Wear Red for Ruby ... re-visited

Whilst I didn't win anything in the raffle :-(  I was thrilled to be part of this great fundraising event which raised £2400 for Ruby.

Well done to Kate, Lynn and others who worked so hard in all the planning and preparation, and especially on the day itself!!

Aiste and I got ourselves in the local paper, along with various other staff members and volunteers.  

TABLEtalk

It was our last TABLEtalk of 2014 last night - we watched the film 'Elf' and generally had a relaxing evening. This was a good thing as I'm kind of running on fumes right now.

This has been a fantastic term but doesn't seem to have slowed down at all since September.

This is also a time of year when we're again saying goodbye to people :-(  This is the least favourite aspect of my role!! Early in January we'll be losing many of our lovely Brazilian girls who have been such a fantastic support over this past year.  I thank them for their commitment to all of our different activities; and a HUGE THANK YOU goes to Rafaela who has been helping put together our promotional videos (more info coming soon).

Bring & Share

We all enjoy our occasional Bring & Share lunches ...

but you need to come prepared to be adventurous

and try new things!!!

Food is always the central point of the day;

closely followed by fun and games!

"Thankyou, Josephine for this wonderful
Nigerian dish." 

"Thank you, Basel and  mum Hoda, for this
scrumptious Jordanian dish -
called ozy."

Lynne's boring veggie pasta
(always appreciated by Joyce)

Thank you to everyone else who brought food along - Earl, for the HOT & SPICY beef dish, Joey for Chinese beef and potatoes (one of my favourites), Aiste for the wonderful Lithuanian pancakes, Terry & Jo for the canapes; plus the chapatis & curry, biryani, etc, etc ...

On the right is Hoda's beautiful cake - basbousa.

"Basel, it was so lovely to meet your mum."
"Hoda, thank you for coming and being part of our international family."

Juhi and Vino

"Thank you, Aiste, for my lovely candle!"

World Cafe Christmas

World Cafe each week is always a popular event with students and highly thought of by staff. Here we are enjoying our Christmas event, with extra special goodies to eat :-)


Thank you Bert, Jennie and Catherine for all their help in serving!!



Watch out Aiste ... it's the 'Elf & Safety man!!!

TABLEtalk Christmas Party

I think it would be safe to say that great fun was had by all 75 students and volunteers at this year's TABLEtalk Christmas party!!  Christmas hat wearing was strongly encouraged and the challenge was taken up by many ... 

No doubt this is a Christmas hat in some country?! 

Frank & Lynda score extra points for Christmas hats and jumpers!!

Many thanks to those who came early and helped move tables and chairs and prepare food - willing volunteers are always greatly appreciated :-)

To aid digestion, eating was followed by some enthusiastic singing of 'The 12 Days of Christmas'.

Then it was time to use up some energy and burn off some calories with a raucous game of 'Horses, Knights & Cavaliers'. (Thank the Lord, we didn't have to visit A&E!!!)

HORSES

KNIGHTS

CAVALIERS

Later in the evening we re-visited 'The 12 Days of Christmas' but this time using our own international TABLEtalk version which goes as follows ...

12 Brazilian nuts

11 Swiss chocolates

10 Turkish delights

9 wraps of fufu (Nigerian)

8 chicken curries

7 straw hats

6 pairs of chopsticks

5 candy canes

4 Spanish omelettes

3 pyramids

2 oliebollen (Dutch)

and a FREE trip to Mauritius!!!

Here are more general pics of the evening ...

'The Great Wall of China'

 

 

 

Thank you Sue, for leading us in some carol singing around the piano ...

And finally, we gathered around the tree for our gift exchange ... 

I would describe that part of our evening as organised chaos, but it was lots of fun :-)

Thank you AGAIN to all those who helped make the evening such a great success in many different ways. Ian and Sue and others beavered away with the washing up, whilst others enjoyed the fun.

What a great evening :-)