Christmas

To all our readers may we wish you 

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 and hope to see many of you at the Frostbite Day ( Don't forget its the 27th ) though the way the weather is going there won't be much sailing what with the ice, snow  and the cold.

We are getting the jobs for Secretary and Members Rep sorted and hope to have everything ready for the new year, its the kind of job that's all rush at the beginning of the year with the renewal of memberships and badges and then hopefully it settles down a bit and by the following year we will have had plenty of practice.

Must say though we have had plenty of support from the outgoing secretary !

Reprieved

Was up early to take Pepe to the Vets this morning and it had been snowing in the night so we set off early to get to the Vets for 9-00am 

Snowed up

The main roads had been gritted so it was al-right once we got out of the side roads and got there miles too early and had to wait for the vets to open !.

After sitting there a while the nurse came out and told me the surgeon had phoned and  couldn't make it as his wife had been taken ill this morning, my wife says I'm too cynical but as the vet lives on the Wirral I wouldn't have blamed him if it was the weather that had kept him at home !

He is going to phone with other dates we can manage later on.

Pepe has a problem with his offside rear knee so has to have it done, though he isn't in any pain at the moment so another date for the op will be al-right and will not spoil his Christmas festivities

Christmas nearly here

We went to Hyde Shopping mall on Thursday, if you've been there you will know its only small

 ( but perfectly formed) 

Their Christmas decorations are very nice and COLOURFUL ! which is in my opinion much better than the all silver ones in other places these days.

Bleak mid-winter

Went to the lake yesterday for a bit of lunch and a chat with any club members who might have been as daft as us being there, there weren't so what does that say about us!. still had a chat with some friends of Etherow in the Cafe so it wasn't a wasted journey and its out isn't it

Deserted

Don't see this very often at Etherow at 2-00pm do you 

As you can see the lake is still frozen over to quite a depth and there is supposed to be more bad weather on the way at weekend so its not going to thaw out any time soon is it.

Makes you think why Model railways are so popular doesn't it , there again they must get the points frozen and leaves on the track!.

The Village Christmas Tree at the Post Office looking nice and festive 

 On a more festive note here is the tree at the entrance to the park 

The new seats

After my mate Bob mentioned the seats were too narrow I've redone them and now look a lot better , good to have that person looking over your shoulder to keep you in line !.

The wider seats and lockers

Get your feet off the seats !

The family

In position on boat

The power battery will be stored under the seating well so has to be removeabell

Now on to something else !. 

The Road to Recovery

As Velda felt a little better yesterday she was like a caged Tigress and wanted to get out of the house, so it was get well wrapped up and off to Etherow,a bit of shopping on the way and whipping from the car park at the lake straight into the cafe for a bit of lunch.( no sitting outside with the smokers now !)

Met some of our park friends in there and they gave us all the park news ie the Egyptian goose that we all known had got trapped in the ice and by the time the wardens had broken the ice to it found it was too far gone to save, for those of you who don't know what one looks like here is an earlier picture I took.

On the happier note here are some other pictures of the park wildlife.

That's not shivering with the cold, its pure terror as the birds come too close 

Most of the lake still frozen over but still too cold to sit still on the landing stage yet anyway

So after a short but enjoyabell stay it was home to the fireside and a bit of painting on my boat.

I know I've spelt "Enjoyable" wrong but its a standing joke with my mate Bob Abell

The AGM

Though we missed the AGM at the club through Velda being quite ill , we heard the next day that we had been voted in ,  Velda as Secretary  and me as Members Rep so its 

to us.

I received some photos of the award presentations which I've put on the Club Blog so if you missed the awards check here

http://etherowmodelboats.blogspot.com/

Awards to be added to photos as soon as I get them.

Now we are on the committee I will be able to keep the both Blogs I manage more up to date with events and things going on around the Club and the park, when Velda gets better that is