Wow! Another year has nearly gone. This will be the final Newsletter for 2019 and as our outing this month was the Xmas Party, the Newsletter mainly concentrates on this event. I was selecting photos to include and realised that the males in attendance would not have been out of place at a luau (did I hear someone mention a “bad shirt” party?) I also noticed that everyone appeared to enjoy themselves. Thanks to Paul and Jeanie for supplying the new venue – what a fantastic facility.

For most of us, Christmas is a time when sometimes distant families are reunited, if only briefly and as the sub-editor and myself will be far away from our computer until after mid-January, the next edition of the Newsletter will not be until late that month. We couldn’t neglect those members who were born in January and so our Social Secretary Gwelma has included those members in her report for this month. There will be a January Newsletter, it will just be a bit later than usual. Please email any reports of unofficial outings, catches, events or any matters of interest to my usual address.

Even though many believe that the original Christian significance of Christmas has been diminished due to crass commercial greed and the fact that religion plays a lesser role in the lives of most people, there is no doubt that Christmas is still a special time of year for all of us. There have been many great films made about the power of Christmas that are shown on our televisions every festive season, I guarantee you’ll see “It’s a Wonderful Life” shown on some channel this Christmas. However, I love military history and one of my favourite films is “Joyeux Noel”. You won’t see it on television as there is no happy ending but it tells the true story of men on both sides of the Great War who knew that in December 1914 Christmas was still a special time of year and British and German troops emerged from the trenches to exchange beer and biscuits, and kick a soccer ball about, in a makeshift Christmas truce. Although it was followed by four more years of slaughter, the power of Christmas overcame enmity for a short time.

If you are travelling over the holiday period please take extra care; drive like every other driver on the road is a fool who wants to kill you. If you’re on the water, there will be extra water craft out there and many of them inexperienced so the same advice applies, drive like they are all jet skiers and you won’t go wrong.

Have a great Christmas, enjoy it and be kind to each other.

Tight lines,
Iain

View/download December 2019 edition