haydn Lightfoot and others
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| Reydon 2004 was another excellent event organised and managed as always by Karen and David Redfern. Each year we invade the sleepy hollows of Reydon and Southwold and rip it up at The Randolph Hotel. The traditional itinerary includes lunch on the Friday at The Red Lion in Southwold as (paying) guests of Derek and Theresa, there's plenty of Adnams on tap and retail therapy or afternoon tea to follow.
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Click each thumbnail photo to get the bigger picture
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Friday evening is a black tie affair back at the Randolph, the excellent dinner, which was served promptly this year, was followed by dancing all evening to the "CranMog +5", our own fabulous and extremely good looking band. The aim of the evening is to get gently plastered and be the last one left standing in the bar, but as time goes on and we get older, the barman get to see his bed earlier each year. This year it was Sarah Lightfoot who showed more stamina than the rest of us, TWO NIGHTS RUNNING, no wonder Haydn went early to bed on his own.
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On Saturday morning after a hearty breakfast, we healthy CranMoggers take a walk over the dykes and marshes to the "Harbour Inn" where we find more Adnams and partake of Fish'n Chips served in paper - magic. The more robust drinkers amongst us manage to get a swift pint in at "The Bell" or "The Nelson", just to keep us going until evening.
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| Back at the Randolph, Saturday night is fancy dress night, this year the theme was "Flirty Thirties", a good excuse to dress up as gangsters, molls, aviators, so, no change there then. After dinner and a few more pints of Adnams, speeches are made and awards given to those who've made complete fools of themselves with prises going for, Best Costume, imbiber's Trophy, Best Hangover and so on, then we finish off the evening with disco dancing until the small hours. The whole point of this report then is to show a few photos, taken by Haydn Lightfoot of the ridiculous outfits we had on and the fun we had wearing them.
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CatherMog 2004, Report and Photo's by Brian & Tessa Tavener....
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A report of Cranmoggers on tour in the south of France during 9th to 13th September.
The CatherMog 2004 event was superbly organised by Riki & Pat Porter, tours, gourmet lunches, pit stops and Chateau accommodation.
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An excellent turn-out with 23 Morgans and 44 Cranmoggers all making their own way from various ports in France & Spain, dedicated Morganeers travelling hundreds of miles to arrive at the destination of Couiza, a small town 35Km south of Carcassonne. Riki & Pat had arranged accommodation for us all at the Chateau des Ducs de Joyeuse, a 16th century fortified castle situated in the heart of the Cather region, all the Morgans were parked together at the rear of the Chateau in a secure area although visible over a hedge which did become a local attraction.
For those who arrived early on the Thursday, lunch had been organised at the village of Saissac, 15 miles northwest of Carcassonne at the restaurant 'La Montagne Noire' with views over the Aude valley. The set lunch turned out to be more than one would expect, 3 large courses, coffee etc. as we had evening dinner arranged at the Chateau.
On arrival at the Chateau the first stop was the bar, unfortunately they were not use to Cranmoggers thirst and the supply of beer soon ran dry. The evening meal was held in the open courtyard, excellent food and atmosphere, our allocation of wine soon run out.
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Friday we all set off in convoy to visit the old 'Cite' of Carcassonne, Riki took up the role of car park attendant in the main 'Cite'. We all went our own way wandering around the old town, cafes/bars and souvenir shops, apparently the 'bandana caps' were very popular thought to be ideal Morgan head gear for the ladies keeping off the midday sun. On leaving Carcassonne we headed south to a small town of Esperaza for lunch experiencing the local 'cassoulet' dish. Our route back to the Chateau was via a wine factory ' Blanquette de Limoux' , wine tasting and a film presentation made a pleasant break from the 30 degrees heat outside.
Again the evening meal was held in the Chateau courtyard, to ensure there was no reoccurrence of shortage of alcoholic beverage, in true Cranmog spirit we discreetly provided our own supplies, with bottles hidden behind flower pots, cans of beer stacked in the gents loo and other various places concealed from the hotel staff. Its the first time we seen a queue at the gents.
