ROLL UP! ROLL UP! Midlands area Christmas Dinner/Get-together: Friday 3rd December

[LunarSea]

Midlands area Christmas Dinner is booked - please come along and join us.

Date: Friday 3rd December
Time: 8pm
Place: Bear Inn, Berkswell
Location: Close to J6 of M42, near the NEC - see map here
Cost: £19.99

Menu:

Roasted Cherry Tomato & Butternut Squash soup laced with Basil (served with half a crusty baguette & butter) OR Smoked Salmon, Creme Fraiche & Crab Parcel (served with brown bread and butter) OR Warm Salad of Crispy Duck, Walnuts, Spinach & Pomegranate (with a balsamic raspberry vinaigrette) OR Port & Stilton Rarebit (garnished with cherry tomatoes)

Traditional Turkey & Honeyed Ham (served with sage & onion stuffing, bacon, chipolata sausage, cranberry & bread sauces)
OR
8oz Sirloin Steak with Bearnaise sause
OR
Fresh Haddock set on Walnut & Stilton crushed new potatoes (garnished with wilted herbs, capers, cherry tonmatoes and rocket pesto)
OR
Half a Roast Duckling (served with a winter berry and cassis sauce)
OR
Mediterranean style roasted Vegetables, Spinach & Brie Calzone (a folded pizza parcel filled with vegetables, olives, spinach & cheese)

All served with a selection of fresh seasonal vegetables

Christmas Pudding & Brandy Sauce OR Festive Berry Pavlova OR Tarte au Citron (served with a raspberry coulis)

Coffee, mini mince pies & Bittermints

Accomodation nearby: Travel Inn at Balsall Common - we should be able to fix transport to/from if people want to stay overnight.

HOWEVER... I do need deposits (£10 each) by next Thursday to confirm the booking. We may be able to add extra people on to the booking later, if they still have spaces, but no guarantees. I will also need your menu choices in advance of the meal (although not necessarily as early as next week.

Can anyone who wants to come either CAT me or send an email to
Midlands_Xmas AT mail2uk DOT com
and I'll get back to you with details of where to send cheques to.

Probables so far:
jampot (Solihull)
NomDePlume (Worcester)
GeorginaA (Worcester)
LunarSea (Leamington Spa)
Ailsa
Ronniebaby (Tamworth?)
MumtoLaura
whimsy (North Birmingham)
clary (Derby)
CHRIZ (South Birmingham)
Mum2girls (Coventry)
MadameButterfly (Burton?)
Lavender2 (Cambridge)

GeorginaA maybe the one which has an automatic focus!!!! (your eyesight might beome distorted as the night goes on )...sorry but am dead excited and am just being silly...lookinf forward to meeting you btw

hi there ladies

cant make up my mind either what to wear,glad some of you are bringing cameras still cant work out how to use mine yet lol

see you there at 8pm that correct

oooo now he xmas names are coming out, excellent

They both have autofocus

Think I'll take the small point and shoot one though, so I can be more surreptitious getting candid shots

might be wearing skirt, top and my sparkley shoes...wont wear trousers as don't have any ones except jeans.

Right then, I am going to come tomorrow as far as Bump (Roo) will let me.

Jampot is going to ring up and pay my deposit just in case Roo makes an appearance.

So hopefully see you all tomorrow.

Oh & I'll be in a frock, as most of my clothes dont fit me anymore

Lunar - Ive just spoken to The Bear and booked Ronnie in. They say they had original depoisits of £80 plus an extra £10 so have only booked for 9 places. Dont worry though as I have explained it should now be for 11 inc RB. He said it will sort out on the night - dont know if you want to do a quick check on deposits taken

JP- they should have had an original £80, plus 2 extra lots of £10 (Lavendar2 and Ray1) paid direct to them, plus now RB. 11 in all. I'd guess that they've probably counted one of the extra ones as seperate bookings, rather than as part of our group.

JP - Thanks a million, you're a star xxxxx

What starter did you order???

Turkey & Xmas Pud (yum yum) cant wait

By the way Ronnie - they didn't want a deposit for you he said it was okay to sort on the night.x

I ordered Port & Stilton Rarebit (garnished with cherry tomatoes)

ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKKK

As long as you lot eat it.

Oh no it means I have to go to the bank tomw get some money

Which one do you want me to have RB?

Dont like anoy of the starters so it dont matter

xx

hi there ladies

great you can make it RB

Yeh Chriz, all being well anyway.

By the way - baby is head down (yippppppeeeee) only 14 more days to go (well tomw anyway)

Looking forward to seeing you all tonight.

BTW I am wearing a skirt & top

Just popping in to wish you all a great night out, and hope that you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year.

RB - hope your pg continues to go well. Must be soon!

It's the Yorkshire meet tonight too!

Happy Christmas!

we'll speak to you all later! Don't get too drunk! Not rb of course, no going into labour!

Looks like you were all having fun when I popped by earlier.

Whilst (reluntantly) going to bed, ToddlerG (sorry, PreSchoolerG) was asking where mummy was. Don't quite think he understood the answer when I said she was 'in the Bear'!

If anyone took any pictures and want to share them, then the easiest way is probably to sign up with fotopic.net, upload the pics there, and then post a link here.

MrG (am I allowed to post here?)

Of course!

I hope everyone else had a great night last night. I am just in the process of uploading the photos taken onto a photobucket album (bit slow atm).

It was lovely to talk and be in touch with the Yorkshire meet up too - it sounds like you had a great time as well.