2025 Activity Reports
If you were there you can Reminisce
If you were not there you'll know what you Missed
If your NOT a member you can see what you're Missing! - Contact Addrienne Campbell-Lawrence for membership enquiries via the "Contact Us" tab above.
June 2025 Segway Tour Leeds Castle Grounds
Awaiting Report
Pictures Curtesy of Bob Abnett
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3rd June 2025 Tenpin Bowling
A nice group of 13 bowlers attended with when we welcomed 2 new bowlers David Brown and Ann Oakes a new member who we hope both will become regular members of our tenpin group.
Top scorers today were (over 100):
Ladies: Diane Huddart 103
Men: Dave Flexman 112
2nd June 2025 Bi-Monthly Walk
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Around 16 members joined Janet Leech (David was unable to attend this additional walk as some in the winter were cancelled due to inclement weather.
This walk was from Linton Hill to the Buttercups Goat Sanctuary at Boughton Monchelsea.
The walk was enjoyed by all who attended.
Photo's curtesy of Janet Leech
19th May 2025 Main Meeting
Our main meeting today was attended by 100 members and we were privileged to welcome Janie Ramsey - who provided a most interesting presentation entitled "For What it's Worth" and provided us with a detailed insight into how auctioneers come up with the value of an item. A most informative talk with many questions from our members after the presentation was concluded.
8th-9th May 2025 Mystery Tour with overnight stay to ??????????
The 2025 Mystery 2 day overnight break.
Having arranged mystery tours for several years in and around Kent and Sussex, I decided, partly due to the fact that I was running out of new places to attend, to take up the offer from Dunwood Travel of a two day Mystery Seaside break for just £219.
We soon got a full coach of members wanting to witness an overnight stay in some mystery hotel in the country, however I was concerned about the content of the two days that Dunwood said they would organise. I had always arranged the content, but now they were going to do it ! Leave it with us they would say, but I did have my concerns.
I was given a choice of three places to stay at, none of which were seaside locations, so I had to change the heading. I opted for The Holiday Inn Nottingham, which turned out to be a lovely clean and well-run hotel which really looked after us. So, on the morning, my first surprise was to see Daz our driver. He has become such a good friend to BeARA since our holidays to Torquay and Warners Cricket St Thomas recently, and I knew that he would pull out all the stops to make it a great mystery break. I also wanted to make this tour different from all the others, so firstly I got everyone on the coach to write down where they thought we would be staying that night, and secondly handed them all a bag of Haribo sweets for their enjoyment. As we got underway and made our way through the Dartford Tunnel out of Kent, there were several disappointed passengers who had thought that we were heading for the West country !
Our first stop was lovely Cambridge, and with the sun shining, some of us hired a Punt, whilst others boarded a hop on hop off bus, or just found a nice place to relax and get a sun tan ! After a 90-minute stop we boarded our coach for the next leg of our journey stopping at Downton Shopping Centre. We then headed for our hotel, our evening meal and a delightful evening of Cash Bingo and Quizzes in the bar area. The head chef, who had been looking after us with our delightful meal suddenly changed into our compere for the evening, calling out the numbers for our cash bingo. He did a few laughs when calling out "Two and Seven, Torquay in Heaven, Twenty Seven" He also arranged a voucher for a free nights accommodation at the hotel for one of the prizes, won by Ron and Addrienne Lawrence.
After a good nights sleep, and lovely cooked breakfast, we boarded the coach, and presented a bottle of Prosecco to Bev Sarjeant as the winner of our competition. Bev was the nearest having put Mansfield Nottingham on her slip of paper. Congratulations to her and husband John as it was also their wedding anniversary . As we got underway to our first stop of the day, Graham was selling raffle tickets for our charity. The prize was a £25 Boots the chemist voucher which was won by Shirley Vincett. Congratulations to her, and thankyou to all who took part, as over £50 was raised for this years charity.
Our first stop on day 2 was to Melton Mowbray, home to the famous Pork Pie. Lots of us purchased pies, as well as clothing from the local shops. We then continued south for our last stop of the day, the good old garden centre, before arriving back in Grove Green just after 5pm.
It was good to hear that so many of you enjoyed the break, and I am pleased that a good time was had by all.
What are we going to do next year, I hear you ask ! Well you will just have to wait and see !!!
Dave
6th May 2025 Tenpin Bowling
A small contingent of 9 bowlers and one supporter enjoyed our usual 3 games at Hollywood Bowl in Lockmeadow, Maidstone.
Top scores today were:
Ladies: Pauline Lock 109
Men: Peter Humphrey 133
4th May 2025 Trip to Starlight Express show at Troubadour Theatre, Wembley Park, London
A coach party of 53 members attended and enjoyed the fabulous show Starlight Express.
Photo is of 4 of our members who attended.
