Category Archives: Social

Bobservation No. 134: Call My Bluff Wine Quiz

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Call my bluff wine quiz
Nick Hughes and I started this event to raise funds for the Social Committee. Through the years we have been supported by Quaff, Wine Rack and Tesco among others.
Initially we were helped by a friend of Nick’s but as it developed we did more of the organisation and pricing ourselves.

Call My Bluff Wine Quiz evenings have been held in the village hall, in the marquee at the annual village fair at various private homes, at Preston Nomads and at the Shepherd & Dog.
The ethos has been to keep the cost of admission as low as possible whilst enabling the guests to enjoy good wines and perhaps even learn a little about wine. The largest number of places we ever sold was 96 in the marquee.

We have tried to keep the inebriation at an acceptable level but I must confess on a few occasions it has ended up as a bit of a party. The three quizzers have been assisted by a crib sheet for each of the wines and allowed to embellish this as much as they care to.

I have personally had a great deal of pleasure presenting this evening and have descended into barely acceptable Limerick poetry at times.
Over the years we have raised quite a lot of money for the Social Committee.

Lastly, I wish the Village Hall fund raisers every success in their latest edition next month, of what, I hope, has become something of a Fulking tradition.

Call My Bluff Wine Evening – 7th November 6:30-10:30pm, Fulking Village Hall.

Village Hall Survey

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Fulking Village Hall Survey

Fulking_Village_Hall_posterizedPlease complete a short survey by 31st January to help shape future activities and improvements at Fulking Village Hall….or paste this link into your browser: https://forms.gle/xeiUdJYrdgb6ETTH9

Your feedback is really important to help develop the hall into a permanent and valuable asset for everyone in our community of local villages.

Please also Save The Date for the Open Day at Fulking Village Hall on 11th January.

Bobservation No. 123: Mortality

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Back & White image of Call my Bluff panellists with John Prescott's head replacing Fank MuirMortality
The death of John Prescott will matter very differently to many of you. On the one hand a great symbol of the rise of the working class in British politics and on the other as an ignorant, uneducated man. I happen to be in the former category and recall some of his great vociferations in the House of Commons, his dedication to the cause of democracy and being a larger than life figure that now and then appears on the political scene. In a way his death serves as a reminder to us all that however long and important a life may be it is but a brief flutter in the course of time. As I get older, without having achieved the fame of John Prescott, I can look back with great pride at my small involvement with the marvellous village of Fulking and the many friends I have made there.

Call my Bluff evening
Now, having a really successful ‘Call my Bluff’ wine evening was always one of the highlights of the Social Committee’s year but Sally and Jenny, ably assisted by the generosity of Majestic and all the others who put in so much work on the evening raised an incredible £1000+. This will greatly help to cover some of the outgoings that are so necessary to keep the ageing village hall going. Mrs Ormsby-Gore asked me to congratulate Geoff on winning the quiz!

Bobservation No. 122: Call My Budget Bluff

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The Budget
Now, depending on your political affiliation, you may have your own thoughts on Rachel Reeves’ Budget.
So far as I am concerned and ignoring everything else the National Health Service must come first. Not only are we all served by a fine and dedicated staff but the degree of care and kindness is quite exceptional. The bonus is that this is the foundation of the welfare state, in many ways the envy of most civilised countries worldwide.  Having suffered from lack of proper investment for many years, it will be interesting to see how quickly the waiting lists can be reduced.

Call my Bluff Evening
Sally may still have a few tickets left for the Call my Bluff wine evening on Friday November 8th in the village hall.
In the past we have had some riotous evenings and there is no reason why this one should not be very good fun.
It requires little or no knowledge of wines! Regrettably old age prevents me from attending but Mrs Ormsby-Gore joins me in wishing you all a very good evening.

Bobservation No.121: Participation

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Cropped and rotated partial image of fun day poster - blue text on white

Fulking Fun Day
What a successful day this should have been. Weather not too bad and input by the Social Committee and other villagers very good indeed. I suppose the highlight has to be the Steel Band with our very own SallyAnne performing with great skill and energy! BUT the attendance was really pretty poor considering the effort that had been generated. It has been a problem for many years and it is hard for me to suggest something that would encourage more villagers to attend. In the past the Fulking Fair managed to attract big numbers probably because it was supported by the RSPCA dog show, advertised to the general public and had car parking in the immediate vicinity. So if these purely village events are to continue some ideas are required to encourage Fulking residents to attend. If you have an idea please contact the Social Committee.

Quotations Group
The Quotations Group was originated by Samantha and is still chaired by her most skilfully. We meet in the village hall every Monday morning to discuss a subject agreed from the previous week. Regular attendance is between seven and ten adults. In an interesting way I like to think we have become good friends and the discussions are very open! Meetings start at 11am and generally last for about an hour and a half. All villagers are welcome.

