10th November - Northern Lights Dinner and Disco

We had quite a good journey to Bradford today - it only took 40 mins. Perhaps it's a good job I didn't drive as I'm sure it would have taken much longer by using the A roads. Our room this year was better than last year, but the view wasn't good - we overlooked a brick wall! I went down to the dining room early to see if any help was needed and ended up working on the reception getting people's details as they came in. It was good to see so many familiar faces. Eventually we were told that dinner was ready so we took our places at the tables. I sat with Kay and Brian. The other people on our table turned out to be quite friendly - some of them had travelled quite a long way to get to the party. The meal was very good - I had melon for starters, chicken with apricot stuffing for main course and chocolate gateau for dessert. The meal was followed by speeches. Keith thanked Paul and Paula for all the hard work they had put into running Northern Lights for the past 7 years. They were surprised and pleased to see their pastors who had come specially to present them with their leaving gifts.
After the speeches, we moved into the bar whilst the tables were moved ready for the disco. Chris and I had a go at doing some tango whlist the dance floor was empty - I think we did quite well. I then went out to the bar to encourage some more people to join us in the disco. The DJ put on some fast rock and roll music and I had a dance with Pete. I didn't realise until tonight what a good dancer he is - he certainly managed to keep up with the pace of the music. Later on in the evening I danced ceroc with Chris and Tim. The disco finished with a conga around the dance floor. We were still wide awake when the disco ended so we sat in the bar for a while chatting. We eventually went up to our rooms at about 2am. It was a great night - we certainly felt that all the effort we had put into organising the evening was worthwhile.