The emails were sent, the phone calls made, a notice put on the school website, the date time and venue picked or so we thought. An assembled group of ladies (unfortunately no men turned up this time) met up at Marco Polo's in Newcastle only to find the place closed up for re-furbishment.

There we were all dressed up and nowhere to go. We, that is Val (Shearer) Enid (Conway), Elaine (Robson), Elaine (Garvey), Ethel (Pattison), Brenda (Patterson) and myself Brenda (Joyce) decided to decamp to Pizza Express  across the street from Marco's. Being a very resourceful group and for any late comers we did leave a note of where we were and how to find us stuck to the door with an elastoplast supplied by Ethel (you know us women everything but the kitchen sink in our handbags) After a very funny start to the night it just got better and better - Elaine (Robson) told us all about her first holiday to Cyprus alone and of the lovely surprise when she got back. It transpired that Elaine has been entering the Evening Chronicle competitions and brought with her one of the prizes she had won. Talk about lucky dips for adults this was some prize - Val got first dip, into the bag she went and out came the most outlandish item of lingerie we had ever seen, not to be beaten another of the group went second and you've guessed it out came the lower half of the 'outfit' we were fit to burst with laughter and quess who got nominated to model the said outfit (on top of my clothes) that's right me. Mr Casey's deportment lessons came in very handy a pity they were ???? years too late.

On a quieter note Ethel who has recently retired told us all about her plans for her forthcoming cruise and holidays later in the year so we shall look forward to seeing her photos next time we meet up. As can be imagined when seven women get together the conversations will be diverse and very lively Tuesday being no exception - topics included gardening, craft fairs, jam making, holidays, beauty treatments, children and grandchildren to name but a few - we even had time to eat (the food was good too). The fact that Marco Polo's was closed turned out to be just a minor blip and everyone agreed that we had had a most enjoyable evening.