The tickets stated 6:30 for 7:00 to 11:30 but by 6:20 most had already arrived. I was told Oddfellow are always punctual. As we arrived all got a drink from the bar and stood talking to old friends and started to make new ones. At 7pm sharp our MC for the night the Prov. C.S. Brother Peter Clarke requested all to be seated. It was lovely to go back to the Hot Fork Buffet format, this is considerably cheaper as the venue needs less waitresses, but more importantly it is quick and all of the food on the plate is hot.

The festivities start of with the Grace which was done by the Noble Grand of the Flower of Kent Lodge Brother Stephen Howden, this grace was provided by the PGM Sister Linda Drakley. Peter then asked the top table to come down and get their meal, then all of the other tables came down according to their table numbers. Following the main course there was the suite of apple pie this was followed by Coffee, Mints and Turkish Delight.

Following this there was the Loyal Toast by Brother Stephen Howden who asked for all to be upstanding and all raised their glasses to her Majesty the Queen. Sister Marina Morris then gave her speech which was very amusing, Starting with Friends Roman Corinthians, no that's the wrong one, working her way through the wrong ones till finally she found the right one. In her speech she out- lined a brief history of Sister Linda Drakley who was our guest on honour. When Marina was explaining the sadness of Linda loosing her only Daughter Sarah in July, she was very emotional. Linda kept her response very short, thanking everyone for all of their help including those who had chauffeured her to the many events and meetings. The Vice Provisional Grand Master welcomed the visitors, this was a little difficult for her as she had left her glasses at home. We all we invited to raise out glasses to the visitors, it was pleasing how many visitors had attended. The response was from Sister Flo Munro who provided us with a poem which Flo gave me a copy of so I could type it our in its entirety (below).

There was one amusing incident. This venue has many different rooms in use for the various functions. Many of them using radio microphones which seemed to be set to the same frequency. We heard the raffle from one of the rooms plus when Flo was reading the poem she at one point said “set among the trees" had the line ended by sound from another room and the word Dartford louder than the word Trees which cause us all to laugh and fall about as it continued all through her speech.

Speeches over, the tables over the dance floor were cleared and dancing commenced to the duo “Changes”. The duo played music for Ballroom and Disco only breaking off for the raffle. At the end of the Evening Linda thanked everyone then presented the large floral display from the table to Marilyn Clarke