Photo curtesy of Pat Pither
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28th April 2025 Bi-Monthly Walk
A total of 11 members joined David & Janet Leech for our long awaited bi-monthly walk as 2 of the winter walks were cancelled due to predicted extreme inclement weather, this was not the case on this occasion as we enjoyed fabulous sunshine through out the walk.
We had a stop off at The Orchard Café that is part if the East Malling Research station for coffee and refreshments.
Our thanks to David & Janet for organising this walk.
27th April 2025 Starlight Express London Show
Awaiting Report
14th April 2025 Main Meeting
89 members enjoyed an afternoon of "A Musical Journey of Timeless Hits" provided by Geoff Stephens singing and playing guitar. with many members taking to the dance floor an enjoyable afternoon was had by all that attended.
3rd April 2025 Social Meeting
Social, Tea & chat with chocolates! Ned; the chocolatier from the Maidstone shop N2 Sweet Lab will be coming along; with some of his goodies; to tell us about himself and his work.for more information visit their website by Clicking Here.
1st April 2025 Tenpin Bowling
11 members enjoyed our monthly meetup with the top scores being:
Ladies: Unfortunately none of our ladies scored 100 today.
Men: Dave Flexman: 138
17th March 2025 Main Meeting David Allen "Blood, Guts & Gore in Victorian England"
As a deviation from our usual style of speaker or entertainer we welcomed David Allen who told us about an entirely true story of the circumstances surrounding the murder of Julia Martha Thomas by Kate Webster in 1879. With many theatricals and even some audience participation. Graphic details were verbally explained of how Julia Martha Thomas was murdered and her body dismembered and disposed of, although her skull was not found until 2010 during building works were being carried out for Sir David Attenborough.
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More information about this subject can be found by following this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Julia_Martha_Thomas
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The talk was very well received by 113 of our members, with one member recently upgraded to a full membership and attending her first main meeting emailed the committee with the following comments (part of original email) "I would just like to say that I was made to feel very welcome by many of the members, which I appreciated. The speaker was also very entertaining, I enjoyed it very much".
6th March 2025 Trip to Brick Lane Music Hall to see Pinocchio and his Wooden Whopper
A full coach of 53 members including 4 members from MaidARA attended the last performance that included a 3 course lunch for this year.
A very good lunch was provided followed by the Adult Panto "Pinocchio and his Wooden Whopper" providing a couple of of hours constant laughter.
4th March 2025 Tenpin Bowling
This month we had a respectable 14 members attend for our regular monthly session of 3 games. Our top scorers' were:
Ladies: Pauline Lock 118
Men: Dave Flexman 155
17th February 2025 A.G.M. Plus Fire Safety Talk.
As is tradition at our A.G.M. we have a shorter talk than our normal main meetings.
This year we were pleased to welcome Corinne from Kent Fire and Safety who provided us with some very useful tips and a power point presentation on preventing the outbreak of fire in the home, that was enjoyed by all.
After our tea coffee and biscuit break we then proceeded to have our Annual General Meeting.
We had 111 members present for this meeting.
Following our AGM our chairman received the following email from our speaker. Hi Dave,
Thanks so much for having me talk at your AGM last week, it was great how receptive members were to the tips and fantastic to see so many taking up the offer of home fire safety visits.
Please find a link here for booking visits, a member asked if this could possibly be shared in one of your communications. I have also copied in the secretary for info too.
Home fire safety visits | Kent Fire and Rescue Service
At the bottom of this webpage there is a self home safety check tool that can give tailored advice based on questions answered.
Many thanks
Corinne Kerbey
Education Intervention Officer | Education Intervention Team | Kent Fire & Rescue Service,
The Godlands, Straw Mill Hill, Tovil, Maidstone ME15 6XB
T: 01622 692121 Ext. 8780 | M: 07740515990
W: www.kent.fire-uk.org.
16th February 2025 Trip to ABBA Voyage
Just a few of the 53 of our members who travelled by coach to see the fantastic ABBA Voyage Concert 1:00pm performance.
What a fantastic experience with the ABBAtars taking a lifelike digital image of the ABBA members when they were in their heyday in the 1970's.
A must see for everyone our 2nd trip to this takes place on the 30th April 2025 for some of the members missing out on this outing.
Picture curtesy of Lee Skam.
6th February 2025 Social Meeting Beetle Drive
60 Members attended
Awaiting Full Report
4th February 2025 Tenpin Bowling
We had our regular Tenpin Bowling session at Hollywood Bowl, Lockmeadow, Maidstone, where we were slightly down on members attending this month to 10. The session was nevertheless enjoyable with our top scorers today being:
Ladies: Pauline Lock 106
Men: Peter Humphrey 113
20th January Main Meeting featuring Steve Stevens Jukebox Review
It was a pleasure to welcome Steve Stevens to entertain 112 of our members in the first month of the year. He sung all our favourite songs from the 60's & 70s with a slight mix of banter mixed in.