Bobservation No. 120: Bluffing

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Call my Bluff
I understand that the Social Committee will be having a ‘Call my Bluff’ wine evening in November. Having been involved over quite a long time in previous evenings I am delighted that this very social fund-raising event is still going strong. The first time we ever had one was twenty odd years ago and it was hosted by the Wine Rack staff from Henfield. Indeed I still bump in to Jackie who was part of the team that evening in the village hall. Since then we have learnt to put together the requisite pieces to operate with a minimum of outside help. If you enjoy wine and are looking for an amusing evening this is for you and your friends. Details should be circulated shortly.

Village Hall
Doesn’t it seem a long time since we heard anything from the Parish Council about progress, or lack of it, on the potential purchase of the village hall from the Church? Even by the pace at which the Church of England moves surely something must be happening. Parish Council please bring villagers up to date.

Bobservation No.119: Merch

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FULKING Totebags, Tea towels and Mugs
This seems an opportunity to remind everyone of the very acceptable three items for sale in the accompanying display. All of these are very well made and excellent value. Sarah has quite a few in stock but these will probably be sold quite quickly. I do urge you to take advantage of this chance to put away some family and friends maybe Christmas presents at very reasonable prices. Unfortunately the cost of producing a T shirt with a similar logo is preventing the making these available at an attractive price. If there was sufficient demand it might be worth considering.  I would certainly get one!

A thought…
As I get nearer to meeting Don Bradman, my thoughts turn to the great difference ageing can have depending, to a large extent, on how your cards are dealt.  On the one hand you may keep your marbles, or most of them, and be restricted physically and on the other suffer from mental deterioration but remain pretty fit. I know friends who fall into either category and, personally, I consider myself lucky to fall into the former group. This is an opinion others may not share!

Bobservation No:118 Hear! Hear!

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Yellow and black circular logo of Action for DeafnessDeafness
I find that many people are unaware that deafness can be greatly ameliorated by NHS hearing aids. These are free and probably just as good as the expensive ones on offer from the private sector. I have found that Action for Deafness ,who are a partner with the NHS, are very understanding and kind and will attend to hearing problems free of charge. They are based in Haywards Heath and can be reached on 01444 415582.

Summer Fun day
Regrettably but very wisely postponed until September due to the very inclement weather forecast. However the tea and cakes in the village hall went ahead, enthusiastically lead by Tricia who seems to get younger every year!. Beautiful cakes created by villagers and a delightful number of consumers including two Parliamentary candidates (yes two!). What a wonderful mix of wealth (and lack of it!), ethnicity, age and enthusiasm Fulking has become.

Henfield Open Gardens
We opened our garden on June 8 & 9  from 11am till 5pm not really knowing what to expect. We pretty soon found out exact counting of visitors was impossible but a sensible guesstimate was around 250/300 people over the two days. Our donation bucket in aid of St Barnabas Hospice collected £135, Pam was inundated with compliments over what she has achieved and by closing time on Sunday we were both absolutely shattered !  Many thanks to our friends from Fulking who came to look; our 30+ years at Furzefield in Clappers Lane have left us with a marvellous sense of belonging to Fulking village.

Bobservation No. 115: Legislation and Quotations

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Anticipated Legislation
The recent failure of most, if not all, of the water companies to prevent unacceptable amounts of sewage being regularly discharged into rivers, lakes and the beaches of Britain have caused the Government, so I am given to understand, to bring about imposing legislation to force these companies to drastically improve their performance in these areas. I am told that funding will fall 50% on the companies and 50% on their customers. Accordingly water companies will be restricted to declaring dividends of 0.01% maximum and water rate charges will have to increase substantially. To achieve this increase there will be three main areas that will bear the brunt. These will be private houses with swimming pools, saunas and garden hoses. The proposed charges will be £10,000 p.a. for swimming polls, £9,000 for saunas and £2,000 for garden hoses. As well as this the proposed legislation will enable HMRC to increase these amounts by however much is necessary to achieve cleanliness in our rivers, lakes and beaches. It is thought unlikely that anyone will object to such socially acceptable legislation. 1/4/24

Quotations Group
Meeting on Monday mornings at 11am in Fulking village hall, the Quotations group is a chance for discussion for adult villagers and ex-villagers in friendly surroundings. Very ably lead by Samantha Leader a subject is chosen by mutual agreement and discussed the following week. A voluntary donation of £1 each week covers tea and Samantha’s marvellous shortbread. Quotations relevant to the chosen subject are invited and are collated and printed out each Monday to be read out at the meeting. This is an informal get together and a very good way to meet other local residents.