Spring Lunch 28 May 2019
Day outing 6 June 2019
Day outing 12 September 2019
We enjoyed a two course lunch with our wives and partners and widows of members.
A welcome drink on arrival, with quiet live background music on keyboard played by Keith Venn before lunch.
Following our lunch Keith continued to give attendees an opportunity to join in with songs we remember from our younger days. There was also a grand raffle. An excellent time to catch up with friends' news and events. All this for only £20 per person.
We left Ferring by coach at 9.00 to Camden Lock - a tranquil place in the heart of London.
Our driver dropped us off two minutes walk for our freshly cooked fish and chips lunch.
Following lunch we boarded a traditional canal boat to explore London's historic and picturesque Regents Canal. The trip lasted 90 minutes and went through the lock before sailing through London Zoo, Regents Park and a short tunnel to Robert Browning's island at Little Venice. A full length canopy was on the boat in case it rained!
Our coach returned us to Ferring. after the boat trip.
Inter-Club fun quiz 11 October 2019
We invited fellow local Probus Clubs from Goring, Littlehampton and West Worthing to a fun quiz at St Andrews Church Hall in Ferring.
Ten teams of six had a friendly and social competition with a break for some freshly cooked fish and chips from our local "chippy".
Fun prize for the winning team (booby prize for the lowest team score), a free draw guaranteeing a prize on every table made a good evening for all concerned. Only £10 per person included the fish and chips and a plastic knife and fork! But we did bring our own liquid refreshment (quizzes are thirsty work).
We left Ferring at 8.00AM for the Thames Valley in search of some of the Midsomer Murders localities.
We picked up our Blue Badge Guide, Marion, at Benson, swept through Wallingford on our way to Dorchester on Thames. We spent an hour there and at the Abbey/parish church we had a commentary about its 2000 year history and relics and time for a look around the lovely village houses. This took us to 1.15 PM and lunch at the George hotel, one of the 3 pubs in the village, all of which, like the Abbey, had featured in Midsomer Murders.
The area was well populated given there had been 357 murders in the locality (in the course of the programmes 20 seasons). Then it was off to Benson again to board the “Reading”, one of seven ships in the fleet, all named after towns in the area. The skipper and his mate took us down the Thames on a seven mile trip. We went through three locks, Benson, Cleeve and Goring, past the boatyards of Oxford University and Oxford Brookes. There were a number of students out rowing on the river on the long stretch between locks. . We saw 4 kingfishers, 4 red kites, 2 cormorants 2 rabbits and numerous Canada Geese. One bit of boating etiquette we learnt; those on a boat only wave to other passing boats, NOT to the people on the river bank!
The 90 minute journey brought us to our final destination, Goring on Thames. There we had a peek at the house once owned by George Michael, before boarding the coach for the journey home.