Minutes of SPG Meeting held at the Twin Farms pub on Thursday March 15^th 2018

Present: ARM, DA, M-CR, DR, BA, MA, CW, KW

Apologies: Phil Sloan, James Henry, Cath Ashcroft (on behalf of Tom)

    Having considered the personal and general impact of the recent cold and snowy weather (a.k.a. ‘The Beast from the East’, or what we used to simply call ‘Winter’), thoughts turned to spring, and Mary regaled us with a description of the amorous behaviour of her garden frogs – apparently up to 60 had been taking part in explicit conjugal activities. Further consideration of this somewhat disturbing wildlife news was interrupted by the arrival of drinks, including several pints of hoppy, American-style beer. This led David to reveal that he had in his younger days been a hop-picker – followed by the even more surprising admission that he had at one time sold brushes door-to-door. Having received this bombshell, members went on to digest the recent deaths of Prof. Stephen Hawking and the comedian Ken Dodd, with some discussion about which of the two had actually benefitted humankind the most, accompanied by recollection of some of Ken’s more risqué jokes.

       Members were pleased to hear about the celebrity of two of those present: Adrian is soon to have an exhibition of his work, and Kath had recently taken part in the Free Thinking event at the Sage. News of the improved form of the golfer Tiger Woods held out hope for all of us that the decline of our faculties was not inevitable, and David pointed out that indeed all of us could have ‘junior moments’ (i.e. occasionally recall dates, names and recent events). With this uplifting thought, the meeting concluded at 10.20 p.m. after members had finished their large pub dinners.