10 pin bowling with church 20/02/2014

Went 10 pin bowling at Trethorne for the first time in what must be 10 years!

The company was wonderful and it was a fun evening. Stella and Lainie were in attendance as well as it was half term.

What I did find surprising was how you forget how to do such a simple thing as chuck a ball accurately at 10 pins! What is that all about? Sue and I were crap on the first game but at least I tied the second with Mervyn but only with 101 pins. When we were playing regularly I would have hung my head in shame at that score so will not even tell you what I got in the first game!!!

We had a lovely meal between games, not that I really needed it being on a diet.

Below are a couple of pictures taken by Rachel who must be thanked for organising such a fun time for all!

What a mixed bag of friends?

Lainie ready for action!

Flood Relief Concert 15/02/2014 raising £8000

Due to the amount of flooding on the Somerset Levels and the longevity of it the decision was made by Launceston MVC and 4 other choirs to do a charity concert (suggested in the first place by Chris Hitchins) to try to raise some funds for the victims.
I think I can safely say that the support and generosity was astounding considering it was arranged in less than a week and raising a staggering £8000!
I am going to put on here a picture and report from the local paper and a news item from the choirs website!

http://www.launcestonmalevoicechoir.co.uk/support_news.html

Chris Hitchins is front row second from left, I am on there so look?

LAUNCESTON MALE VOICE CHOIR

PRESENTATION OF £8000 CHEQUE TO THE ADDINGTON FUND

Ian Bell of the Addington Fund was presented with a cheque for £8000 by Brian Jennings, Chairman of Launceston Male Voice Choir on Wednesday 5th March 2014, to help the victims of the floods on the Somerset Levels.

£7000 was raised through a combined impromptu concert by five Cornish male voice choirs, and the Tetcott Ladies choir, all arranged in under a week, Lynne Pett from the Launceston branch of Barclays Bank also presented a cheque for £1000 from the Bank’s Charity fund to this very worthy cause.

“All of those taking part have been overwhelmed by the generosity and support we have received. Bringing together six choirs, totalling over 120 voices to perform a two hour concert in a matter of days was no small feat” said Brian Jennings. “With the magnificent support from our our choir friends from Burraton (Saltash), Tintagel, Pelynt, Liskerrett (Liskeard) and The Tetcott Ladies, we thrilled a packed house, who gave more much needed cash. We have also received many large anonymous donations”.

Ian Bell assured the choir members present that ‘every penny’ of the monies raised would be spent on flood victim support, both now and in the aftermath, as this tragedy is likely to last for at least another year or more.

Most of the choir members have very close connections with the farming community, and as such, although not involved, wanted to ‘do something special’ just to show those who had suffered so much that they too cared.

The Gathering! Frome 08 & 09/02/2014

Well for the first time in six and a half years we were all together again! That is the five children of Thelma and Dick Cotterill, yes even Rob appeared with Keaton! Hell he has grown, well I suppose that a young man of 20 would! You do not realise how time goes on when you see so little of them over the years!
We all met at the Premier Inn at Frome which has a public house attached called the Frome Flyer. This is very necessary as far as our family is concerned with the amount of alcohol we seem to consume when we get together. It was mostly a very pleasant evening except for the usual suspect and his nasty snide remarks toward me that as usual I chose to ignore rather than give him the satisfaction of rising to his "bait".
The rest is told in pictures!

The Five of us Cotterill Siblings

The 5 with Keaton.

Keaton was taking the photo and this is the rest of those attending.

Weight, Angina and secrecy!

Well now that Sue knows I suppose the rest of the world might as well!

I went to the doctors on the 7th January as my angina had been giving me some trouble since mid December. Not wanting to worry anyone until after Christmas I decided to keep it to myself and covertly take the spray as and when required! Well I found that quite easy so after going to the doctors decided to continue keeping it to myself.
That was OK except that the doctor had told me that having put on about 4 stone (had gone up to 19st 2lb or 122kg in foreign money) since giving up smoking about 2 years ago it was putting too much of a strain on my heart and to lose 2 stone very quickly OR she was going to have to arrange a bypass operation! If I did not I was going to be "kicking up daisies" sooner rather than later (general gist of conversation, my words not hers)! Also I was very strictly told not to do anything that was going to cause me the slightest stress until I had at least lost the 2 stone and reduced the blood pressure. Ummmm, how do you do that when you have a 9 year old child to entertain after school and still keep it to yourself?
Well tried it for 3 weeks and all was going quite well until I really did feel ill and felt close to passing out one day when playing with Lainie, so after that I decided I had better spill the beans to Sue. I had even lost 6lb in weight!!!!

To Be Cont..............As of today (05/03/14) it looks like I will have plenty of time to! explanation follows!