Saturday was our first taste of the foothills of the Pyrenees, Riki had planned a superb route diverting off the main road onto single tracks up into the hills, this was real Morgan territory, quite hair raising at times with steep crevasses and no kerbs! The 23 Morgan convoy parade through the Gorges de Galamus a spectacular sight with the single track road cut into the rock face, a spectacular experience. From there we visited the Castle of Queribus perched on a rocky peak 2412ft high, having parked up at the base of the castle, the real men? took the steep path to the castle entrance and then climbed the 100 plus steps of the spiral staircase up to the tower. A breathtaking experience, a group photograph was taken recording the Cranmoggers who achieved this fete. Lunch had been arranged at a hilltop village of Cucugan at the 'Auberge du Vigneron', we took over the entire restaurant where a special meal had been prepared for us. On route back to the hotel we stopped off at very picturesque Rennes-Le -Chateau where much restoration work in the 19th century had been undertaken by the local priest, his source of wealth remains a mystery.
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Saturday evening rain was forecast, therefore the dinner was held indoors in the Banqueting Hall another feast was had by all, drinking continued to the early hours. As forecast the sky opened up with a tremendous thunderstorm during the night.
Surprisingly everybody was up bright and early Sunday checking their Morgan after the storm, getting ready for the planned tour to the Pyrenees proper! going up to altitudes in excess of 5000ft. Unfortunately we had to leave the CatherMog group to start making our way back to Bilbao to catch our ferry home on Monday. We said our farewells as they departed for the Pyrenees.
On Monday after breakfast all departed and went their various ways.
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Here are some more pictures of the CatherMog extravaganza sent in by John Barry. Click each thumbnail photo to get the bigger picture.
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Our thanks to Riki and Pat for their hard work in planning and organising this very successful CatherMog event.
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Birthday Party
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This year we celebrated the 31st anniversary of the Premier Centre, and we did it in style. Meeting up place on Saturday lunch time was The Grange at Brampton, that's Judy & Philip's local I believe, and a very fine lunch they do too, oh yes and good draft ale. Most people have worked out that if they leave the pub early they can get a preferred parking place at the Dolphin Hotel in St Ives where we hold the celebrations, shame on them, leaving the pub early that is. Anyway the river was low this year and the fields, and more importantly the car parks, were not flooded so we had plenty of parking space in the end.
Saturday afternoon is spent variously, either shopping for that last bit of costume or a replacement for that shirt that shrunk in the wardrobe, or for the performers its dress rehearsal time and sound checks for the band. Judy organises a stalwart group to come and blow up the balloons and put place names out on the tables - there's a lot of organising and work that goes on in the background you know.
This year's theme was "Diamonds" so the ladies got to show off their sparklers and what a dazzling show it was. As those of you who attend regularly will know, the party takes a fairly standard format, we sat down to eat just after 7pm and had an excellent silver service 3 course meal with a choice of duck or vegetarian. Toys on the table this year included long balloons that you can blow up and launch like rockets, they made a hell of a din! After dinner the +5 played a number of songs starting with "Diamonds are a girl's best friend", in keeping with the theme of the evening and then went on to do a few rock and roll and blues numbers for everyone to dance to. Highlight of the evening was the CranMog Knackers cabaret who came on as American Cheer leaders and danced to "Hey Mickey" by Toni Basil- it was a bit of a riot. For the rest of the evening we had Brian Page running the hotel's Dolphin Roadshow discotheque, unfortunately, this year is the last that Brian will be doing it, so next year is anybody's guess, any budding DJs out there?
Just before we closed, Judy and Philip presented the Imbiber Trophy which this year was won by by Ian Williams (Alcoholics Unanimous - quote JC) and the Unsung Hero award which was presented to Your Truly. Following the dancing Laurie drew the raffle and yes, yet again we won a couple of things entirely suitable to Toby & Lottie, in fact there was quite a choice. Chris who sells the tickets made over £400, which I suppose basically helps pay for the free wine and beer.
We went to bed at about 2am but I understand others were in the bar until the slightly larger wee small hours, reportedly 4am. Anyway we were up bright eyed and bushy tailed for a decent breakfast before the hoards hit the restaurant.
The weekend was rounded off with coffee at Philip & Judy's place in Brampton then we were off to the River Mill at Eaton Socon for a pub lunch - real men eat a lot as well as drink a lot so it seems.
Many thanks go to Judy and to Philip and all the other helpers who make the weekend special.
Now, if anybody has any pictures of the cabaret and/or the band I'd be most grateful of a copy, I'll add the lyrics, unless you can do that too.
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