December

The month started with a trip to Xscape for a bowling evening. This was followed by a meal at ASK, but it seems that we overstayed our welcome as they started to re-decorate around us !
The following Monday Tony told us about his 15 day trip to China; most enlightening especially the bit about not being able to touch the string barriers around several of their official buildings.
On the 15th the Club held their Christmas Dinner at Loch Fyne in Woburn. A good night was had by all, (but the quiz was a bit haphazard & I'm not too sure about the President's singing voice either, but it's supposed to be the season of goodwill!)
On Christmas Eve we organised our usual Carol Service in the High Street. Once again the Salvation Army supplied the music and the lead to the singing and, once again, we were able to arrange to have Santa Claus to pass out sweets to the children, ably assisted by one of his elves. Once again the people of Leighton & Linslade dug deep into their pockets which meant we were able to raise over £2000 for charity. After the service it was back to Alan's house for mulled wine & mince pies, though after a while it did make countingthe proceeds rather difficult.

November

We had a Ladies night on the 12th as we were due to have a chat with Paul Davis & Sally Phipps from the South Beds NSPCC. Unfortuantely Paul couldn't make it so the duty fell on Sally.
On the 19th we were paid a visit by Brian Doggerel, the 2007 District Governor. He told us all about the welcoming event in the States that all Incoming DG's have to attend, where they are presented with their DG Jackets.
The new Grove Theatre in Dunstable was the venue for an evening out that was organised by Tony. We went to see The Beauty & the Beast on ice. It was a good evening, and also a good new theatre - smaller than Milton Keynes, but it seems a bit more adaptable.

October

On Monday October 1st we were treated to an evening with our own intrepid birdmen - Gary & Nick.
They'd responded to a call from the Rotary Club of Wolverton for maniacs, sorry, volunteers to take part in a sponsored Loop-the-loop in a glider. (the thought still brings tears to my eyes!). The Wolverton Club have been sponsoring a number of schools in Natal and this was the latest in their fund-raising events. (photos to follow)
The event was also mentioned in District 1260's newsletter.
Following a business meeting on the 8th, we had a Ladies Night on the 15th when the Greensand Trust were invited along to talk about the Ouzel Valley Project. We were shown a number of slides about the project which is aiming to open up recreational space in the are of Leighton Buzzard.
For more information have a look at this link.
Rob Riddell gave us a talk on the 22nd. Although he hates all types of sport, he gave us an entertaining talk about the West Auckland football team winning the first World Cup and they still show the Thomas Lipton World Cup emblem on their website. It can be seen by following this link.
One of the main fund raising events of our year was held on the 29th in the form of the Brain Of Leighton Quiz.
48 teams from various clubs, businesses and organisations came to Cedar's School to pit their brain cells against each other to win the Stuart Fletcher Cup, which is given to the Brains of Leighton. This year the winning team (again) were St Barnabus 'A' team. Pictures are here, and scores are here.

September

The Leighton Linslade Bypass is due to be opened on September 14th and prior to that, the Club helped organise the Paul Dimmock Memorial Run with the Leighton Fun Runners and the Leighton Athletic Club. It comprised two runs (walks) - one of 5 miles and the other was a 2 mile fun (?) run/walk. In both runs we asked the entrants to raise sponsorship money with the profits going towards Paul's favourite charities - the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and the St John's Ambulance Brigade.
So early on the morning of September 9th, Tony & Gill, Dick & Sandra, Mike & Trudy, Mike West and Mary & Alan were on the new road handing out water to the runners.
Congratulations go to Giles & Joanna who both competed in the 5 mile & the 2 mile respectively.
On the 10th we were due to be visited by Andrew Selous but as there were a number of members absent it was decided to postpone his visit. Instead it was still decided to continue with the Wives evening but just have a social evening. This proved to be successful.
The following week, Derek organised a quiz based on road safety and the highway code.
September 24th saw us playing host to Andrew Green who is the Head Teacher of Cedars School. A discussion took place between Andrew and the members that ranged over various topics, but the main aim was for Andrew to find ways by which the school could help the local community. I believe he went away with several suggestions that he will investigate.

August

2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Scout movement, and there were various events occuring to celebrate it. The local Scouts meet at sunrise on August 4th at Whipsinade to renew their Scout promise, followed by a hot breakfast. Several of our intrepid members (Dick & Sandra, Mick & Gill and Alan B) were on hand to cook the sausages and bacon which went down exceedingly well at that un-earthly hour.
Wendy Coertze from the Rickmansworth club paid us a visit on Monday August 13th. She came to tell us about her sponsored car rally to Rome late last year. The aim was to travel from UK to Rome in a car that cost no more than £100 which must also be taxed, insured and have a valid MOT certificate. Wendy was doing it in aid of ShelterBox and she managed to raise almost £4,000 even though she didn't actually make it to Rome.
President Alan Bradley also presented Peter White with a couple of bottles of wine to help him celebrate his 80th birthday that occurred recently.
We were treated to a slide and video show on the 20th when the District Governor Elect, Les Lee, paid us a visit to tell us about his escapades as a motor racing marshall. He came suitably "suited-n-booted" in his marshall outfit and we had quite an entertaining evening.

July

The start of the main holiday period saw reduced numbers through the month. I was away for the first two meetings, one of which was Alan's first business meeting.
On the 23rd we had a visit from Steve MacAleese from Omron Healthcare. An interesting evening, which resulted in us confirming that we were all still alive (or at least the members who were there). Steve brought a number of medical testing instruments that we had fun trying out (with various results).
He also donated a blood pressure monitor to the Club, so that will probably be used at our Health Awareness day () next year. A few of us are also utilising the step-o-meters that he also donated.
Over the weekend of July 28/29 a number of us went to the concerts in Woburn. It was quite interesting to hear them saying on Monday "Oh - were you there as well !!"
One of our regular contestants at the Brain of Leighton Quiz paid us a visit on the 30th. Janet Blake, who is a member of the successful Age Concern organisation came along to tell us about her fund raising and Age Concern MK in general. (I'm wondering if she's lost the image of Jimmy Tarbuck in his suspenders from her mind). A bit of a thought-provoking evening as several of us can envisage using some of the services/facilities provided.

June

On June 21st, President Alan, Peter Priggen & Dick Johnson joined members of the South Beds branch of NSPCC at Woburn Abbey. Here, we were presented to the Duchess of Bedford who, in turn, presented the Club with a certificate of appreciation from the Board of Trustees of the NSPCC. Pictures of the event can be found here.
We had a wives night on June 18th when we were joined again by Nigel Stroften who gave us an excellent evening of wine tasting.
On the 30th, we held the Presidential Hand-over at Garden Leys. Luckily we had our new marquee erected so we had somewhere to shelter from the rain that poured most of the evening. Main honours went to the two Mikes (Birdseye & Rowland) who spent most of the evening sheltering under a gazebo looking after the barbeques. Outgoing President Alan thanked the Club for their support during the past eventful year which saw the culmination of the NSPCC project and the 20th anniversary Ball amongst other notable events through the year. The Presidential Collar (and the baseball hat!) were then passed over to Incoming President Alan.

May

Highlight of the month, indeed the year was our May Day Fayre. Although the weather gods weren't too kind on us again this year, we were still able to raise more than £5,500 and we have had a lot of encouraging comments from a number of our contributors. Several ideas have arisen to try and make next year's event evem better. On the darts environment, the 'B' team came up against the St Albans team. Unfortunately no-one appeared able to hit the doubles and St Albans wound up the winners over the night 2 games to 1. It was a similar situation when playing Hemel Hempstead - losing again 2 - 1. (don't think we'll be in the finals this year!)

April

On April 16th we were paid a visit by Brian & Mike, two members of the Thame Witchert Club who were touting for attendees to the Eurotary87 event in Oxford in September. Eurotary87 is a group of Rotary Clubs who were chartered in 1987 and meet every year. The event will take place over the weekend September 21-23 and details can be found here..

The next day the Club's B Darts Team took on the Harpenden Village Club in the annual darts competition. This year we started off well by winning the first three games. Not bad considering that Harpenden Village had beaten their previous two opponents - could this be our year ?? The 'A' Team have also been playing and have won two of their games, against Luton & Aylesbury 100's, but lost their game against Chesham - the score in all three matches being 3-1.

Ian MacGregor, chairman of Leighton Town Football Club was our guest speaker on the 30th. He told us about the history of the club and all their successes. The general census of the evening was that next season we could possibly sponsor a match, which would enable the members to go along to see a game. Should be a good evening out.

March

The month started off with the Club celebrating the 20th anniversary of receiving our charter.
To mark this event we held a Ball at Woburn's Sculpture Gallery. Over 180 members, spouses and guests had a great night of eating, dancing and socialising. To mark the impact he had on the formation of the Club, Peter White was presented with a decanter. On top of this we also raised over £4,000 for the NSPCC. Highlight of the evening was when Derek Hardman, Peter Priggen and Mike West were all presented with Paul Harris Fellowships.
The following weekend five couples went over to Lesquin to help them celebrate their 20th anniversary. We spent Friday evening in Brugge and then on Saturday travelled over to Lesquin to meet our hosts for the weekend. A dinner dance on the Saturday evening was held at Le Hameau de la Becque, a restuarant in Avelin just outside Lille. The function was attended by several Clubs and guests and we were treated to an interesting cabaret event that consisted of a famous French TV chef who is also famous for writing poetry. He spent about 30mins reciting his poems. On Sunday morning we were taken into Lille to visit the birthplace of Charles DeGaulle which has been turned into a museum. Following this we made our way to a restuarant outside the town where we were treated to lunch before making our way back to the various departure points to go back over/under the Channel.
On March 26th, we were paid a visit by Charles Chaney, 1260's District Governor.

February

On the first Monday of February, we met with the other service clubs in the area at Tilsworth Golf Club. Here we listened to a hypno-therapist talking about relaxing.
Feb 19th saw us hosting Steve Stokes, who is the Town Council's new Senior Citizen Project Coordinator, and was talking to us, and getting ideas for the new initiative for use of the Duncombe Drive centre. The following Monday, (26th) we met with our wives to listen to Derek talking about what brought him to Leighton Buzzard. Little did we know that we had a pop star in our midst!. Perhaps we could encourage Derek to star at our forthcoming Anniversary Ball.

January

We say the New Year in with the usual monthly business meeting.
On the 15th we had a Wives Night and invited Matt from Mead Open Farm. He'd never spoken in public before, but gave us a good insight into how Mead Open Farm came into existence, some humourous anecdotes of some of their "Themed Events", as well as his plans for the future.
During our meeting on Jan 22nd we inducted Gary into the Club. The zone's ADG, Bernard Pritchard, also welcomed him into the Rotary family on behalf of the District 1260. After that ceremony, Nick updated us on his new role in a service provider.
In the early hours of Friday (26th) morning, 11 members and their wives met at Giles' to get a coach to Luton Airport, for a planned weekend break in Rome. To see some pictures of the weekend go here

Past diaries

To see what we have been doing over the years, look here 2005 or 2006 for our past activities.